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Mini goes five-door for first time

  • First five-door Mini Hatch
  • Refinement of three-door + two extra doors
  • Additional space and practicality
  • 72mm more rear legroom and third rear seat
  • Built at Mini Plant Oxford

The dust hasn’t even settled after Mini’s new Hatch launch in South Africa and already there’s yet another model added to the stable.

A brand-new body variant – the first five-door Hatch will arrive in SA in November 2014.

According to Mini, it’s the first time in the history of the brand that the Hatch has been offered with two rear doors, making it a refined version of the its three-door sibling.

BIGGER AND BETTER
 
Extra practicality is thanks to the extended wheelbase. There’s now 72mm extra legroom in the rear compared to the three-door, making a third seat possible.

Other noteworthy dimensions is 15mm more headroom, 61mm more interior width and 67 extra litres of boot space taking it to 278 litres. The body is 3.98m long, 1.72m wide and 1.42m tall. This makes it 161mm longer and 11mm taller than its three-door sibling. The wheelbase has been extended by 72mm to 2.56m, while the track remains unchanged.

The body, greenhouse and roof are visually separated, says Mini. The window line tapers off to the rear while the wide track and short overhangs emphasise the design. Traditional looks include the hexagonal grille, side indicator surrounds known as ‘side scuttles’, circular headlights, an upright rear light cluster and the black edging at the bottom of the car.

The automaker says there are also additional exterior paint finishes with the roof and mirror caps in contrasting colour on request.

There are four model variants to be launched in Europe but South Africa will only see two: Cooper and Cooper S. The cars will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission or an optional six-speed Steptronic transmission or Steptronic sports transmission including auto stop/start and optional green mode.

The Cooper’s three-cylinder 1.5-litre petrol engine with TwinPower turbo technology (turbo charging, direct injection, fully variable valve control, variable camshaft control) makes 100kW from 4500 – 6000rpm and 220Nm from 1250 – 4000rpm (230Nm with overboost). It reaches 100km/h in 8.2 seconds (8.1 auto), has a claimed top speed of 207km/h and an average fuel consumption of about 4.8 litres /100km. CO2 emissions 109 – 111g/km.

Mini Cooper S has a four-cylinder two-litre petrol engine with turbo technology and it pushes out 141kW from 4700 – 6000rpm and 280Nm from 1250 – 4750rpm (300Nm with overboost). It reaches 100km/h in 6.9 seconds (automatic 6.8) and has a claimed top speed of 232km/h and an average fuel consumption of about six litres/100km. CO2 emissions are rated at 136 – 139g/km (125 – 128 g/km auto).

SAFETY FIRST

Standard safety programmes include dynamic stability control with dynamic traction control and electronic differential lock control in the Cooper S. This model also has performance control; model-specific spring and damper set-up; optional dynamic damper control. The Cooper comes with 15” alloy rims and the Cooper S comes with 16” alloy rims optionally available up to 18".

The automaker also says there’s a variable car set-up using optional driving modes with a rotary switch at the base of the gear or selector lever – standard, sport and green modes.

New goodies inside the car include a redesigned display and operating concept: instrument cluster on the steering column showing road and engine speed, colour display for vehicle status details and fuel level; central instrument with new display elements and coloured lighting configuration including a LED ring for visual feedback in response to numerous functions.

Mini says driver assistance systems include head-up-display, parking assistant, rear-view camera and driving assistant including camera-based active cruise control, collision and pedestrian warning with initial brake function, high beam assistant and road-sign detection.

The new Mini five-door is scheduled to go on sale in South Africa in the last quarter of 2014. Pricing has not yet been confirmed and will be available closer to the local launch date.
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