I have been fairly vocal about my thoughts on Mini’s new ‘if there’s a class, we’ll build it’ campaign. To our casual readers, I don’t like it.
Just because a few people wish they could have a bigger Mini, or a longer Mini with a weird door, or a bigger Mini with less doors, doesn’t mean that Mini should actually build it.
If, two weeks ago, an acquaintance had asked me what car they should buy, telling me that they didn’t have kids, wanted something small and easy to live with, but with a sporty feel, stance and smile-inducing power, I would have pointed them at the Mini Cooper S, because it fits all those parameters.
But what’s that, Mini? You’ve now built a Mini Coupé that’s smaller, lower and shorter than the Cooper? Aren’t you alienating a large segment of the population with those proportions? Oh, and you decided to add some aggression to the roof by sticking on a backwards-facing baseball cap?
In a nutshell, that is really all the Coupé is – a smaller Mini, which sounds absurd to me, because the Mini itself is far from oversized. Yes purists, the old Mini was smaller, but it also didn’t have airbags, ABS, EBD and a handful of other abbreviations that delay the inevitable meeting of me, my car and a ditch. And I think we are better for it.
The bottom line is that the Coupé really doesn’t bring anything new to the range. I cannot understand why someone would walk past the very capable Cooper S and get into the exact same car but with less room, seats and heritage.
But that was two weeks ago, and I have since had the chance to get behind the wheel of a Coupé - and to form a more informed opinion.
Is it cramped? Yes, but less than you would expect. The interior roof liner has been scalped to provide a little bit of extra headroom, but if you have been blessed with a stature exceeding six foot, you might have issues.
There are no back seats, and I do mean that in the most literal sense and not in a funny, they are so small they might as well not be there, way. The Coupé is a two-seater which is how it manages to cut back on the Cooper’s frame.
The advantage is that there is a fair bit of luggage space, and a nice amount of storage behind the front seats, but the jettisoning of the rear seats really does limit what you can do with the Coupé in practical terms.
The looks? This is personal preference, and everyone’s approach will vary, but the people I spoke to regarding the car were critical of the overall visual impact. It’s striking and unusual and did most certainly get heads turning, but it’s not as easy on the eye as the standard Mini, and will definitely alienate some.
On the inside, you might as well be sitting in a Cooper S, because the switchgear, dash, seats, gearlever and everything else that’s bolted down, is exactly the same.
And due to the Coupé making use of the exact same engine line-up, you would expect that things behind the wheel would feel pretty familiar, too. Unsurprisingly enough, they do. Again, you might as well be driving a Cooper, except that there is a slight difference between how the Coupé and the Cooper carry themselves on the road: tenacity.
Thanks to its mini-Mini proportions, the Coupé has a lower centre of gravity and a shorter wheel base, which conspire against the challenges presented by corners, S-bends and other driving hazards and make sure you keep your tyres firmly planted on the tar and not the rough.
The grip is epic, and I don’t mean finding something that you were going to buy anyway on sale epic. No, this is Perseus, son of Zeus epic, and enough to actually make me revise my hasty judgement of the Coupé.
I still don’t agree with Mini’s business model over the last two years – and I still do think that cars like the Coupé and soon to be released Paceman steal market share predominately from other Mini vehicles.
The Coupé is blast to drive, and that’s because it was created specifically for that purpose. As I mentioned, the only changes relate to the car’s size, and everything is focused on honing the Coupé’s handling through the twisty stuff.
The Coupé separates the drivers from the commuters, and rewards those passionate about their driving with a uniquely shaped, ultra-wieldy Mini. It’s like a badge that says “I love driving so much, that I sacrificed my back seats for split times” – and that is an outlook that I can support.
