Winter wonder
Report 5 Mini Cooper S Works £22,155 OTR/ £29,430 as tested
Winter suits this Mini. The tyres have lost some grip as temperatures fall and dressings of mud and salt lubricate the roads. So it’s a more playful car in corners, more like the Minis I’ve always most enjoyed.
Jab it into a bend and it’ll understeer; get on the power too soon and the same happens (their front roll-stifness means BMW-era Minis have always been light on traction). But turn in sympathetically, or use a trailing throttle, and it becomes biddable. For these conditions, the soft damper setting is correct (they’re switchable between two fxed states, not between two adaptive programmes), and the ESP is best in its intermediate setting.
Other winter goodness? It has heated seats. TBH I didn’t actually notice at frst. They’re not needed. These mostly cloth chairs are so much nicer than full leather – cooler in summer, warmer in winter, grippier in corners.
In cruddy weather the mirrors and windscreen stay clean. You’d be surprised how some cars let flthy water stream over the side glass and mirrors, but BMW develops out such bad habits.
This Cooper is also optioned with LED headlights, always a major bonus for my middle-aged night vision. There’s a microfacelift coming, which brings the option of ones that cast a shadow around other trafc so never need dipping. It also allows proper trafc-aware satnav, not showing trafc on a low-res map from linking the screen clunkily to your Connected phone app.