Mini Cooper D 5-Door 2014 review

We turn the spotlight on the car world's newest and brightest stars as we ask the questions to which you want the answers. But there's only one question that really needs answering would you buy one?

What is it?

A bigger Mini with five doors and a diesel engine. Believe it or not until now they've had three doors, because the original Mini had only three doors - but they're way past simply reinterpreting the original. It's 160mm longer with a 72mm longer wheelbase and stands 10mm higher.

How much?

Prices for the five-door start from $27,750. Our test vehicle the Cooper D is $32,900 but it had a few extras fitted. The Cooper S version is $38,050. Few people buy the car without some "cool" extras. Ours had been fitted with $4250 worth of extras. Cool is metallic paint at $800, shadow line grey adds $200 and black bonnet stripes are also $200 - bringing the total cost of our car as tested to $37,150.

What are competitors?

In terms of retros there's the Beetle of course and the Fiat 500. Both are modern interpretations of iconic cars from another era. The Beetle is probably the closest, and a hell of a lot better in its current form. The Fiat is well... a tiny car.

What's under the bonnet?

This one comes with a 1.5-litre three cylinder turbo diesel with 85kW and 270Nm, the latter from 1750 revs. The dash from 0–100 km/h takes 9.4 seconds in the manual or 9.5 seconds in the automatic.

How does it go?

Surprisingly well. You wouldn't pick this for a diesel, not from the inside anyway.

Is it economical?

Combined fuel consumption for the manual is a claimed 3.8L/100km, for the auto 3.9L/100km. Fitted with auto stop-start that shuts down the engine momentarily at traffic lights to save fuel. We were getting 6.0L/100km after 400km (nowhere near the stated figure).

Is it green?

The diesel gets 4.5 out 5 stars from the Government's Green Vehicle Guide, with CO2 emissions of 97g/km. Benchmark Prius gets 5.

Is it safe?

Yes, but we might add it has not received a rating from ANCAP yet. The three-door gets five stars but the Countryman scores only four. Also note that a reversing camera is not standard on this or any other model - it's an extra $470.

Is it comfortable?

Longer or not there's still not much space back there. It's a tight fit and realistically the back seat will accommodate two people, even though belts are provided for three passengers.

What's it like to drive?

A flip switch starts the engine. The pedals are offset and take some getting used to, but the drive experience stays true to form. It may be larger but still manages to pull off the go-kart feel, and like its smaller sibling you can throw this car into a corners with confidence. Having said that sports suspension is extra and so too is MINI Driving Modes. Putting the car into sport mode makes it feel zippier, with sharper throttle response and more direct steering - a bargain at $250.

Is it value for money?

Depends how far you want to go with the extras? If you buy a Mini then you're going to want to individualise it. Might be an idea to set yourself a budget or look elsewhere for something that comes with the extras as standard.