German carmaker BMW reinvented that quintessentially British car, the Mini, a decade ago; now the third generation of that car has come to Indian shores, writes Kushan Mitra
In a country dominated by small and smaller cars, it is strange for a small car to get stared at. Then again, if one is sitting inside a new Mini, it should come as little surprise.
There are not too many of the new avatar of this iconic British car on Indian roads and if you are driving one, eyes and heads will turn. The Mini remains a fashion icon, 65 years after the original took to the roads.
The problem is that the Mini that we are driving shares little in common with the original. It is, as someone who owned the original little car mentioned to your columnist, “Not quite Mini anymore”. This is the third generation of the ‘new’ Mini that was created by German carmaker BMW which bought out several British brands in the late-90s and which debuted the car in 2001.
The original ‘new Mini’ as seen in the picture (second from the left) was widely praised for keeping the essence of the old car — a small, light car for the modern age.
The original car designed by Sir Alec Issigonis was cramped, and made primarily to get a bankrupt and empire-less Britain on the roads. It was a car that sparked that island nation’s love affair with the car and the Mini became symbolic of Britain.
But make no mistakes, it was a tiny car, it really meant what it said on the cover. Perfect for a small, young family, this was no car to take four adults. It was popular in the world rally circuits where the lightweight construction enabled it to immense success, particularly in the famous Monte Carlo rally.
But as production continued into the 90s, the Mini was seen as an anachronism, a car from a different era. The car looked dated, was underpowered and as cars began to grow in girth and improved production techniques reduced costs of far superior cars with better engines and safety features, it even lost its ‘cool’ factor.
So when BMW reinvented the car, making a modern ‘Mini’ without losing the essence of the car, the Germans were widely praised across the world. But 13 years on from the first generation of the car, the third-generation Mini, while still clearly a small car feels quite large, certainly this car is not Mini by any stretch of imagination from the outside.
Thankfully, it’s comfortable inside too. Although the rear seat legroom is bearable for a short while, the third-generation new Mini is quite nice up front. It certainly is a nice car in the front seats. There is a lot of room for the driver and the front seat passenger as well a decent amount of storage space for all the gadgets and accessories that people carry. The overall positioning of the steering wheel, the central console and buttons for operating the infotainment system are very well placed.
There is one minor issue though, everything about the Mini, particularly the night-time cabin illumination for the dials, feel far too much like a regular BMW. The orange colours are identical to those in modern BMW cars; the infotainment system is not just modeled on BMW’s excellent iDrive system, it is an iDrive system and even the fonts and controls are pure-BMW. Earlier generations of the new Mini had touches that made them feel different from BMW’s unlike this one.
Sure, the upholstery options and the red stitching on the black leather steering wheel are unique, and while BMW’s infotainment controls are excellent and very intuitive, you wish a little more effort was made to make the inside of the Mini tad more unique. luggage space is decent for a small car, a couple of small suitcases can easily fit in and the rear seats can fold down in a split fashion for even more space.
But how is the new Mini to driveIJ The car we drove, a ‘Cooper D’ model had a 1.5-litre diesel model with a 114 horsepower engine and front-wheel drive, making it one of the most powerful small cars in the market. The six-speed automatic is responsive and the Mini can get off the line fast.
Also, thanks to its short wheelbase and despite packing a bit of heft compared to the average small car, it is pleasurable to drive. Nothing spectacular though, although BMW Group India has promised more powerful petrol powered models soon, we certainly hope that the pocket rocket Mini John Cooper Works model with over 200 horsepower comes to India soon.
Also, initially the third-generation Mini is only available as the standard hatchback model. The Mini that most consumers in India have seemed to prefer in the past is the raised-suspension ‘Countryman’ model which is larger in all respects and more comfortable to boot, although purists still feel the regular hatchback is the model to have.
However, there is an elephant in the room, that is the Mini’s outrageous price-tag. The car we tested, the three-door version has an ex-showroom price of Rs31.85 lakh. That unfortunately does include several of the options that our test-car came with.
For example, the heads-up display module which displays speed, navigation information as well as telephony and entertainment options. That costs a cool Rs65,000. Coupled with fairly standard options, it would appear that the on-road price of the Mini we drove would be close to Rs40 lakh. Cool the car might be, but that is five times the cost of the top-spec Hyundai i20.
The fact is that the Mini in India remains what can best be described as a ‘show-off’ car, a car that screams “look at me”, and to be honest, it says that far more effectively than a BMW 3-series. If you wanted a small car with a badge that was fun to drive, may we suggest the top-spec BMW 120d, it is more powerful to boot and with rear-wheel drive and much more fun to drive as well.
But if you want to be noticed, the Mini, particularly in red, does the job just as well in India as an Italian supercar in orange that costs fives times as much.