MINI Cooper Convertible Review & Prices

This is the Mini Cooper Convertible, and it’s a bit like Sir Paul McCartney, in that it’s been around since the sixties, shows little signs of ageing, and is still a truly talented performer.

In an age of paint-by-numbers SUV design, it’s a charming antidote – it’s small, looks great inside and out and is genuinely good fun to drive. Just look elsewhere if you need any sort of practicality…

Well, anywhere but other convertibles. Alternatives such as the Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet, Mazda MX-5 or Fiat 500 Electric Convertible are all packed full of style, but none are particularly practical.

For the latest Mini Cooper Convertible, the design is a strong case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. You get the unmistakable circular headlights up front, rectangular LED lights at the rear, and even an optional Union Jack design for the convertible roof.

It’s all very cool and characterful, a theme that continues inside. The Cooper Convertible gets the now-typical Mini interior, which means a large circular infotainment screen in the middle and rough textured fabric on the doors and dashboard.

The Convertible roof is easy to remove, just pull a switch and the first section folds back like a big sunroof, or pull again to fold it away neatly over the boot.

Space and practicality is fairly limited, because although it’s roomy enough in the front for a six-foot-tall driver to get comfortable, those in the back have little to no legroom at all. At 160 litres, the boot is smaller than most alternatives and has an awkward letterbox-like hatch to post things through.

Still, if you don’t need loads of space for people and things this is all forgotten the moment you head out on the road. To start with, the small dimensions make the Cooper Convertible ideal for driving around the city, and visibility is great, especially with the roof down.

Things get a bit noisy at motorway speeds, but the suspension deals well enough with bumps and there’s enough power on top to keep up with traffic. Meanwhile it’s tempting to take the scenic route because the Mini feels at home on a twisty road.

You have a choice of two petrol engines, one with 163hp called simply C, and the other with 204hp called S. There’s no manual gearbox option, like in the Mazda MX-5, but the Mini’s automatic is fine most of the time and suits its character well.

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If you go for the entry-level engine (C) and trim (Classic), the Mini Cooper Convertible is quite reasonably priced, comfortably undercutting both the Fiat 500 Electric Convertible and Volkswagen T-Roc Convertible in equivalent trim.

However, it can start to get quite expensive, quite quickly, if you go for more kit and some optional extras. Mini offers three ‘levels’ of optional extras, so if you get the S engine, top-spec Sport trim, Level 3 equipment pack and the Union Jack roof, you’re looking at nearly £40,000.

A touch uncomfortable over bumps, but great fun to dart about town in

In town

Sure, the Mini Cooper isn’t exactly miniature anymore, but by modern standards it’s pretty small, making it well-suited to city driving. Whether you’re squeezing down a residential street with cars parked either side, navigating width restrictors or simply nipping into gaps in heavy traffic, the Mini Cooper Convertible excels.

The car has a sporty suspension setup, which pays dividends on a twisty road but does mean you rather crash into potholes and get jostled about on particularly rough surfaces. However, everything feels so well-screwed together, and the suspension settles quickly, so it’s not enough to get annoying.

The automatic gearbox is sharp-witted enough that you rarely find yourself waiting for it to shift gears and give you the power you’ve asked for, but it’s no match for the instant response you get from the electric motors in the Fiat 500 Electric Convertible.

On the motorway

Like most modern convertibles, the Mini is impressively refined for a drop-top at higher speeds, though it’s naturally a bit noisier than the regular hatchback model. What’s more, while it’s not exactly limo-like in the way it drives down a motorway, you don’t feel like you’re in a small car when cruising at 70mph because the Cooper Convertible is nicely planted.

The suspension jolts a bit over road imperfections, but again, it’s not enough to shake your confidence or make the car too uncomfortable on a long trip.

Driver aids help, because the Mini systems aren’t too intrusive, so the car brakes smoothly with the adaptive cruise control activated, and the lane-keeping assistance doesn’t tug too hard at the wheel.

On a twisty road

Mini has long touted the ‘go-kart feeling’ in its models, and the latest generation models even have a ‘go-kart mode’ for sporty driving situations. Although it feels a touch artificial, because the steering wheel is quite chunky and you don’t get much feedback about how much grip the tyres have, the Cooper Convertible is good fun to chuck down a twisty road.

The lack of a manual gearbox is a shame here, particularly as the automatic in the Mini has a tendency to hold onto gears a bit too long, so if you’re looking for a convertible that’s a more focused driver’s car you should look no further than the Mazda MX-5.

Surprisingly spacious and comfortable up front, but the rear seats are tiny and so is the boot

If you’re sitting up front then the Mini Cooper Convertible is actually surprisingly spacious for a car of this size. It’s a touch claustrophobic for headroom until you drop the roof, but otherwise even taller drivers should be able to find a comfortable driving position.

Storage is reasonable too, with a nifty covered box between the front seats, a pair of cup holders, and a vertical phone holder that doubles as a wireless charger if you get the Level 1 option pack. The door bins are fairly small but can fit a purse and a bottle of water.

Space in the back seats

Life in the back is rather more cramped. With a six foot driver’s natural seating position there’s virtually no legroom, so you’ll probably want to limit rear seat passengers to young children – and even then there’s a good chance you’ll have to move the front seats further forward than you’d like.

There are no door bins or pockets to hold loose items, though you do get a small tray and cup holder between the rear seats, of which there are only two. You certainly wouldn’t want to squeeze three in the back, even if there was a middle pew.

You do get ISOFIX points in the rear seats as well as the front passenger seat – useful if it’s just you and your baby, because while it’s possible to fit a child seat in the back, it is a bit of a squeeze.

Boot space

Practicality isn’t the Mini Cooper Convertible’s strong suit, and this is further evidenced by the small boot. At 160 litres only the Mazda MX-5 has a smaller capacity at 130 litres, while you get 185 litres in the Fiat 500 Electric Convertible and 284 litres in the Volkswagen T-Roc Convertible.

You access the boot through a hatch that folds down towards you, so it’s not the easiest to access, and then there’s only room for a few soft bags for a weekend away. You can fold the rear seats if you want to carry something long, but the low boot ceiling means you won’t be fitting anything too chunky inside.

Cool designs, materials and technology, but there are some compromises to be made

As with all modern Minis, the highlight of the Cooper Convertible is the cabin. You get interesting fabrics used on the doors and dashboard in place of your typical plastics, while the cabin is dominated by a large circular infotainment display.

This centrepiece looks great, the graphics are sharp and it’s generally pretty simple and slick to use. The native operating system makes good use of the circular shape, though the climate controls that are permanently displayed at the bottom can be fiddly to use on the move.

Unsurprisingly, the unconventional shape doesn’t come without compromise, and the main one is the way it displays Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Because these phone mirroring services don’t support circular displays, they’re shown within a square in the centre, which is just a bit jarring aesthetically. It all works perfectly fine, though.

Like the unique display, there are also plenty of materials used throughout the Mini’s interior that you won’t see in many other cars. The fabric on the doors and the dashboard looks fantastic compared with the usual black plastics you get in most modern cars, and although it’s rough to the touch there’s an overall feeling of quality.

The Mini Cooper Convertible comes with a choice of two engines, signified by C or S when configuring the car. Both are 2.0-litre units, but the C has 163hp and the S has a sportier edge with 204hp.

According to official figures there’s not much in it fuel economy-wise, with both around 42-43mpg. However, it’s likely you’ll see slightly worse economy from the S in the real world, simply because you’ll want to make the most of the extra power from time to time.

First-year Vehicle Excise Duty rates are pretty low, and all models fall under the £40,000 threshold, so you don’t have to pay anything extra in years two to six. However, if you’re considering a company car, an electric vehicle, such as the Fiat 500 Electric Convertible, would be a better choice because of the favourable Benefit-in-Kind rates.

The Mini Cooper Convertible has not been safety tested by Euro NCAP, so it’s tricky to say how well it will perform in a crash.

However, you do get some useful assistance kit as standard, such as lane-keeping, blind spot warning, adaptive cruise control and a system that will park the car for you. Opting for the Level 3 option pack adds a more advanced cruise control system, 360-degree parking cameras, and augmented reality navigation.

Mini finished in the bottom half of the Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, placing 20th out of 32 manufacturers. That sounds bad, but the old Mini Hatchback, with which this Cooper Convertible shares most of its parts, came fifth overall, only really losing marks for space and practicality, as well as poor running costs.

You get a three-year/60,000-mile warranty with the Mini Cooper Convertible, which is just about the industry standard, and similar to what you get with alternatives.