2010 / 2011 MINI Revealed

The MINI Range 2011

The MINI has had a terrific run under the ownership of BMW. It’s spawned an unbelievable number of specials and one-offs yet still seems to strike a chord in the hearts of buyers, despite its ubiquity and the arrival of challengers such as the Fiat 500, Citroen DS3 and Alfa Romeo MiTo. But there’s a new danger lurking in the wings for MINI with the imminent arrival of the A1. So time for a nip, a tuck and a tweak to keep the MINI show on the road.

The big change for the 2011 MY is under the bonnet, with new diesels coming in from BMW and the old ones from Peugeot/Citroen exiting stage left. The MINI now gets a version of the diesel already found in the BMW 116d. In the MINI it comes in two flavours – the 110bhp Cooper D and the 89bhp MINI One D – and improves economy slightly in the process but more importantly – as far as the headline VED is concerned – CO2 drops to 99g/km. The Clubman and Convertible also get the new diesel, although CO2 jumps back over 100g/km in these fittings.

In terms of cosmetics the tweaks are so minor that if you blink you might miss them. The bumper gets a slight re-shape, there’s new LED lights at the back and a bit more chrome round the nose. Inside there’s new trim colours and a new sound system with new controls plus revised AirCon controls. And we think that’s it.

There are, however, more options being thrown in to the mix. MINI Connected now gets you on-line and there’s three ‘Design Packs’ for paint and roof colours, upholstery and wheel design. So you get to choose between Scene, Classic and Rally specs. Methinks they’ve been peeking at the Citroen DS3.

Tidy tweaks and the change to BMW diesel power is probably sensible and overdue. But nothing to get too excited about. The new MINI goes on sale in September and prices are likely to be much the same as they are.

By Cars UK