Has anyone got any experience of one of these ?

What about a Diesel Automatic Cooper ?

The reason that I ask is that according to the Website email link - I was told that the gearbox is a Torque converter one but I believe that it is one of those CVT ones - anyone know better ?

A diesel has less power than a petrol and an automatic has less power than a manual. You should certainly try to test one before deciding to see if you feel it's underpowered or not. Many many years ago I drove a petrol automatic Mini 1000 and it had a top speed of around 60 and very poor acceleration, but it was still a fun car to drive.

Yes - but the mini 1.6 diesel is 110bhp and is plenty powerful enough to move the mini along at fair whack - and more importantly it produces about 160lb ft of torque

It also averages 50mpg - which is the reason that I am interested

The old mini may have been fun to drive - but to be honest - it couldn't keep up with modern traffic - and even a 1 litre automatic would have gulped petrol at quite a rate

Twee -- The gearbox is a 6 speed sequential gearbox with paddle shifts on the steering wheel, so it must be a conventional gearbox with torque converter rather than a CVT or it could not be called 6 speed, it would need referring to as a CVT.(constantly variable transmission) which does not have speeds or fixed ratios as such.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIAL/CARS/news/MINI/27161.html

Many thanks Conmankiller - that is what I hoped - should be a smoother drive than the "so called" automatic Vauxhall Corsa (which is a converted manual - through the use of pulleys, cables and such like)

Mind you - the CVT box on the Honda Jazz is smooth and is called a 7 speed