2025 Mini Cooper JCW Favoured review

Hot hatches are tasked with trying to balance performance, practicality, and price all within equal measures.

Traditionally, it’s fair to say Mini hasn’t always excelled in all three areas, given its Cooper hatchback is priced at a premium level beyond rivals such as the Hyundai i20 N and Volkswagen Polo GTI.

Neither has it shone in the practicality stakes – the brand’s dogged determination to stick to its roots means the size of the Mini can’t swell to accommodate a family, for example.

But there’s an X-factor offered by the Mini Cooper that few other carmakers can touch – charm. There’s a level of ingrained fun and entertainment that is so easily extracted from cars like the 2025 Mini Cooper JCW that no other rival can match.

This is why the enduring nameplate retains such an illustrious shine, and it’s the box-fresh Cooper JCW that is worth a look if you’re chasing performance thrills.

It’s a good news story here, in terms of affordability, for the current range-topping Mini Cooper JCW – it’s cheaper than its predecessor.

Two distinct trim grades remain for the flagship Mini Cooper JCW – Classic and Favoured – but prices have come down $2760 and $3260 respectively over the previous Classic and Mini Yours.

It means the Mini Cooper JCW Favoured is priced from $60,990 before on-road costs, despite a boost in equipment, performance, and design.

The Classic grade gets kit such as LED headlights, 17- or 18-inch alloy wheels, adaptive suspension, a 9.4-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, augmented-reality navigation, a head-up display, leather-look and fabric upholstery, a heated leather steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and start, a sunroof, and a 360-degree camera.

But the Favoured variant I’ve been testing features performance tyres, power-adjustable front seats with memory and driver massaging, and sun protection glazing.

Between you and I, I don’t think I’d spend the extra $3000 for the Favoured, given the lack of substantial extra equipment, but your mileage may vary.

In any case, the new car gets 60Nm more torque from its 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder motor, but no add in power over the old model. Its run from zero to 100 kilometres per hour is an identical 6.1 seconds.

Personal preference, but I think it looks cool too. It’s definitely the type of car that lends itself to a personalised colour combination and customisation, but the base car looks great with its red highlights, single-exit exhaust pipe, and aggressive vents all around the bodywork.

Front-wheel-drive rivals include the Hyundai i20 N ($35,500 plus ORCs) and Volkswagen Polo GTI ($41,790). These cars offer less power but come at a substantially more affordable price point.

Within Mini’s own ranks, you can now choose a dedicated performance electric vehicle in the new Mini Cooper JCW Electric – this costs $63,990 (plus ORCs) and is marginally faster to 100km/h (5.9 seconds), though, naturally, is a heavier car due to its high-voltage battery.

The refreshed Mini range has only just launched, so examples of used options haven’t quite hit Drive Marketplace just yet, but the new car does share a platform with its predecessor and there remains stock to browse online.

It may be true that the new-generation Mini Coopers are based on the same platform as before, but step inside the cabin and the car has undergone a substantial change.

The age-old circular theme is retained for the dashboard and infotainment array, now incorporating a 9.4-inch circular display. It’s very impressive in terms of presentation, but not the best with regard to user experience – more on this soon.

It’s a very touchy-feely cabin with knitted inlays on the dash and door panels – which, curiously, are a cost-extra add-on in BMWs – plus leather upholstery for the seats and steering wheel.

The knitted trim is a cool alternative to what’s used in other cars, though there are still hard plastics around the doors and lower dash. That said, it feels like a reassuringly well-assembled car.

There are JCW-inspired accents inside the cabin such as red highlights for the dash and door cards, a 12 o’clock marker for the steering wheel, and JCW-specific paddles for the gearbox.

The ambient lighting in the new Minis is awesome. It projects from behind the screen across the dash, making it seem like the knitted material is backlit. It brings a cool vibe to the Mini’s interior.

For a harder-edged hot hatch, the front seats aren’t super supportive like you’d find in other hot hatches, but the Cooper JCW’s pews do provide a good amount of adjustment and feel suitably premium.

I’m a tall 194cm and I felt pretty cosy in the front row, but I wasn’t hampered by the head room on offer. There’s very little space to store your things, however.

There’s a lidded box within the central tunnel that contains enough space for a small water bottle, plus two cupholders, but there are very few other stowage spaces for your wallet or keys. Bags will have to live on the floor too.

A wireless phone charger is nestled beneath the circular screen, but it’s not the easiest to use. There’s an elasticised band to hold the phone in place, but if you’ve got a large-sized phone, there’s a very small aperture to sneak the device through.

There is next to no space in the door pockets – barely enough for a decent-sized water bottle.

It’s a similarly cramped experience in the second row, especially for someone of my height. There’s a narrow space to sneak through, and once you’re back there it’s tight for head room and leg space.

This is best thought of a 2+2 seater, rather than a four-seat vehicle.

Keep in mind, there are no USB power points in the second row, only one cupholder, and no air vents.

Mini states the boot is rated for 210 litres with the seats up, or 725L with the seats down. Unfortunately, the load floor isn’t flat either, meaning larger items might rock around when on the move. There is no spare wheel for when you run into a flat tyre.

The central 9.4-inch display in the Mini houses all controls from air-conditioning to driving settings and it does a decent job of portraying this information. In earnest, I would prefer more physical controls for adjusting bits and pieces such as the air-conditioning, but at least there are distinct hard-coded sliders to control the temperature.

The way the information is displayed on the circular screen is novel and will take a bit of time to get used to, especially regarding the app drawer, but the user experience gets easier over time.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included within the screen, but the integration isn’t the best. The squared-off layout of the system simply doesn’t integrate well within the circular screen and it makes for an odd layout.

Otherwise, there’s native satellite navigation (with augmented reality), digital radio, Bluetooth connectivity, and a high-definition 360-degree camera that works much better within the circular screen.

The Harman Kardon sound system fitted to the Cooper JCW sounded good to my ears, but is hardly worth getting excited about.

At the vehicle’s launch, my colleague Alex Misoyannis noted a distinct lag between menu systems, hampered by a lack of processing power, and while it’s not the quickest or most intuitive of infotainment systems, the poking and prodding I did with the screen was fairly quick. Certainly, it didn’t bother me.

There’s no dedicated driver’s cluster screen. Instead, critical driving information, such as speed info, is viewed through a pop-up head-up display. Personally, I wish it was projected onto the windscreen rather than the finicky plastic window.

App support is available through the Mini Connect app, which handles vehicle location data, remote unlock, and preconditioning for the air. This is free for the first three years, then reverts to a $10/month subscription package.

We’re yet to hear of a rating for the brand-new Mini Cooper, including JCW variants.

A swathe of safety equipment is made available across the Mini JCW range, including all the expected items such as autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, stop-and-go function in addition to lane-centring and rear cross-traffic alert.

I love that a high-definition surround-view camera makes parking the Mini a cinch, the lane-centring worked perfectly for my commute, and the stop-and-go functionality kept the car moving uniformly in traffic.

Honestly, these systems are mirrored to those offered in BMW products and I’ve spent a lot of time testing those out over the last 12 months – I still think they’re some of the best-calibrated safety systems on the market today.

The same as BMW, Mini warrants its new cars for five years (unlimited kilometres) – the standard offering that you’ll find all over the new-car market.

Also the same as BMW, the maintenance schedule is condition-based, meaning the car will alert its owner when an item of maintenance is required.

That said, Mini sells a capped-price service pack for the first five visits back to the dealer valued at $2250.

Insuring the Cooper JCW Favoured on a comprehensive cover policy costs $1855 each year. This is a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The Mini Cooper JCW is a hot hatch, so while an eye on economy isn’t front of mind, it should still return a respectable number given its small-capacity engine and its light weight.

Mini claims 6.8 litres per 100 kilometres on a mixed driving cycle, and while I wasn’t trying to be frugal on fuel, I returned a 9.3L/100km rating after my week with the car.

This was across city scenarios, freeway use, and some hard-charging twists and turns through Melbourne’s Dandenong region.

The car only comes with a 44-litre fuel tank, and it must be refuelled with a 98-octane premium unleaded petrol.

It’s true to say that the Mini Cooper JCW driving experience is all about fun. But, it’s also a semi-serious sports hatch. It may be down on power and torque compared to something like a Volkswagen Golf GTI, for example, but it’s light enough in weight that its outputs go further than you’d expect.

The Cooper JCW runs from zero to 100km/h in 6.1 seconds, which is fast in and of itself, but the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine punches far harder by the seat-of-the-pants-ometer.

The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox is deftly capable of performing quick shifts when asked (read: a proper jab of the throttle) and, thankfully, it doesn’t exude the same hesitations at low speeds we’ve seen from other BMWs recently. This is particularly welcome news when driving the car around town, because its predecessor could be a bit of a handful in terms of its hesitant gearbox.

Back to driving fast, the JCW does its best work in Go-Kart mode – sharpening the throttle response, adding weight to the steering, and firming up the adaptive dampers – but the add-on fake exhaust noises are unwelcome.

It sounds less like the exhaust is backfiring on the overrun, and more like loose groceries are rolling around in the boot. It’s a truly horrible interpretation of what an exhaust should sound like and takes some of the shine off what should be an entertaining drive mode.

But that’s not all – there’s an efficiency driving mode that changes the vibe to aim for frugal fuel economy rather than encouraging spirited driving. It’s arguably more entertaining to use because you get a little bird motif in the infotainment screen to keep happy with considered driving, which changes to a cheetah as you lean into the throttle harder.

The handling profile is bang-on perfect for a hot hatch of its size and weight – it's direct, tactile, and provides ample feedback to the driver about grip levels. There's a serious firmness to the Mini JCW's ride profile that can annoy in a suburban setting – it's very taut over speed humps and road joins – but it remains a composed and dynamic car when changing directions in anger.

There's a good feel from the brake pedal – and steadfast stopping power. The car feels beautifully lightweight and immensely 'chuckable' into corners.

It's a tight cabin when you're sitting side by side with a bigger-sized passenger, which would be one of my few negatives about driving the Mini JCW – so definitely take it for a test drive to first determine if it's well suited to your situation.

On the face of it, the Mini Cooper JCW facelift doesn't shift the game too far forward. It's ostensibly the same under the skin and there was no power bump either. But, the improvements Mini has made in terms of design and interior changes are hugely impressive.

The interior is full of fun, and the new tech suite is one of the car's best attributes. It may be a confusing system to get your head around at first, but the way it presents with the circular screen is very unique and is a cool talking point for any passengers. Likewise, the knitted interior materials were one of my favourite aspects.

It's as fun as ever behind the wheel, and the new seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is a great pairing for the zippy little engine. We'd still prefer a manual gearbox option, because if there were any hot hatch to come with a manual, this should be it.

But, go into a Mini Cooper JCW purchase knowing it's as cool, kitsch, and entertaining as ever – now priced more affordable than before.

Tom started out in the automotive industry by exploiting his photographic skills but quickly learned journalists got the better end of the deal. With tenures at CarAdvice, Wheels Media, and now Drive, Tom's breadth of experience and industry knowledge informs a strong opinion on all things automotive. At Drive, Tom covers automotive news, car reviews, advice, and holds a special interest in long-form feature stories.

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