Its looks aren’t to everyone’s taste but behind the wheel the new MINI Coupé is a great car to drive.
Okay let’s talk about the elephant in the room first… boy, MINI Coupé is a strange looking machine! It’s as if the design team were moonlighting from making over the top ‘HotWheels’ toy cars. Few cars stop me in my tracks but my first sight of the Coupé did! My eyes weren’t in anyway ready for its shape.
MINI has racked the windscreen back by 13 degrees, chopped the roof down reducing the glasshouse height, stiffened the body plus added a notch to the back of the car implying there’s a conventional boot when in fact the car is a hatchback! Despite having fewer seats than the standard four-seat hatchback Coupé is a couple of grand dearer. The boot is relatively big however with 280 litres of space plus there are loads of storage areas in the cabin.
Up front there is plenty of space and headroom. MINI DNA is present with one noticeable new toggle switch in the roof for the electronic rear spoiler. The spoiler pops up at speeds above 80km/h or can be popped up with the switch (to clean it or just pose). MINI says male drivers will mostly buy the car. The engine range is made up of 1.6 litre units in turbo and non-turbo form (Cooper) and one 2-litre diesel found in the SD version. Residual values, despite the controversial looks, will remain high according to official UK sources. With colour schemes that scream sportiness Coupé buyers will find it hard to be shrinking violets. You can customise the Coupé in dozens of ways thanks to contrasting roof colours and body stripes. Anoraks take note Coupé's with red roofs are the hottest 211bhp JCW version.
I went to Innsbruck last week to test the new MINI Coupé SD (sport diesel) and range topping John Cooper Works version in the Alps. My two-day test route took me over the most famous mountain passes in Austria, Italy and Germany. As expected the JCW’s handling, cornering ability and stopping power were outrageously good. On switchback hairpins bends the car would scrabble confidently to deliver the power through the front wheels. The steering and overall feel was direct and intuitive. The SD, while not as assured as the JCW under braking delivers more torque (305nm) and is far from slow. SD is also green, falling into tax band ‘A’ (€104 road tax) while being able to sprint from 0-100 km/h in under eight seconds!
Coupé prices start at €24,010 on the road for the Cooper version (the Cooper hatch is €21,590 O.T.R.). The SD Coupé is €29,010 O.T.R. and John Cooper Works a cool €37,040 O.T.R.
The stiffer three-box body, improved aerodynamics and cornering down force make the new MINI Coupé a bit special. This is some achievement as the standard MINI is already a hoot to drive.
MINI tells me that apart from targeting existing MINI customers by offering something different it is also targeting buyers of hot hatchbacks as well as Audi TT and Peugeot RCZ buyers, but the later I can’t really see happening as MINI Coupé is not a visual beauty in the same sense as a TT or RCZ – it is however as much if not more fun especially in ‘John Cooper Works’ guise. Coupé sales start this October and a convertible Coupé is on the way next year.
Michael Sheridan
