My husband wrote a test drive review of the BMW MINI Cooper his sister bought. Please take a look if you’re interested.
Until now, I’ve written a few delivery and review articles about my younger brother’s cars, but this time it’s about my sister. She is seven years younger than me and the same age as my wife. She had been a non-driver for about 20 years, but this time she boldly decided to buy a car. The car she chose was a BMW MINI Cooper D (3-door).
At first, she was torn between a Fiat, an Abarth, or a MINI, but she settled on the MINI. When I asked her why she chose the MINI, it seemed she really liked its design and vibe, and she apparently made an immediate decision to buy it on the day she visited the dealer.
While accompanying her for driving practice, I had a chance to drive it myself a few times, so I’d like to share my review.
This MINI is basically a stock Cooper model. The features include the Pepper Package, LED headlights, Chrome Line Exterior, and Union Jack side scuttles. The wheels are 15 inches, and the exterior color is British Racing Green with a white roof.
This British Racing Green is a very deep, beautiful green. It asserts its green tone strongly whether in bright or dim light, perfectly matching the British atmosphere and the MINI’s design.
The interior color is Carbon Black with Firework standard seats. The seats are quite comfortable. To be precise, they don’t offer exceptional hold or luxury, but on the other hand, there’s nothing bad about them. The seat cushion thickness, length, and texture are all sufficient, and personally, I like these seats.
The large circle on the center console houses the navigation system, which is easy to see. The tachometer’s visibility feels a bit poor, but since this isn’t a car focused on sporty driving, that’s fine.
Overall, the quality isn’t luxurious but never feels cheap. Some cars in this class use premium materials only where you can touch and cheap plastics elsewhere to create contrast, but the MINI uses consistent materials throughout, providing a decent tactile feel everywhere, which is quite appealing.
The engine starts with a switch on the center console. The switch itself feels high quality with solid operation and a premium touch. The 1.5L 3-cylinder diesel engine wakes up with relatively loud noise but not much vibration.
At idle, the sound inside the cabin isn’t very loud, but outside, the diesel’s characteristic rattling is clearly audible.
The shift selector, similar to BMW’s, is put into Drive, and off we go. This model features a 7-speed DCT, but the start is so smooth it feels like a conventional torque converter automatic. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it’s a DCT or a torque converter AT.
Once moving, the diesel noise disappears as if it were a lie. This MINI’s diesel engine hardly sounds like a diesel when driving. With a maximum torque of 270 Nm between 1750 and 2250 rpm, acceleration and deceleration in town are completely stress-free.
When slowing down at intersections and accelerating out of corners, the acceleration feels very pleasant. Of course, the takeoff from a stoplight and hill climbing are more than adequate, and there’s virtually no feeling of power shortage in urban driving.
On the other hand, at highway speeds during overtaking, the acceleration feels somewhat mild. The data might not show it as slow, but because the low-speed acceleration in town is so good, you naturally expect the same at high speed, making it feel milder than it actually is.
The ride quality in town gives an impression of surprisingly firm suspension. Given the 15-inch wheels with 65-profile tires, I expected a softer, more bouncy ride, but that’s not the case at all. The stabilizer bar is probably thicker than usual for this class. At low speeds with big bumps, there’s some side-to-side rattling, but at higher speeds, the ride flattens out. This is a typical European suspension characteristic.
Overall, the ride is good, but people used to Japanese cars might find the low-speed manners a bit unsettling.
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