2025 Mini Cooper Road Test and Review

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

To a casual observer, there are just two Mini Coopers – the original that began production in 1959 and the modern, BMW-engineered reincarnation that arrived in 2002. But since that time, the Mini Cooper went through a subtle but steady evolution. It has gotten bigger, more powerful, and more technologically sophisticated. And for 2025, it just got its latest redesign. 

The 2025 Mini Cooper remains an adorable and lively subcompact front-wheel-drive hatchback. And it’s one of the smallest cars sold in the U.S. To evaluate the latest changes, we just spent a week testing the three-door hardtop version of the 2025 Mini Cooper. Keep reading to learn about its pros and cons to see whether it’s the right little car for you. 

Not an Economy Car

Let’s get one thing out of the way: The Mini Cooper isn’t an economy car. We mentioned the BMW engineering – this car borrows its mechanical gear from the German luxury brand. That’s why one of the smallest cars in the country has a starting price of $28,950, which is nearly $7,000 more than a bigger, roomier Toyota Corolla. A four-door model costs an extra $1,000, while an open-top convertible commands a $5,000 premium. You can also pay an extra $3,250 for the S model like our test vehicle, which upgrades you from 161 horsepower to 201 hp. Spending a further $2,750 buys the 228-hp John Cooper Works. (We’ll talk more about these engines later on.) 

The Cooper does come packed with standard features that help justify its price. These include a panoramic moonroof (or a power-retractable soft top on the convertible), heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, GPS navigation, automatic climate control, and front and rear parking sensors. But you’re mostly paying for the Cooper’s charm and performance, which we’ll discuss more shortly. 

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Fourth-Generation Retro

The last fully redesigned Mini Cooper came out 11 years ago, and after all that time, only one change is obvious at a quick glance at the new fourth-generation model – the taillights have become triangles instead of rectangles. Mini experts will also notice that the Cooper now hides the rear exhaust tips rather than keeping them proudly at the center of the bumper. 

Otherwise, everything is pretty familiar. That means round headlights that bulge out of the hood, an upright windshield, and a pint-sized body, all using retro cues that evoke the original Mini. At 153 inches long for a two-door model and 159 inches for a four-door, the 2025 Cooper stretches less than an inch longer than the previous generation. However, it’s 10 inches longer than a 2002 model and nearly 3 feet longer than the original Mini. If you’ve liked Minis in recent years, you’ll probably like this new model. If you haven’t, the redesign hasn’t done anything to change that. 

By the way, a note about terminology: We typically refer to hatchbacks as three-doors and five-doors. But Mini refers to its Coopers as two-doors and four-doors, so we're following suit.

2025 Mini Cooper four-door ・ Photo by Mini

Infotainment in the Round

The classic Mini Cooper had its speedometer in the center of the dashboard, and the retro reincarnation has always had a big circle there of some sort. Last year, it was a housing for a small rectangular touchscreen. But now, the screen fills the entire circle. 

This round 9.4-inch screen has playful graphics and a creative control layout, like temperature readouts hugging the outer circumference. The system is fun to use when you’re sitting parked, but it takes more concentration than we’d prefer if we’re actually driving. It also incorporates the car’s speedometer, replacing the conventionally placed gauge cluster in last year’s Mini. To compensate, a head-up display is now standard equipment – so you get a digital speedometer readout projected onto the windshield in front of you. 

Beyond the infotainment system, the new Cooper’s interior has unusual materials, too. The dashboard and door panels are upholstered in patterned fabric, and lights project another pattern onto the dash at night as well. And the center spoke of the steering wheel, pointing down from the center of the wheel, is a fabric strap. You’ll either find it endearingly funky or uncomfortably weird. 

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Three Tiers of Zip

The Cooper comes standard with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine that makes 161 horsepower and 184 lb-ft of torque. That’s a healthy bump from last year’s base 134-hp three-cylinder, and it’s more zip than even the Cooper S performance model from back in 2002. Mini says the base Cooper now sprints to 60 mph in just 7.4 seconds – not wild speed, but enough to outpace ordinary small cars. 

We tested the latest Cooper S, whose speed and specs have also increased over the years. It boosts the same 2.0-liter engine to 201 hp and 221 lb-ft of torque (up from 189 and 206, respectively, last year). The 2025 Cooper S hits 60 mph in 6.3 seconds. The engine has an invigorating boom, but you’ll feel torque steer tug on the Mini’s steering wheel if you accelerate hard. Every Cooper remains front-wheel drive; you need the Countryman crossover to get a Mini with all-wheel drive. At the top of the lineup is the John Cooper Works, or JCW. With 220 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque, it cuts the 0-60 sprint to 5.9 seconds. 

Note that every 2025 Mini Cooper uses a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. No manual transmission is available. 

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Feisty Handling

If you complain about modern cars getting too big, tall, and heavy, the 2025 Mini Cooper offers a notable counterpoint. Sure, at 3,000 pounds, it’s heavier than some longer, wider vehicles like the Honda Civic compact sedan. And as we explained, it’s bigger than it was decades ago. But its size hasn’t budged much more recently than that. And you still get the same feisty handling that the Mini has long been known for. Extra-quick steering delivers the Cooper’s famous “go-kart” responsiveness, and the BMW platform gives it high handling limits. We didn’t always find the steering feel to be perfectly natural, but this is certainly a fun little car to hustle. 

It’s not terribly stiff or noisy, either. We don’t mean it has a cushy ride, but even in the sporty S model, the suspension takes the edge off bumps. You’ll feel them, but you won’t feel like the car is breaking. On the other hand, if you just want a cute, comfortable city car, you might prefer something gentler. 

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Passenger Potential

The Mini Cooper is a small car, but it has always fit passengers surprisingly well – at least in the front seats. The seats go far back for taller drivers to stretch out, and they’re supportive while you go around corners. For 2025, heated front seats and a heated steering wheel are standard features. Power adjustability is an available upgrade. 

Meanwhile, the backseat can be useful to have in a pinch – but we mean that literally. Unless the front seats are well forward, a rear passenger’s knees would be jammed into the front seatback. And behind a tall driver, there’s literally no clearance between the rear seat cushion and front seatback in our two-door test vehicle. Still, we installed a child safety seat on the passenger side of the rear seat, so we appreciated that it’s not a two-seater. The four-door Mini is only slightly roomier, but the rear seat is easier to access. On the flip side, we’ve read some owner complaints about the front doors being uncomfortably small in the four-door Cooper.

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Some Cargo Space, Too

The Cooper is also a petite cargo-hauler. Mini quotes just 8.9 cubic feet of luggage space behind the rear seat, which is about half of what you’d find behind the third row of a typical mid-size SUV. Still, it’s more than you’d get in a small sports coupe like a Toyota GR86 or Subaru BRZ. Plus, you get the flexibility to fold down the rear seat to open up 34.4 cubic feet – about what you’d find behind the backseat of the typical compact crossover SUV. 

The four-door has slightly more cargo space: 13.1 cubic feet behind the rear seat and 40 cubic feet with it folded down. This isn’t a function-focused hatchback, but it’s more useful than the typical sporty car. The convertible, though, is as impractical as you’d expect – 5.7 cubic feet of trunk space with the convertible top up and 5.2 cubic feet when it’s folded down. 

For more passenger and cargo space, the Mini Countryman crossover SUV is pretty lively as well despite having a lot more room.

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Fuel Bills Aren’t Super-Tiny

The Mini is more about sporty performance than fuel-sipping efficiency. The base model gets an EPA-estimated 28 mpg in the city, 39 mpg on the highway, and 32 mpg combined. That’s not bad mileage, and impressively, even the S model matches those figures. But if you’re thinking about a Mini for minimal fuel costs, think again. 

Worse yet, the Mini needs costly premium-grade gasoline. That means your fuel bills will be roughly equivalent to a vehicle getting 24 mpg in mixed driving on regular-grade fuel, like a three-row Toyota Highlander SUV. That’s not a dealbreaker for a performance car, and gas mileage stayed even with last year despite the new Mini’s extra power. Still, these fuel costs might give a more casual driver pause. 

Mini also sold a fully electric version of last year’s Cooper, but the U.S. market hasn’t yet received the new generation. It’s currently built in China, where it would have been subject to costly tariffs. 

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Alternatives to the Mini

The Mini Cooper faces a variety of alternative small sporty cars priced in the $30,000s. For a mix of spirited speed and a decent measure of practicality, we’d shop it against the Toyota GR Corolla and Volkswagen Golf GTI hatchbacks, as well as the Honda Civic Si and Hyundai Elantra N sedans. Many of these are great fun, especially if you like the manual transmission that the Mini no longer offers. But none of them has the Mini’s pint-size footprint or retro charm. 

Another set of alternatives is purer performance machines like the Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ coupes and the two-seat Mazda MX-5 Miata convertible. These are rear-wheel-drive cars that are less fancy and less functional than the Mini hatchback. But they deliver a purer driving experience that many enthusiasts will welcome. And the Miata is the rare open-top alternative to the Mini convertible. 

2023 Toyota GR Corolla ・ Photo by Brady Holt

The Smallest, Cutest BMW

The 2025 Mini Cooper isn’t a cheap small car – at least by the standards of an economy car. But when you consider its above-average performance and sophisticated suspension, you can instead think of it as the smallest, cutest BMW you can buy. It’s fun to drive yet has a measure of practicality and fuel efficiency. It’s easy to park yet not some dreary econobox. 

The Mini’s styling, tiny backseat, and ergonomic quirks aren’t for everyone. It’s more expensive than you might expect to buy and to refuel. And if you measure a car’s value in terms of size per dollar, it comes up short. But except for dropping the manual transmission, this year’s changes are only wins for someone who’d like the Mini. The driving experience is familiar, just juiced with more power. The interior is still quirky, but with an infotainment system that’s bigger and slicker (if not any easier to use). And it still pays clear homage to its ancestors. If you liked recent Minis, you’ll like this one more than ever – unless you wanted to shift your own gears. 

2025 Mini Cooper S ・ Photo by Brady Holt