Driving the 2025 Mini Cooper S Convertible

There are individuals round you, caught in the identical visitors, who’re having enjoyable.

A automotive is maybe probably the most emotionally complicated buy most Individuals make. At Kelley Blue E-book, we encourage consumers to make cautious and financially smart choices. Nevertheless it’s simple to miss the truth that deciding which automotive to purchase can add pleasure to your life.

The Mini Cooper Convertible, as an illustration, prices lower than the typical new automotive and makes a commute or a visit to the shop genuinely enjoyable. It has a playful interface, an adaptable persona stuffed with quirky temper settings, light-footed dealing with, and offers you the choice of recent air on a day of good climate.

I spent per week driving one round my Washington, D.C.-area dwelling in early fall climate and got here away rejuvenated. Sure, rejuvenated. In visitors.

Which Trim Degree

Mini, a division of BMW, builds the Cooper Convertible in three grades ranges — base C, sportier S, and high-performance JCW (John Cooper Works). Every grade then has a selection of three trims — Signature, Signature Plus, and Iconic. Mini loaned me the S mannequin in Iconic.

The S designation gave it a barely extra highly effective engine (201 horsepower, versus 161 hp within the C and 228 within the JCW). The Iconic trim gave it a Harman Kardon encompass sound system, sport seats, and some different goodies.

I’m a fan of base fashions in lots of circumstances – protecting your cash usually provides extra to your life than a extra elaborate automotive would – however within the case of the Mini, I do assume the S is the Goldilocks mannequin. JCW Minis are enjoyable, however at fairly a worth premium.

Favourite Function

The Mini Cooper Convertible has a small wheelbase with the wheels pushed almost to the corners of the automotive. That’s a method for taut, sporty dealing with. It makes the Mini enjoyable at secure neighborhood speeds.

When you skilled the Mini convertible fashions of the early 2000s, you is perhaps stunned to listen to us say that. When BMW revived the Mini model, its hardtops have been superb little go-karts however its convertibles felt looser and fewer responsive. That’s traditionally true of many convertibles as a result of eradicating a inflexible roof makes a automotive’s construction extra versatile. However engineers have stiffened the construction of the present Cooper a lot that, even with the highest down, each flip feels crisp and swift and exact.

What It’s Wish to Drive

The 201 hp turbocharged 4-cylinder engine within the Mini Cooper S makes it genuinely zippy. A nice little turbo growl kicks in when you must step on it.

Brakes are agency, however not grabby.

However a Mini is all concerning the turns. The Cooper S convertible is among the best-handling automobiles available on the market, rivaled solely by the Mazda MX-5 Miata in its worth vary. Throwing it right into a nook is joyful, even at informal speeds. Better of all, dealing with is almost similar with the highest up or down.

Mini takes drive modes (“expertise modes” in Mini lingo) to extremes, with seven decisions, every with cutesy names. Some appear to largely be aesthetic – Timeless makes the display seem like the gauges of the Sixties period Minis. Others change the automotive’s efficiency – Go Kart stiffens steering really feel and ups accelerator sensitivity. As you web page by means of them, every performs a couple of seconds of a signature tune by means of the audio system.

Inside Consolation and Expertise

When you’re a longtime Mini aficionado, the cabin of the latest Cooper is probably the most dramatic change you’ll discover.

It’s an impressed interpretation of the inside of the unique Mark I Mini. An enormous spherical touchscreen within the middle is clearly drawn from the unique gauges, however as interactive as any fashionable automotive touchscreen. A lozenge-shaped panel beneath homes HVAC controls and a fake key you flip to start out the automotive. It’s unusual how pleasant turning a secret is within the period of starter buttons and even sit-to-start automobiles. It feels charming.

Designers made the curious choice to cowl the dashboard in a textile floor. It’s nice to the contact however I’m wondering how properly it holds up over time, or if it holds onto stains. Lights shine by means of it in some expertise modes.

There’s no driver’s instrument display. However a glass panel unfolds at startup, and a head-up show tasks on it. The pace is projected onto it in somewhat circle that strikes barely as you progress your head. I may by no means shake the sensation I used to be Luke Skywalker watching the focusing on laptop.

That’s the type of playfulness you’re feeling on this automotive.

Limitations

The Mini solely pretends to have a again seat. I imply, there’s one again there. However you wouldn’t need to ask adults to take a seat in it for lengthy.

The convertible high is powered. You push a button to boost and decrease it. However you have to maintain the button down till it completes folding or unfolding, which takes almost 20 seconds. Which may sound quick, however odds are there’s no button in your life that you just routinely maintain down for 20 seconds. It’s annoying. Unpowered tops just like the one within the Mazda MX-5 function a lot sooner and provide you with one much less half that might break.  

The folded roof additionally blocks a lot of your rear imaginative and prescient in a means that merely doesn’t occur within the Mazda.

Key Issues

Non-luxury convertibles have almost gone extinct. You would arguably say this competes with topless Ford Mustangs, however the two automobiles are so totally different in spirit that I don’t purchase it. It’s purest competitors is the MX-5, which can even be a contact extra enjoyable to drive, however lacks a rear seat and sits so low that it requires versatile hips to personal.