2025 Mini Cooper S Hardtop 2 Door - Review by David Colman

The MINI is still an absolute hoot to drive

David Colman

Photos and Story by David Colman
Special Correspondent
THE AUTO CHANNEL

A full generation of Minis (F56) has come and gone since I last tested one. With the recent introduction of the substantially revised 2025 (F66) model range, I knew it was time to buckle into one of Britain's and BMW's all time best products. Was I ever in for a rude shock! My history with the Mini stretches back to the late 1960s, when I spent a summer in Copenhagen driving a Mini Countryman belonging to a friend's family. Back then I was amazed at the utter simplicity of that first generation design. That little wagon-back version put a premium on do-it-yourself motoring with its floor-mounted 4-speed stick shift, innovative suspension, and peppy one-liter four-banger of an engine that loved to be revved to redline.

Now fast forward to the 2025 model I tested. From the outside, it looks pretty much like every Mini that's come before it, from the original Mark I of the Sixties to the reinvention of the brand by BMW in 2002. But let me steal a quote from Harry Met Sally, when she bumps into her old nemesis years after their first encounter and observes, "It's amazing! You look like a normal human being, but..." Well, the newest Mini looks amazingly like the old one, but..." The boxy silhouette hasn't changed, nor has the cramped interior, nor the brilliant handling of the chassis. That "but" refers to the re-prioritization of the Mini driving experience from "Let's Motor" to "Let's Not."

Here's a short list of what Mini (and by extension BMW) have done to suck the life out of what should (and could still) be a great form of sporting transit. But first, let's look at the particulars of my test Mini. I drove the basic 2-door Cooper S model which retails for a very reasonable $34,700. That list price jumps to $37,295 with the addition of a $995 delivery charge and a $1,700 "Iconic trim" package featuring a Harman Kardon surround sound system. Climbing into the tight cockpit for my first run, I immediately noticed that a bulky Heads-Up display unit almost completely obscured my view of the road ahead. First reaction: why is this here?, followed by how do I get rid of it? Second, I noticed the absence of a shift lever on the floor between the front seats. What? A Mini without a stick is like a Ferrari that's not red. I wondered why Mini would equip the press fleet tester with a slush box when half the joy of driving this car involves shifting your own gears. Finally, I took notice of a dinner plate-sized circular screen centrally mounted on the dash face. This imposing unit looked intimidating, with little and big displays of this and that scattered all over its over large face, like toppings on a pizza.

Finally, I took note of the minimal array of actual physical controls that were begrudgingly retained to allow you to actually operate the car. This truncated panel contained a perfectly illegible switch to select one of three travel positions (Park, Drive and Reverse), a twist knob to start the engine, and a volume knob to control the Harman Kardon system. Everything else is subsumed into the confusing center pie plate, the operation of which is only attainable after you've been forced to create first a personal "Profile." We couldn't even get the H-K stereo to boot up when underway because the system refused to recognize an On/Off command from an unauthorized user. Give me a break!

The final straw was our inability to dispatch the protuberant Head Up unit, which annoyingly displayed a duplicate image of the Mini's speed in a slightly smaller typeface than the 80-point display of the same information on the pie plate. As a result, I had to jack my seat up to peer over the impediment, which of course required a complete reallocation of all three rearview mirror positions. About at my wit's end after my first outing in this new and improved Mini, I pulled into our local dealership for some help and some explanations of why such nonsense had been perpetrated on a formerly great car.

Here's what I learned from a very kind Service Adviser, who took more than half an hour out of his busy day to explain (sometimes apologetically) why MINI redesigned a perfectly serviceable car and replaced it with a perfectly baffling one. Mini designers hoped to emulate the screen operated environs of "Tesla and Volvo" vehicles by deleting virtually all physical controls in favor of screen-only operation via the "MINI Interaction Unit.". The 2 2-door mini is NOT available with a stick shift (John Cooper just turned over in his grave). It is also NOT available with the paddle shifts that can be had on uprated versions of the 4-Door Mini. He demonstrated the five separate screen commands required to dump the Head Up. The grungy-looking new dashboard - which contains NO instruments in front of the driver - has been "crafted" from recycled water bottles, so you can rest assured you've done your bit for Recycling. His final observation: "When customers who service their old Minis need a loaner, we have to explain how to operate the new one."

Despite all these "improvements," the MINI is still an absolute hoot to drive on a twisty road. Its 215/45R17 Hankook Kinergy XP radials (TW 620) stick the flyweight (3,000lb.) chassis to the pavement like magnets, especially when you select "Go-Kart" mode from the several available drive modes. Despite the shortcomings of the new display panel and the lack of a stick shift, the 2-door MINI remains the tool you'd choose first for a backroad bash or an Autocross run.

2025 MINI COOPER S HARDTOP 2 DOOR

• ENGINE: 2.0 liter inline 4, turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection
• HORSEPOWER: 201hp@5000rpm
• TORQUE: 221lb.-ft.@1450rpm
• FUEL CONSUMPTION: 28MPG City/39MPG Highway
• PRICE AS TESTED: $37,295

HYPES: Go-Kart Handling

GRIPES: Uninformative Dash Panel

STAR RATING: 8.5 Stars out of 10

©2024 David E Colman