In the lead up to Christmas we had the use of a new 2nd Generation MINI Cooper for a week. Finally we share how we got on.

When you’re compiling a review about anything, it really helps to be dramatic, punchy, emotional. You love it, you hate it, you love it then you hate it. You know, the sort or meandering rant through as many delicious adjectives as you could imagine. The kind of review that makes you feel the writer’s joy or pain as they share their experiences. Well, I just couldn’t get that emotional about the new MINI Cooper.

That’s not to say I don’t like the new MINI Cooper, I really do. But it didn’t exactly move me in the same way the original MINI Cooper did back in 2001, or the MINI GP recently did on the track in Italy. I think this may in part be down to the decision by someone at BMW to launch the Cooper S before the MINI Cooper this time around. Rewind back to June 2001 and our very first test drive of the new MINI Cooper, and you’ll find the opening line “The new MINI Cooper is fantastic. I’m sorry if that sounds over the top, but it just is.”, then when I later drove the MINI Cooper S, I was blown away all over again. But this time around, after being extremely impressed by the new Cooper S the MINI Cooper felt a little disappointing, a little lacking, and certainly a little slow.

At the risk of contradicting myself, I must make it clear that the Cooper isn’t slow, certainly in MINI terms. The engine is more refined and delivers more power across the range than the model it replaces. The throttle response is good, and the handling is very good indeed. But these are things we’ve all come to expect from a MINI. So when we as a family were living with the new car for a week we were looking for something new, what extra did the new MINI give us. The answer sadly as very little.

We do like a lot of things about the new MINI. The interior in particular, despite the much criticized centre console, is much improved compared to the old model. The ride is smoother, the noise levels from the road and wind are greatly reduced and conversations are much easier to hold, even at speed.

However there were shortcomings on this model that seemed to highlight the fact it wasn’t a highly specced example. Some of the “standard” plastics felt very cheap and not so cheerful, the large door ellipses being the most glaring example. The rough, black plastic trim felt quite harsh and in general, compared to the high spec examples we’d been in previously, this really felt like a base model. This is something we felt the previous MINI did well, you could be in a MINI One, or a top of the line Cooper S and generally most areas were as good in the One as the S, however this time around we felt the “base” version of the Cooper seemed cut back compared to the S we’d been driving in the previous week. When a car that costs over £14,000 feels a little cheap, something’s not right.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact most of it’s positive. The changes made to the car inside have made it, overall, better to live with. Simple little things like the seat fold mechanism and the soft seat backs made for a much easier time when loading things like Christmas trees and three year old boys into the back of the car. The adjustable rake and reach on the steering column is still a luxury, as a MINI owner since 2002, I’m taking some time getting used to. I feel spoilt. The simple fact that I can sit in the passenger seat without smacking my head on the grab handle which now folds out of harms way is just wonderful. There are so many things about the new MINI that just make life in the new car better than life in the old car.

When the July 2004 update was made across the first generation MINI range, I found a lot we didn’t like, it felt like a lot of change for changes sake, and a lot of little things niggled me greatly. But, in November 2005 I bought my own “facelift” Cooper S, and after living with a new model all was forgiven. The same thing is true of the new MINI Cooper, although I’ve actually found much less I don’t like, or changes that feel like they’re just for the sake of it. There seems to be much less hard plastic surfaces touching each other, less areas for rattles and scratches. And places you touch in general feel nice. One I stopped picking at the trim and thinking how cheap it felt compared to the Cooper S of the week before, the more I liked the new car, and the more I enjoyed living with it.

Some things remained bugbears, and I doubt they’ll ever go away in my opinion. The radio controls are not intuitive, and the quality of the Boost unit is poor. The heater controls are also badly thought through and although they look more “MINI” and in keeping with the design, they’re just not as ergonomic as the previous, idiot proof dials which anyone who’s driven a car in the past 20 years or so would know how to use.

The new MINI Cooper is different. If you own a previous model Cooper and you’re happy with what you’ve got, I couldn’t justify selling you this car purely on the basis that it’s new and improved. The engine is different, it’s a smoother operator, and more powerful, but it has less buzz, less fizz, less character. The interior is more spacious, and more comfortable, but the controls are clumsy, and the radio not only poor, but pretty much impossible to simply “swap out” in the age old car buff tradition. While I feel the new MINI Cooper is a better car than the previous model, I just can’t shift the feeling it’s lost a little soul.