2008 Mini Cooper S

It's hard to spot the new Mini from the last one, but much changes under its hood and body

Jul 21, 2007

Special to the Star

It's Mini drivers who do a double take the most before they ask: is that the new Mini?

You can't blame them, really. To most pedestrians and other road users, the new Mini is indistinguishable from the old one: big eyes, lots of glass, vertical windshield, cute details.

It's only when you know a Mini that you're able to pick out the differences.

There's a slightly higher ride height, to the point where you can see some of the rear suspension peeking out from under the rear bumper.

A new hood design that cuts around the headlights.

A bigger power dome on the hood to satisfy new pedestrian-impact regulations.

Side glass that has a wedge profile instead of being perfectly linear.

And on Cooper S models like the one I'm driving for this review, a single mesh panel in the rear bumper instead of two, plus a pair of larger central exhaust pipes.

In asking the question of how to redo the looks of the new Mini, BMW Group's design department seems to have answered, "not at all." Instead, it focused its efforts on the engineering front, on changing and improving what's beneath that familiar skin.

The biggest change is under the new Cooper S hood. While the four-cylinder engine driving the front wheels still displaces 1.6 litres, it's now force-fed by a turbocharger instead of a supercharger. Gone is the distinctive whine the Cooper S used to make under hard acceleration, replaced by a whoosh and a rush of power that attests to its bump to 172 horsepower (up from 168).

While the new Mini is a bit heavier than the last one, overall the new car feels faster than it used to, always surging along at higher speeds than it feels behind the wheel. You rarely need to grab a lower gear for freeway passing and there's plenty of flexibility around the city. Indeed, the only real problem is a lack of torque from a dead stop. Whereas the old Cooper S's supercharger would kick in the moment you hit the gas, there's a momentary lag before the new car's turbo wakes up, leading to an initial softness under the gas pedal. Once you're past 1,500 rpm, there's already a big rush of power.

But low-speed manoeuvres seem a bit heavier, with less response than before. Surprisingly, it wasn't something I ever got used to, stalling the S numerous times when moving around parking lots and such.

Despite the extra weight and length – there's 60 mm more body than there used to be, most of it used to increase back-seat room – the new Mini handles much as before.

It responds instantly and eagerly to every twitch of the steering, carving its way around corners as if it's reading your mind's own cornering line. The cornering attitude is flat, with little body roll and the revised suspension seems to have imparted more high-speed stability.

When you're running hard, the new S feels less twitchy, though aggressively backing out of the throttle can still cause the tail to swing around a few degrees.

New additions to the dynamic repertoire are an optional limited-slip differential, which actually tightens your cornering line when you hit the gas and a Sport switch that quickens the throttle response for an even more frenetic feeling; I left it off much of the time as the Mini feels eager enough already.

One thing Mini has yet to address – perhaps it's impossible to address given the go-kart handling – is ride quality, which, on the optional 17-inch wheels, is borderline uncomfortable.

Poor pavement sets the car bouncing and the interior trim squeaking and if you hit two bumps spaced just the right distance apart, it can feel as if the car has no suspension at all, such is the bang you receive in the back. Every speed bump causes you to cringe. Too bad, actually, because the new Mini's interior is otherwise significantly more refined than in the past.

From the trim used on the seats – red leather and a nice mesh-type fabric on my tester – to the plastic and metal finishes on the dashboard to the silky movement of the turn-signal stalk, everything in the new interior is far nicer, better justifying the high list price.

Really neat details abound: the ignition key is a little flying saucer that you dock into the dash, firing up the engine with the push of a button. The secondary switches are retro toggles at the base of the console. The climate controls form a little Mini logo with their arrangement. There is no cooler, no more interesting interior in any small car, indeed in many cars much more expensive, than the Mini's.

One reason, of course, the Mini – particularly its interior – is so neat is the possibility of customization. There are some 800 interior colour and trim combinations and, once you throw in the various exterior colours, the contrasting roofs and different wheel designs, it's unlikely you'll ever run across another Mini that is exactly like yours.

The flip side, of course, is that customization can get expensive: from a base of $30,600 (competitive with cars such as the VW GTI and Mazdaspeed3), my tester ballooned to more than $36,000 – which is $10,000-plus more than a Honda Civic Si, which matches it for driving pleasure, if not for cool factor.

The best thing to do is to peruse the options list with a critical eye. Of course, Mini's brand positioning in the Canadian market is hardly about value. The brand and the car's appeal cross all kinds of traditional car-market boundaries and it's a favourite among people with a lot of cash and a big sense of humour as well as those just looking for a small urban car.

Performance enthusiasts will, after all, know to stick to the bargain $1,200 sport package (with its sport springs and big wheels) and the inexpensive $650 limited-slip diff and skip the cheesy $750 hi-fi sound system (not nearly as nice as the old Harman/Kardon setup) and the $490 keyless start system. And $750 for Bluetooth integration? Insane!

Despite what my head tells me about how this car is too expensive, I love it anyway. I love it for the way it drives, for the way it looks and for the smiles it provokes from other drivers.

Love it, too, for some of that luxury stuff: it's one of the few small cars on which you can get high-end features such as satellite navigation, Bluetooth, keyless ignition and a sport mode.

Even if in the end you don't really need all those things. All of which means that, as different as it is, it's much the same as the previous Mini.

Toronto Star