Mini Cooper News

The little oil-burner will start at $33,750 and is being spruiked by Mini as the most efficient and cleanest vehicle to go on sale in the Australian market yet.Using stop-start and brake energy regeneration systems, the Cooper D will lay claim to 104 grams of CO2 per kilometre and a thirst of just 3.9 litres per 100km.By comparison, the current number-one is the smart fortwo micro-hybrid, which claims 3.9l/100km and 105g/km of CO2.Toyota's Prius petrol-electric lays claim to a thirst of 4.4l/100km and emissions 106g/km.The company expects the Cooper D won't send the beancounters into a frenzy as it's an unknown segment for diesel.But Mini staffers say the Cooper D will be used as a barometer for diesel variants for other Mini models — but no decision has yet been made on which will be Australia's next Mini diesel model.Make One Degree of difference today by calculating your carbon footprint and finding out what you can do to reduce it.

A new diesel-powered Mini will arrive in Australia later this year to claim the title of Australia's cleanest new car, soundly beating the high-profile Toyota hybrid Prius.Australian Mini models will start coming off the production line in Oxford, England, in March and are expected to be in the showrooms by late May, early June.Pricing is yet to be finalised, but it is expected the base Mini D will come with a $34,000 price tag which is $700 more than the existing 1.6-litre entry level petrol model, the three-door Mini Cooper.A better equipped Chilli version is expected to be priced at just under $38,000, about $1000 more than the petrol version.The turbocharged 1.6-litre diesel will come with two big drawcards - frugal fuel economy and boasting rights, being greenest engine of any new car sold here.Mini says the Cooper D's fuel consumption is a claimed 3.9 litres per 100km, while CO2 emissions will be just 104g/km. The fuel consumption, in theory, gives the four-seater a range of 1025km from its 40-litre tank.The engine is sourced by Mini from Peugeot. It's the same engine which powers the Peugeot 207 HDi, but the Mini beats its French rival in fuel consumption bragging right because it is almost 240kg lighter in kerb weight.The cleanest car sold in Australia at present is the tiny tot 1-litre smart fortwo cabrio. Its CO2 level is 105g/km and achieves a claimed 4.4l/100km.Other green-friendly fuel misers include the 1.5-litre petrol/electric Prius (106g/km, 4.4l/100km) and the 1.3-litre diesel Fiat 500 (111g/km, 4.2l/100km).Australia's small car favourite, the 1.8-litre Toyota Corolla can only manage 172g/km and an average fuel consumption of 7.3l/100km.Mini says the new D will feature fuel saving technology borrowed from parent company BMW including automatically switching off the engine when the car is stopped as well as brake energy regeneration and a dashboard display prompting the driver when to shift up a gear for maximum efficiency.Other fuel-saving measures include a water pump for cooling and electric assistance for the power steering which are only switched on when needed.The Cooper D will come with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard and a six-speed auto as an option.The common-rail 1.6-litre diesel with variable turbo boost produces 80kW and 240Nm of torque between 1750rpm and 2000rpm, but 70 per cent of maximum torque is on tap at 1250rpm. Torque can be boosted to 260Nm using maximum throttle for swifter overtaking.On full boost, the Mini D takes a leisurely 9.9 seconds to hit 100km/h from a standing start, two tenths of a second quicker than the 207 HDi.On the styling front, the D comes with an aerodynamic undertray, a slightly larger power dome on the bonnet and a slightly different grille to the air intake below the bumper.On sale: Mid yearHow much: $34,000 to $38,000Power: 1.6-litre turbo diesel, 80kW at 4000rpm, 240Nm at 1750rpm (260Nm under full boost).Fuel consumption: 3.9l/10km claimed, CO2 104g/kmTransmission: Six-speed manual, six speed auto optionalKerb weight: 1090kg

They are not toys. And the batteries are included.The Mini E is the first solid sign that the BMW Group is getting serious about electric motoring, promising a workable battery-powered range of more than 200 kilometres and running costs of less than five cents a kilometre.The funky plug-in is already up and testing in Europe ahead of a public unveiling at the Los Angeles Motor Show in the second week of November.A full fleet of 500 cars will be ready for action early next year, and will be sold into key US cities including LA and New York.The Mini E loses its conventional petrol or diesel engine in favour of a high-tech Lithium-Ion battery pack which powers a 150 kiloWatt electric motor.It is claimed to have a top speed of 150km/h, 0-100km/h time of 8.5 seconds and a re-charge time of less than three hours.The Mini move comes quickly after American officialdom demanded a percentage of each carmaker's fleet must be zero-emission by 2012, but not as quickly as Mercedes-Benz or Mitsubishi.Benz already has a 100-strong fleet of Smart electric cars under test in London and Mitsubishi plans to have its i-Miev electric minicar in full-scale production in 2009.The Mini E is being introduced as a test vehicle with government departments and a small number of private owners on a least system.There are no plans yet to bring the car to Australia, although Mercedes and Mitsubishi are both committed to local sales of their plug-ins and the i-Miev should be on the road locally in 2009.

It's a plug-in electric car which will be previewed at the Los Angeles Motor Show ahead of sales of up to 500 cars in California through 2009.There was no sign of the Mini volt in Paris yesterday, even though Mercedes-Benz had its electric Smart on show and up and running, but the car is definitely coming."It's a plug-in. It looks like a Mini, drives like a Mini, but doesn't sound like a Mini," the global head of sales and marketing for BMW Group, Ian Robertson, says.He says BMW wants to get electric experience as soon as possible, not just in its cars but also to test the various infrastructure challenges from how and where to plug-in - at home, at work, at a government charging station - to the acceptance range for customers."We want to see how practical it is. We need to see if charging it at home works . . . right through to the issues of living with it."Robertson would not go into technical details on the electric Mini, not even the battery pack or range, but said everything would be obvious at LA in just over a month. 

The car – which would be a fourth variant in MINI’s current model range — has four doors, four drive wheels, four single seats and measures four metres in the length.The body has two hinged doors on the passenger’s side (front and back), with a third for the driver. The fourth door, for the rear passenger on the driver’s side, slides back along the outside of the car.The rear door has a frameless, retractable window and when open, swivels to one side to help the loading of long items, such as skis, snowboards and surfboards.A folding cover that extends across the length of the roof increases luggage capacity, and there is an optional transport case that can be fitted on to the outside of the rear door.A matt aluminium fastening rail extending from the dashboard through the middle of the car to the rear can become a modular system with detachable cupholders and storage and entertainment units.

THE Mini brand makes no bones about it: its new cars will be `a pair of red-hot racers for the road'.Cashing in on the interest of the Mini Challenge race car series around Australia, the new John Cooper Works Mini and Clubman (station wagon) will run high-performance versions of the 1.6-litre engines used to power the familiar Cooper S along with other hot-up bits. Light alloy 17in diameter wheels, red caliper performance brakes and a new exhaust system are part of the go-faster kit on the John Cooper Works versions.“These cars will bring the thrill of the race track to the road,” says Mini national manager Justin Hocevar. “We are excited that these red-hot models will be coming to Australia at the same time as our Mini Challenge race series will be showcasing Mini handling and performance prowess at race tracks around Australia.”The engine has been uprated to generate 155kW of power at 6000rpm - not bad from a 1.6-litre motor. Torque is a good 260Nm on tap from 1850rpm to 5600rpm. But there's an over-boost system in the turbocharging, allowing a temporary 280Nm between 2000rpm and 5300rpm.The engines use aluminium cylinder blocks and bearing housings, twin camshafts and exhaust valves filled with sodium to better handle the cooling requirements.The John Cooper Works cars have reinforced and specially-ground pistons and special material for intake valves and valve seat rings to make them more resilient. The two-door and Clubman wagon have aero packages and sports chassis of springs finished in red, as well as rear spoilers and perforated brake discs.Mini says the cars are the first front-wheel drives to have the Dynamic Stability Control from parent company BMW.It allows the threshold at which these systems intervene to be raised, so allowing an amount of slip on the driving wheels. Stability control can be switched off, too.The standard Mini Cooper is no slug, especially if the road has some tighter twists and turns. It will accelerate to 100km/h in 9.1 seconds and run to 203km/h. The Cooper S does the sprint in 7.1 seconds on the way to 225km/h. The John Cooper version clocks 6.5 seconds and 238km/h or in the Clubman wagon 6.8 seconds and 238km/h. The Clubman weighs 75kg more than the two-door.The John Cooper Works versions get a six-speed manual gearbox (no auto option) that has been beefed up to take the high torque loads.They are performance cars but are still gentle on petrol use and emissions. The two-door Works car averages 6.9 litres/100km and the Clubman 7 litres/100km. Emissions are 165g/km and 167g/km. 

It‘s business as usual for two of Australia's biggest racing series, despite being for sale. The Porsche Carrera Cup and the Mini Challenge are on the market after current owner Ian Sherrin decided he was too busy to run them.Sherrin's company, Motorsport Event Management (MEM), owns the category management rights for both series.After a rapid expansion into motorsport in recent years, including running cars in both series and Targa Tasmania, Sherrin says he has too much on his plate.He runs six cars in the Mini Challenge and two in the Carrera Cup.“After owning a category and a multiple-car race team in the same category for the past two years, it's time to concentrate on one or the other. I think this is the right decision to make,” he says.MEM will run both series for the rest of the year while a buyer is found.Porsche Cars Australia managing director Michael Winkler will help.“We'll work with Ian to have an arrangement in place by the end of this season to ensure a seamless and smooth transition into 2009. Until then, it's racing and business as usual,” Winkler says.The news is abrupt for Mini, with the series only three rounds old. But the company confirmed it remains committed.“Mini is confident that any sale of MEM will be to a suitable purchaser who will continue to manage the increasingly popular Mini Challenge series exactly in line with the arrangements Mini put in place with MEM,” Mini national manager Justin Hocevar says. 

It may seem like a strange comparison. A BMW 120i up against a Mini Cooper S Chilli. From a historical perspective, it's a small German luxury vehicle against a utilitarian British car for the masses, albeit the performance variant. But as with any number of instances in the car world these days, history has little to do with the reality of the present.True, the British Leyland Mini of the 1960s was a no-frills car. It came with the bare essentials, including a four-cylinder 850cc engine and four-speed manual gearbox.And, at the same time, in this neck of the woods (Australia) anything with the spinning propeller badge was considered luxury, even if it was merely as a result of exchange rates that had BMWs priced at least 150 per cent above most other cars.But how times (and exchange rates) have changed. Both the BMW120i and the Mini S Chilli now come from the same family, the BMW group. These days, neither would be considered as a true luxury vehicle.And since both appeared in the carsguide garage recently, both are around the $50,000 mark, why not a comparison?Today's Mini is to all intents and purposes designed and built by BMW. Bits of it come from various parts of Europe but it is a German car masquerading as a British vehicle.You get two doors, in the “S,” a highly sophisticated 1600cc turbocharged engine, and, in the test car, an equally sophisticated six-speed automatic gearbox. The interior, and for that matter the external appearance, is about as far from utilitarian as it's possible to get, especially in this “Chilli,” which came with heated leather seats, six airbags, floor mats, interior lighting package (colour adjustable), climate control, cruise control, 10-speaker sound system, sports seats and stainless steel pedals and footrest.Automatic transmission ($2200), Dynamic Stability Control ($840), chrome line interior ($250), glass roof with sliding and tilting function ($1840) and seat heating ($560) brought the total cost to $49,190.The BMW 120i five-door hatch (with executive package) tipped the scales at $52,850, thanks to options such as metallic paint ($1300), executive package of leather, USB interface and preparation for Bluetooth mobile interface ($1700), BMW navigation system ($3500), luggage compartment separation net ($150), electric glass sunroof ($2200) and voice recognition system ($700).Options excluded, the Beemer was $43,300 and the Mini $43,500.So for the same money you could have either vehicle. On the one hand a quick turbocharged 1600cc engine putting out 128kW and 240Nm of torque from as low as 1600rpm. An engine at the cutting edge, both frugal and powerful. On the other hand, another four, 2000cc, naturally aspirated, putting out 115kW and 200Nm of torque but at 3600rpm. Also a sophisticated engine, a revver in the best BMW tradition.The Mini wins the power contest both on paper and on the road, where the generous torque figure so low in the rev range means the Mini can be described as quick, while the BMW performance is moderate to good.True, there is only a 1.3 second advantage to the Mini in the 0-100km/h time if both cars are redlined, but real-world driving means the “grunt” of the Mini gives it much stronger legs in all conditions.In handling and roadholding stakes, the Mini takes the honours but not by as much of a margin as might be imagined.You can still provoke considerable understeer in the Mini and there is also noticeable torque steer if you gas it up with the wheels turned.In the ride/comfort stakes the BMW wins hands down.Both the 120i and the Chilli S use run flat tyres with hard sidewalls. The tyres do neither car any favours when it comes to passenger comfort, but it is the Mini which thumps and bangs over potholes rather than the Beemer.Both have stability control, which lets the driver push hard but stops the same driver from overdoing things.Interior set-up is much of a muchness in terms of switches and gadgets and dials.The Mini is more “funky” with aeronautical toggle switches both overhead (a la Boeing aircraft) and on the centre console. It also has an adjustable interior light colour scheme tooling through blue to red. The BMW is more traditional, the baby 120 having a cabin much like its bigger brother, understated if anything. The Mini is brashly youthful.If you want to go fast and be noticed, it's the blue Mini with the white bonnet stripes and twin chromed exhausts. If comfort and prestige float your boat, go for the BMW. However, $50,000 is more than a reasonable amount to pay for a motor car and neither the blue-and-white badge of the baby BMW or the “S” logo of the Mini present a watertight case of best value for money. If the budget is around $50,000, both the Mini and BMW have plenty of competition not restricted to Ford Focus XR5 ($37,000), VW Golf GTI ($40,000), VW Passat 2.0 turbo FSI ($45,000), and Mazda3 MPS ($40,000) for the Mini; and Mercedes 200 Turbo Avant ($48,300), Mercedes B-Class 200 ($48,500), Volvo S60 2.4LE ($50,000), Audi A3 TFSI ($43,000), and Audi A4 2.0 sedan ($50,000) for the BMW.The choice available these days is truly all encompassing and figuring out how much you are paying for the badge rather than the abilities and appointments you want is a tough task. 

So which carmaker is the world's cleanest? Not sure? Well, an independent survey released last week has found that BMW has most improved its average fuel efficiency and CO2 emission rate. Indeed, it's done so to an extent which will embarrass other carmakers.The study, began from 1990-2005 by Environmental Defense, a US-based non-profit environmental advocacy group, which shows BMW has improved fuel economy by 14 per cent and carbon emissions by 12.3 per cent.The next best reduction was Toyota's 3 per cent. The C02 performance of every other leading carmaker deteriorated.BMW has made much of the fact that the report covers a period when its US sales increased fourfold.The Americans, of course, buy more big X5 SUVs than the rest of the world combined. The report, Automakers' Corporate Carbon Burdens, studied the impact of 12 major carmakers' product strategies on fuel efficiency and overall automotive carbon emissions.BMW improved fuel economy on several key models, including the 3 Series, 5 Series, 7Series, Z4 M Coupe, M5 Sedan and X5 SUV. Of course, the group's Mini Cooper accounted for almost half of BMW's overall fuel economy improvements.BMW Australia spokesman Toni Andreevski says the group has made further substantial improvements to fuel consumption and emissions since the end of the survey period.“Already in 2007, one-third of new BMWs sold in Europe have a CO2 rating of no more than 140g per kilometre,” he says. “Basically it is a great result that shows that we can continue to optimise current engines. It also shows petrol and diesel engines that outperform existing hybrid technology at comparable costs.”With its latest diesel and lean-burn direct-injection petrol engines, (the latter is no good for Australia because of the high sulphur content of our petrol) BMW has taken its own hybrid direction. This week at the Frankfurt motor show, it showcased its new dual-mode hybrid that returns a claimed 20 per cent economy improvement on the highway and in town.BMW's other more vaunted green gambit is the Hydrogen 7, the first hydrogen-powered luxury sedan. Driven in Germany last year by carsguide, the Hydrogen 7 emits primarily vapour when running on a non-petrol engine.Toyota rated second best, reducing CO2 3 per cent overall, a result in part due to its introduction of the Prius hybrid, but mainly to improvements made to the best-selling Corolla.The report also rated the overall 'carbon burden' that carmakers placed on the environment, derived from factors including vehicle emissions and the number sold. GM came out on top, with a 6.5per cent reduction in overall carbon burden, though its carbon emissions rose by 3 per cent. Toyota, while low in CO2, grew its carbon burden by 125 per cent because of an increase in overall sales. Snapshot: Carbon savings BMW: reduced 12.3 per centToyota: reduced 3 per centVolkswagen: up 1.3 per centSubaru: up 1.6 per centGeneral Motors: up 3per centMitsubishi: up 4 per centHonda: up 4.4 per centFord: up 4.7 per centDaimlerChrysler: up 4.8 per centNissan: up 9.2 per centHyundai: up 17 per centKia: up 30 per cent Source: US Environmental Defense group 

The new Mini Challenge will hit Australian racetracks in style with a spectacular opening race next year, probably at the Australian Grand Prix.Though Mini Australia spokesman Alexander Corne can't reveal details of the new series calendar, he says it will have a big beginning.“I can't confirm anything specific but we want to start things off with a bang,” Corne says. “We want to put the Mini Challenge in front of the widest possible audience.”Mini already has a history at the Australian Grand Prix, it provided the cars for the Celebrity Challenge in 2002.Negotiations about next year's calendar are taking place with several key stakeholders. It is likely to support the V8 Supercar Championship and run alongside the Porsche Carrera Cup. According to Corne several parties have already shown interest in the category.Mini will unveil the new-for-2008 Challenge racer at the Frankfurt Motor Show in October. The new cars will be built at the company's English factory and be race-prepared in Germany before coming here. The plan is to try to have a race car here later in the year to help promote the new series to competitors and fans.Next year, cars will use a turbocharged version of the engine, replacing the previous supercharged model. They will produce the same amount of power, 154kW but the turbo engine delivers better torque and mid-range performance.Another addition is a limited-slip differential to improve traction in tight corners.The company has also improved the cars' aerodynamics to improve performance and keep the racing close.The Challenge racers will do 0-100km/h in 6.1 seconds and have a top of 240km/h.