MINI Cooper Review & Prices

The new petrol-powered Mini Cooper hatchback is a bit like keeping your vinyl collection and a record player in the age of Spotify. Sure, technological advancement towards electric cars is great and all, but sometimes you just want something simple and fun.

It’s a slightly posher (and pricier) alternative to the likes of the Skoda Fabia and Volkswagen Polo, being similarly priced to another upmarket hatchback such as the Audi A1, or the not-posh, all-electric MG4.

Posh but old school is a good way of summing up the petrol-engined Mini Cooper. The new electric versions are an entirely new construction, but these petrol models are still based on the old car, and carry over the 1.5 and 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engines.

Neither is blisteringly quick, but then that’s never really been the point of a Mini Cooper. The point is how much fun you have in the corners, and being as these new models use basically the same suspension and steering as before, that’s pretty well guaranteed. Mind you, it’s a pity that all Mini models now come as standard with an automatic gearbox — the old manual six-speed was particularly good fun to drive. 

Although Mini has carried-over the petrol-powered Cooper hatchback’s chassis, you’d never know it from the interior, which is now the same as that used by the electric versions, and that means you get the digital dinnerplate in the centre of the dashboard. This OLED screen (OLED basically means brighter colours and blacker blacks on the display) measures 9.4 inches across and uses Mini’s ninth-generation software, so it’s really slick to use. 

It’s kind of a digital throwback to the big, central speedo of the classic 1960s Mini, and it looks far smarter than the square-screen-in-a-round-hole that was foisted on the previous model. Thankfully Mini has kept some physical buttons and switches to make life slightly easier on board.

Easier, but no roomier. The new Mini is a little bigger inside than it used to be, but it’s still a very space-inefficient car and the back seats really are only for kids or very short adults. The 210-litre boot is pretty tight too, but there will be a five-door model along shortly which will allay at least a few of these concerns.

Interested? Find out how much you could save through Carwow’s Mini Cooper deals, or browse the latest used Mini Cooper models. You can also check out other used Minis, and when it’s time to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

The Mini Cooper is a posh hatchback, so don’t expect any bargains. That said, by plumping for petrol power rather than electric, you can save yourself a whopping £7,000 if you go for the basic Mini Cooper C in Classic specification, compared to the 190-mile range version of the basic Mini Cooper E. That saving buys a lot of petrol and pays for a lot of road tax. A Cooper S is, of course, more expensive but again you’re saving around £7,000 compared to the longer-range (250 miles) Cooper SE.

Standard specification for a 1.5-litre Cooper C includes the big round digital screen, blind spot monitoring, and a heated steering wheel.