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"Give this car a nice automatic or a DSG," suggested senior online editor Phil Floraday at the start of our Mini's penultimate month in our hands, "and it might be enough to get me to look past the car's styling and its weird interior." Your wish, Mr. Floraday, is granted -- at least in the sense that an automatic-equipped Mini Countryman arrived in the office just days later. Is the automatic the solution to the problem of the undersized clutch and the 1.6-liter's turbo lag, which combine to make driving around town "a real pain in the a**," to quote Phil once again?