Mini Convertible

In recent years, Mini has been innovative with the design of the interior, with the 3-Door Hatch getting a wide variety of colours, textures, upholsteries and features to select. The dashboard and many of the components of the interior of the Mini Convertible have been shared with the Mini 3-Door Hatch, so expect to see a lot of funky-looking bits inside the cabin of this compact convertible car.

The youthful-looking cabin of the Mini Convertible features a round-themed, flat-bottom, multi-functional steering wheel and a full-TFT instrument console with rounded edges behind the steering wheel. The round-themed centre console accommodates an 8.8-inch touchscreen infotainment system, while the lower centre console also looks creative with toggle-like switches for various functions, including engine push start-stop and climate control. The Mini Convertible also comes with new-age features like ambient lighting, wireless charger and heated front seats.

The overall appearance of the Mini Convertible is very much similar to that of the Mini 3-Door Hatch, but it gets an openable soft top clothing cover, which can retract or fold back in seconds, giving it the aura of a premium and expensive sports car. However, the car has compact footprints, with the right proportions and lots of attention factor.

With the rounded housings for the LED projectors, rounded daytime running LEDs and partitioned grille, the front fascia of the Mini Convertible is similar to that of the Mini 3-Door Hatch. The grille and the headlamps come with gloss black surrounds, while the partitioned grille has honeycomb mesh inserts in both the upper and lower parts. The customers of the Mini Convertible can spec their car with a contrast stripe job over the bonnet in its middle part. There is a hint of aggressiveness in the overall design of the Mini Convertible with the presence of a front splitter and slim air curtains in the front bumper.

Barring the slightly different-looking cloth top, the Mini Convertible is similar to its hard-top counterpart in appearance, with it also having long door panels and a long wheelbase. Here too, the customers can choose among the wide variety of 17-inch and 18-inch wheels and colour options for the rearview mirrors and roof. The rear profile too has been shared with the 3-Door Hatch, with the Mini Convertible also having vertically-laid tail lamps with Union Jack-inspired LED inserts. This car misses out on a proper rear windscreen, as the foldable soft top gets an integrated clear curtain in the middle at the back.

While the John Cooper Works version of the Mini Convertible attracts you with its adaptive suspension, the Cooper S packs in three driving modes – Sport, Mid and Green. These elements make the driving experience of Mini Convertible versions very involving and precise to the changing driving behaviours. The stiff suspension setup and large alloy wheels with lower profile tyres further make the agility of the car very impressive, but the stiff suspension makes the ride quality stiffer.

Both the variants of the Mini Convertible are powered by the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine but are available in different states of tune from each other. The Cooper S variant claims 180 PS of power and 280 Nm of torque, while the John Cooper Works promises 231 PS of power and 320 Nm of torque. An 8-speed automatic transmission is standard in both powertrains.

Only the basics of the safety equipment nest have been made available in the Mini Convertible, such as four airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, dynamic stability control, cornering braking control, traction control, cruise control, hill start assist and reverse parking camera and sensors.

The Mini Convertible retains all the funkiness, youthful features (most of them), potent powertrain options, adaptive suspension from the Mini 3-Door Hatch, and the added exclusivity of a convertible roof.