Used MINI 5-Door Hatch cars for sale

Used MINI 5-Door Hatch pros and cons

Is a second hand MINI 5-Door Hatch a good car?

The five-door version of the MINI hatchback is a good way to mix sixties retro styling with modern-day practicality. Sort of like having streaming a 4K restoration of The Saint online. 

The great thing about the MINI 5-door is that while it’s more or less as practical and as cheap to run as the likes of VW Polo or Audi A1, it’s way more fun to drive than either. 

Adding extra doors makes the MINI far more useable, especially for families, than the three-door model, and if it’s not quite as good looking as the three-door — the roof looks oddly flat — at least you can make use of the extra six inches of length for putting people in the back seats. 

The MINI 5-door was always a cut above alternatives, in pricing terms, and much of that price premium remains intact if you’re buying second-hand. It’s worth remembering that a Ford Fiesta might be more plain-wrapper, but it’s almost as good to drive, and much more affordable. 

Still, it’s hard not to love the MINI’s ‘Cool Britannia’ vibe, and you could ramp that up with later versions that came with  Union Jacks in the brake lights, and styling that couldn’t be more cute if it came from Battersea Dogs Home. 

On sale from 2013 all the way up to 2024, the MINI 5-door hatch (in this F55 model version) was regularly updated to keep it fresh for all those years, but the basic recipe remained the same. The lights and grille were tweaked a couple of times, and it’s worth tracking down a version with the optional Piano Black exterior pack, which eventually included the door mirrors, roof, lights, and fuel filler. 

You could even have a three-colour roof as an option at one point (maybe the French flag, just to take the edge off the Cool Britannia stuff?) and there are so many colour and wheel combos that not many MINIs look exactly alike. 

The MINI’s cabin looks just as cute and retro as the outside, although the touchscreen infotainment system — which eventually expanded to 8.8 inches across — never looked quite right as a rectangle stuck into the round hole left by the 2001 MINI’s dinner-plate-sized speedo. Still, the screen was good to use, and the mood lighting which ran around it in a circle was cool. It’s worth noting, though, that not all versions came with Android Auto compatibility. 

Originally available with an analogue rev-counter and speedo behind the stubby three-spoke steering wheel, later versions came with a neat, slim, digital instrument screen. The chunky column stalks are great to use too, and really only the Fiat 500 can rival the MINI for cool interior features. 

Even tall drivers can get comfy in the front, but if you’re very tall, you might find that the windscreen is rather shallow and the roof feels lower than it does in a Polo or Fiesta. Still, quality levels are generally excellent, which is good. 

The extra room in the back compared to the three-door makes this MINI a much more practical proposition, but it’s still not as roomy as a Polo or a Skoda Fabia, and there’s not really enough room for three people in the back even if they’re kids. 

The 278-litre boot is okay, but it’s much smaller than almost any alternative’s. If you need more space, get a Peugeot 208 which is almost as cool to look at as the MINI.

The good news is that, even with the extra length and extra doors, the MINI remains as much fun to drive as it always has been since the 2001 reinvention of the brand. The steering is weighty and has lots of feedback, and the small size and sophisticated rear suspension means that it’s way more fun — and more accurate — to drive than any similar car, although a Fiesta does come close. 

It’s a bit uncomfortable over bumps, though, and there’s quite a lot of road noise when you’re cruising on the motorway. 

There’s a broad choice of engines, from a basic 1.2-litre petrol in the MINI One, to the Cooper’s 1.5 three-cylinder turbo petrol (which is the best all-round choice), and the powerful 190hp four-cylinder turbo petrol in the Cooper S and 230hp John Cooper Works. Early on, there were diesel options too — a 1.5-litre three-cylinder with 95hp or 115hp, or a 2.0-litre four-cylinder with 170hp.

Confusingly, the MINI 5-door was fitted with three different automatic gearbox options, starting with a six-speed ‘box, followed by a seven-speed dual-clutch auto, and then finally an eight-speed automatic. The eight-speed is the best one, but if you value driver involvement on a twisty road, you should just get the sweet-shifting six-speed manual. 

What to look for when buying a used MINI 5-Door Hatch

The 1.5-litre three-cylinder Cooper engine can suffer from oil leaks, which can also affect the — closely related — 1.2-litre engine in the MINI One. The sportier versions all have very stiff springs, so check for excessive cabin rattles, while the 2.0-litre-engined Cooper S models can have weak clutches. 

While those are the known issues, the MINI hatchback finished a hugely impressive fifth overall in the Driver Power Top 50 Cars To Own survey, receiving a very high mark for its reliability and quality. As a brand, MINI finished 20th out of 32 manufacturers in the Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, with a mere 12% of owners reporting problems — that’s Toyota levels of solidity.