How much for MINI Convertible small fun convertible fun? Find prices here

The new MINI Hatch 3-door has been in South Africa for 2 years now, followed by the first-ever MINI Hatch 5-door, and a push on the new big 6-door Clubman.

So MINI has been so busy, some though they may have forgotten to make a new generation MINI Convertible.  Fortunately they haven’t.  It is arriving.

Small fun convertible fun

What can be more fun that scooting along the sea waters in a small fun convertible?  Just looking at these photos makes one want to take a drive along the coastline… just for the fun of driving.

The MINI Convertible has the unique advantages of a small convertible car:  you can hit the starter switch and let the roof down to quickly shoot to the shop (whether at home or your holiday spot) for some nice fresh bread and milk for that late simple holiday breakfast and appetite, or go to the beach with the roof down, go tour the local scenic route and places to see and eat or play… you can do all this without feeling self-conscious, not hear and snide remarks or see any sneering looks that you might showing off, or worse.  When you reach your destination, you can more easily find parking without worrying about the car’s low nose, and just go enjoy yourself without worrying about leaving your expensive convertible out in the open.  A MINI Convertible takes the stress away, in all the above situations.

What’s new?

As it based on the new shape MINI, it also gets the new but familiar body, though bigger, so the interior has more comfortable space, and the boot has grown which makes it much more practical for daily use, and a lot more holiday-able than before.  With the roof up it is now 215 litres, and with the roof dropped partially in the boot, you have 160 litres left.  The bootlid has a new Easy Load feature, which still drops the bootlid down (in classic Mini and MINI Convertible style) but now lets you lift the top of the boot + rear piece of the roof to make it much easier to access the boot.  The picture speaks a 1000 words.

For the new MINI Convertible you will see the new lights, including the LED light rings which are an option on Cooper and standard on Cooper S.

Engines and gearbox choices are Cooper with the 3-cylinder turbo, so Cooper Convertible no longer struggles when you and 3 mates are in the car, and Cooper S for more performance from its 2-litre turbo, and more sporty details like a dual centre exhaust where the Cooper has 1 side exhaust. 

From the front you can tell them apart by the classic horizontal bars grille on Cooper, with Cooper S getting a mesh black grille with chrome lipstick, and red with chrome-border S badges on the rear, side and now on the grille, too.

Manual and automatics are available on both.

If you want to order your MINI Convertible in this bright new turquoise paint, ask for Caribbean Aqua – it does look like Caribbean waters, hey?

Better roof and integrated roll hoops

The new MINI Convertible roof is now more quiet and quicker, stowing in 18 seconds up to 30km/h driving.

The MINI Yours personalisation is for fun – you can now spec your MINI Convertible with a Union Jack motif on the fabric.  MINI has been doing the British flag on the roof of Hatch and Clubman, so why not on the Convertible?

The roll-over protection hoops on the first BMW-owned MINI Convertibles looked looked like an afterthought, so on the next one they were much better integrated, protruding only slightly behind the rear headrests as character-adding chrome tubes.  On the new car, these roll hoops have been hidden out of sight, but will quickly pop out when commanded by the car’s sensors.

Alternatives and prices

Other smallish fully-open convertibles are the Audi A3 cabriolet, Volkswagen Golf cabriolet, BMW 2 Series convertible, and the Mazda MX-5 as the only remaining small 2-seater roadster.

MINI has, sadly, started turning its attention away from fun 2-door personal cars (which is what MINI was created to be) towards more practical cars like the Hatch 5-door, while the cuteness and absolute uniqueness of the Clubman 2+1-door estate was cast aside for the big new normal station wagon.  It even stopped production of both the 2-seater MINIs (how much more personal car can you get?) as the MINI Coupé and MINI Roadster were short-lived – why, MINI, why?!  So its good to see they will have at least this fun open MINI Convertible.

Prices are about 10% higher than the previous MINI Convertible, though still in the handful of small convertibles under R500k.

MINI Cooper Convertible	R 368 000
MINI Cooper Convertible auto	R 385 310
MINI Cooper S Convertible	R 435 360
MINI Cooper S Convertible auto	R 451 439
MINI Cooper S Convertible sports-auto	R 457 539

  
Also read the launch article A change of generation for MINI Convertible - always on the sunny side and find more information, or configure yours online, at mini.co.za