2015 Mini Cooper S - Functionally simplified—though still quite busy

Inside, the Cooper lineup is a little less quirky than it was, and less cluttered in its controls. Yet it’s still most definitely a busy design. Between the various curves, bulges, steps, bevels, and bezels, taking in the design of the interior as a whole can be overwhelming, even though from a functional standpoint it's been simplified. The speedometer has been moved in front of the driver—a good move, we think—while the central stack is still a Big Round Thing, now encircling a display screen. Below, there’s now just a handful of toggle-switches, and climate controls are quite intuitive and ordinary.

A ring surrounds the central display cluster, illuminating based on your driving style and driving mode. We found it gimmicky and somewhat distracting and turned it off; our test car had the available head-up display, which we found quite useful given the central gauges. Settings for both items, by the way, are accessed through a version of BMW’s familiar iDrive system, with a version of the iDrive controller just behind the shift knob. For this tall, long-armed driver, with the seat back most of the way, it was in the right place; but we do wonder about shorter drivers.

Otherwise there’s a drive mode switch just at the back of the shift-knob base, letting you choose from Sport and Green settings, as well as a 'normal' one, that order up some quite different behaviors in the powertrain and steering. The Green setting, for instance, lets the transmission fully detach when you ease off the gas, for far more effective coasting.

A different car, familiar in the details

The latest generation of Mini Coopers are built on a new platform, but you might not even know it from the outside. You’ll know it once underway, though; this feels like a different vehicle entirely—yet one intimately familiar in some details.

While base Mini Cooper models now have a 134-horsepower, 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine—one that lets the MINI Cooper achieve ratings up to 30 mpg city, 42 highway—the Cooper S we drove comes with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, making 189 hp and 207 pound-feet of torque—or 221 lb-ft in a special overboost mode, for a few seconds at a time. In our Cooper S it was hooked up to a six-speed automatic transmission; and although we probably would have preferred the six-speed manual, the automatic was a delight for the most part, allowing more of a ‘connected’ feeling than most automatics bring.