I wanted to do this but I just could not come up with a good idea for a design. My mind has been preoccupied with other projects.
To compete with the MINI on the styling level, the car proposed here would have to have to same kind of balance between looking friendly and sporty. The MINI is what many consider cute, but not so much that it repels clientele who are concerned with it emasculating their image. Few designs have ever achieved such a balance. America doesn't have a history of popular small cars, let alone sporty small cars, so there is not much historically to reach back to for inspiration. Recent attempts to make small, sporty looking cars have come off as either too cute, too aggressive, or too ugly (in the case of the Spark, all three simultaneously). The ideal solution to this proposal would possibly require a totally new styling direction that I'm too lazy and uninspired to explore at this time.