The MINI 'First' gets you a new MINI for less.
MINI has always been positioned as a premium and therefore pricey car, but now the BMW-owned firm has released a version called 'First', which has a 75bhp 1.4 litre petrol engine starting at under 20 grand!
For €19,450 (£10,950) you get a MINI 'First', which looks just like the MINI 'One' (90bhp) but is even friendlier to your pocket. It is cheap to insure and sips juice, averaging a little over five litres to travel 100 kilometres.
On the road there are few cars that can come close to any MINI in terms of grin-inducing handling and the 'First' has the same suspension set up that made new MINI a hit. So how has MINI made a cheaper car, surely corners have been cut? Not really. The 'First' is full of energy saving features like Auto Stop/Start technology, BER (brake energy regeneration) plus a gear-shift indicator to help owners save fuel.
The brilliant Frank Stephenson (the designer who brought us the first new MINI) once told me how important the actual points of contact with a car are. If you want a premium experience, all the things you touch should feel top quality to enhance the whole ownership experience. Sadly, here the MINI 'First' loses some points as the steering wheel is made of a basic plastic that feels cheap! If you want to spend a few more quid there are additional 'packs' (optional extras) available.
For €950 you get the 'Design Package', with a leather steering wheel being the highlight, or for €1515 the 'Tech Package' adds a multi function facility to the steering wheel, USB audio and Bluetooth to name just three features. Air Conditioning is optional also (€1,150). In reality, you shouldn't buy any extras at all if you really want to pay less. Better still, be frugal and get a MINI 'D' that's a year old or, if you want to have a real laugh, get a used Cooper or Cooper 'S'.
The MINI 'First' has a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, but I found myself using just four gears most of the time: first, second, third and sixth! With a modest 75bhp and 120nm of torque the car won't have you smashing any land speed records, but when given a bit of encouragement it will do the business. Sixth gear is perfect for the open road but generally you'll find yourself stirring the lower gears more often to make progress. Going from 0-100/kmh takes 13.2 seconds (nothing to be ashamed of in a town car) and top speed is 174km/h. DSC (BMW's dynamic stability control aka ESP/ESC) is standard, too, and most welcome particularly on greasy wet days. The First is fairly green also, producing a respectable 128 CO2 figure.
MINI is confident that the 'First' will retain more of its value after three years (50%) than any of its competitors. For a one-off payment of just €250 you can buy a service and maintenance package called 'TLC' covering the car for five years!
There isn't a car in the range I don't like, although the stretched Limo 'XXL' pictured might be a MINI too far!
Michael Sheridan
