Fwd 4dr S Mini Cooper Countryman S Low Miles Sedan Automatic Gasoline 1.6l Ohc 1 on 2040-cars

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Mini Superleggera gets the green light

With the fairly lackluster designs coming out of Mini recently, leave it to a group from outside the company to get things right. The minds behind the Berlinetta Lusso and Disco Volante at Touring Superleggera did just that with the retro-inspired Mini Superleggera Vision Concept from last year's Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance. Now, according to Car in the UK, the droptop has a green light for production from the BMW board and could arrive in showrooms by 2018. The concept stole our hearts with its rounded shape, rear fin and Union-Jack-shaped taillights. Inside, the interior went for extreme minimalism with an aluminum dashboard that positioned just a simple tachometer and thin steering wheel in front of the driver. The production version reportedly rides on the third-gen Mini platform but retains all of the concept's major styling elements. In place of the electric motor, expect the current engine offerings with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder and a 2.0-liter four-cylinder available under the hood. Patent documents might provide an even better hint at what to expect. They also show the design not changing much, other than the lights no longer in the grille, a framed windshield and slightly smaller fin. The Union Jack taillights remain, though. Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW Group member in charge of Mini, asserted the company was testing the waters for production shortly after the Superleggera's debut. At the time, the price was speculated to be around 35,000 euros if the car arrived on the market in Europe. Related Video:

Mini could go even bigger with next Countryman

We recently reported that the new family of Minis could balloon from eight models to ten or more, but it's not only the model line that's expected to grow: so too could the largest model itself. That, of course, would be the Countryman, which is already bigger than anything else ever to wear the Mini badge. But if you think the current Countryman is already big enough, the latest reports suggest that it could get even bigger. Apparently parent company BMW feels a larger Mini crossover would better compete with more mainstream models in the marketplace.
The Countryman, however, will only be one of the new variants to spin off of the new third-generation Mini. Expect the new Hardtop hatchback introduced in LA to be followed by a new Cabriolet, Roadster, and Paceman. A five-door version of the base hatchback will also join in addition to the new Clubman, which is tipped to get a split tailgate instead of the single hinged aperture on the current model. The jury's still out on the Mini Coupe, which has largely failed to impress, while a convertible crossover could be back in the mix along with the rumored plug-in hybrid version.

2015 Mini John Cooper Works Hardtop First Drive [w/video]

In its previous iteration, the Mini John Cooper Works three-door was a bad little mother. It looked like an engorged puffer fish facing down a shark, sounded like squadron of hornets with even the tiniest provocation of the throttle, and turned corners like it was angry at them. It was hard riding and ill mannered in all sorts of daily driving situations, but supremely satisfying when used in the all-out-attack mode for which it was designed. I dug every minute I spent in one, when really concentrating on driving. (As a commuter or passenger, not so much.) It only took fifteen minutes of driving on the lilting, tree-lined roads outside of New Haven, CT, to realize that the 2015 Mini JCW Hardtop was a lot less pissed off. And with more power, refined ride quality, a better interior, and an available automatic transmission, a lot more suitable for a wide variety of drivers. The little hellion has matured. On that grownup tip, the first of the many '15 JCWs I sampled was fitted with a six-speed automatic transmission. Cue collective shocked gasp. I'll forgive you if you didn't know an auto was going to be available equipment on the JCW, as Mini product planners had to remind me that it had been offered for the first time on the model-year 2013 car. Even then, the manual trans saw an impressive 75-percent take rate, so it's not as if many of the auto-shifters made it to the street. That could change in this new generation, where the 6AT acquits itself quite well. Wheel-mounted paddles offer near immediate response to requested shifts, and programming for the sport setting causes gears to be held up to the top of the tach. The manual is far more engaging, even if the automatic is quicker than the human hand. The six-speed Getrag manual transmission is still the better option, even the car is two-tenths of a second slower to 60 miles per hour with it (6.1 vs. 5.9 seconds), and less fuel efficient in the city (23 vs. 25 miles per gallon). The manual uses a long-levered shifter that still feels positive going between gates, and a short-travel clutch that's got nice weight and an easy catch point. It also offers defeatable rev matching, smoothing out even very aggro downshifts. Mini measures the manual as slower than the auto, but I had a lot more fun using it to harness the increased power of the 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine.