Mini’s 3rd-Generation Hardtop Shows Subtle Aesthetic Changes

The automaker has assured customers that the new hardtop is different from the cars that preceded it, but as with any litter of puppies, sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference.

The car — revealed on Monday in Oxford, England, where the factory is located, and appearing at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week — appears somewhat fuller and rounder than its predecessor. It blinks eagerly through bright new LED headlights and offers a slightly smilier version of the familiar grille. The same chunky body proportions and floating roof come with updated front fender vents. The new hardtop is 4.5 inches longer, 1.7 inches wider and a third of an inch taller than its predecessor — making it not unlike the best-fed puppy of a litter.

But the visible differences among the hardtop’s various generations are less distinct than those among other vehicles already in the Mini kennel, such as the Paceman and the Clubman. Indeed, the average driver, confronted with the three generations of Mini, would be hard-pressed to put them in chronological order.

So why is Mini so beloved in an era when people constantly expect new versions of things and worship innovation and disruption? Mini is still part of the resistance to the annual model change epitomized by the original Volkswagen Beetle, a model with a glacial rate of change. Mini seems to share the spirit of Shredded Wheat, the breakfast cereal whose slogan once was, “We put the no in innovation.”

“Everything is new, but the soul is the same,” Mini’s marketers say. The new BMW-bred Mini, as envisioned by Chris Bangle and Frank Stephenson, who showed it in Paris in 2001, was that it should look as if the 1959 original had continued to evolve in the intervening years. Implicit in that theory was that more evolution was to come. That evolution for the next-generation Mini was directed by Mini’s design chief, Anders Warming, the Danish-born designer who at BMW conducted the séance behind the retro Mille Miglia concept, channeling the prewar BMW 328 rally cars.

All exterior aesthetic mutations aside, the real change in the new Mini lies beneath its skin. The new hatchback rides a platform to be shared with BMW’s 1 Series, as well as its X1 crossover. The car’s updated engines come from a new family of novel 3- and 4-cylinder modular turbo engines, called Twin Power Turbo. The company claims fuel efficiency increases of 15 percent and highway fuel economy as high as 44 miles per gallon. But sportiness increases, too, with plenty of torque on tap at low engine speeds.

The basic car gets a 134-horsepower turbocharged 1.5-liter 3-cylinder engine that cranks out 162 pound-feet of torque. The sportier model, the Cooper S, offers a 189-horsepower 2-liter 4-cylinder turbo with peak torque of 207 pound-feet. With its new 6-speed manual and automatic transmission options, the new car is peppier than the outgoing version. Mini promises that the 1.5-liter engine will go from zero to 60 m.p.h. in 7.4 seconds with the manual transmission — 7.3 seconds with the automatic — and reach a top speed of 130 m.p.h. The 2-liter will sprint to 60 in 6.5 seconds — 6.4 in the automatic — on its way to a top speed of about 145 m.p.h.

American versions will be at the Los Angeles auto show this week, but the Brits wanted to celebrate Nov. 18 – the birthday of Sir Alec Issigonis, the self-taught engineer-designer who came up with what was formally called the Morris Mini Minor. He had been asked to provide a British alternative to the German bubble cars that were invading the lower end of the market during the 1950s. The key innovation was turning the engine sideways, so that it was parallel with the front axle that it drove, creating the format that most future front-wheel-drive cars have followed.

There are big changes in the Mini’s interior. The current hardtop’s theme of toylike toggle switches has matured. The speedometer has moved from the center of the instrument panel to a more normal position behind the steering wheel. A heads-up display has been added as well. The central console space that has, until now, looked like a radar screen, will grow into a complex controller for a new infotainment system. The new layout is tied together with an 8.8-inch perimeter ring that glows in one of six colors depending upon function — yellow or red for the backup radar, for example.

The new car’s electronics include smart features that are common on luxury sedans but novel as options on a car as small as the Mini. A number of already installed apps provide the basis for smartphone compatibility. The car also features adaptive cruise control, collision warning, parking assist and a backup camera.

For many longtime Mini drivers, telling one generation from another is not a problem: they have long customized their Minis in many ways. To the variations of stripes and flags, roofs and mirror choices of the current model, roof rails have been added. With this sort of pet attention, it’s little wonder that, according to the company, one-third of Mini drivers give names to their vehicles.