Driving the 2025 Mini Cooper S Convertible

There are people around you, stuck in the same traffic, who are having fun.

A car is perhaps the most emotionally complex purchase most Americans make. At Kelley Blue Book, we encourage shoppers to make careful and financially wise decisions. But it’s easy to overlook the fact that deciding which car to buy can add joy to your life.

The Mini Cooper Convertible, for instance, costs less than the average new car and makes a commute or a trip to the store genuinely fun. It has a playful interface, an adaptable personality full of quirky mood settings, light-footed handling, and gives you the option of fresh air on a day of perfect weather.

I spent a week driving one around my Washington, D.C.-area home in early fall weather and came away rejuvenated. Yes, rejuvenated. In traffic.

Which Trim Level

Mini, a division of BMW, builds the Cooper Convertible in three grades levels — base C, sportier S, and high-performance JCW (John Cooper Works). Each grade then has a choice of three trims — Signature, Signature Plus, and Iconic. Mini loaned me the S model in Iconic.

The S designation gave it a slightly more powerful engine (201 horsepower, as opposed to 161 hp in the C and 228 in the JCW). The Iconic trim gave it a Harman Kardon surround sound system, sport seats, and a few other goodies.

I’m a fan of base models in many cases – keeping your money often adds more to your life than a more elaborate car would – but in the case of the Mini, I do think the S is the Goldilocks model. JCW Minis are fun, but at quite a price premium.

Favorite Feature

The Mini Cooper Convertible has a small wheelbase with the wheels pushed nearly to the corners of the car. That’s a formula for taut, sporty handling. It makes the Mini fun at safe neighborhood speeds.

If you experienced the Mini convertible models of the early 2000s, you might be surprised to hear us say that. When BMW revived the Mini brand, its hardtops were glorious little go-karts but its convertibles felt looser and less responsive. That’s historically true of many convertibles because removing a rigid roof makes a car’s structure more flexible. But engineers have stiffened the structure of the current Cooper so much that, even with the top down, every turn feels crisp and swift and precise.

What It’s Like to Drive

The 201 hp turbocharged 4-cylinder engine in the Mini Cooper S makes it genuinely zippy. A pleasant little turbo growl kicks in when you have to step on it.

Brakes are firm, but not grabby.

But a Mini is all about the turns. The Cooper S convertible is one of the best-handling cars on the market, rivaled only by the Mazda MX-5 Miata in its price range. Throwing it into a corner is joyful, even at casual speeds. Best of all, handling is nearly identical with the top up or down.

Mini takes drive modes (“experience modes” in Mini lingo) to extremes, with seven choices, each with cutesy names. Some seem to mostly be aesthetic – Timeless makes the screen look like the gauges of the 1960s era Minis. Others change the car’s performance – Go Kart stiffens steering feel and ups accelerator sensitivity. As you page through them, each plays a few seconds of a signature tune through the speakers.

Interior Comfort and Technology

If you’re a longtime Mini aficionado, the cabin of the newest Cooper is the most dramatic change you’ll find.

It’s an inspired interpretation of the interior of the original Mark I Mini. A big round touchscreen in the center is clearly drawn from the original gauges, but as interactive as any modern car touchscreen. A lozenge-shaped panel beneath houses HVAC controls and a faux key you turn to start the car. It’s strange how delightful turning a key is in the era of starter buttons and even sit-to-start cars. It feels charming.

Designers made the curious decision to cover the dashboard in a textile surface. It’s pleasant to the touch but I wonder how well it holds up over the years, or if it holds onto stains. Lights shine through it in some experience modes.

There’s no driver’s instrument screen. But a glass panel unfolds at startup, and a head-up display projects on it. The speed is projected onto it in a little circle that moves slightly as you move your head. I could never shake the feeling I was Luke Skywalker watching the targeting computer.

That’s the kind of playfulness you feel in this car.

Limitations

The Mini only pretends to have a back seat. I mean, there’s one back there. But you wouldn’t want to ask adults to sit in it for long.

The convertible top is powered. You push a button to raise and lower it. But you must hold the button down until it completes folding or unfolding, which takes nearly 20 seconds. That might sound short, but odds are there’s no button in your life that you routinely hold down for 20 seconds. It’s annoying. Unpowered tops like the one in the Mazda MX-5 operate much faster and give you one less part that could break.  

The folded roof also blocks much of your rear vision in a way that simply doesn’t happen in the Mazda.

Key Considerations

Non-luxury convertibles have nearly gone extinct. You could arguably say this competes with topless Ford Mustangs, but the two cars are so different in spirit that I don’t buy it. It’s purest competition is the MX-5, which may even be a touch more fun to drive, but lacks a rear seat and sits so low that it requires flexible hips to own.