New MINI Cooper 5-Door: city car gains a pair of doors for £900

• Space for five passengers
• 275-litre boot
• Priced from £24,050

If you’ve been charmed by the looks of the new MINI Cooper but need something a bit roomier than a small city car, you’ll want to take a look at the new MINI Cooper 5-Door. As the name suggests, it's essentially a MINI Cooper with a longer wheelbase and an extra pair of doors slotted in front of the rear wheels, with the rest of the exterior, interior and engine lineup shared with the three-door model.

Prices start from £24,050 for the Cooper C 5-Door, rising to £28,450 for the sportier Cooper S variant. That’s only a £900 premium over the cost of the three-door Cooper, a sum that we expect many families will be willing to pay for the added practicality on offer.

What do I need to know about the new MINI Cooper 5-Door?

Park the MINI Cooper 5-Door next to its regular Cooper twin and it’s pretty easy to spot what’s changed. There are – to the surprise of no one – five doors instead of three, with the extra pair providing easier access to the rear row of seats. We found getting into the three-door Cooper’s rear seats a bit of a challenge during our in-depth review, so the extra set of doors should make things much easier.

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At 4,036mm in length, the Cooper 5-Door is 172mm longer than the three-door, with 72mm of that difference accounted for by the longer wheelbase. With more space between the front and rear wheels, MINI has been able to increase passenger space in the rear and squeeze in an additional seat. The new row of seats folds with a 60:40 split, allowing boot space to grow to 925 litres. With the seats in place, cargo volume stands at 275 litres, which is three litres down on the old model and some way behind the Volkswagen Polo and Vauxhall Corsa.

Elsewhere, you get the same retro-inspired styling as the three-door Cooper, complete with its round headlights and Union Jack tail-lights. Inside, you’ll find a round 9.4-inch OLED infotainment touchscreen sitting above a bank of toggle switches, along with the unique ‘MINI Experience Modes’ projector that illuminates the fabric dashboard with different colours and patterns.

What engines are available for the MINI Cooper 5-Door?

Unlike the all-new MINI Cooper Electric, the petrol-powered Coopers use the same platform as the old car but have been heavily facelifted to align with the EV’s styling. That means you get the same petrol engines as the old model, although MINI has managed to squeeze some extra power out of them. 

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The Cooper C 5-Door uses a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, shared with the BMW 1 Series. Power stands at 154bhp and is transmitted to the front wheels through a dual-clutch automatic gearbox, with MINI claiming fuel economy of up to 47.1mpg.

The sportier S model will also be available in five-door format, using a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine with 201bhp. 0-62mph is achieved in 6.8 seconds – 1.2 seconds faster than the Cooper C 5-Door, but 0.2 seconds off the pace of the three-door Cooper S. Economy takes a slight hit, dropping to 44.8mpg.

No matter which version you pick, MINI promises that the Cooper 5-Door will deliver the same “driving fun and agile handling” we’ve come to expect from the British brand.

How much does the MINI Cooper 5-Door cost and when can I buy one?

Prices start from £24,050 for the Cooper 5-Door in C specification, while the faster S model costs from £28,450. As we’ve come to expect from MINI, buyers will have a vast array of extras to choose from, with three different trim levels, three option packs and nine paint colours – not counting the five roof paint colours. There’s no word yet on UK availability dates, but we expect it to join its electric and three-door siblings later this year.

Read our full review of the new MINI Cooper to find out what it’s like to drive…