Mini Cooper review

It’s the new Mini Cooper, which is what Mini now calls the heartland three-door hatchback at the entry point to its range. Except, it’s not really new at all.
This isn’t a new Mini. Not really. All the bits you see, touch and taste are fresh, but if you truffle about away from the slick Mini marketing, you discover that this is in fact an 11-year old car underneath.

And you’d do exactly the same thing if you were in charge of the Mini board. Developing a car platform is furiously expensive, except if you’re doing one that needs to support an EV as well as a petrol version. Then it’s eye-watering. So Mini has dodged it.

Peel away the doe-eyed panels on the electric version of the ‘new Mini’ and you’ll discover a joint-venture Chinese-German collab between BMW and Great Wall Motor. The electric drivetrain is related to the one powering the Ora 03, formerly known as the Funky Cat.

The petrol version meanwhile carries over the engines, suspension and chassis from the previous-gen Mini. Brakes and ride settings are apparently tweaked. Every panel on top is new, and the car looks better for it. The old Mini had become so bulbous in Cooper S and JCW form it looked like it had licked a funky mushroom and had an allergic reaction.

Completing the exterior makeover are new lights and wheels. Even the door handles and mirrors are swapped. The interior is unrecognisably revamped too.

What are the engine options?

No diesels, and no hybrids. This is a simple pair of powerplants. The Cooper C is a 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo developing a healthy 156bhp. The Cooper S adds another 500cc cylinder to the mix: its 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo engine dishes out 201bhp. Both power the front wheels alone via a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Manual Minis are now extinct.

What about trim levels?

This is where things get just a tad muddled. The base trim is called Classic, and looks clean and demure in a meek way, with black trim on the grille. The middle of the range is Exclusive trim, where the highlights get turned gold and therefore clash with some of the paint colours. Odd. Then there’s Sport, which adds a JCW body kit, wavy rear wing, and more ‘grrr’ factor. Plus go-faster stripes, of course.

But you can mix and match the trims and engines. So you could, say, pop the Cooper S engine in a Classic trim car, so it’s a bit of a Q-car – subtle and very un-hot hatch like. Fine. Or you can spec Sport trim on a Cooper C, so you have all of the show but little of the go.

And there are annoyances: for example if you want paddleshifters for your Cooper S, you have to buy Sport trim to get the ‘sport’ transmission. Seems a bit convoluted to us, but at least with only two engine choices and three trim levels to negotiate you’re unlikely to get too lost in the options tree.

Is there still a five door and a convertible?

Yes to the five door (though we’re yet to test it to see if legroom is still as cramped as the previous version) and no to the cabrio for now. Though we’re certainly expecting one with petrol power (again, based on the previous-gen car).

How much is a Mini these days?

A Cooper C starts at just over £23k; add 4k to that for a Cooper S. But once you get merry with the trim levels and option packs, it’s easy to skyrocket the price into the mid-thirties. Careful now…

We were sceptical Mini could convincingly update a decade-old design to remain competitive with this new-gen car, but partly because of the Mini’s inherent quality and partly due to the lack of convincing new rivals in this sorely underrepresented class, it’s still an easy car to recommend.

Of course the usual Mini pitfalls remain: this is not a practical car, nor an especially well-equipped one for the money. And you’ll have to be touchscreen-dextrous to get the best out of its minimalist cabin.

But if you want a fun-to-drive, reasonable-to-run, characterful small car that feels a cut above the Koreans in terms of material quality, the Mini remains a charming choice.