Nah, you don’t. I took both kids to school and both dogs to the groomer, in the Mini, no problem.
Also on the list of things I apparently don’t need: a spare tire. No way those dogs were fitting in there if this thing had a spare. Meh. 100 miles of AAA towing and two full sets of wheels/tires at home means I’m not worried about it. About the farthest we go in the Mini is Boston, just 120 miles away.
At almost 40,000 miles, this thing has been a great little car for us. We got it @ 3 years old with just 7,000 miles on it, in July of 2018. My wife’s commute racks up almost an oil change a month, but this thing has been just great. And it’s just big enough when it needs to be.