New Mini Cooper five-door: small car gets petrol power and extra practicality

On sale August 2024 | Price from £24,050

It’s a fact of life that once your family starts to grow, your priorities change. You might find yourself attending more children’s parties than rock concerts for example, and while you might still enjoy a summer holiday, it’s more likely to be to a hotel with a kids club than a 24-hour bar. The arrival of children might be full of compromises, but the new Mini Cooper five-door aims to show you can have your cake and eat it.

Due to be sold alongside the latest Mini Cooper, which we awarded three stars to in petrol form, the new Mini Cooper five-door aims to bring extra practicality, while keeping the same cutesy styling and fun nature as its smaller sibling.

Indeed, with dimensions which make it longer and wider than its three-door counterpart, the Mini Cooper five-door should offer increased room for passengers in the rear. It gets off to a strong start by having space for three passengers across its rear bench, where the three-door Cooper is limited to two. There’s no increase in boot space, sadly, meaning while your weekly shop won’t pose any trouble, the rival Seat Ibiza or Skoda Fabia can both hold a bit more.

Elsewhere inside, you’ll find that the five-door and three-door Coopers are almost identical, including sharing the same circular 9.4in infotainment touchscreen. We’ve found that while this offers crisp graphics, its menus can be confusing to navigate, and some of its icons are too small – especially if you’re trying to hit them on the move.

While the Mini Cooper can be had with both petrol and electric power, the five-door model is only available with the former. There are two engines to choose from, with the entry-level Mini Cooper C getting 154bhp from its 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine. That’s enough to propel it to 62mph in 8.0sec, while returning an official 47.8mpg.

If you’d rather more power, the Mini Cooper S gets a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine which produces 198bhp. Its extra oomph drops the 0-62mph sprint time to 6.8sec, but also the official fuel economy to 44.8mpg.

As you might expect, the C is the better choice for company car drivers, with its lower C02 emissions putting it in a lower band for Benefit in Kind tax. Having tried both engines in the three-door Cooper, it’s the C which we’re likely to recommend, thanks to its feisty performance and reasonable running costs.

As with the three-door Cooper, a seven-speed automatic gearbox is standard, but you’ll need to opt for the Sport trim level if you want to change gears yourself using paddles behind the steering wheel. We found these added an extra layer of engagement, but also push the price up.

Speaking of price, a starting figure of £24,050 makes the new Mini Cooper five-door more expensive than its Seat and Skoda rivals, as well as the premium Audi A1 and our reigning small car champion, the Renault Clio.

If that sounds a bit expensive, then deals on the three-door Mini Cooper are beginning to appear via our free New Car Deals service. At the time of writing, you can save up to £1562 on our recommended Cooper SE electric model, while PCP finance payments for the petrol Cooper start from just £257 per month.

For all the latest reviews, advice and new car deals, sign up to the What Car? newsletter here

Read more: New electric cars coming soon >>