From £23,7808

One of the last petrol hot hatches standing faces our timing gear

If someone had asked you a few years ago what would be the last two traditional supermini-based hot hatches to remain on sale, you might have guessed the Renault Clio RS and Ford Fiesta ST, or even the Hyundai i20 N. Would your money have been on the Mini John Cooper Works and the Volkswagen Polo GTI? Probably not.

It says something about the sheer momentum of big groups like BMW and Volkswagen. The petrol hot hatch has become a sufficiently marginalised kind of car that an entirely new one would struggle to get board approval: bad for the CO2 quotas in Europe, not popular enough outside it. But there’s no major reason for Volkswagen to stop making the Polo GTI just yet, and a JCW version has sneaked onto the price list of the refreshed Mini Cooper.

This fourth-generation (not counting the Issigonis cars) Mini, then, builds on its predecessor from 2013, using the same UKL platform and the same engines and gearboxes. The styling is brought in line with the EV’s much cleaner look and the interior gets the same minimalist makeover, so this F66-generation Cooper is more than just a facelift. That there is a fast version is something to be upbeat about, but is it any good?

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DESIGN & STYLING

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02 Mini John Cooper Works 2025 Autocar road test review front cornering

Let’s start with a quick note on naming, because it’s easy to lose track of how the Mini range has ballooned over the past 25 years, particularly since there are now mirror petrol and electric line-ups.

For this generation, the Mini hatchback is known as the Cooper, which makes sense given that’s what many people were calling it anyway. A suffix indicates which engine or battery and motor power it. The hot versions deviate slightly, and are called the Mini John Cooper Works. An electric version is due soon. As before, the petrol-powered Cooper is available as a three- and five-door hatch, and as a convertible. The JCW, however, is two-door only.

The main exhaust box, including the hidden downturned exit, is the same as on the standard Cooper S. The JCW does get a single central exit, which is valved to open under hard acceleration. It looks unusual but is a nice reference to classic rally Minis.

Rather confusingly, you need a keen spotter’s eye to tell the proper John Cooper Works apart from any other Cooper with a Sport pack, because the latter gets the full works of spoilers, splitters and JCW badges. This risks devaluing the actual range-topper a little, but the good news is that when you dig down into the specification, the JCW is more than just a stickers-and-spoilers package.

It uses the Cooper S as its base, with the same ‘B48’ 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, but there are some noteworthy upgrades. The engine produces 27bhp and a very significant 59lb ft more. Mini doesn’t say where exactly that extra grunt comes from, but the unique exhaust might be a factor.

JCWs are the only modern Minis with visible exhaust pipes. The Countryman JCW has four of them, while the Cooper has a single, central exit. Most of the time, it actually breathes through a hidden downturned pipe, with the rally-style rear exit only opening under hard acceleration.

The chassis, too, uses the same fundamental hardware as the Cooper S, which is already more exotic than most superminis’, with a multi-link rear axle. The JCW gets unique springs and dampers, and increased negative camber on the front axle for better turn-in. It also gains additional chassis bracing on the underbody to increase the torsional rigidity. If you spec the 18in wheels (17in is standard), you also have the option of a more performance-biased tyre.

Despite this list of upgrades, the new JCW seems less of a bespoke performance car than some of its predecessors. Limited-slip differentials were left to the aftermarket a few generations ago, but until recently it was possible to order your JCW with a manual gearbox and adaptive dampers. Both of these are now off the menu.

INTERIOR

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08 Mini John Cooper Works 2025 Autocar road test review dashboard

If you materialised into the driver’s seat of the new Mini JCW without seeing the exhaust, you would have no way of knowing which version you were in. The copious red accents, JCW insignias and perforated leather steering wheel are shared with the Sport trim of the standard car. And where previous generations might have offered a set of more serious bucket seats, the new JCW simply sticks with the standard items.

While the lack of differentiation from a normal Cooper is certainly disappointing, that is not to say this interior is devoid of charm or purpose, because this is one of the most distinctive supermini interiors around.

If you want to see a fully fledged tachometer, you have to put the car into ‘Go-Kart’ (ie Sport) mode and then press on the speedo to display this set of gauges. It looks cool, but also replaces everything else. Is it really so hard to put a proper tacho on the home screen?

Opening the long front door somehow adds a little sense of occasion – the Mini Cooper is one of the last remaining three-door hatchbacks. If you’re tall, it’s also refreshing to get into a small car without the B-pillar getting in the way.

As with the previous generation, you can sit incredibly low for a front-wheel-drive hatchback. The Alpine A290’s and Toyota GR Yaris’s seats seem perched by comparison. The seats themselves feel a little de-contented, mind. There’s no more pull-out thigh bolster, and unless you spec the electrically adjustable memory seats (as part of the expensive Level 3 package), you don’t even get adjustable lumbar support or cushion angle. They are comfortable enough but feel a little flat, and the amount of lateral support is only adequate.

Since the latest Mini Countryman was launched in 2024, we have had some time to get used to Mini’s current style and control layout, but they remain divisive. Purely as a design exercise, the simple dashboard with a large round touchscreen and a minimal button panel is an inspired reinterpretation of the classic Mini’s basic dashboard and central speedometer.

In a modern car, there are many more functions to control than in the 1950s original, however. Squeezing a speedometer, tachometer, climate controls, warning lights and shortcut buttons, as well as navigation, media and the trip computer, plus a few more things, onto the 9.4in screen in a way that makes all these functions easily accessible at all times proved beyond Mini’s user interface designers.

The graphics certainly look characterful, unique to Mini and therefore quite attractive. And at least the climate temperature controls and heated seats buttons are permanently displayed. It’s also possible to configure some shortcuts, but you’re quite limited in which functions you can map to them, and you have to log in with a Mini ID for this functionality to be enabled. This feels like a slightly cynical way for BMW to coerce you into giving up your data.

What should be simple actions like adjusting the screen brightness and turning off the lane keeping assistance require too many taps of the screen. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are inelegantly rendered in a rectangle on the round screen. Bafflingly for a petrol-engined hot hatch, it’s frustratingly difficult to get the screen to display a tachometer with numbers on it.

Something that hasn’t changed is the amount of space a three-door Mini offers. There just isn’t very much rear leg room or boot space. With that said, it is more usable than you might expect. While the rear seats are hard to access, they actually offer slightly more knee room than the Renault 5, and head room is just about sufficient for shorter adults. Despite the two Isofix points, this is clearly not a family-oriented hatchback, like a Skoda Fabia, however. At 210 litres, the boot is downright small, though the variable-height floor adds a little usability at least.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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16 Mini John Cooper Works 2025 Autocar road test review engine

If this is the end for the petrol-powered hot hatch, it is going out with a bang rather than a whimper. Squeezing 228bhp out of its 2.0-litre engine, the Mini JCW is seriously quick for a supermini hot hatch. Ignoring the mutant Toyota GR Yaris for a moment (which is sold out, and which operated in a different sphere anyway), the Mini easily out-drags the VW Polo GTI, and even the Hyundai i20 N, whether that’s from a standing start or in gear.

In practice the gap is probably even bigger than on the test track because the Mini makes it so easy to go fast. Where the i20 N driver has to carefully balance the clutch and gas, and nail every shift, the Mini driver simply engages the launch control in the usual way, and lets rip.

The launch control allows quite a lot of wheelspin from a stop, but thereafter the JCW is very effective, its seven-speed dual-clutch rifling through the remarkably short gears: it gave just 7.9mph per 1000rpm in second and 12.7mph per 1000rpm in third (i20 N: 9.5mph, 13.5mph). It tops out at 51mph in second and 83mph in third.

Effective the automatic may be, but we can’t help wishing for a six-speed manual. While the short gearing adds some texture to B-road blasts and the dual-clutch’s operation is largely faultless (it does shift up at the redline in manual mode), we miss the engagement of getting more personally involved with a gearlever and three pedals.

Beggars can’t be choosers, of course, and even in daily operation the automatic works well – much better, in fact, than in the standard Cooper S, where it was often recalcitrant and jerky.

BMW’s 2.0-litre B48 four-cylinder is a familiar one, seeing service in everything from the 220i to the Morgan Plus Four. It’s not the most charismatic unit, but it is smooth and very torquey, particularly in this state of tune. It needs all the sonic help it can get, though. With both a fruity exhaust and speaker-based trickery, it receives plenty in the JCW, but it all sounds realistic and subtle enough that it’s not too hard to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the drive.

It does without the mild-hybrid assistance it gets in various BMW models. While it’s not lacking for low-down grunt, it does mean that you need to build turning off the start/stop into your pre-drive routine, if you don’t want the engine conking at inopportune moments.

With no regen to interfere, the brake pedal feels perfectly natural, though the stopping distances in the dry are nothing remarkable for a performance car. There was even a bit of fade after six consecutive stops, and during our track session the pedal started to go slightly soft.

RIDE & HANDLING

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17 Mini John Cooper Works 2025 Autocar road test review front cornering

Going into this test we were somewhat worried, because the standard Cooper S is entertaining enough but the five-door we ran as a long-term test car was overly firm and crashy, with a propensity for popping its 18in tyres. You might expect the extra-sporty version to be even worse, but the opposite is true.

The JCW seems to dial things down slightly and take the crashy sting out of the ride. At motorway speeds, the long-wave ride seems to calm down a tad too, making it a more agreeable long-distance car.

The option of ‘performance tyres’ on the 18in wheels sounds appealing, until you realise that for less than the £800 that they cost, you could just stick with the 17s and swap the standard tyres for something sportier after the fact, and retain some ride comfort with the smaller wheels.

Mind you, the JCW is still extremely stiffly sprung – excessively so for a bumpy British B-road, where the body control is very excitable indeed, stopping just short of the point where it gets deflected. There can be no good reason why it’s this aggressive, and if you needed any more proof that Minis are no longer really UK-optimised cars but instead arts of dynamic pastiche, here it is.

At least the payoff is very immediate handling. At 2.4 turns lock to lock, the steering isn’t overly direct but it’s intuitively sped, and once you get past the slightly elastic feel, it does weight up in a way that tells you how much grip is available.

The front axle has plenty of bite to back that up. The additional camber of the JCW, in combination with the optional ‘Sport’ tyres (Continental SportContact 7), certainly banishes the languid front-end response cars on this platform sometimes have.

Like in most modern hot hatches, the differential is of the bog-standard open variety. For the majority of drivers, this is probably a good thing, because locking diffs can sometimes exacerbate torque steer. Despite putting 280lb ft through the front axle, that is almost entirely absent in the Mini. Traction out of tight corners is strong too, but we suspect that even when the traction and stability control are turned off, the electronics are still subtly reining the engine in to avoid overloading the front axle.

With the proper hardware, the JCW might find more resolute drive, and if that is at the expense of some polish, we dare say that would be worth it in the top-flight hot hatch.

All of which is not to speak ill of the traction and stability control: it’s very quick-acting, mostly unintrusive, particularly in Sport Plus mode, and can be disabled completely (with the aforementioned caveat). Having this safety net has also allowed the engineers to tune the car’s handling to be joyfully throttle-adjustable, since it will never be allowed to misbehave if you leave the systems on. Turn them off and this Mini can be made to take ludicrous angles of lift-off oversteer, particularly on a wet track. Meanwhile, on a dry road or track, it just feels alive, hyper-agile and up for anything. When it comes to front-wheel-drive balance, the JCW is right up there.

Assisted Driving

BMW and Mini’s assisted driving systems are generally well resolved, but the Mini’s convoluted user interface makes configuring them quite frustrating. The overspeed warning can be disabled by holding a steering wheel button, but doing the same for the lane keep assist requires going into a touchscreen menu. Thankfully, it tends to keep to itself when you leave it on. The adaptive cruise control is also quite smooth and can be switched to standard cruise control. However, because there are no buttons on the steering wheel for adjusting the following distance, you need to fiddle with the touchscreen a lot.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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01 Mini John Cooper Works 2025 Autocar road test review front driving

Don’t be too put off by our test car’s £39,215 price. This is a classic press car with every option on it. The £33,265 standard JCW already has the Level 1 package, which includes matrix LED lights, keyless entry, heated seats, the head-up display and a wireless phone charger, with which we would be happy enough. Optional colours are sensibly priced at £550, and even the 18in wheels are a no-cost option.

Fuel economy probably won’t be at the top of your list of priorities if you’re buying a hot hatch, because with a relatively big engine and no mild-hybrid assistance, the Mini JCW returns an unremarkable touring economy of 42.0mpg. The relatively small 44-litre fuel tank results in an equally middling cruising range.

The JCW gets a head-up display as standard, but it’s one of those pop-up screens, which begs the question: why not just give us a proper instrument cluster that shows your speed and revs?

VERDICT

19 Mini John Cooper Works 2025 Autocar road test review front static

Is well over £30,000 too much for a junior hot hatch? To a point, Mini can charge whatever it likes, because there aren’t many alternatives. The Mazda MX-5 isn’t very practical and the Alpine A290 is electric – both great options, but different.

Together with the more safe and steady VW Polo GTI, the Mini JCW is the last trad hot hatch standing, and that earns it a fair amount of latitude, in terms of its pricing, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. It is by no means perfect: no manual gearbox, firm ride, overcomplicated user interface.

But it has the design charm we’ve come to expect of a Mini and it possesses the performance and handling talent to entertain. The way it can be enjoyed on road, on track or to the supermarket makes it a proper hot hatch. If you’re after a compact driver’s car, it demands consideration.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S.