2025 Mini Cooper Convertible First Drive: Mini-mal Meddling
The redesigned Mini convertible keeps everything that was great about the old one, enhancing style and color choice while boosting torque across the board.
“Most significant investment in the Mini brand since 1959.” That line’s been repeated frequently this year as Mini has refreshed its entire 11-model lineup—and we just got a chance to drive one of the last to arrive: the 2025 Mini Cooper Convertible. The Hardtop 2-Door is mostly new from the ground up, but the design changes are icon-incremental (see Porsche 911). And because the convertible’s top mechanism (including its “sunroof mode”) and trunk area optimization were already so great, Mini decided to carry this gear over.
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Still Available in Three Spice Levels
As in the hardtop, the base and Oxford trims enjoy a major powertrain upgrade from three cylinders to four—boosting power by 20 percent and refinement by considerably more. Now the Cooper and Cooper S share the same B48A20M2 engine, with the base model programmed to deliver 161 hp and 184 lb-ft (up 27 and 22, respectively from the triple). The S makes 201 hp and 221 lb-ft, up 32 lb-ft but down 5 horses. These engines also share the same seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. At the top of the performance heap is the John Cooper Works model. Its engine is altered enough (fuel injectors, cam profiles, and other peripherals) to warrant different engine nomenclature—B48A20O2—but its internals did not need altering to reach its 228-hp, 280-lb-ft rating. (Note that the 312-hp/295-lb-ft Countryman JCW’s B48A20T2 does get beefier internals.) The JCW’s Sport DCT gearbox enjoys unique gearing, with ratios shortened by about 6 percent relative to the base and S for spritelier acceleration. It also shifts quicker and gets predictive shifting, which consults the navigation to anticipate curves and hills to best determine the optimal gear for the road ahead.
How Does It Drive?
Mini brought most of its lineup to Savannah, Georgia, where the low-country food is spectacular, but tight, twisty, hilly byways capable of showcasing a Mini’s go-kart nature are nonexistent. So a thorough discussion of how well it Minis will have to wait until we get one for an extended period. Sadly missing from the lineup were any base Coopers. We can tell you the Cooper S and John Cooper Works convertible are appropriately differentiated in terms of performance and handling.
We dropped the hammer on each one back to back and immediately appreciated the contribution the shorter-geared, more aggressively programmed transmission makes to the JCW. It feels way more than 13 percent more powerful. And in fact, with Boost mode activated, it might be—Mini says this provides 10 percent more power via added turbo boost for 10 seconds, but because it never quantifies the total peak power with Boost mode, we don’t list that unofficial 251 figure in our specs. The JCW barked its front tires on the one-two upshift and basically gave strong “straining-at-the-leash” vibes in its Go-Kart experience mode (where it always belongs). Green mode anesthetizes it to below the eagerness level of the Cooper S in its Go-Kart mode.
As is the case across the Mini lineup, shift paddles are exclusive to the JCW—ironically, the variant that needs them the least given its transmission’s more aggressive shift schedule.
Mini pegs the 0–60-mph time difference at a half second (6.7 for the S, 6.2 for the JCW). We expect testing to reveal slightly quicker numbers for each. Note that the 40-hp/37-lb-ft gap between the S and the base car is forecast to slow the 60-mph sprint time to a pedestrian 7.9 seconds. (We expect the aftermarket will offer compelling options for closing that electronically imposed power and torque gulf between base and S cars.)
How Does It Convert?
The black cloth top, which is still available with a Union Jack in a contrasting gray herringbone weave, is the least changed element of the new Mini Convertible. That’s no surprise since the old one didn’t need much change. The top raises and lowers lickety-split at the touch of a single button on the windshield header at speeds up to 19 mph. A single button raises and lowers all four windows, and there’s an easy-to-install wind-blocker that greatly reduces turbulence in the front seat, allowing easy conversation at 70 mph. The blusteriest mode is “Sunroof,” in which just the section of roof above the front seats retracts.
The back seat is reasonably accommodating to average-sized adults for short trips, and optimal use of the small trunk is assured by a clever mechanism that allows the rear of the raised roof to be elevated for easier access. Unfortunately, one hardtop upgrade not available on the convertible is the full Comfort Access 2.0 system that allows phone-as-key entry and starting, because that requires antennas mounted in the roof rails. Convertible owners can still use their phones as a key, but they’ll need to pull it out and touch it to the door handle to get in and set the phone on the wireless charger before keying on.
We don’t have many notes to improve its convertibleness, though we might advise extending the blind-spot detection range a bit, because the tall top stack means cars that are about to enter the traditional blind-spot danger zone cannot be seen in the rearview mirror. We had to learn to check the side-view mirrors more carefully to avoid angering approaching cars.
Righteously Rigid
We were struck by the almost total lack of any cowl shake or quivering aftershocks when traversing bumps and pavement irregularities in both models we drove. We pressed Mini reps to quantify the increase in torsional rigidity or the body’s natural frequency but were simply told the difference was “notable.” A rigid structure is a critical enabler of spritely chassis dynamics, and this one seems to deliver. John Cooper Works models get noticeably stiffer damping, though the convertible is not as firmly damped as the hardtop JCW. (The damping is not electronically adjustable, so it’s not tied to Experience modes, but the shocks are frequency-selective, meaning small-amplitude, high-frequency inputs on highways and the like are absorbed, while low-frequency cornering/braking forces are more firmly damped.)
All the Mini Mode Madness
We’ve been huge fans of the high degree of personalization the 9.4-inch round screen affords in other models, and the convertible adds one Mini meter of its own: The Always Open meter keeps track of open-top motoring time over the life of the car. We can also note that the extra brightness and contrast of the Samsung-developed OLED screen really pays for itself in legibility when the sun’s shining directly on it.
Design Delights
The main reason to choose a Mini is its cheeky design, and the 2025 model makes personalizing a Mini even more fun, with new choices of exterior and interior colors that enhance the premium nature of the Mini brand. We love that every inch of the interior has been designed. There are oval themes throughout: door handles, cupholders, the surrounds for various button banks—even the ridiculously oversized key is an oval. Note that retaining the rear hatch sheetmetal precludes the convertible from adopting the hardtop’s new taillight shape, but the LED pattern inside the lights apes its half-a-Union-Jack look.
Is the Mini Convertible Worth It?
Sun-worshipping car buyers are not exactly crippled by choice these days. If you’re not an oligarch or A-list influencer, have a $50,000 price cap, and want a back seat, it’s this, a Ford Mustang, or an off-roader (Bronco/Wrangler). It’s hard to envision a lot of conflicted cross-shopping among those disparate offerings. And at the entry price of $35,125, an eight-second Mini, available in fun colors seems like bargain. Even the John Cooper Works, starting at $44,875 strikes us as a smart, easily rationalized purchase.
I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…
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