Happy birthday from Mini
New Cooper’s 2.0-L boasts 134 horsepower
Is there a better way to celebrate Sir Alec Issigonis’s birthday, the father of the original Mini, than with the latest generation of the Mini?
It might be a touch longer, wider and taller, but make no mistake, the 2015 Mini Cooper is unmistakably a Mini. In fact, unless you’re headover-heels in love with the Mini, you’d be very hard-pressed to tell the current and upcoming generations apart.
Rest assured, the tweaks are there: The bumpers are slightly different, it rolls on a new set of wheels and its front end may or may not look like a moustache.
The biggest changes for the latest Mini are arguably beneath the sheet metal. New for 2015 are a trio of powertrains, all of which are turbocharged. The base Cooper pumps out 134 horsepower and 162 poundfeet of torque from its 1.5-litre, threecylinder heart, while the Cooper S now boasts a 2.0-litre turbo-four. The S enjoys a boost to 192 horsepower and 207 lb-ft of torque. Engage Overboost mode and torque is kicked up to 222 lb-ft.
Those with a keen memory for spec sheets will note the Cooper S figures are close to the current John Cooper Works model; although it hasn’t broken cover for 2015 just yet, it’s safe to say the JCW Cooper could be an absolute rocket.
We likely won’t see the diesel powertrain on our shores in the near future, but the Mini Cooper D benefits from a revised engine as well. The turbocharged, 1.5-litre threecylinder is rated at 116 horsepower and 200 lb-ft of torque, and sips as little as 3.7L/100 km, based on European fuel economy testing cycles.
Regardless of what’s under the hood, the 2015 Mini Cooper comes standard with a six-speed manual transmission and a six-speed automatic if rowing your own gears isn’t your thing.
Unlike the exterior, the Mini’s interior sports a few more changes compared to years past. The huge, circular instrumentation remains, but the layout has been reworked. The centre-mounted speedometer is now in a more traditional location — beside the tachometer and above the steering column. Not only that, the power window switchgear has been relocated from the centre stack — a staple of the outgoing Cooper — to the doors.
Expect BMW to announce pricing closer to launch next March. In the meantime, the 2015 Mini Cooper will be on display at the L.A. and Tokyo auto shows in the coming week.