So what do you call a Mini hatch that has five doors instead of three? Why, the Mini Cooper Hatch 5-Door, of course. Take the three-door, stretch the wheelbase, add two rear doors and you've the Mini for small families. You can squeeze regular sized adults in the rear but don't expect them to sit happily there for too long. Sure, the headroom is fine but leg and foot room aren't as generous, and entry and egress are hardly wonderful either. So what you have here is something ideal for two adults, and two kids beyond car seat years, but not yet teenagers. This body addition makes the Mini more marketable than ever. Makes you wonder why it took the boffins so long to develop this concept. It's all very well saying Mini already has a contender in the area, with its Countryman, but check out the price difference. For a 4WD Countryman you're looking $50k if you tick any of the options boxes, and for the less expensive examples there's not much in the way of pace. With this latest Mini offering, you can drive off the lot in a new Cooper 5-door for $37,200 which puts it in among Mazda3 and Golf models.
The Mini is competitive on many fronts; it looks right, in a part-hatch/part-estate way, it goes well, uses sod-all fuel (claimed combined figure of 4.2L/100km), and you can buy one with a six-speed manual transmission if you're that way inclined. At which many of you will cry, "I knew there was a catch". And you're right, because optioning the auto costs - better be seated for this - $3000 for a six-speeder. So most will now be thinking $39,200 drive away for a hatch that can only carry kiddies in the back. True, but what's rather refreshing is that not everyone will have one. Plus this gets the natty little three-cylinder 1.5-litre turbocharged direct-injection engine. It's great, with one proviso. You need to drive it with the Sport mode selected or it can feel nobbled. Guess that's how Mini gets a combined fuel figure into the low fours; by driving it in green mode everywhere. Except don't, because it kind of smothers the life out of it. If you want Mini driving fun, the middle engine mode won't do either;
you really need Sport. When you select it, images of a rocket and go-kart appear. Guess they couldn't decide. Whatever, in Sport the little three-potter feels like a rocketing kart, more so than its 100kW and 220Nm suggests. Mini reckons on standing start acceleration to 100 kays of 8.2sec and with some perseverance we managed to get close enough, with a best of 8.26sec. The three-door with the same powertrain did 8.07sec, reflecting its lighter weight by 60kg. This engine just slaughters the lame 1.6 that used to power the former Cooper models. Being turbo-energised it pulls well from 1500rpm, so despite high gearing will putter around town in third or fourth happily. On level sections of motorway at legal speeds it easily manages mid4's for thirst, pulling 2000rpm even. Torque production across the board is impressive. The manual transmission is sweet as a nut, the clutch uptake just so, the lever movement oiled, a delight to use, though not many will buy it. Shame because the fewer who do, the less often it will be offered, until they're all gone and a distant memory.
As to the Mini drive, well, it's good but just not quite as nippy as the three-door. Nor would you expect it to be, given the 72mm longer wheelbase needed to fit more generous rear seats. Another bonus of the extra 161mm of overall length is a bigger hatch, capacity up by 67L to 278L. The floor height is variable too. On our demanding test drive loop, it's a well mannered, energetic drive with some of the better electric steering around. In Sport there's extra heft at the wheel which is quite live and direct. The five-door is fun to punt in the hills, and the engine has enough grunt to satisfy, while sipping frugally when not given a hiding. Tyre noise isn't great, however, and the ride at slower speeds tends firm but then roll control at pace is good too. Our red (and white roofed) car came standard with cloth seats, a round key fob that no longer has to be inserted in the dash (hooray to that), stop/start, a trip computer including digital speed readout, dual zone air, and a central screen to handle all the infotainment and connectivity duties.
Also part and parcel are cruise control with brake function (handy that), rain sensing wipers, Mini drive modes (just leave it in Sport), and two aux-in connections. Absent is a reversing camera, so you make do with rear parking sonar. Mini, like owner BMW, has extensive options lists. Tick a few boxes and your $37k car suddenly costs well in excess of $40k. And all the tasty bits cost four figures. The smarties will probably just tick the auto box and leave it at that. Others might go for the $45,200 Cooper S 5-door, which doubtless is a firecracker, like the three-door version. At $37,200 drive away this little manual hotshot is an interesting alternative to C-segment offerings. It's Mini-cute, actually has a motor (the old Cooper didn't), has room in the rear for kiddies, and okay boot space. A good drive too, barring tyre roar. Six-speed auto adds $3000, really? Price: $37,200 ($42,200 as tested) Update: New MINI Clubman Shown Official images of the second-generation MINI Clubman surfaced on the internet yesterday and MINI has now revealed further details.
The four-door sub-compact station wagon features some interesting styling and shares the same platform with the latest MINI hatchback and the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer. New MINI Clubman Details The new MINI Clubman has grown in length by 27 cm and is 9 cm wider. The wheelbase has also been extended by 10cm. This means that cabin space has increased and the new Clubman can accommodate 300L in the boot which expands up to 1 250L with the rear split seats folded down. From the images above, it's also clear that the new Clubman features two rear opening doors. Three engines power the new Clubman. The first is a 1.5-litre TwinPower Turbo three-cylinder engine offering 100 kW and 220 Nm torque with 10Nm overboost. 0-100 kph is achieved in 9.1 seconds with a top speed of 205 kph. The MINI Cooper S Clubman is powered by a four-cylinder 2.0-litre TwinPower Turbo engine with 141 kW and 280 Nm of torque with an additional 20 Nm overboost. 0-100 kph is achieved in 7.1 seconds with a top speed of 228 kph.