First Drive: new Mini 5-door

It didn’t look as if it would work, writes Brian Byrne. But during a stop for photos, I decided to see if I could fit in the back of the new Mini Hatch 5-door when somebody of my height would be driving.

The space looked tight, despite the extra length of the car that on paper gave substantially more boot space, and better accommodation for those in the rear.

And in the reality it does so. Thanks to some deep cutouts in the rear of the front seats, and the extra headroom which came with the latest generation of the car that was launched earlier this year (plus another 11mm in the 5-door), I’d be well able to manage as a rear passenger at least for reasonable length journeys.

No way, though, that three full adults could do so, the car is really designed for a family of parents and maybe three young people up to the age of 12, perhaps. Still, it’s overall a big improvement that should significantly extend the sales reach of the new variant.

I rather prefer the lines of the 5-door too, which means the designers managed to make the differences without compromising the iconicity of a shape that can’t be fiddled with too much without wrecking the whole Mini ethos. The new version is built on the Clubman’s stretched platform.

With the new generation, they also bowed to the ridiculous issue of having the massive central speedometer, which couldn’t actually be comfortably read without taking eyes off the road. The shape is still there, part of the original Mini icon, but now it’s used for housing the infotainment, and navigation where fitted. Fit, finish and interior style details are all up to the very high level which we expect from this BMW product.

Yesterday’s launch of the 5-door took us on a decent run through Wicklow to near Courtown, and although the 1.5 diesel in the car was a little tight with just double digits on the odometer, it proved quite agile, and very quiet. This is a new 3-cylinder unit, the latest in BMW’s modular engine programme, and the car we drove yesterday had 114hp on tap. It handled as a Mini should, and there were some Sport and Green modes to play with, but further on those when I have the car for a more extended period.

At launch there are four versions with fuel consumption between 3.6-5.9L/100km and emissions between 95-136g/km.

The starting price of the car is €20,610, some €710 more than for the equivalent 3-door, and using one of the company’s finance plans it can be had for €250 a month. The diesel we had came through at just under €24,500. Not cheap. But cheap isn’t what BMW is about with its Mini.

More when I have a full drive.

Pictured with the new car are Paulo Alves, Managing Director of BMW Group Ireland, and Kevin Hennebry, Mini Manager for Ireland.