MINI Cooper Convertible Review 2025

Twenty years ago we could have suggested a dozen or small, affordable convertibles to bring a little sunshine to your daily commute but today they’re few and far between. Consequently, there’s much excitement when a new soft-top goes on sale even when the definition of ‘new’ is being stretched — find out more with our full MINI Cooper Convertible review.

Today’s incarnation of soft-top MINI is one of just a handful of cars that qualifies as a modestly-priced convertible, so much so it has no true alternatives on the market.

Closest are the petrol-powered Fiat 500C as well as the related-in-name-only Fiat 500 Electric Convertible. Like the Cooper Convertible, the Fiats can just about seat four people, ideally if two of them are young children, but even when their roofs are retracted the bodywork around the doors and side windows remains in place.

Similar in price to the MINI Cooper Convertible but strictly a two-seater is the evergreen Mazda MX-5, which is very much a rear-wheel sports car first and foremost rather than a fine-handling, front-drive small hatchback with its roof lopped off.

If you’re prepared to go a little larger and elevate your ride height the SUV-based Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet manages to seat four in greater comfort and doesn’t take up much more space on the road than the MINI.

Its existence alone is worth celebrating then even though this is a thorough facelift and rename of its predecessor, not an all-new generation of model. Just as the petrol-engined MINI Hatch gained fresh bodywork and a glitzier interior to mimic the actually new MINI Cooper Electric’s appearance, the same trick’s been pulled off here. Almost.

Although the makeover’s successful inside and from the front, the rear quarters don’t look at that different at all — and no amount of referencing that it’s now called MINI Cooper Convertible and not simply MINI Convertible can hide that fact. Thankfully this doesn’t diminish its desirability.

The trio of MINI Cooper Convertible engine choices is simple to understand with C being the least powerful, S having more get up and go and John Cooper Works (JCW) topping the performance hierarchy.

Choose a C or S engine and you’ve got a selection of three trim levels to choose from, which again are familiar across the whole revitalised MINI range — Classic, Exclusive and Sport. Go for the JCW engine and appropriately Sport is the only trim package available.

Getting behind the wheel of the entry-level MINI Cooper Convertible Classic C will set you back a smidgen over £27,000 and tops out at £10,000 more than that for a John Cooper Works Sport version. That’s before you start plundering the enormous list of optional extras to customise merrily until your heart’s content.

Handling, performance, economy and interior ambience are MINI Cooper Convertible highlights, while limited practicality, an overly complex infotainment system and no manual gearbox option are the main demerits.

On the right kind of road, with the sun shining and a friend or partner in the passenger seat, you probably won’t mind those flaws — more than most cars on the market, the MINI Cooper Convertible will continue selling in modest numbers on good vibes alone.

Small cars don’t come much more fun to drive than the MINI Cooper and that feeling is only enhanced by dropping the Convertible’s roof.

As a development of the previous generation car, rather than being based on an all-new platform like the MINI Cooper Electric, there haven’t been any fundamental changes to the way this model drives, but then there didn’t really need to be.

We can forgive MINI for its cloying ‘go-kart handling’ tagline because with quick steering, keen responses and plenty of grip, it really is as close as most drivers will get to a go-karting experience without heading to their local indoor track.

The MINI Cooper Convertible happily ducks and dives through urban backroads and twisty mountain passes alike. While true feedback from the road is somewhat muted, the steering is well-weighted and always accurate.

More experienced drivers will enjoy being able to adjust the car’s cornering line with the throttle too, while the ride quality doesn’t throw up any nasty surprises. It’s naturally firm, as MINIs always have been, meaning speed bumps can feel a little sudden, but nothing really upsets its composure either and there’s very little body lean in corners.

The only real dynamic downside is braking. The car stops happily enough with a stomp on the pedal but the pedal itself is a little grabby when you first apply pressure, yet spongy when you press harder.

In entry-level MINI Cooper Convertible C form it gets a 163PS 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine. Step up to the S engine and you’re given a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder making 204PS, while the range-topping John Cooper Works has a 231PS variant of the same engine.

Using the familiar 0-62mph acceleration benchmark the C takes 8.2 seconds, 6.9 seconds are required for the S and 6.4 seconds for the JCW.

All MINI Cooper Convertibles use a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission which is smooth and responsive. It also seems good at picking the right time to change gears whether you’re mooching or hot-footing around the place, but with one frustration.

If you enjoy some sense of your own destiny while driving there’s no way of manually selecting gears with steering wheel-mounted controls unless you opt for the Sport specification. That’s fine if you like the appearance of that version, less so if you preferred one of the other two.

On a more positive note, the usual droning BMW 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine didn’t sound too bad in our test Cooper Convertible S, with a bit of exhaust burble under acceleration and less mechanical harshness.

It’s not an especially rev-happy engine, but there’s so much punch in the mid-range that you can make rapid progress without straying near the red line. It settles down on the motorway, where the MINI Cooper Convertible is impressively refined, especially with the roof up.

Euro NCAP hasn’t crash-tested the MINI Cooper Convertible yet — in fact, it hasn’t been near the smallest MINIs since 2014. The only car from the brand to feature recently is the five-star Countryman which uses a different set of underpinnings.

We’d be surprised if the new car isn’t a tough little thing though and there’s plenty of safety kit across the range, including lane keep assist, forward collision warning, an emergency call function, speed limit assist, parking assist, a reversing camera, and Isofix for attaching a child seat to the front passenger seat.

If you want to turn off some of the beeps and bongs, there’s a physical button near the gear selector switch that brings up the relevant touchscreen menu.

It’s probably best to treat the MINI Cooper Convertible as a two-adults-plus-two-kids car rather than a full four seater. Even the 3-Door MINI Cooper Hatch is cramped in the back seats but here those relegated to row two will also have to contend with a blast of wind in the face with the roof down or the onset of claustrophobia with it raised.

Consider those back seats as extra luggage space instead and you might be onto something, as it’ll nicely bolster the existing 215 litres you get in the boot proper. That figure’s with the roof raised — once lowered it eats into the boot space reducing it to just 160 litres, barely more than the woeful 130 litres in a Mazda MX-5).

It’s also a narrow entry into the luggage area too, through the original Mini-style drop-down boot lid.

Up front though there should be no complaints. Here the MINI Cooper Convertible feels spacious, helped by extensive adjustment for the seats and steering wheel, while the top of the windscreen feels surprisingly far away.

You get plenty of places to stash things with generous door bins, a couple of prominently sited cupholders between the seats, a phone charging space at the base of the centre console with an open tray behind and a lidded cubby beyond that.

While hard plastics aren’t completely absent from the MINI Cooper Convertible’s cabin, you’ll probably not mind, since everything else looks and feels so good. MINIs have always been among the better-trimmed and higher-quality small cars and the latest soft-top moves a step on again.

Trimming the dash and door tops in knitted fabric makes the cabin far more inviting than if they were big slabs of plastic and they’re more tactile. The artificial leather seat trim in our Exclusive test car was convincing at simulating real hide and feels great, as does the steering wheel, the action of the starter switch, as well as other minor details such as the air vent controls.

Convertibles can be subject to wobbles, creaks, rattles, and other disconcerting noises but the MINI’s body seems stiff enough for that not to be a major issue — only on really rough surfaces do you notice some shimmying but even then it doesn’t set the interior off on a rattling spree.

Whether it’ll feel the same after 100,000 miles we can’t yet be sure, but initial impressions are good.

On looks alone, the MINI Cooper Convertible’s circular OLED infotainment touchscreen gets top marks. Unfortunately, there’s more to a great infotainment system than looks, and from here things start to go awry.

It’s fun being able to choose between seven different MINI Experiences using a control near the starter switch, with themes including the classic-style Timeless option and a sporty Go-Kart mode, which also tweaks the engine’s responsiveness and weights-up the steering.

Changing between them is laggy, so you’ll often skip past the one you want. Even when it settles on a mode, the theme dominates the screen for a few seconds while you’re played the accompanying jingle. As an owner, you’d probably settle on one you like and never touch it again.

Then there’s the screen layout, which is very cluttered. Finding the information you want isn’t always easy, the circular layout never really giving your eyes somewhere to settle on a quick glance — which can mean more time than is really wise with your eyes off the road.

Having a digital speed readout right at the top is relatively handy, but we’d still be tempted to plump for the Level 1 option pack on the C-engined models just to get the head-up display for more easily-digestible information. Usefully on S and JCW versions it’s standard.

The screen itself seems more responsive than when we tested it in the MINI Countryman but the menu layout is still far from intuitive. Luckily, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard and while they occupy an incongruously square space in the centre of the circular display, they remain more intuitive to use than the native system.

The MINI Cooper Convertible Classic C — hardly trips off the tongue, does it? — starts at £27,050. While obviously not cheap, that seems good value to us.

It’s a significant jump above the cheapest petrol-powered Fiat 500C at £19,450 but less than the Fiat 500 Electric Convertible’s £30,995 starting price. It’s also a touch less than the £28,015 required for a two-seater Mazda MX-5, while the sturdier Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet begins at a much steeper. £35,405.

Put simply, the MINI Cooper Convertible’s about as affordable as new drop-tops get in 2025.

Prices do escalate quickly from there, requiring an extra £4400 to upgrade from the C engine to the punchier S version, with the John Cooper Works Sport topping the range at £36,580. You’d have to be really sold on the extra performance combined with the roof-down feel for the latter — load it with a couple of options and you’re getting close to VW Golf GTI money.

In terms of fuel costs, there’s not a lot that separates the C from the S and JCW in the MINI Cooper Convertible range.

On the WLTP Combined cycle — and depending on the trim level and extra-cost options you choose — the MINI Cooper Convertible C averages 41.5-43.5mpg while the S versions range from 40.9-43.5mpg. Go for the JCW engine and this tumbles slightly to 39.8-40.9mpg.

Our test drive in a MINI Cooper Convertible S returned 38.1mpg in a mix of motorway, city and twisty country road driving — so the official figures seem feasible in regular mixed use.

Neither can the C and S be separated on VED car tax either as both land in the £270 bracket for year one and cost £190 per year thereafter. The JCW just trips into the next category up for a heftier £680 first-year bill.

None are particularly friendly for company users, as anything other than electric cars and the highest-range plug-in hybrids get hit with high Benefit-in-Kind percentages now. Even the frugal Cooper C with its 147-154g/km CO2 figures gets a 35% rate, meaning a lower-rate taxpayer will stump-up £1700 per year in BiK.

Insurance groups haven’t yet been confirmed, but we’d expect them to be similar to the previous Convertible’s groups 16-33.

Essentially there are three specification levels for the MINI Cooper Convertible of Classic, Exclusive and Sport, although there’s further variation depending on whether you choose the C, S or John Cooper Works engine.

Choose the least powerful C engines and standard kit on the MINI Cooper Convertible Classic includes 16-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, a rear-view camera, navigation, parking assistant, a heated steering wheel, cruise control and automatic air conditioning.

Step up to a MINI Cooper Convertible Exclusive for 17-inch alloys, plus Vescin artificial leather trim and light gold-coloured accents.

Opt for the MINI Cooper Convertible Sport if you fancy its more aggressive body kit, black wheels, dark interior trim with red accents and front sports seats.

Matters become slightly more complicated when you upgrade to the S or JCW engine as each trim automatically comes with additional equipment that forms the Level 1 option pack, including keyless entry, automatically dimming door mirrors, automatic main beam headlights, a wireless phone charging pad, a head-up display, heated front seats and a minimum 17-inch alloy wheel size.

Among the extra kit in the Level 2 option pack is an upgraded Harman-Kardon sound system while electrically adjustable seats and increased driver and parking assist features are some of the highlights of the Level 3 bundle.