Written by Luke Wilkinson Updated: 17 September 2024

Our Deputy Editor, Luke Wilkinson, will be looking after a brand-new MINI Cooper S for the next three months. As a classic Mini owner, he’s never much cared for the BMW remakes but, to his surprise, this latest model is right up his street. Scroll down to find out why this generation of MINI has changed his mind about the brand.

Update one: welcome

I’ve never been a fan of the modern MINI, mostly because I don’t like how far it’s deviated from the original car’s concept. The Mini was designed to be a small, cheap, classless runabout for the masses – but BMW’s recreations have been none of those things.

Over its previous three generations, the MINI has shaken off its people’s car roots, moved upmarket and piled on the pounds to the point that its dimensions no longer match the adjective written across its badge. It’s more of fashion accessory than a sensible city car these days.

As a classic Mini owner, this personality U-turn has been getting up my nose for years – even since before I became a car journalist. And, to add insult to injury, once I started my career, the first press car I ever drove was a third-generation MINI Cooper 5-door hatch.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t like it. I couldn’t stand its square-peg-round-hole infotainment system; I hated its contrived faux-retro, white-faced rev-counter and I still haven’t figured out why the five-door MINI even exists. It hardly offers any extra space in the back over the standard car. Oh yeah, and the Mk3’s seat bolsters nipped my kidneys and gave me chronic backache on the motorway.

So, you can only imagine how displeased I was when I found out I’d be running the latest MINI Cooper S as my new long-termer – especially because this ‘new’ model is basically a heavily revised version of the previous car. It’s built on the same platform as the Mk3, and it’s powered by the same 2.0-litre petrol engine (albeit with slightly more poke).

I was ready to give the new Mk4 MINI Cooper S a savage thrashing – until I drove it. Then the penny dropped. I’ve only spent a couple of weeks with the car so far, but it’s already challenging the top spot in my list of the best cars I’ve driven all year. Scroll down to find out why.

That was unexpected. What makes it so special?

To me, the previous three generations of the MINI Hatch have felt like washed-up rock stars. They’ve been steadily gaining weight while trying (and failing) to recapture their glory days with constant nods to the past. I also don’t feel they were different enough from their rivals to justify their premium price tags.

But this? This moves the game on. It’s a truly inspired change in convention that ushers in some fantastic new technology, some brilliant innovations in cabin design and a driving experience that I think is probably the most involving in its segment.

I’ll start with the technology. MINI has taken a huge step away from its competitors and designed a brand-new, circular infotainment system which, as is the fashion these days, controls everything on the car. It’s excellent – and I love that it looks towards the future rather than clinging to a retro pastiche.

The new screen is every bit as sharp as a flagship smartphone – and its design feels remarkably familiar with a similarly organised menu layout and kindred swipe commands. MINI has utilised every inch of space on the screen, too. The climate controls are at five and seven o’clock, your speed is always at 12 o’clock and, when you’re not on the gauge display, your engine revs and fuel are at 10 and two.

I’d recommend paying extra for MINI’s head-up display, though. If you don’t, there isn’t a screen ahead of the driver – and it’s a little jarring to constantly look at the centre of the dashboard to check your speed. I’m sure you’d get used to it in time, but the head-up display makes the interior feel a little more approachable. Thankfully, my car has this tech.

I love the fabric trim on the dashboard and door cards, too. It isn’t like the fabric you used to get in poverty-spec cars from the 1980s – it’s genuinely hard-wearing and it feels quite expensive (even though it’s made from recycled materials). It also has a practical purpose because it doesn’t reflect sunlight like a shiny vinyl or plastic dash.

What about the driving experience?

God it’s good. Its suspension is properly sorted, offering enough control to allow me to carve roundabouts and back-roads like I’m on a hot lap at Goodwood. MINI picked the Cooper’s tyres carefully, too – they’re only just grippy enough for the power the S has, which means they’re constantly chirping and whistling when you’re driving quickly. That’s fun.

MINI hasn’t tried to isolate the driver, either. The new Cooper’s steering is brilliant. It transmits the texture of the road all the way up to your palms and it’s super-fast, which means you hardly ever need more than a quarter turn.

It’s a bit of a handful, though. The Cooper S has 204hp, which is quite a lot to put through the front wheels of a small(-ish), light(-ish) hatchback. If left unchecked, that formula produces an effect called torque-steer, in which the pulling power of the engine dictates the direction of the car by tugging on whichever front wheel has the most grip.

Normally, manufacturers work hard to tune this out of their most powerful front-wheel drive cars. The new Honda Civic Type R, for example, doesn’t torque-steer at all thanks to its clever front differential. But the MINI Cooper S torque steers a lot. An awful lot.

Put too much power down on your way out of a junction and the car will try to pull you into oncoming traffic. Be a little too liberal with your right foot on a left-hand corner and it’ll head towards the verge. Hammer the throttle flat on a straight road and the steering wheel will squirm around in your hands like it’s trying to escape.

If you like driving, this is very entertaining. The Cooper S’s lively nature constantly keeps you on your toes – and it makes it feel more like a highly strung classic Mini than any of its predecessors. The only way MINI could have made it better would be to offer the car with a manual gearbox. If that was an option, I’d seriously consider buying one.

Is there anything you don’t like so far?

My MINI Cooper S doesn’t come with paddle shifters. They’re part of a £3,500 option package that adds a slightly sportier body kit and some racing stripes. This seems like a huge oversight, considering this is supposed to be an exciting hot hatchback. I reckon they’d make the driving experience a little more fun and help to compensate for the lack of a manual gearbox.

The rest of my pain points are trifling. The central cupholders aren’t quite big enough for my water bottle and there isn’t a massive amount of storage in the cabin. But I seldom have enough stuff about my person to fill the cubbies in any other car, so I don’t really care.

The boot’s a bit small, too. There’s only 210 litres of space, which is just enough for my backpack, carry-on case and gym bag, That means, if I want to travel anywhere with my skateboard in tow, I need to sling it on the back seat. If I try and cram it into the boot, it pushes the parcel shelf up and prevents me from seeing out of the rear window. But I dealt with similar space constraints in my old Mini, so I’m used to making this sacrifice, too. And it’s not like passengers can fit behind my driving position anyway.

In fact, I very much doubt I’ll find anything about the new MINI Cooper S that’ll irritate me over the next three months – but I’ll let you know if I do. Stay tuned.

Current mileage	3,012
Real-world average fuel economy	37.8mpg
Official combined fuel economy (WLTP figures)	45.6mpg
Car joined Parkers fleet	July 2024

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Update two: behind the lens

This month, I’ve been filming a video review on my MINI Cooper S for the Parkers YouTube channel. In the process, I’ve learned a bit more about my car’s practicality features – including its hidden storage bin that’s perfectly sized for my skateboard.

It’s been an odd month. I’ve been tearing about in my Cooper S like a blue-arsed fly, flitting up to Cumbria to see my family, racing around the south-east on launch events and laying the groundwork for the Parkers 2025 New Car Awards. I’ve also been doing a spot of video reviewing.

This last task on my to-do list was the one I was most apprehensive about, because I’d never flown solo on a video review before. I’d always been supported by my colleague, Mr. James Dennison, Bauer’s very own Head of Automotive Video. Thankfully, the MINI gave me plenty to talk about, so I wasn’t left gawping down the barrel of the lens like an ill-prepared A-level language student butchering their final speaking assessment.

Scroll down for a glimpse at what went on behind the scenes on the shoot day, along with a brief overview of some of my findings about my Cooper S’s practicality.

Come on then. What did you learn on the shoot?

I found out I’m not very good at delivering pieces to camera. Tej Bhola (one of Bauer’s Automotive Videographers) made me look like a hero in the final edit, but those interior driving shots took a good two days of shooting and countless outtakes to get right. Hopefully I’ll get better with some practice.

I also learned the new MINI’s quite photogenic. The pictures you see in this report are just happy snaps I took using my phone, but even my clumsy attempt at ‘photography’ couldn’t find an angle that made the car look ugly. Maybe that has something to do with the Cooper’s spec. That British Racing Green paint is deep enough to swim in.

You need a lot of equipment to shoot a car review, too, all of which you don’t see in the finished product. Tej had a gimble, a trolley, a box full of lenses, microphones, a massive mount to attach a camera to the windscreen for the interior driving shots and even a harness to strap himself into the rear of a car while we were filming tracking. You can see some of the kit in the image below.

Finally, I learned that filming a car review is a lot of fun. Because Tej and I get on so well, it didn’t really feel like work. Yeah, we made sure to capture all the important facts about the car on camera – but the parts between the takes, when we were coming up with jokes to stick in the edit, had us falling over each other in fits of laughter.

What did it teach you about the Cooper’s practicality?

Well, mostly that it isn’t very practical. For a cutaway gag, Tej thought it would be hilarious if I squeezed myself into the rear of the Cooper S behind my own driving position. Which was all well and good until the MINI’s comfort access seats decided they wanted to eat me.

They automatically slide forwards when you pull the release lever on the backrest. Then, once you’ve slotted yourself into the bench and pulled the seat back into place, they return to where they were. But, because I’m tall and sit quite far back, the front seat slowly slid backwards until it had squished my knees into my femurs.

So, that’s a couple of points off for the Cooper’s passenger carrying capability – but I’ll have to add a couple for its clever boot space. I recently discovered my Cooper has a hidden storage bin under its boot floor that just so happens to be perfectly sized to swallow my skateboard. That’s great, because it means it isn’t rolling around the boot scratching the trims and tearing my luggage to shreds.

Anything else worth mentioning?

I’ve finally figured out how to switch off the car’s obnoxious synthesised exhaust sound. The switch is buried in a sub-menu on the driver profile screen – and now it’s off, I can hear myself think on the motorway. More importantly, I now can enjoy listening to Megadeth without the incessant sound of a phony yet farty exhaust ruining the stereo levels.

I don’t understand why MINI bothered to give the S a soundaktor. I know new cars are now legally obliged to have quiet exhausts can produce, but I’d much rather listen to the sound of a muted real engine than a noisy fake one. The Cooper S doesn’t even sound that bad, either. And with the simulated engine sound off, I can better hear the turbo waste gate whooshing when I lift off the throttle.

It’s still smooth sailing with the Cooper S. And, as much as I’d rather not admit it, the shoot day only accelerated how quickly this little car’s getting under my skin. If you’re interested, you can watch the finished video below. I think my face in the driving shots says everything you need to know about the car.

MINI Cooper S Exclusive
Latest mileage	4,560
Real-world average fuel economy	37.8mpg
Official combined fuel economy (WLTP figures)	45.6mpg
Car joined Parkers fleet	July 2024

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Update three: teething problems

After three months with my Cooper S, I’m finally starting to find things about it that annoy me. They’re by no means severe enough to make me start hating the car, but they have made the ownership experience a little less seamless. I know MINI can’t please everyone, but two of these faults are fundamental hardware issues that its rivals do better.

Fault number one. MINI’s wireless smartphone charger is weaker than a malnourished baby bird. It barely has enough waft to maintain my phone’s state of charge, let alone increase it. And that’s a problem after a long day of travelling.

I spend a lot of time galavanting around Europe for my job and, on the return leg of my recent trip to Marseille to drive the new Ford Capri, I encountered a problem. My phone was dead because I’d been using it all day to record interviews with Ford’s executives – but I desperately needed Waze to show me the most efficient route home.

To make matters worse, the charging port on my phone doesn’t work if there’s an ‘r’ in the month. So, I was relying on the Cooper’s wireless charger to bring my phone back to life and grant me the power to chart a safe course home through the many road closures and accidents between Gatwick and Lincolnshire. Which it couldn’t. I drove home on blind luck, with some rough guidance from MINI’s built-in sat-nav system.

My MINI’s screen isn’t great at recognising my phone, either. On two occasions now, Android Auto has just failed to connect – even after following all the steps in Google and MINI’s convoluted troubleshooting guides. I’ve had to reset the car twice now to regain wireless Android Auto. Maybe MINI can mend this with an over-the-air update?

Lastly, the seating position is just too high for my build. I’m struggling to find a position that allows me to sit up straight, as the height of the roof means I need to crane my neck to see all the road through the windscreen. It doesn’t sound like a huge problem, but when I’m on the motorway, trying to see as far down the road as possible, I’m finding it a little annoying to keep adjusting where I’m sitting on the squab.

Again, though, these are inconsequential faults. None of them are irritating enough to make me want to hand the keys back to BMW – and they pale into insignificance as soon as I tip the MINI into a tight corner. As I’ll now explain.

Have you found anything else you like?

Oh yes. I’ve been exploring the limits of the Cooper’s chassis – and I’ve found that it handles a lot more like its ancestors than I expected.

Have you ever watched classic Minis racing around Goodwood? The drivers can back the cars into corners by simply lifting off the throttle, letting the front wheels bite and allowing the rear end to slide. And this one does exactly the same thing.

I discovered this by accident when leaving the top end of the A1 on a slightly damp and misty evening in October. I went hot into the corner, chucked it at the apex – and I had an epiphany. The car pivoted around my hips, and all that was needed to correct it was a squeeze of the throttle and a dab of opposite lock. It was wonderful.

So, I’ve decided. I need to find an excuse to get this car on a track. A little more space and a bit more speed (along with a dinky racing roundel or its doors and bonnet), and I reckon the new Cooper S will do a great impression of its grandfather.

MINI Cooper S Exclusive
Latest mileage	8,321
Real-world average fuel economy	37.8mpg
Official combined fuel economy (WLTP figures)	45.6mpg
Car joined Parkers fleet	July 2024

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Update four: self-enjoyment society

Our Car Buying Editor, Ryan Gilmore, takes the reins of the MINI for a couple of days on a surprisingly enjoyable trip to Coventry.

My esteemed colleague Luke has very strong Mini opinions, and I agree with none of them. For me the Mini became properly desirable when it shed the sixpence-and-brown-shop-coat image and embraced Cool Britannia. Enough checkerboard, stickers and rally lamps to double the body weight, and an interior clad in wood and leather is how I like my classic Mini.

But MINI must have done something magical, because we both agree on how nice the new MINI Cooper S is. His purist roots and my love of showing off have both been met rather tastefully. And with Luke handing me the keys and telling me to go nuts, I connected my Apply CarPlay and went for a trip to see family in Coventry.

I hail from the UK’s answer to Motor City Detroit. And, despite a rich tapestry of automotive history, Cov has very little to do with the Mini. The sewer bit from The Italian Job was filmed there, but that’s about it which meant a Mini-themed road trip wasn’t really on the cards. Instead, I was going for a blast around the nearby town of Kenilworth.  

Did you enjoy your MINI road trip?

Yes. My first impressions were very positive, the Cooper S is fizzy and boisterous, as all good hot hatches should be. I put it in go-kart mode, and it made a lot of synthetic rowdy engine noises that kept me grinning across the nice back roads of the West Midlands.

When I’d grown tired of a growly exhaust, I played around with the different modes and was pleasantly surprised by the difference it made to the experience. I’d stick it in Balance mode for some relaxation, or Green to eke out some extra mpg. Admittedly, most of it was sound and visual stuff, but that covers two key senses, and I like the ambient lighting changes. Gimmicky? Perhaps. But still cool.

There’s also something unashamedly hedonistic about this Cooper S, which makes me love it even more. You really do get the feeling that every single euro of development went on things that would exclusively benefit the driver and front passenger. I enjoyed heated and massaging seats the entire duration of my trip.

I’ll echo Luke and agree the boot is pathetically tiny. There was barely enough room for my and my girlfriend’s luggage, her handbag had to find home on the also-tiny rear seats. 

Luggage space aside, the Cooper made for a fine road trip chariot. Some approving nods and comments outside Kenilworth castle proved to me that MINI hasn’t lost its way under BMW either. And with the panoramic sunroof pulled all the way back to soak up some sunshine, the MINI felt every bit as premium as the list price suggested.  

Which brought me to Spon Street, one of the few remaining medieval streets in Coventry and final leg of my trip. Parked outside what I can only assume is a Tudor-era kebab shop, the MINI was the perfect car to snap pictures of. If I was more poetically minded, I’d be able to sign off with a poignant message about timeless British design and how the MINI still seamlessly blends into the landscape. But I’m not, so I’ll sign off by saying that the Cooper S blends yobbish fun with sensible motoring like nobody’s business.   

MINI Cooper S Exclusive
Latest mileage	9,943
Real-world average fuel economy	37.8mpg
Official combined fuel economy (WLTP figures)	45.6mpg
Car joined Parkers fleet	July 2024

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Update five: it’s trying to stab me

Another month has rolled by, and I’ve found something else I don’t like about my MINI. This one’s quite dangerous, too – I honestly have no idea how it managed to get through BMW’s design department unchecked.

I’m talking, of course, about the boot. It doesn’t try to eat me. It doesn’t open at random on the motorway and jettison its contents onto the carriageway. But it is quite sharp.

MINI designed the tailgate to cut around the Cooper’s trapezoidal rear lights. Fair enough. It looks cool. But it’s had the knock-on effect of shaping the trailing edge of the panel into a very fine point which, if you’re not aware of it, could have your eye out. Just look at it in the image below.

I first found my Cooper’s hidden razor when I was loading these boxes into the boot after a long day in the office. I’d reversed the car into a space that backed onto a hedge and, because space was tight, I was opening the boot while standing next to the rear quarter panel.

When the gas struts lifted the weight of the tailgate, it whipped up and carved a chunk out of my arm on the way past. If it wasn’t the fact my shoulder was in the way, it would have made the left-hand side of my face look like a naff Joker cosplay attempt.

And it isn’t just the boot operator that needs to be wary of the MINI’s pointy bits. Bystanders are at risk too, as I found out when my girlfriend and I went shopping. Now, she’s a fair bit shorter than me, which means her face is a lot closer to the offending point on the tailgate.

She was standing next to the boot as I opened it to load the week’s food into the back and, when the panel swung up, the sharpest edge of the panel very nearly grazed her face. Needless to say, she hasn’t been allowed within arms’ reach of the boot since.

Have you discovered anything else?

I have. Remember when I first took delivery of the Cooper S? I was complaining about its lack of a manual gearbox or even paddle shifters – but I’ve since found a workaround.

If you hold the gear selector down in ‘D’ for a good 30 seconds when you’re pootling down the road, the car will switch into a diagnostic mode that allows you to manually control the gearbox with the cruise control speed button on the left-hand side of the wheel.

It’s not the most elegant solution for daily driving. The button is tiny and therefore quite difficult to use when you’re twirling the wheel. But I’m chuffed to bits that I’ve finally found a way of selecting gears myself rather than having them dictated to me by the ECU.

I have also found a couple of blanking plates on the reverse side of wheel where the paddle shifters would be on higher-end models. So, the next job might be to dismantle the wheel to see if they’re hiding some buttons onto which I can graft some cheap eBay paddles.

I promise I’ll do a neat job of it, MINI. Please don’t bill me for a replacement wheel.

MINI Cooper S Exclusive	
Latest mileage	11,232
Real-world average fuel economy	30.4mpg
Official combined fuel economy (WLTP figures)	45.6mpg
Car joined Parkers fleet	July 2024