2025 Mini Cooper JCW review: Australian first drive

Mini has completed its new-generation model range with its hottest series-production models yet, the John Cooper Works (JCW) family.

There’s now an electric JCW hot hatch, as well as various SUV-esque flavours, but it’s the Original Recipe – the three-door petrol JCW hatch – that is likely to excite hardcore Mini fans the most.

It is officially branded Mini JCW, though we will refer to it in this review as the Mini Cooper JCW – as it sits above the Mini Cooper C and Mini Cooper S, with Cooper now the model name for the company’s three-door hatch and convertible, rather than part of the variant designation only.

As with the rest of the petrol-powered Mini hatch range, the new Cooper JCW is not all-new – rather it is a heavy update of the existing model on sale since 2014, with new front and rear-end styling, a redesigned interior, new features, and revised engines.

Performance has been improved, with a torque – but not power – bump for the familiar 2.0-litre turbo engine, now matched with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, rather than an eight-speed torque-converter auto.

The manual transmission option – previously available in other markets until the end of the old model’s run, but dropped locally in 2023 – is gone for the new range.

Prices across the range have dropped by about $3000 too. Does the latest Mini Cooper JCW move the game forward enough to stand out?

Drive’s first taste of the heavily updated JCW hatch – as well as the JCW Convertible – has come in the form of a closed-course track test around the RACQ Mobility Centre facility in Queensland.

The Cooper JCW hatch is offered in two variants, Classic and Favoured, priced from $57,990 and $60,990 plus on-road costs respectively – down $2760 and $3260 respectively over the previous Classic and Mini Yours.

Meanwhile, the Convertible is priced from $64,990 plus on-roads as a Classic, and $67,990 plus on-roads as a Favoured, down $2885 and $3385 respectively.

The stripped-back $57,750 JCW Essential hatch has been deleted for the new model.

Classic grade equipment includes 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.

Favoured grades also include performance tyres, power-adjustable front seats with memory and driver massaging, and sun protection glazing.

There are no direct three-door, front-wheel-drive, petrol-powered hot-hatch and/or convertible rivals to the Mini JCW, following the demise of the non-electric Abarth.

If you want three doors, there’s the all-wheel-drive Toyota GR Yaris ($57,990 to $62,990 with an automatic).

If you want five doors but front-wheel drive, there’s the similarly sized Hyundai i20 N ($35,500), and much larger Volkswagen Golf GTI ($58,990).

And if you want a convertible, there are no rivals with front-wheel drive – so with rear-wheel drive, there’s the Mazda MX-5 GT auto ($50,290) and Ford Mustang GT V8 ($87,667) under $100K.

Its new front and rear-end designs may be new, but the latest petrol three-door Mini’s footprint is little changed from its predecessor. It’s slightly wider and longer, but at 3876mm long, 1744mm wide and 1452mm tall, it’s still a very small car.

Mini’s latest models have simplified the interior experience, removing many of the outgoing model’s buttons and switchgear, and deleting the instrument cluster.

The circular OLED display is now the only traditional screen in the cabin – more on that in the next section – surrounded by a knitted fabric material, and a minimalist row of toggles and buttons for starting the car, changing gears, adjusting the drive mode, and more.

That knitted trim is a funky alternative to a scratchy black plastic, but there are still hard and less plush-feeling materials on the doors and lower dashboard, although the cabin feels well assembled in the near-new test cars we drove.

Distinguishing the JCW is a red and black version of the knitted interior material, a JCW-branded steering wheel with paddle shifters, red contrast highlights, and seat upholstery comprised of black leather-look ‘Vescin’ and ‘Cord’ fabric.

The front seats are firmly bolstered but comfortable and supportive in faster driving, with heating across the range, and power adjustment in the Favoured grades.

The steering wheel feels purposeful in the hand – with a thick rim and physical buttons, rather than fiddly touch-sensitive controls – but even in its highest setting, it’s placed a little too low in the car for our liking, though your mileage may differ.

Leg room for a taller driver is reasonable for a small car, and it doesn’t feel as narrow as you’d think for a small car. If you're planning to take the car to the track, and wear a helmet, those stretching beyond 186cm (6ft 1in) may begin to struggle with head room under the glass sunroof.

Closed storage space is limited to a small latched box between the front seats – with a contrasting-colour strap to open it, though it does so towards the driver – and a decently sized glovebox for a small car.

There are two cupholders, a wireless charging pad with a strap to hold your phone in place, and a pair of small door pockets.

Amenities include heated front seats and steering wheel, dual-zone climate control, two USB-C ports, a 12-volt socket, and keyless entry and start.

Space in the rear is, unsurprisingly, tight. At 186cm tall, there is some toe room under the driver’s seat – set in my position – but my knees are squished into the front seatback, and because the sunroof extends into the second row, I’m not able to sit up straight.

It’s unlikely many three-door Mini buyers will go into their purchase expecting a roomy rear seat, but the space is best used for kids, or shorter adults on occasional trips. There are no USB ports or storage areas in the rear, but there is a single cupholder, as well as ISOFIX and top-tether points for anchoring child seats in both rear positions.

The boot is also small, rated at just 210 litres behind the rear seats in the hatch. There are storage pockets on the side of the luggage area, but no spare wheel, and while the rear seats can fold, they don’t do so flat with the rest of the cargo hold.

Convertible buyers will enjoy the power-operated soft-top roof – which can fold completely, or retract partially to act like a sunroof – but it shrinks the boot when retracted (from 215L to 160L), and Mini hasn’t invested in giving the drop-top the new-style triangular tail-lights of the hatch.

There’s only one screen inside the Cooper, a 240mm (9.4-inch) circular OLED touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, DAB+ digital radio, and embedded satellite navigation with augmented-reality route guidance.

It looks slick and modern, and it’s well featured, but it takes some time to learn its various menus, with multiple pages of apps that are not all intuitively named.

Its biggest weakness is its processing power, with noticeable lag between menus, and it’s not as snappy as you expect it to be.

It’s particularly frustrating as the air-conditioning controls run through the screen, with sliders along its edge for temperature – and other functions, such as fan speed, more than a tap away. The icons are on the smaller side in places too.

There are eight drive modes on offer, controlled through a toggle under the touchscreen. Among them is Go-Kart, which is Mini’s name for sport mode, and it plays a ‘woo-hoo!’ sound through the speakers when activated that some will find funny, but others will turn off through the menus as soon as possible.

There are also more traditional modes, including one intended to mimic the central speedometer of the original 1959 Mini.

Occupants can also say ‘Hey Mini’ to activate the voice assistant, should you not want to interact with the screen.

There is no conventional instrument display, rather key data is shown on the central touchscreen or a head-up display ahead of the driver.

It shows enough information such that we don’t miss a traditional gauge cluster, but we wish it was projected onto the windscreen, rather than the cheap-looking flip-up type, which Mini can’t seem to escape across its range.

Support for the Mini Connected phone app is included with the car, allowing owners to check the vehicle’s location, remotely lock or unlock the doors, and more. It’s free for the first three years, but will switch to a subscription thereafter.

The days of features such as Apple CarPlay and heated seats being offered through subscription services on new BMW Group models has passed, but there is still a Connected package that’s free for the first three months of ownership, before reverting to a circa-$10/month subscription.

It includes 3D building views for the satellite navigation, support for third-party apps such as Spotify, and changes the icon for the voice assistant from a depiction of a Mini to a dog named Spike. We aren’t entirely sure that’s worth $10 a month, but you can be the judge.

Petrol Mini models also still offer a remote engine start feature as an extra-cost subscription.

The petrol version of the new Mini Cooper is yet to be crash-tested by ANCAP.

The latest petrol Mini Cooper isn’t all new, but it has made advances where it counts in terms of the safety features on offer.

Blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert (with braking support), lane-keep assist and lane-centring assist are now for the new model, plus a 360-degree camera, driver attention monitor, and a side door exit warning.

We will test the real-world performance of the safety features when we get the Cooper JCW through the Drive garage in the coming months.

Mini covers its vehicles with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, the standard in the prestige-car market.

There are no set maintenance intervals, rather servicing is condition-based – so the car will tell you when it needs to visit a dealer.

However, buyers can purchase one of two capped-price service packages from Mini – ‘basic’ or ‘plus’ – which are valid for the five years or 80,000km, whichever comes first.

The basic pack costs $2250, and includes annual vehicle checks – consider that a service interval, of sorts – plus oil changes (including filters), and replacements for the spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter and brake fluid as required.

The ‘plus’ plan does not have a price on the Mini website, and includes the basic package’s contents plus replacements and maintenance on brake pads and discs, wiper blade rubbers, and clutch discs and plates, all as required.

We were only allowed to test the Cooper JCW around a track on this preview drive, so we didn’t pay much attention to fuel consumption as it won’t be anywhere near reflective of real-world use.

Mini claims the JCW hatch consumes 6.8 litres per 100 kilometres in mixed driving, rising to 6.9L/100km for the JCW Convertible, based on lab testing – which, in our experience, may prove hard to match in the real world across a variety of environments.

The 44-litre fuel tank requires 98-octane premium unleaded petrol.

The new JCW is an evolution of the model before it, but there have been improvements where it counts – and it’s still a fun hot hatch that lives up to the Mini brand.

Power from the 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder petrol engine remains 170kW, but torque has risen from 320Nm to 380Nm, albeit over a slightly narrower range (now from 1500–4000rpm rather than 1450–4800rpm).

Performance is strong on boost, particularly through the mid-range, but it’s not as keen for RPM as the turbo engines in some of its peers.

It’s accompanied by a pleasant note from the single exhaust outlet. The pops and crackles are a welcome inclusion, but they sound fake… because they are, synthesised by the speakers rather coming out of the tailpipe.

The eight-speed torque-converter auto has been replaced by a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, which is smartly calibrated in sporty driving when left to its own devices.

Shifts are quick and snappy as you’d expect, and in Go-Kart mode – Mini-speak for sport mode – and the gearbox’s manual setting, the car won’t automatically upshift if you hit the rev limiter. On a few occasions we found the car denying a downshift, which may be a result of how the gears are spaced, rather than dimwittedness from the transmission.

The nature of our first drive means we can’t tell you what the gearbox is like at low speeds around town – or how comfortable the JCW’s adaptive suspension is over potholes or speed bumps, because there were none on this test course.

But we can say it handles like a hot hatch should. The JCW hatch feels its small size and modest weight – especially compared to the convertible, which lacks the hardtop’s immediacy on turn-in, and feels heavier than the 95kg difference on paper.

With stability control switched on, the JCW has a neutral, forgiving handling balance that’s easy for newbies to find and enjoy, but there’s a degree of playfulness – wagging its tail on lifting off the throttle mid-corner – ready to be explored in a closed environment with the assists turned off.

The steering is quick for an agile feel, and has some heft to it just off-centre – particularly in Go-Kart mode – but lightens up naturally as you turn deeper into a corner.

There is no trick limited-slip differential to apportion torque on the front axle, but the JCW puts its power down surprisingly well, without too much torque steer or stability-control intervention that gets in the driver’s way.

Grip depends heavily on the wheels and tyres optioned, however – the 17-inch alloys with Maxxia tyres on one of the vehicles we tested had less purchase on the road surface than the 18s and Continental SportContact 7s of other test vehicles.

You can't choose the tyre fitted to your JCW, rather it will wear one of a number of compounds Mini has deemed to be equivalent – based on which truck arrived at the factory first that day – but the Favoured offers the option to fit tyres within a stickier 'performance' category. Again, it's a lucky dip, but ticking that box will see Mini pull from a better pool of rubber.

The brakes feel strong when the discs are cold, with a firm pedal, but Mini has quietly downgraded the JCW’s stopping power: the four-piston front calipers of the old model have been swapped for the single-piston floating calipers used by the rest of the range.

The brake discs on the JCW are still a decent size – shared with the outgoing car – but it only takes a few spirited track laps for fade to creep through, and some of the car’s stability under braking to fade away.

Still, hot-hatch fans will find plenty to like in the new John Cooper Works, even if it isn’t a revolution of its predecessor’s recipe.

The new Mini John Cooper Works doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it arguably didn’t need to.

It still looks like a Mini, includes a more contemporary interior with heavily upgraded technology, offers a longer list of safety and convenience features, and is even better to drive than ever, with more torque and sharp handling.

Better still, it’s cheaper than the previous model – though it’s not what we’d call cheap, and there remain drawbacks in the package, with tight rear seats, a small boot, and a touchscreen that’s not as snappy as it ought to be.

Mini customers tend to want a Mini, and don’t seriously cross-shop it against anything else. In that sense, it’s hard to see buyers of the new JCW will be disappointed with their purchase.

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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