MINI Hatch Review 2023

If you are considering a MINI Hatch 3-door with practicality in mind, you are either barking up the wrong arboreal postcode or are very optimistic. Simply put, the MINI Hatch 3-door is not the most spacious car by a long shot when it comes to carrying more than one passenger or even a decent amount of shopping unless you forego some back seat space.

On the other hand, if you’re after a car with a huge sense of fun and one that dishes up handling to make you smile in even its most basic form, join the very long queue for this car. The MINI Hatch 3-door has a big following thanks to its looks, but it backs it up with a great drive and premium feel that takes all the best bits from its BMW parent and distils them into a small hatch.

The engines are zesty and economical, there’s a good amount of standard kit and, dare we say, just enough room in the rear nowadays to accommodate a young family of four.

In 2019 the MINI line up was revised and the One model with its 102PS 1.5-litre Twinpower turbo petrol engine was dropped. It’s fine around town and for those wanting to get in on the MINI band wagon at the lowest cost. 

Now the range starts with the Cooper and its 136PS version of the same three-cylinder 1.5-litre motor, which is the option we'd choose anyway for its stronger, more effortless performance on motorways.

The MINI Hatch 3-door Cooper is also more than well equipped for most needs and it can be topped up with a couple of choice options packs. In this way, you can have all the brilliant handling fun, comfort and quality that a MINI has to offer without breaking the bank.

Some will want the extra oomph of the MINI Hatch 3-door Cooper S or John Cooper Works models, but we reckon their firmer suspension makes them a little wearing day in, day out. As for the electric model, it’s cheap to run once you get over the high initial cost of the car, but its limited battery range restricts its real-world use to urban driving.

There is a long list of fine small hatchbacks that we could reel off here, but the most likely alternative a MINI Hatch 3-door customer will consider is the Audi A1. This is down to the MINI’s premium approach that means so many of its mainstream competitors will never get a look in on most people’s shortlists. With the Audi, you get a high-grade badge, classy cabin with more interior space, and a selection of engines from frugal to fast.

On the other hand, if you can divert your mind from the premium lure of the MINI, both the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo, as well as the Peugeot 208 and Renault Clio, have plenty to offer. All are roomy and zoomy enough to be fun.

This third generation of the MINI Hatch 3-door has learned plenty of lessons from its predecessors as the standard of fit inside the cabin is top notch. On looks alone, it has all of its rivals well and truly beat, but it also gives them plenty to think about when it comes to quality of construction.

Most of the materials used in the MINI have a superior feel to its rivals. Even when compared to BMW’s own mainstream models, the MINI Hatch 3-door can claim an advantage and it’s backed up by the absences of squeaks or rattles from anywhere inside the car no matter what road surface you drive along.

Depending on whether you choose the Classic, Exclusive or Resolute trims offered with some or all models, the MINI Hatch 3-door’s cabin becomes even more high end in feel with leather-trimmed sports seats. Choose one or more of the various options packs and you can push this feeling even further. 

We’d recommend the panoramic sunroof as a wise choice to bring an airier feel to a cabin that can feel a little claustrophobic when decked out in dark colours.

Following the most recent updates all MINI Hatch 3-doors get a 8.8-inch colour touchscreen, replacing the previous 6.5-inch colour display. It includes DAB and Apple CarPlay as standard now, something which previously required quite an expensive upgrade to the full navigation system.

Go for the Premium Plus option pack and this adds wireless charging, a fancy Harmon Kardon audio system and the Navigation Pack, which builds nav into the same 8.8-inch screen and includes Real Time Traffic Information - all very nice, but it is quite a premium when Apple CarPlay will do most of this for you for free.

With the MINI Hatch 3-door Electric, you get the same infotainment screen in the centre but a unique 5.5-inch display behind the steering wheel for speed and battery power. The MINI Electric also comes with MINI Connected, navigation and real-time traffic updates as standard, while the Level 3 model has the Navigations Plus Pack included in its spec.

MINI is not trying to kid anyone that the MINI Hatch 3-door is the roomiest or most practical small hatch. Even so, it does come with more generous amounts of space for those in the back than the previous generation model.

Getting into the back seats is the first hurdle, and we mean that in the truest sense of the word, as you have to leap one leg at a time between the seat and door pillar. Even though the front seats slide forwards to aid access, it’s still a bendy challenge for adults, but children will be able to nip in and out easily enough. However, for parents grappling with a kiddy seat, be prepared for a back-breaking task. Still, there are ISOFIX mounts on both back seats.

There are only two pews in the rear of the MINI Hatch 3-door, so forget any notions of five people setting off on a MINI adventure. It ain’t going to happen. On the plus side, once two adults are installed in the back, they can sit comfortably for short hops so long as whoever is in the front doesn’t need to push their seat all the way back. Headroom is limited for adults, but shoulder space is decent and each rear occupant gets their own cupholder plus a circular central storage bin.

For bigger items, the MINI Hatch 3-door has 211-litres of boot space. However, the angle of the seat back makes it tricky to fit in anything larger than a couple of shopping bags or a smaller suitcase.

Extending the MINI Hatch 3-door’s boot is easily done with the 60/40 split and fold rear seats that frees up to 731-litres of load space. Not big by class standards, but at least the seats tumble to leave a flat platform even if it doesn’t sit flush with the normal boot floor.

If you want add to the MINI’s practicality, for £200 you can have the rear carrier preparation option fitted, though you will still have to pay for a bike rack to fit and attach your cycles to.

The MINI Hatch 3dr's dimensions make it 3821mm long, 1727mm wide and 1414mm tall. That's smaller than usual supermini standards and makes the MINI an extremely compact and easy-to-park car. 

Following the most recent update the engine range on the MINI Hatch 3-door is more limited than ever. 

Cooper models come with a 136PS 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, which is more than adequate for most people with a good balance of performance and fuel consumption.

On older cars the entry point was a 102PS version of this engine, which gets the MINI Hatch 3-door along fine, but if you plan to plenty of motorway driving or are loading up with people and kit you might find it a bit wanting.

MINI Hatch 3-door Cooper S and John Cooper Works models share the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, with 178PS and 231PS respectively. The Cooper S is no sluggard - 0-62mph is despatched in 6.7 seconds - and gives it genuine hot hatch credentials.

But if you want to go the whole hog then the John Cooper Works is the quickest MINI Hatch 3-door you can buy new right now. The 0-62mph sprint takes only 6.3 seconds, or 6.1 seconds if you go for the automatic transmission option available on all models. It's a fine option if you really want an auto, but given the MINI's fun to drive approach and pleasing six-speed manual gearbox it seems a shame to not shift yourself.

Then there’s the MINI Hatch 3-door Electric, which accelerates quickly and is smooth in use as there are no gears, just the seamless power of the electric motor. What takes time to master, though, is slowing down because as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator pedal the car slows markedly. This is the regenerative braking doing its thing to recharge the battery, so you need to learn to modulate your right foot’s movements more than you do in the other models.

For a small hatch with a definite leaning towards the sporty side of life, you might think the MINI Hatch 3-door is going to be a rowdy, rorty ride. Instead, the MINI is an impressively quiet car in this class with engines that are happy to keep the noise down even when working hard at higher speeds. Tyre noise is a problem on some versions, however.

Use the full sweep of the Cooper S and John Cooper Works engine revs and you are rewarded with fittingly snappy exhaust sounds, but even this pair are more than able to saunter along quietly and contentedly on the motorway.

There’s little noise from the tyres or wind, even at motorway speeds, which means MINI Hatch 3-door drivers and their passengers arrive feeling as fresh as when the departed. In the MINI Electric, it’s even better as there is only the faint background whirr of the electric motor at all speeds. The only downside with the battery-powered MINI Hatch 3-door in this respect is the motor is so quiet that you do notice wind rustle a bit more at faster speeds. However, it’s not intrusive or hard on the ears.

Given the MINI’s premium image and pricing, you might think it would score very well in the safety arena. However, the basic design dates back to a launch in 2014 and that means some things we now take for granted were unusual back then. Among them is automatic emergency braking which is only an option as part of the Driving Assistant System.

You do get ABS anti-lock braking and ESP traction control (as you do in any modern car), which has an electronic locking front differential for improved grip on wet roads. There are also six airbags and all four occupants have a headrest as standard, plus three-point belts. In the back, there are ISOFIX child seat mounts fitted to both chairs.

Other features included with all MINI Hatch 3-door models are Hill Assist to stop the car rolling backwards during hill starts and E-call. This will contact the emergency services in the event of a collision and the driver is unable to make that vital contact.

All of this is welcome in the MINI Hatch 3-door, but it still wasn’t enough to earn it more than a four-star rating in Euro NCAP tests. A score of 79 per cent for adult occupant safety is merely good rather than great for this class of car. Child occupant safety comes in at 73 per cent which is much more on a par with the MINI’s main rivals.

The MINI Electric has borrowed the 32.6kWh battery and 184PS motor from the BMW i3. It gives this car similar pace to the petrol-powered Cooper, but the range on a full charge is limited to a maximum of 145 miles. This is for the Level 1 model, so if you choose the Level 2 or 3 you get a couple of miles less per charge.

Using a rapid charger, the MINI Hatch 3-door Electric can be back up to 80 per cent of full power in half an hour. On other public chargers, this will take around two and a half hours or three hours at home with a 7.7kW wallbox.

It's not great news on this front. MINI came 28th out of 30 manufacturers in the HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, only beating Vauxhall and Fiat.

The MINI Hatch 3-door on the other hand scored a respectable if not stunning 9.35 out of 10 for reliability, so it may be that if reliability is very high up on your list of priorities you may wish to consider alternative choices.

The premium approach of the MINI Hatch 3-door means the lowest insurance group rating it can manage is 13 for the One Classic. This might be just about bearable for a young driver, but group 20 for the Cooper and 28 for the Cooper S put them beyond the reach of anyone without some accrued no claims bonus.

Choose the MINI Hatch 3-door John Cooper Works version and it pushes into group 29, which is similar to most of its rapid hatch rivals.

The 1.5-litre Cooper model is understandably the cheapest option when it comes to VED, with a fee of £190 in the first year and £165 after that.

The MINI Hatch 3-door 2.0-litre Cooper S jumps to £230 in the first year before the same £165 standard rate applies, while the John Cooper Works attracts the higher £585 first year rate.

In a slightly convoluted fashion, the MINI Hatch 3-door range offers you three performance options - Cooper, Cooper S and John Cooper Works, which you then add one of three trim levels depending on which engine you've picked.

So the MINI Hatch 3-door Classic trim has features like LED headlights, 8.8-inch touchscreen and Apple CarPlay as standard, but you get standard cloth seats and 15-inch alloy wheels on the Cooper and sport seats and 16-inch alloy wheels on the Cooper S. You can't have Classic spec on a JCW.

MINI Hatch 3-door in Exclusive trim can be had with Cooper or Cooper S power, and gets you a choice of 17-inch or 18-inch alloy wheels, leather sports seats, MINI Connected and Remote Services, MINI Driving Modes, cruise control and rear parking distance control - a useful haul of extra kit.

MINI Hatch 3-door Resolute is the top trim and adds 18-inch alloy wheels, chequered cloth and leatherette seats and special interior trim finishing - but you can switch this to Piano Black for free. It also includes the Premium Package as standard.

To that you can add the Premium Plus pack for £2,400 which adds wireless charging, a panoramic sunroof and a Harmon Kardon audio system. It also includes the separately-available Comfort Plus Pack and Navigation Pack.