I’m coming around to a new way of thinking. All cars should be convertibles. This has not been my way of thinking in the past. Previously, I was always a coupé kinda guy. I liked having a solid roof over my head, and coupes almost always look cooler and more elegant than their soft-top cousins. Don’t believe me? Jaguar F-Type. That’s the argument.
However, I’m now – sort of – arguing with myself. I’ve been thinking that convertibles ought to be offered by the HSE on prescription. Feeling a bit blue? Here, take a bright red sports car for the weekend and see how you feel. Yes, I know, it rains a lot here and truly hot sunny days are rare, but then again, we also get plenty of dry, mild days, and those are perfect for convertible driving.
Convertibles such as this new Mini Cooper S Convertible. It’s perhaps not quite the cure-all for what ails you, but it’s still sufficiently charming and engaging that it would certainly take your mind off a bad day.
This week, there haven’t been many bad days – weather-wise, at any rate, so the Mini’s roof has been down a lot. In fact, thanks to the open-air timer function (yes, a real thing that tells you how long you’ve had your roof down for), I’ve racked up several hours of topless motoring.
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This Mini Convertible is a bit of a hybrid, and I don’t mean it has batteries. Quite the opposite. In fact, while it has been given the smoother bodywork and nicer interior of the new all-electric Mini, this Mini is actually the old Mini – it’s still based on the old UKL1 front-wheel drive platform, and still built in Mini’s traditional home of BMW’s factory in Oxford, rather than in China, which is where the electric Mini hatch is built.
Because this isn’t the electric version, it means that you still get an old-fashioned petrol engine, which in this Mini Cooper S means a 201hp turbocharged 2.0-litre. You can sacrifice a bit of power and save yourself a bundle of cash by going for the basic Cooper C model, which uses a 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo engine, with a still-respectable 163hp.
Personally? I’d take the 40hp hit, not least because it would save you the guts of €7,000 on the basic price tag. Cars have been getting way too expensive in the past few years – some price tags are truly in the realm of the ridiculous now – but the Mini Convertible’s pricing kind of bifurcates between its two models. The basic Cooper C, with the smaller engine, starts from €36,730, which is no one’s idea of cheap, but neither is it wildly expensive for something small, sporty, and alfresco.
This Cooper S is in a different pricing league, starting at €43,990, and our test car was optioned up to a massive €55,461, which is well and truly across the border of not being worth it.
However, if the national health services can bargain hard with pharmaceutical suppliers to bring down the cost of a drug, then so too could they, I’m sure, wangle a discount out of Mini. And the results would be profound.
Sit into the new Mini Convertible, and it’s a bit like a Georgian house with a home cinema and solar panels – ancient underneath, but with mod-cons. The highlight of which is the big 9.5-inch OLED screen in the centre of the dash, which is the size and shape of a Goodfella’s pizza.
Normally, I’m no great lover of touchscreens, but this one has something that most others don’t – charm. Its very circularity, a nod to the central speedo of the original 1959 Mini, gives it a refreshingly different look to any other screen, while the graphics are top notch and beautifully rendered. Is it too often too fiddly to use safely on the move? Yes, but it’s far from the worst in that regard, and the way it integrates the likes of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is wonderful.
Thankfully, our car had the optional driver’s head-up display, which helps you to be less distracted by the big screen when you’re driving. There’s a little strip of physical buttons below the screen, which manage stereo volume, gear selection (no more manual Minis – booo!), driving modes (which Mini irritatingly calls ‘Experiences’ and which make annoying whoosh-y noises when you change them), and starting and stopping the engine, which you do by twisting a key-shaped switch, like an old ignition key. Which rather begs the question, why not just use an ignition key?
Equally thankfully you can now use the screen to change the pattern of the LED rear lights, meaning you don’t have to drive around with a Union flag on your backside any more, while the knitted covering for the dash – made from recycled plastics – looks and feels more welcoming than the black plastic of old.
The roof powers up or down in around 18 seconds, at speeds of up to 30km/h, or you can leave it up and just open a sunroof-like portion at the front, which you can do at any speed.
Fully-opened, the Mini really is a convertible, with no roof rails left in place, and a button which drops both door windows and the little quarterlights behind. The roof does sit slightly bunched up on the back of the car, but it’s not too pram-like.
Roof-up, the Mini Convertible is a bit too noisy and rattly for its own good, but roof-down it utterly transforms, or more accurately, you do. You become half-motorist, half-pedestrian, and more likely to give way to other road users because you too are out in the air, more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life than other drivers.
You can have fun in the Mini, although the steering isn’t as responsive as it used to be, and the big 18-inch wheels tend to bobble and wiggle around too much in their arches. The ride is pretty dreadful, but on smoother stretches of open road, the engine makes a pleasant bark, and the whole idea of a convertible is to go a little slower to better enjoy the world around you.
As an SUV-antidote, the Mini Convertible is near-perfect. The back seats and tiny boot may make it rather less than practical, but then, when was the last time you carried a full set of passengers? Too small for your precious golf clubs? Take up a more interesting hobby. This is a car that reminds you that driving can just be fun. Is it expensive? Yes, but then therapy always is.
Lowdown: Mini Cooper S Convertible
Power: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with 201hp and 300Nm of torque driving the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox.
0-100km/h: 6.9 secs.
Emissions (motor tax): 150g/km (€270).
Fuel consumption: 6.6l/100km (WLTP).
Price: €55,461 as tested. Mini Convertible from €36,730.
