Who did it better? The cult cars for the people.

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Issigonis's brilliantly packaged Mini, sets out the stall for the FWD revolution. The Renault 4, built to outsell Citroens 2CV, which it did, and that alone puts it in this little comparison. The People's car, a madman dictating a car for everyone in his third realm, or Fiat's cute, quaint and enduring 500 from the pen of Dante Giacosa.



They've all been resurrected, their new cousins clearly displaying the family dna, although the market position, perhaps bar the 500 did shift.




Manufactured from Britain to Australia, from France to Argentina, from Germany to Brazil and from Italy to New Zealand.

5.38 million Mini's left the plants between 1959 and 2000. From 1961 to 1992 Renault churned out over 8 million 4's. The Beetle, at 21.5 million was by far the best selling single platform car ever produced, and, the Fiat 500, the italians shifting just under 4 million models.

So, judged on popularity, with 5 million alone stateside, thanks to the british army, hands down the Beetle wins. However, ask any motorsport fan, even a die hard Abarth enthusiast, then surely the Mini wins.

Stop and ask the question of any young Torinesi in summer, the 500D, the roof rolled back, will never be equaled.

Then the "Quatrelle" the "auto populaire" It might not have famously needed to carry a French farmer across a ploughed field with a basket of (unbroken) eggs, although it probably could have, or crossed a Moroccan desert without breaking into a sweat. 8 million people would offer a strong French argument.

I'd be happy in any of them today, but line them up, all in their most basic of form, I'd take the keys to the brilliant Mini.

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