MINI Cooper Convertible Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

If you’re considering the latest MINI Cooper Convertible, it probably isn’t the first time a soft-top MINI has caught your interest. MINI has offered a convertible across four generations now (five, if you count the soft-top version of the classic Mini) and the recipe has remained the same the entire time: two doors, four seats, a roof that folds pram-style on the rear deck, and a small boot accessible through a drop-down hatch. You’ll probably know if such an arrangement suits your needs or not – but it’s still more practical than a proper sports car like the Mazda MX-5.

As yet we’ve only been behind the wheel of the Cooper S Convertible in Exclusive trim. So we can’t tell you whether you should or shouldn’t buy it over the Cooper C or JCW versions, but equally, there’s little about the Cooper S that should put off the tempted buyer.

Other than perhaps the price: the Cooper C Convertible begins at £27,120, the Cooper S at £31,570 (£4,450 more, to save you the mental arithmetic), and the JCW is £36,580, another £5,010. MINI’s three-cylinder engine in the Cooper C is a cheerful little thing and the Classic, Exclusive and Sport trim lines are all available in this trim too so there’s no style compromise, so you’d be forgiven not bothering to look any further up the range unless you wanted the extra punch of the 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines.

There was a time when we could have listed a dozen potential rivals for the MINI Cooper Convertible, but the compact, affordable drop-top is a category of vehicle that has virtually disappeared over the last few decades. MINI shifts just over 3,000 Convertibles a year on average in the UK, so you can see why few manufacturers bother.

The only direct equivalent left is the Fiat 500, both as the 500C in petrol hybrid form and as the 500 Electric, which also has a convertible variant – though with both, the roof is more like a full-length fabric sunroof than a true folding affair.

Other than that, your option is the Mazda MX-5 – the only small, relatively affordable sports car on the market right now that lets you drop the roof. The Mazda can’t be beaten for fun in this part of the market, but as a two-seater with quite a compact cabin, it does force more of a practicality compromise on you than the four-seat MINI.

The outgoing MINI always felt like a well-built car – easily akin to cars from the BMW range, the company that owns MINI – and that continues in the latest model. It’s a chunky-feeling car both inside and out, and the novel use of materials in the new car adds another dimension that the smart but slightly plasticky old car could never approach. The knitted dash top and door cards do feel slightly rougher than you might expect on first touch – it’s more like hessian than a cosy jumper – but this means it should be hard-wearing.

Not that the previous car had any problems with this, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the simplified dashboard, which seems to have fewer individual elements than the old one, staves off squeaks and rattles even better than before too. Where there are more details, such as the little woven strap acting as a third spoke on the steering wheel, they’re beautifully done, and again feel built to last.

While it looks great, the MINI’s circular OLED touchscreen infotainment system is something of a mixed bag.

First the good news: the design fits in perfectly with the flashy interior, and in true MINI style it can be customised to your taste. If you want a sporty ambience, or a 1950s-style speedometer in a parchment colour in ‘Timeless’, or to just vibe along to your music, then it’s just a flick of the ‘Experiences’ switch away.

Everything else? Not so good. MINI has squeezed a lot of information onto the screen and the layout is pretty cluttered – not helped by the circular layout, which has no natural place for your eyes to fall when you glance across. Items on the screen are vaguely where you expect them to be (each passenger’s heating controls are pointed roughly towards each seat, for instance) but not in a way that’s truly intuitive.

That’s especially true of useful driver information. A digital speed readout is placed at 12 o’clock which is relatively handy, and one of the many screen layouts gives you analogue-style speed, revcounter, and fuel gauges, but these too are a bit of a jumble. It makes the £2,000 ‘Level 1’ option pack, which includes a head-up display (as well as adaptive LED headlights, and heated seats, among other things) a necessity on the Cooper C if you want your information presented in a more convenient fashion; it’s standard on the S and JCW.

Navigating the screen is also probably something that would take time during ownership to really figure out. The display is crisp and responsive (though switching between Experiences is oddly slow), but the clutter is even a little tricky to figure out when you’re parked.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included. Both reside in a square section of the round display when in use, which looks a bit underwhelming but is actually easier to use – the opposite of most other functions of the screen.

The enterprising convertible owner tends to make full use of the folding roof to carry loads that can’t be accommodated in the boot. That inconveniently tall pot plant from the garden centre? No bother, when you’ve got infinite headroom.

That’s a nice way of saying that you won’t be fitting much in the MINI’s boot. Like previous generations it drops down rather than opening upwards hatchback style, much like the original Mini, and provided whatever you’re stashing there fits through the entrance (a carry-on luggage bag is probably the size limit), you’ve got 215 litres to play with. That is until you fold the roof, when it then drops to 160 litres.

Assuming you don’t regularly carry rear-seat passengers, there’s decent room back there for more stuff, and bags and coats won’t complain as much as actual people will – combine the hatchback’s relatively limited rear-seat space with a blast of wind coming off the windscreen (or, with the roof up, the claustrophobic feel of large rear pillars), and this is more of a nominal four-seater than a practical one. Space up front though is enough for folks of all shapes and sizes – and like previous MINIs, the upright, far-away windscreen adds to the sense of space.

Firstly, there’s no electric MINI Convertible, at least for the time being. So the range echoes the petrol-powered lineup, with a MINI Cooper Convertible C using a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine, a MINI Cooper Convertible S with a 2.0-litre petrol four-cylinder, and a John Cooper Works Convertible, using a brawnier version of the same 2.0-litre.

Power is 163PS, 204PS, and 231PS respectively, with 250, 300, and 380Nm of torque for the C, S, and JCW. All get a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission (with no paddles or lever to enact manual shifts), and all power their front wheels alone. The Convertible C gets from 0-62mph in 8.2 seconds, the Cooper S in 6.9, and the JCW in 6.4 seconds.

We’ve driven the Cooper S so far. While this BMW and MINI four-cylinder can sound, and feel, a little harsh in some applications, particularly with more power, it’s a pretty good match for the MINI. With less sound insulation around you than a fixed-roof car, the dominant (though far from excessive) sound is a hint of exhaust parp, rather than the engine’s normal flat drone.

It’s still not a motor that encourages you to seek high revs, but these engines develop power and torque basically everywhere so you’re never too far away from brisk acceleration – a squeeze of the throttle and you’re off. The MINI’s relatively low weight helps with the lively feel, and with good power on tap, it’s a confident motorway performer too. And while it’s a shame you can’t shift gears yourself, the ‘box is at least smooth and quick doing things for itself.

Roof up, the Convertible does a pretty good job of feeling like a tin top. Road, wind and engine noise are all kept at bay in a way that doesn’t betray the bit of fabric above your head until you reach higher speeds.

With the roof down (the work of 18 seconds, at up to 19mph), the MINI’s upright windscreen doesn’t seem quite as adept at keeping cold weather out of the car, and not as good at dispersing rain if you get caught in a sudden squall either – you’ll want to avoid dropping below about 35mph unless you can drop to 19mph again where the roof can be put up on the move (in 15 seconds)…

That said, the MINI remains impressively refined roof-down. Extra wind noise isn’t a surprise (though there’s still not much of it), but the structure feels solid too, so the shake and shimmy you get from some convertibles is largely absent. Being able to hear some exhaust growl is appreciated too – there are always situations where a little extra noise is welcome.

The latest MINI hasn’t yet been tested by independent safety body Euro NCAP. The only model they’ve sent into a deformable barrier so far is the larger Countryman, which did receive a five-star score. The Convertible is based on the previous-generation MINI platform and the last time one of those was tested was in 2014, so the ratings are well out of date now.

However, we’d be surprised if MINI hasn’t beefed up the car in its latest generation, and of course, it has all the latest electronic safety tech too: lane keep assist, forward collision warning, an emergency call function, and speed limit assist, plus convenience features like parking assist and a reversing camera (the latter particularly useful for avoiding low-speed knocks with the roof down and blocking most of your view through the mirror). There’s also Isofix for attaching a child seat to the front passenger seat.

MINI gives you a physical button (just below the gear selector) for bringing up the menu to switch off the speed limit warning and lane keep assist, so it’s among the easier cars on the market to disable these features.

The bad news is that MINI didn’t appear in the top ten for either the most reliable cars nor the most reliable brands in the most recent HonestJohn.co.uk satisfaction index. The good news is that MINI also wasn’t in the bottom ten for either. 

Put simply, the MINI Convertible isn’t likely to prove a huge hassle to own, but nor should it be as problem-free as its closest equivalent on the market, the Mazda MX-5, with Mazda achieving a top-ten position in the brands list. One thing in the MINI’s favour is that, being largely based on the outgoing car, MINI should have a pretty good handle on building the things to last by now.

MINI offers the same warranty length of three years as its competitors, but unusually, the mileage is unlimited. That said, we can't imagine many buyers exceeding the 60,000-100,000-mile caps usually seen. 

MINI hasn’t published insurance group ratings for the new Convertible yet, though with the outgoing car covering the group 16-33 range, we’d expect similar from the new car.

CO2 of 147g/km for the Cooper C means a first-year car tax bill of £270, and then £190 a year thereafter. With only a small increase in fuel use the Cooper S has a CO2 figure of 149/gm, and it sneaks into the same tax band. The JCW gets a little more expensive; with 156g/km of CO2 it’s in the next tax band up, for a £680 first-year VED bill.

The MINI Convertible is unlikely to be a favourite of company car users, mainly because Benefit in Kind rates are geared heavily towards electric vehicles now. Even the Cooper C attracts a pretty punishing 35% tax figure, for an annual bill of over £1,700 for a basic rate taxpayer or £3,700 for a 40% rate payer.

All MINI Cooper Convertibles come with a long list of standard equipment. From the off, you get a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, LED headlights, a rear-view camera, navigation, parking assistant, a heated steering wheel, cruise control, and automatic air conditioning. Cooper S and JCW variants add keyless entry, auto-dimming mirrors, high beam assist, wireless phone charging, a head-up display, heated front seats, and upgrade from 16-inch to 17-inch alloy wheels.

Cooper C and Cooper S models then get Classic, Exclusive, and Sport trim lines. Classic comes with fabric trim, 16-inch square spoke alloys, and silver accents. Exclusive upgrades to 17-inch alloys, Vescin artificial leather trim, and light gold-coloured accents, while Sport gets a body kit inspired by the JCW, black wheels, black trim accents, sports seats, and red stitching.

Option packs go from Level 1 (basically giving the Cooper C the same equipment as the Cooper S and JCW), through Level 2 (adding a Harman Kardon sound system), to Level 3 (electric seats, plus enhanced driving and parking assistant features).