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Mk3 Mini hatchback gets a new five-door model; on sale in the UK in October priced from £15,900

The new five-door Mini hatchback has been revealed, and is set to give the brand the biggest sales boost of any single model so far when it goes on sale in October. BMW insiders believe it could outsell today’s three-door model by a factor of three to one. 

It is thought that this new model could account for around 150,000 units annually, massively boosting Mini’s sales overall.

The five-door Mini will go on sale initially with the choice of three-cylinder Cooper petrol and three-cylinder Cooper D diesel engines and in four-cylinder Cooper S petrol and Cooper SD form. A six-speed manual gearbox is standard while the six-speed Steptronic torque converter automatic transmission is optional.

Despite being a physically larger and more capacious car than the new Mini three-door hatch, BMW UK is charging a premium £15,900 for the entry-level 101bhp three-cylinder turbocharged Cooper petrol model.

That model offers a tempting mix of relative pace (0-62mph in 8.2sec) and a promised 60mpg on the combined cycle. The six-speed automatic version is marginally quicker in the sprint and offers an impressive 58mpg combined. The 189bhp Cooper S hits 62mph in 6.9sec (6.8sec for the auto) and returns 47.8mpg or 52mpg in automatic form. Prices rise to £20,050 for a top-spec SD version.

Measuring a compact 4m from nose to tail, the five-door is 72mm longer in the wheelbase than the three-door and 161mm longer overall, with the extra wheelbase length going entirely into the rear cabin. BMW says the new car also offers 15mm more headroom and a useful 61mm of extra interior width “at shoulder height”.

Boot space is now fully competitive with rivals at 278 litres, up 67 litres on the three-door. This just pips the 270-litre boot capacity of the Audi A1, which BMW sees as one of the five-door Mini’s key rivals. With the 60/40 spilt rear seats both folded, the Mini’s maximum load capacity is 941 litres, again ahead of the A1’s 920 litres.

BMW’s engineers have gone beyond simply increasing the basic load capacity of the Mini five-door and added a number of neat features to improve the utility of the car. There’s the option of a folding false boot floor which can be fitted at two different heights, the upper of which allows a completely flat load bay when the seats are folded forward. Unusual extendable clamps have also been fitted to the rear seatbacks, allowing the backs to be locked in an upright position in order to further increase the load space.

Subjectively, this new Mini’s looks appear better balanced than those of the three-door. The longer, higher nose of the Mk3 hatch is now offset by the car’s extra length. The five-door is also marked out by a distinctive shoulder on its rear rather than having the three-door’s near-upright tailgate. 

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The rear doors are short, although the height of the door aperture aids access to the rear cabin for taller adults, and while the front sports seats fitted to the car pictured here are substantial, their backs feature a large cut-out to accommodate the knees of taller rear passengers. The low roofline is also relieved inside with a ‘scooped-out’ headlining, which offers surprisingly decent headroom. 

While getting in and out requires some agility, a 6ft-tall rear passenger can sit behind a similarly sized driver, albeit with just a few millimetres of knee and head clearance.  

In the front, the new dashboard intrudes on the driver’s sense of space and the seating position remains unusually low, but there’s a decent amount of shoulder-room for two adults.

Mini sources believe the new five-door model will attract more male buyers and help to “de-feminise the brand” and balance the split between male and female customers. 

Industry wisdom suggests that female car buyers will buy a model that is seen as a ‘male car’ but male buyers will not buy what’s perceived as ‘female’. This sub-strategy might also explain why the third model to appear in the Mk3 Mini range will be the longer and wider Clubman sports estate rather than the popular convertible.

The five-door will be available in three solid and nine metallic colours, including the colour pictured above, which has been revived from the original launch colours for the 2001 Mini Cooper S. A black or white roof and door mirror caps are no-cost options. 

BMW is also offering the option of a mobile phone SIM card that can be embedded in the dash. This can be used with an emergency call system to contact a central call centre in the event of a collision, transferring information such as the car’s location, the number of vehicle occupants and which airbags may have been triggered.

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bruceb 9 June 2014

Fed up with moaners

I'm getting more than a little tired with the usual and predictable criticisms of each Mini model that arrives. It isnt a mini, its Mini, as in a brand, and a growing brand built in England, the English should be proud, instead, more and more moans. If this was built in Scotland, every Scot like me would be justifiably proud of the machine. It's quirky, attractive and even if I dont particularly love every inch of every new Mini, each time I see one I feel I'm being blessed with a smile. Lighten up people, and start seeing the brand as a decent, and relatively attractive brand, especially when you see all the awful, boring plasticky looking things that pollute our roads and offend the eye with their bland cheapness and uninteresting physique.
superstevie 7 June 2014

I totally get what you mean,

I totally get what you mean, but most buyers don't really care. If you want a practical spacious small car in the spirit of an original mini, then go buy an Up triplet, or one of the Aygo Twins. If you want a car that is fun to drive, buy & own, that is comfortable as a big car up front, then the MINI really is a winner. You might not want it, that is totally fine.
typos1 6 June 2014

We dont know how cramped or

We dont know how cramped or not it is on the inside yet, its likely to be as "hideously cramped" as the other cars you mentioned because, unlike the orignal, no clever or ingenuis engineering has been used to make it space efficient and as you point out, its shorter than them. In fact it is the antithesis of the original cos its notably small on the inside, making it a little bit longer and adding some ridiculously small doors really isnt going to help matters.