 2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe. Click image to enlarge |
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Review and photos by Chris Chase
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2012 Mini Cooper Coupe
I love the Mini Cooper hatchback. From its great proportions and stellar handling to its compact size, useful interior and great fuel economy, it’s just about the perfect choice for anyone who wants an economical and truly entertaining small car, providing you can swallow its premium price-tag. (A Cooper S with reliability to match its performance is the car of my fantasies.)
But a car brand can rarely survive on one model alone. That’s why Mini added a convertible (2005), the wagon-like Clubman (2008), the Countryman crossover (2011) and most recently, this car, the Cooper coupe.
The coupe is based on the Cooper convertible platform; indeed, the design of the coupe’s helmet-looking roof caused at least half a dozen onlookers to ask what this car looked like with the top down. Imagine their disappointment when I told them it’s not a convertible. (That will come next year with the addition of a roadster version of this car that will apparently be sold alongside the current Mini cabrio.)
 2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe. Click image to enlarge |
Despite admirers being crestfallen about the lack of convertibility, the Coupe got compliments ranging from “hot!” to “cute!” The look grew on me over the week I had with the car, but I never got past my own opinion that it looks a little awkward, especially from the rear three-quarter viewpoint. The contrasting silver roof is an option; painting the top and bottom the same colour makes the design more cohesive.
The Cooper S coupe uses the same 1.6-litre turbocharged engine as Mini’s other ‘S’ models. Its 181 horsepower isn’t a lot these days, but it’s all this car needs to turn a normally placid driver like myself into an absolute hooligan. Low-end torque is generous enough to give the motor some serious pull at just over 1,000 rpm. There’s more turbo lag than in other BMW-designed engines, but here it manages to be more endearing than annoying, part of the charm of an otherwise really nifty drivetrain.
I’ve never driven a Mini with the optional six-speed automatic transmission, and I don’t ever want to. With the six-speed manual transmission, the clutch takes some getting used to with its abrupt take-up, but once you’re there, it’s perfect. So is the shifter, with its positive gear engagements.
  2012 Mini Cooper S Coupe. Click image to enlarge |
My Cooper S coupe tester had the sport package, which brings upsized wheels and tires and a stiffer suspension that proved jarring over my hometown’s poor roads. (I talked to a Mini salesman at my local dealer who says he actually tries to talk buyers out of the sport package, because of that detriment to ride quality.) Road noise is pretty serious too, and the upsized wheels and tires clomp and clunk over imperfect pavement.
The noisy, hard ride isn’t unique to the coupe, though; even the most basic Cooper has a notably firm ride. As much as I value ride comfort in most cars, I accept this car’s harshness over the road for the immediate cornering response it contributes to. A sport mode, toggled by a button next to the shifter, adds some weight to the tight steering and quickens throttle response. With sport mode on, downshifts are accompanied by pop-pop-pop backfiring from the exhaust that actually made me giggle every time it happened, which, in turn, made my wife roll her eyes, when she wasn’t bracing herself for the next swerve around a tire-killing pothole.
The car’s low windshield header is a giveaway of the car’s convertible roots, impeding the view up to traffic signals. The rear window isn’t that small, but it too cuts low; if you’re tall, you’ll have to duck down for the best view rearward. Wide C-pillars create big blind spots; the tiny rear side windows are there to mitigate that, but the one on the right (most important for driver visibility) side is easily blocked by the passenger seat head restraint. The automatic spoiler that deploys at 80 km/h (it tucks back into the trunk lid once the car slows to 60 km/h) effectively blocks the bottom third of the back window.
