Mine sounds OK - but for a scary example, try listening to one of the new Golf GT's with the 1.4 twincharged engine - a brand new courtesy car my brother had sounded worse than my old diesel A4 at tickover!Any Cooper owners care to comment on this?
As suggested elsewhere, a symptom of hydraulic tappets & cold engines on most new cars - reviews I've read of a number of high performance engines (RS4, M5, etc.) have commented on the same.