Gadgetory

now the key to the Mini Cooper 4-door is of course for dorks they've never had a cooper with four doors before though there are other minis that have four doors the whole car is six inches longer nose to rump about half that much is in between the wheels extending the wheelbase two inches more rear seat legroom which if you're gonna put in rear doors you better have a reason to use them even the front doors are different to allow these doors to be bigger and you also get two inches of additional shoulder room in the backseat because the whole rear quarter of the car is contoured differently it's not like they just took the two-door and hacked it and stuck in an extender this is a substantially different car from the cowl on back still after all that it picks up only 110 pounds over the two doors now the first thing I notice when I get in the current generation Mini that brings a tear to my eye is that this round bezel thing is just a thing it's no longer ever that big iconic speedometer that he's used to have back in the day now it's simply a place for a screen we have the largest screen the 8 inch that has navigation now your other interfaces up here you've got your motorcycle style takun speedometer and a little help or LCD down there as well there's one more screen that's optional but we have it that's the little motorized head-up display this kind of visor style you can set that to show speed navigation prompts calling and audio if you use a connected phone in the console cradle nobody has more audio choices than these guys including Pandora Rhapsody tune in audible stitcher Amazon Cloud and Osseo and all of that is via the mini connected app on your phone slotted into a phone dock in the console which also gets you power and an external antenna name without an app you've got am/fm HD radio satellites optional 6 disc is optional like you'd really want that auxilary jack and USB basic audio is a 6 speaker rig and you can upgrade to Harman Kardon surround set which we do have now controlling all of your head unit gear is an eye drive controller down here but very different than BMW not in its layout but in its altitude when it's up here in a console like on most BMWs your hand is like so as it operates it now your fingers like this you're using a down pointed fingertip this was a pain to use now driving Armin he gets us to this automatic shifter because we have the six-speed automatic we'll size it up on the road paddles on this car because of the automatic around the shifter you've got your drive mode control like you've never seen before take it over to the green mode the normal mode or the sport now under its cute little snout you've got two engine choices depending whether you get a cooper or a cooper s the base Cooper's got a three cylinder this is an S we've got a four both engines are turbocharged but ours has got two liters of displacement versus one and a half 189 horsepower 207 pound-feet of torque 0 to 60 and 5.6 seconds mpg varies on your transmission 2940 if you get a manual interestingly lower mpg if you get an automatic it doesn't usually go that way and regardless of what engine size our transmission you've got front-wheel drive let's go for a ride out on the open road I'm pleased to report that the mini hasn't lost its mini nough sivan though it's a little more Mexi than it was it still has this go-kart like steering short wheelbase tightly sprung undercarriage and a stiff shell all leads into them maybe you can hear that nice little exhaust snarl before you turn your back on that automatic know that it's a really good one especially when the rings in the sport mode or the shifters in the sport gate gears change tightly and cleanly I find this is what works best sporty-er rewards what this car is all about the ride quality is what I would call a comfortable go-kart it's not jarring it's super tight some minis in the past especially with the Cooper S package could be a little bit brittle anymore and all around the turbo is really good it's a spacious enough car for me I'm pretty tall and visibility's not terribly constricted even though we have some very chunky pillars back in the rear corners okay a Cooper s 4-door is 26 or so based exactly a thousand dollars more than a two-door you're paying five hundred bucks a door gonna look at it that way now fifteen hundred more if you want the automatic transmission it's a pretty good one I got to say and it seems to pair well with the mission of a four-door car once you love this guy I've seen that style you're right up against 30 grand they've retained the essential millions of the vehicle even though they've added some inches and added some doors a pretty good trick they did their homework and the fact that you've got a more practical and justifiable platform for the purchaser who wants to make sure it's the right car for more years to come they should sell these things like mad or cars driven CNET style standing by now at 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