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Mini Cooper 2007 Review

It lurks on the roof of the new Mini Cooper S and if it wasn’t designed by a woman, or perhaps a committee of women, I’ll eat a beach towel.

Amazingly, I very nearly missed out on finding this simpering switch altogether.

I had merely made a mental note to moan endlessly about the fact that the interior lighting was far too bright, and an annoying shade of blue to boot.

But then I went on a stupidly long drive to the snow from Sydney, entirely in the dark. By the time I got to Goulburn I was so annoyed at being bathed in the sort of light you normally only find in tanning salons that I decided there had to be adjustment available to me.

After playing with all the available – and beautifully funky feeling – toggles and buttons I found the right one, flicked it and nearly crashed the car.

Far from dimming this blithering blue light, the switch merely changed it to a pinky hue I can only describe as “dawn at the beach”.

Intrigued, yet revolted, I kept flicking and found that the car’s mood lighting can be changed to vermillion, purple, a Midori green, a yellow-and-brown Austin Powers kind of motif and, thankfully, orange.

I say thankfully because at least the orange choice blends in with the rest of the dash lighting, although the combined effect is so bright you feel like you’re driving around in a ’70s kitchen.

Of course a little bit of kitsch is to be expected when an idea like the Mini is recooked, as this one was recently, gaining a turbocharged 1.6-litre engine and exterior tweaks so subtle that they’re like the effect of ageing on Elle McPherson’s body.

You know they must be there, but they’re not really noticeable, and the overall effect is still so darn pretty.

The shame about this shameful mood-lighting switch (surely it would make more sense in a 7 Series, where you can stretch out a bit) is that it taints what is otherwise an excellent, and much-improved, interior.

The last Cooper S had a grey plastic finish that looked like it had been set upon by a whole childcare centre full of greasy fingered little fiends. It was supposed to look like brushed aluminium, I think, but it just looked liked rushed ab-libbing by the designers.

Our test vehicle was all red leather and funky fake-wood plastic, but it all felt pleasant and of BMW build quality.

And the dash just might be the coolest in the whole car world.

The centrally mounted speedo has an indicator arrow whizzing around the outside, like one of those old-style weighing scales you used to find outside chemists, leaving space in the middle for a groovy little screen.

This screen displays functions that can be selected with a very simple but still slightly iDrive- like controller, or the satellite navigation map.

On the steering binnacle in front of you is a rev counter which can, if you like, also display a digital readout of your speed.

When the Mini was first launched here, they couldn’t get away with that arrangement, due to ADRs, and we were the only country in the world with the speedo stuck to the steering wheel, but this time they’ve got around it.

Looking at your speed on the massive central dial is totally impractical and no one likes having that information displayed where your passenger can see it so clearly anyway, but you put up with it because, as I say, the dash just looks so cool (even in vermillion-bathed light).

While the old Cooper S was supercharged, and had a wondrous whine to go with that, the new engine – shared with the PSA Peugeot-Citroen group – is an award-winning turbo unit and offers more lowdown punch and usable torque than before.

You get 128kW of power at a joyous 5500rpm and 240Nm of torque from 1600rpm to 5000rpm, which blips up to 260Nm via an overboost function when you really boot it.

The result is a lot more fun than 128 kilowatts should be, and a 0 to 100km/h time of 7.1 seconds.

The turbo doesn’t sound as good as the engine it replaces, but the performance more than makes up for that.

Not many people can engineer fun into a car as cleverly as BMW/Mini and, much like its parent company’s cars, the best thing about the new Cooper is the steering.

It really is go-kart like in that it needs so little lock wound on and it responds so pointedly.

The great thing about the Mini is that it can make even the boredom of the urban commute fun – the bends on and off the Anzac Bridge every day were a particular joy.

The ride isn’t too bad, for a car with such a short wheelbase, until you hit an expansion joint and it feels like you’ve run over a sequoia trunk. Not only do your teeth rattle, your ribs do.

In short, and sweet, form, there’s a lot to love about the new Mini Cooper S, even with its stupid interior lighting system.

It is, of course, entirely impractical if you’re ever going to carry more than one friend. And it is, undeniably, very expensive for a small car – prices start at $39,900 in standard trim and rise to very nearly $50k.

But it’s not meant to be a practical car, it’s mean to be a fun one and on that basis it’s worth every cent.

Pricing guides

$10,990
Based on 25 cars listed for sale in the last 6 months
Lowest Price
$4,400
Highest Price
$12,999

Range and Specs

VehicleSpecsPrice*
Park Lane 1.6L, ULP, CVT AUTO $6,380 – 9,020 2007 Mini Cooper 2007 Park Lane Pricing and Specs
Checkmate 1.6L, ULP, CVT AUTO $6,380 – 9,020 2007 Mini Cooper 2007 Checkmate Pricing and Specs
Chilli 1.6L, ULP, 5 SP MAN $5,830 – 8,250 2007 Mini Cooper 2007 Chilli Pricing and Specs
S Checkmate 1.6L, ULP, 6 SP MAN $7,590 – 10,670 2007 Mini Cooper 2007 S Checkmate Pricing and Specs
Stephen Corby
Contributing Journalist

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Disclaimer: The pricing information shown in the editorial content (Review Prices) is to be used as a guide only and is based on information provided to Carsguide Autotrader Media Solutions Pty Ltd (Carsguide) both by third party sources and the car manufacturer at the time of publication. The Review Prices were correct at the time of publication.  Carsguide does not warrant or represent that the information is accurate, reliable, complete, current or suitable for any particular purpose. You should not use or rely upon this information without conducting an independent assessment and valuation of the vehicle.