During a recent visit to the dealership for a new windshield for my 2010 Mini Cooper S, I was given a 2016 Mini Cooper S as a loaner car for a few days. I was curious, since this was my first experience with the recently upsized Cooper, and for the most part, I was impressed. The new car is better in most ways, but growing up comes with compromise. Read on for my impression of the new car.
The new body style, which was previewed in 2013 and went on sale in the middle of 2014, is a maturing of the Mini design ethos. The car is slightly larger, but most of the creases, lines and scoops are in the same places as on the model that preceded it. Code-named F56, its got more BMW DNA in it, including engines, nav software, on-board computer.
With the slightly larger size comes with more interior room, but at a price. Traversing the same roads I drive my R56 Mini on shows that the sharp handling has been slightly dulled, whereas the extra weight softens the blow from pockmarked roads. The end result is slightly more work (and less fun) driving on city streets, while highway manners have improved greatly. The new Mini’s high speed ride is a lot less nervous than in previous generations. A nod to this is the cruise control. A tap of the + and – buttons will get a 1 mph increase or decrease, whereas pressing the same button nets 5 mph of change. It’s a nice way to accommodate for changing speed limits. If you’ve driven the Mini Countryman, the new car is closer dynamically to it, instead of the car it replaces.
Where the new car shines is on comfort and overall speed. A stab of the gas pedal gives an immediate surge of speed, and its addictive. The 2.0-liter turbocharged mill has an absolutely flat torque curve that comes on quickly and stays throughout the rev range. Highway on-ramps and passing maneuvers are easy, but beware of going into a corner too fast, as the tires are quick to howl and the car is liable to understeer.
The ergonomics are more what you’re used to, even if it moves the Mini further into the mainstream car market. (Purists will say any Mini post 2001 is too mainstream) Inside, the buttons and switchgear are definitely Mini-esque, just in the wrong standard places. Window switches have been moved to the doors, and the speedometer is now located behind the steering wheel instead of on the center stack, where passengers could keep a close eye on how fast you were traveling.
The large radio/NAV screen is well-lit, and offers a mouse-like button to control it, straight out of a BMW equipped with iDrive. The interface is fairly easy to use, even if the dial spins counterintuitively to what you’re expecting. Once you get used to it, moving around the system is fairly straightforward. The included backup display is small, but clear. Honestly though, the backup camera felt superfluous on a car this small, but it should be helpful in tight confines. A gimmicky color ring surrounds the nav screen’s binnacle, and changes based on driving mode.
Speaking of driving modes, you can choose between Eco, Normal, and Sport, using a dial by the iDrive controller. Each comes with its own steering, throttle, and transmission mappings, and an animation on the infotainment screen exclaiming the newly-selected drive mode. Eco obviously dampens accelerator input and causes quicker shifting to higher gears, whereas Sport does the opposite. The driving mode selector also changes how the auto stop/start feature works.
Auto stop/start is a feature on many new cars, which shuts the engine off when the car is sitting at idle. When you release the brake pedal to take off from the stop, the engine fires back up. Eco will shut the engine off sooner, and Sport will keep it on longer. I found the auto stop/start to be somewhat intrusive on the Mini, but it could also be due to a dual-clutch transmission whose programming made it hard to slowly and smoothly take off from a light. A heavier stab at the gas pedal smoothed things out a bit, but was not my ideal solution.
Minis haven’t been cheap since BMW has been producing them, and this loaner car was no exception. With a base price of around $26,000, the options really add up quickly, and this one was fairly well-equipped, with a sticker price in the mid-$30k range. What do you get for around $35,000? A fair amount, as it turns out. The tester was equipped with the 189-horsepower 2.0-liter turbocharged engine, panoramic sunroof, Harmon/Kardon sound system, automatic climate control, heated seats, navigation, backup camera, and an automatic transmission with the aforementioned selectable drive modes.
At the end of the day, Mini has made a car that has a better perceived value in comparison to its sticker price, but at the cost of a little of the fun factor that was the hallmark in previous generations. I can only hope the John Cooper Works (JCW) version brings some of that back, or that the next generation car helps get the diminutive hatchback back to its roots.
Thanks to Mini of Montgomery County for the loaner car.
by John Suit
