2014 MINI Cooper S Review

Presently we are coming out of a series of bends and the smile is there, on our faces. You can have quite some fun with the 2014 MINI Cooper S, but for all the unexpected reasons.

We never quite found any similarities between MINI's advertised go-kart handling and the actual way in which a kart responds. With this new MINI, things have strayed even further from this declared path.

Like on most BMWs with active damping, there's a fair degree of roll, even in the Sport setting. Thus, the Cooper S is no precision instrument. Instead, you can work with the body roll, playing with the weight transfer from one corner to another. The car will be happy to be driven in this manner.

The ride is generally good, but the suspension travel is remarkably short, so whenever you encounter a more serious asphalt problem, things become crashy. The standard Cooper S comes with 16-inch wheels, while our test car was wearing 18-inch wheels.

Do not, under any circumstances, choose these larger wheels. The aforementioned roll is going to be there anyway, but the skinny tire sidewall means that serious bumps give you the feeling of having a little crash. This is an issue especially in the city, something that annoys you to the point of giving up on the car.

The 2014 MINI Cooper S has a balanced handling, albeit coming short of being impressive. In the end, it all feels like the larger car it has become.
The overall grip is nice, but there's no clever diff to pull you into the corner. In the fight against understeer, you get an electronic simulation of a limited slip differential.

Dubbed Performance Control, this keeps the understeer nicely in check, but, for instance, falls behind the active feeling of the similar system used by Abarth (called TTC).

However, here at the limit, you can feel the maturity of the new chassis.

Everything is perfectly balanced. It is time to start playing with the handbrake then. This must be the liveliest we've ever used on a street car. It takes relatively little effort, is easy to modulate and has a strong bite.

With the DSC (Dynamic Stability Control) completely off, the MINI relies on electronics once again. This time we are talking about the Electronic Differential Lock Control (EDLC), which selectively brakes the spinning front wheel.

Ouch! The EDLC plays its part well, but if you try to take off with the pedal to the metal, the front axle just isn't up to the job. MINI's Cooper S acts like the sort of front-wheel drive car that can't quite handle its own power, with the front wheels entering violent vertical oscillations as they come on and off the grip.

As for the times when you slide the car, the chassis wants to come back in a straight line really quick.

Having assessed the effect of the throttle, we moved on to the other pedal. The brakes are among the strong tech bits of the 2014 Cooper S hatch. While the initial bite isn't all that sharp, the stopping power itself is reassuring even at high speeds, perfectly suiting the car.

When you're done rushing from one bend to another, the MINI Cooper S makes a decent long-distance partner. The main difference between the Brit and the BMW models it shares its platform with comes in the form of the soundproofing. They've loosened things up in the MINI to allow speed to generate entertainment.

Still, while the handling has softened up compared to the old Cooper S, the comfort has improved. Aside from the obvious factors, such as the improved cabin, the new gadgets also have a contribution here.

For instance, the Harman Kardon system is an option you must have. This is the best premium audio implementation we've seen on a car this small. Even when used for FM radio and with the volume pushed far, the system shows refreshing quality.

The MINI's grown-up status means it now gets features such as a heated windscreen and a panoramic glass roof. It is now also... gadgetilitically correct, with the MINI Connected apps supporting both iPhone and Android-based phones.

Moreover, you can gift a MINI with a SIM card for the first time. This can be used for optional features such as the Emergency Call and MINI Teleservices. While the first is pretty much self-explanatory, the latter can feed your service partner with all the required data.

The process of becoming an adult also shows in the safety department. The 2014 MINI comes with a Driving Assistant. This includes a camera-based active cruise control, collision and pedestrian warning, high beam assistance and road sign detection, as well as a rear-view camera and even automated parallel parking.

Our only gripe here was with the green button placed on the center console, next to the hazard lights button. This activates the rear-end collision alert. Like in the new BMW X5, we see no point in this being given such a prime-time location. It would've been much better to have the door lock button here. By the way, the front passenger seems to have no access to this feature, which is only found on the driver's door.

As for the deeper safety assessment of the 2014 MINI, the hatch hasn't been tested by any official body yet.

Go to a track and blindfold yourself. Now start driving. You may or may not be able to tell you are in a MINI.

While the Brit has lost a much of its identity, the German-ization means you get considerably more car for the money. You see, modern-day MINIs never actually stayed true to the core of the original, which was to offer an incredible amount of interior space for its overall size. Regarded in this manner, the hatchback's enlargement is a good move. More space, extra features, a superior technical side, this is the most advanced MINI yet.

It is ironic then how closely related the worst and the best parts of the car are. And yet we can't stop thinking that, with sustained efforts, the dilution of the MINI concept could have been avoided. With more tweaking and perhaps a small compromise here and there, the 2014 hatchback could have delivered that desirable British feel.

Well, guess you just have to turn to Abarth if you want something traditional in this segment. The Italian brand's offering are aging though, so you can't quite compare them to the new MINI. But this is where our money would go.

This is, in a form, the end of MINI as far as personality is concerned. But perhaps not too many wanted to live with the wild spirit of the "old new MINIs".

Those who came to the British brand for the complete, traditional experience will be sent away by the new approach. Nonetheless, customers who seek the lifestyle side of MINI now get a much more complete proposition. This latter category outnumbers the first, so the 2014 MINI should be a commercial hit.

As a hot hatch, the 2014 MINI Cooper S works well, but it's not a remarkable athlete within its segment. On the other hand, the more affordable MINI Cooper makes a good choice. And if we want to cross the border into the nonsense lifestyle vehicle comparison area, we'd take the Cooper S over a Mercedes SLK 350 with an AMG package any day. While we compared the two for the fun of it, the conclusion stays true.

The massive component sharing strategy brings a financial benefit for customers, as the pricing hasn't been increased by much. In the US, the 2014 MINI starts at US$, while the Cooper S begins at US$23,600. Nonetheless, a fully loaded model like the one we drove is still going to be a financial pain. That can climb as high as US$36,000. In Europe, the MINI range starts with the One, which can be had for at EUR23,800 at the lowest. The other end of the scale is where out test car resides, costing a massive EUR42,675 (including 24 percent VAT).

Since BMW has become such a huge fan of niches, we'd love to see MINI come up with a smaller offering. This would have to be deeply tweaked in order to offer that distinct MINI aroma, but this is not impossible. We don't expect to see this happening though, as it wouldn't make all that much financial sense.

Oh and gentlemen, forget the Volcan Orange small talk, our test car actually felt Yellow.