The Mini Cooper started out as a 3-door compact car that was produced by the British Motors Company during the late '50s. It became an icon in British pop culture, and the show Mr. Bean would be the primary example of it. The design has been simple yet distinct. During the early days, they have also participated in Rally races, winning the Monte Carlo Rally during the '60s.
To this day, the Mini Cooper is still a distinctive icon and still had kept its image as a British quirky car. Despite having many generations that passed by since then and have been continuously modernized, the image and the essence of Mini had always stayed. It's one of the cars that definitely lived up to everyone's expectations consistently. So here we are showing you what we love most about the modern Mini Coopers and two reasons why we would never buy one.
10 Exterior Style
As mentioned, the exterior styling of the Mini Cooper has remained to its roots. They still make the compact 3-door hatchback with its distinctive quirky shape, round headlights, and rectangular tail light. Once you see it on the road, there will be no doubt that it is a Mini Cooper.
With modernizing the overall design and performance of the car, the main thing you will notice is the size of it today. It's not like before, where it literally is a "Mini" car. It has also been given more character, more aggression, and definitely more aerodynamics in the performance line of the Mini Coopers.
9 Features
Mini Coopers always had their distinctive circular speedometer in the center of the driver and passenger, and that had somewhat still stayed with a major upgrade and quirk. The circular shape still remains in the center but as infotainment.
Another thing to add to keep Mini's essence is the ring on the outer part of the circle infotainment is actually a light that you can customize, and it's not only limited to changing its colors. The light can also mimic the speedometer or the RPM range, which is a very cool modern touch to it.
8 Accessories
Being in a Mini community, you will be exposed to many modifications and little accessories to make your car's styling unique. From changing all the chrome pieces to black or body color, changing grills and slats of the car, or even adding some signature designs like the Union Jack to fit its British character.
There are many Mini accessories that you can buy out there, and you can literally style your car more than you can imagine. Since it the brand has grown a following over the years, other famous brands like Prior Design and Liberty Walk had also made parts for the Mini enabling them to broaden up their market.
7 Performance Upgrades
The latest generation Mini Coopers are actually now powered by BMW powertrains. The base Mini Cooper comes in a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder turbocharged B38 engine, and it has 136 HP and 138 lb-ft tq. Even the base engine will allow the car to have a zippy performance, and being a BMW motor, there are lots of supporting modifications out there to make your car's performance easily be tuned and upgraded.
The Cooper S and JCW both have the 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged B48 engine, which is the same engine that came from the 3-series BMW, only it is tuned differently to focus on performance, and the JCW is tuned even further to 228hp and 236 lb-ft TQ.
6 More Reliable
Having a modern BMW engine offers much more reliability as compared to the previous generation Mini Coopers. While the previous generations still offered good power for the car, it was just a nightmare to keep it running. Some of the previous models used a 1.6-liter supercharged engine.
As cool as that sounds, it was horrible to work on as Mini already being a compact vehicle that had a relatively big engine, working on it requires hours and hours of labor as you have to do lots of removals. Sometimes a full face removal is required to be able to reach certain parts of the engine, which also equates to a much higher maintenance cost.
5 Engine & Transmission Options
Something to love about the modern Mini Cooper is there is something available for everyone. They now offer a 4-door Mini Cooper available for people who want a slightly bigger space. They offer a base Mini Cooper, the Mini Cooper S, the Mini Cooper JCW, and now the all-electric Cooper S.
In addition, all this is offered both in manual, and automatic transmission, with the exception of the all-electric Mini, which is only available as an automatic. So again, there are definitely options for everyone out there whether you are looking for a pure driver's car, or just want to own a quirky vehicle that you can drive daily.
4 Driving Experience
The driving experience of a Mini Cooper is simply phenomenal. Especially for the performance line-up of it, the character of the Mini is definitely alive. Driving the vehicle is like driving a road-legal go-kart as it is still zippy, direct, easy to maneuver.
This is something that you will definitely enjoy taking to the winding back roads away from the city or taking it to the track. Owners have mentioned that sometimes they would take the longer scenic route as opposed to the highway when coming from work, as it really is a little joyous machine.
3 Interior Space
The modern size of the mini also offers much more room for interior space. Unlike the early days of the Mini, which wasn't very accommodating or comfortable for most people, modern Minis are, of course, something that is more drivable for almost everyone.
To put it into perspective, the 3-door Mini would allow a 7ft person to have adequate headroom and leg space to be able to drive it around. However, the 3-door would have a more cramped rear seat, hence if that's something that worries you, you can opt for the 5-door Mini Cooper.
2 Why We Wouldn't Buy One: It's Costly To Maintain
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On the other hand, with also being a BMW comes a higher cost to maintain. The Mini Cooper isn't considered a regular, average commuter's car. Its price is relative to the features and technology that you are getting.
Also, being a BMW engine, maintenance is the primary key for your engine not to fail on you or have any other complications during the ownership. Once that happens, the Mini becomes a money pit that you may hate sinking money into continuously.
1 Why We Wouldn't Buy One: It's Relatively Impractical
With the base price of a 3-door Mini Cooper at $25,000 you are not getting much of a car in terms of its size. Trunk space is actually on the smaller size in its class as well. So you may want to consider those factors when owning a Mini Cooper.
A Mini Cooper is not something you buy for the sole purpose of practicality, as it is geared towards the experience. But the price and premium running costs of the vehicle on a daily basis plays a huge factor regarding owning one.