MINI Convertible review - Reliability & safety (2016-2024)

MINI hasn’t always enjoyed the best reputation for reliability, but it seems its latest hatchback and Convertible is much improved, posting strong results in our annual owner’s survey. Exterior styling, driving experience and running costs were all praised, too. Owners were fairly unimpressed with the high costs of servicing, however. There’s a decent amount of safety kit too, so you can feel confident in MINI to protect its occupants.

MINI Convertible reliability

The MINI Convertible performed well when it appeared in our 2017 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, coming 44th overall out of the 75 makes and models included. It’s also reassuring that the MINI Hatchback it’s based on came 11th in our most recent survey – despite the base car being almost a decade old – with an excellent score for reliability and build quality.

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MINI as a brand came ninth out of 29 in our 2022 rundown – a ten-place improvement on the year before. Only around 11% of owners reported a fault, which was one of the lowest percentages of any brand. 

Safety

The MINI hatchback scored four out of five stars when it was crash-tested by Euro NCAP in 2014 and we’d expect the convertible version to prove just as safe. Euro NCAP hasn’t tested many small convertibles, but the Mazda MX-5 received the same four stars as the MINI hatchback. As it's a convertible, MINI has added a pair of rollover hoops that pop out from behind the rear seats if the car senses it's going to roll. They deploy in just 150 milliseconds - about as quick as you blink - which will be reassuring for owners.