The cars we drive mean different things to different people. For some, they’re a basic monthly budget item and a way to get to work. For others, they’re an expression of self.
Some people drive their cars. Others identify with their cars.
Mini exists for the latter.
There may be no automaker as determined to make the car a unique, customizable accessory. For instance, the automaker routinely lets buyers select mirror caps in a different color than the car’s body. It introduces new roof paint jobs designed by specific artists with some regularity.
A new Toyota or Honda is news to millions of practical consumers looking for reliable cars with strong resale values. A new Mini is news to fans looking for something that speaks to them.
There’s an all-new Mini Hardtop for 2025. The brand has redesigned its signature car, the little 2-door Mini Cooper, for the new model year, with a new body, a new cabin, and even a revised engine.
I spent a week driving the 2025 Mini Cooper 2-Door and found myself unexpectedly a member of the fandom. KBB editors, driving a few dozen cars in a year, can get a little cynical about the prospect of a new car bringing joy to your life. But the new Cooper defies cynicism.
It won’t be the right car for everyone. Anything this small has limitations; buyers should give serious consideration before committing to a purchase.
However, the 2025 Mini Cooper is zippy fun, has several selectable personalities, a visual interface that will make you feel like Luke Skywalker, and is genuinely fun to handle at neighborhood speeds.
My tester was the midlevel Cooper S, sporting Iconic trim, a Chili Red II body with a black roof, 18-inch wheels, a black and blue interior, and the Comfort Package Plus, which adds navigation, auto-dimming mirrors, and a parking assist system. It retails for $38,475 after a $1,175 destination charge.
Design More Distilled Than Before
Mini may never produce a car that looks radically different from all its others. It’s a brand banking on nostalgia, even if it’s always seemed odd to bank on Americans’ nostalgia for a British car of the 1950s rarely seen in America.
This design is the most straightforward salute to the original Mark I Cooper from 1961 that the company has yet to build. Gone are the hints of fender flare and the hood vent not found on the original.
The “side scuttles” — those decorative elements behind the rear fenders weren’t found on the original and have been dropped from the new one.
The result is a wholly successful retro design. It puts a smile on your face just to see it.
A Retro-Cute, Textile-Heavy Cabin
Inside, designers examined the cabin of the original Mark I and determined that it had just three elements that drew the eye — a steering wheel, a round, center-mounted speedometer, and a pill-shaped toggle bar beneath with a few simple controls.
They designed the newest Mini’s cabin by replacing each with a 21st-century equivalent.
The steering wheel is thick and satisfying in your hands, with just the right amount of give to its leather wrapping.
The pill-shaped toggle bar now houses climate controls, the “experiences” toggle (more on that in a moment), and an amusing starting system for a 2025 car. It’s essentially a fake key. We’ve gone from cars that start with keys to cars that start with buttons to cars that start with buttons shaped like keys.
But the central touchscreen is the showstopper. It’s a 9.4-inch circular OLED touchscreen that handles climate, infotainment, drive settings, and everything else a screen might handle because it’s the only screen in the car.
My Iconic trim had a unique head-up display that anyone who was a kid in the 1980s would love. On startup, a small pane of glass extends above the steering wheel to display speed and turn-by-turn directions. Because the glass is just there as a projection screen, the image on it moves as you do.
It reminded me of nothing so much as the targeting screen on Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing, and that is a wholehearted endorsement of you buying a Mini.
An unusual touch — the dashboard and door cards are lined in a textile material a bit like the fabric on the fronts of old-fashioned speakers. It has hints of blue throughout, creating a cozy sensation and an air of cool. But I’m terrified of spilling coffee in there. There’s no non-absorbent surface anywhere.
And one complaint for designers — these sunshades are so small they might as well not be here.
It’s Cliché, but Yes, It Has Go-Kart Handling
Since its modern rebirth, Mini has been my favorite performance brand — one focused on stoplight-to-stoplight fun. You can enjoy a Mini without breaking traffic laws.
The 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine under the hood of the 2025 Cooper is perfect for that. It makes 201 horsepower — more than a tiny car needs but not enough to get you into any real trouble. It has real punch when you want it. Shooting across a chaotic intersection in a hurry, it feels genuinely quick and offers an aggressive little growl.
Perhaps more A-Wing than X-Wing.
The steering is perfectly weighted. Mini has driven the phrase “go-kart handling” into the ground, but you can’t shake the sensation that this corners like you spent all the paper tickets Mom gave you on the ride.
For 2025, Mini offers eight “Experience Modes” that change the lighting scheme and soundscape and, in the case of a few, remap the throttle. Mini called the best of them “Go-Kart Mode.” It offers more immediate torque.
Mini offers Core mode for daily driving, but I found myself enjoying Timeless, which changes that touchscreen to mimic the speedometer of the original Mini cars and uses artificially generated sounds to make the engine sound like fuel injection hasn’t been invented yet.
Seduced by the Mini Vibe
Why does a Mini feel so much like an expression of self?
I found myself wondering if the subcompact size and comically small backseat were actually part of the appeal.
You don’t buy this car if you plan on putting anyone in that back seat often. You might put someone in the passenger’s seat. But they’ll immediately see that you didn’t buy a tiny car because it was the cheapest thing you could find. You bought this tiny car that’s a little pricier and a lot of fun because that’s what you wanted when you were alone — some zest, some noise, some agility, some throwback spirit, and some zeal for life.
In 2025, with cars increasingly defined more by lines of code than torque curves and steering ratios, having singularity may mean artificially boosted engine noises and on-the-nose Go-Kart modes. That will bother some shoppers.
Most 2025 cars lack those things. Here’s one with a fun spirit that feels made just for you. If you want an appliance, look elsewhere.
The 2025 Mini Cooper is for drivers who want a little fun.
If that feels right for you, choose your mirror caps, select a drive mode you like, and engage that little targeting screen.
