Mini Cooper S Convertible review
Mini Cooper 1.6 16v S Road Test
Test date 14 September 2004
Price as tested £18,995
For Fashionable looks, clever hood, performance, handling
Against Cramped in rear, roof rattles, hard ride
The 500,000th ‘new’ Mini left the BMW Group’s Oxford plant last month. Those who scorned the retro hatchback have been silenced: BMW might have cashed in on a famous brand with its new baby hatchback, but it is a huge success.
In the UK, the Mini’s biggest market, more than 100,000 cars have been sold since it was launched in 2001. And now the long-awaited convertible version has arrived. Its makers estimate that the roof-less version will account for around 20 per cent of Mini sales in Britain.
Introduced in 1959, the original BMC Mini used front-wheel drive to create a tiny car with revolutionary packaging. By the time it was discontinued in 2000 over five million examples had been produced. Aftermarket conversions aside, just 414 of those were cabriolets.
BMW inherited Mini when it bought the Rover Group in 1994. When it sold Rover in 2000 it retained the Mini brand and a year later the all-new Mini was born. The 2002 Cooper S revived a badge that recalled the giant-killing race and rally cars built by John Cooper between 1963 and ’71.
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