Can the MINI Cooper S Convertible dethrone the Mazda MX-5?
How do you be the world’s most successful roadster well you don’t the mazda mx-5 is by far the best-selling convertible sports car of all time and it’s so dominant that giant manufacturers like toyota and fiat have given up competing with it these days it doesn’t have any rivals or does it you see to properly rival the mazda mx-5 you need to think outside the
Box a little bit and oh would you look at this a mini cooper s convertible it’s got two doors roof comes off super fun to drive quite nice and fast oh have we found the answer right first things first i know you’re probably going to comment and say oh well nicholas hill was down at the start no it’s up yes it is up i had to tie it up because i realized i did
A stupid by having my hair down on a day when we’re filming with a convertible because my hair was going to go all over the place wasn’t it so i’ve tied my hair up right i’ve done it okay okay meanwhile this thing is a blooming hoop to drive it’s cracking let me just get this out of the way this is a mini john cooper works convertible so it is the fruitiest
Mini convertible you can buy it’s also the most expensive one that you can buy i mean a jcw starts out 38 000 pounds which is more expensive than the top spec mazda mx-5 but fear not because you can actually buy a mini convertible s for about the same price as a mazda mx-5 and actually a lot of the good stuff we’re going to say about this car also applies to
The mini cooper s in fact that might be the better car so come on then what do you think of the looks with the roof off it’s a feisty looking thing with that beefy body kit and little flushes of color it’s just a shame that the roof still hangs out the back of the car when it’s folded something like an mx-5 looks a bit more cohesive still there ain’t much to
Complain about on the inside now when it comes to a mini their interior is like no other there’s something retro about what’s going on in here we’ve got all the knobs and switches and buttons and twiddlies and knobs and twiddlies and buttons and things that i just want to keep pressing and touching and twiddling i just think it’s brilliant and then you’ve got
The lights that go around the screen right that change color as you’re driving which i really like screen itself 8.8 inches and it’s all very nice and easy to use i mean you basically don’t have to touch the screen at all it’s very similar to a bmw i drive system so you’ve got a click wheel down here and then you can just kind of scroll through things lovely
Nice easy gorgeous lovely lovely digital dials it’s got like a matte finish on here so it’s nice and easy on the eyes there are three things in this car that i really love number one steering wheel alcantara really grippable like you just want to grip it and when you’re ripping it around corners it’s just great the gear selector which not only is it really nice
And smooth when you’re driving but i think it looks like um an old crooners microphone you see what i mean like they’re gonna sing into it like this that’s what i think it looks like and number three this this is where you keep your phone and i think every car should have one of these because it keeps your phone hidden away so you don’t even get the temptation
To look at the screen you don’t even see the screen light up on your phone so it can’t distract you from anything everything is on here which is controlled down here which is fantastic one key advantage that the mini has over a bespoke two-seat roadster is practicality firstly you got a pair of rear seats but it is worth mentioning that legroom is pretty tight
If you actually want to put people back there either way it’s a useful bit of extra storage space it’s very handy when the actual boot is only 215 liters if you fold the roof that shrinks to 150 liters but hey still bigger than an mx5 though right let’s talk about what really matters when it comes to this car and that is what it’s like to drive this thing is
Blooming quick it’s got 228 brake horsepower a turbocharged two liter four-cylinder engine it will do not to 62 in 6.6 seconds but i’ll be honest the most exciting part about this car is how it it’s sounds oh she’s a babe she has an absolute vape i mean i’ll be honest if you just go for a normal cooper s rather than going for a jcw version then go for the
176 brake horsepower version that we find is the sweet spot because it’s got plenty of performance for a car this size and also it sounds just as fruity it does yeah and actually it’s a lot softer than this and it’s better on normal roads than this because this jcw version is firm like really you feel everything you feel every lump and bump in the road which
You kind of get used to after a while but yeah if you do live on bumpy roads take it super slow or maybe ladies wear a sports bra it’s all i can suggest really when it comes to this thing but handling wise i would like to say this car has strong chuck ability that’s what it is strong chuck ability you can chuck and throw this thing all over the shop and
It doesn’t even blink an eye it literally just goes yeah fine hey you want to chuck it over there yeah fine chuck it yeah you want to whip it around that corner yeah chuck it yeah chuck it let’s chuck it right now let’s chuck it oh my god yes chucking it on chuck ability strong chuck ability steering is nice and direct the grip of the wheels is just fantastic
And actually even on the motorway to be fair it’s pretty blooming good and even though you’ve got the convertible roof it’s not too noisy so with the roof up it’s not horrendously loud and with the roof down especially when you’ve got the wind deflector up it’s not horrendously loud in here at all you can just enjoy the noise from the exhaust most of the time
That’s all very well but is it as enjoyable as a proper sports car like the mx-5 well it’s different the mx-5 has a pure feel it’s low rear-wheel drive and even lighter than the mini for outright enjoyment it wins but the mini is still a rorty fun little thing to drive and it’s well worth a look if you’re looking for something a bit more practical the mx-5’s
Biggest rival yeah we think it might be
Transcribed from video
The Mazda MX-5's only rival? | MINI Convertible review By Auto Express
