Mini has facelifted its range of hatchbacks, Clubman estates and Convertible soft-tops for the 2011 model year. There’s the subtlest of design upgrades – mainly to the lights, front and rear – plus a family of new diesel engines.
The new 2011 Mini goes on sale in August 2010. Here’s how you’ll spot the new ones from the thousands of Minis already out there.
Mini facelift: the design story
All Minis sport a new front bumper, designed for pedestrian protection reasons. But it’s marked out by new foglamps either side of the air intake – and Cooper S models get wedgy air intakes to cool the brake discs. There are new elements in the front headlamps, the side indicators are new and the rear bumpers and lights are redesigned too (the latter distinguished by concentric rings that are particularly noticeable at night).
Inside, the Mini family is spruced up by some of the learnings from the new Mini crossover. The brittle shiny plastics of today’s Mini have been replaced by softer, more sophisticated materials that design boss Gert Hildebrand said researched better on the Countryman. He singled out the silvery-effect plastic on the old car’s centre console as one thing that owners will really appreciate.
The new diesel engines on the Mini
A new diesel engine is now available on the Mini, bringing 99g/km of CO2 for the first time. It’s a 1.6-litre four-cylinder, sharing the same bore/stroke ratio, aluminium construction and common-rail diesel tech as BMW’s 2.0-litre diesel from the 320d et al. With that provenance, we could expect great things from Mini’s new diesel.
Two variants are available, but both the Mini One D and Cooper D achieve an identical 74.3mpg and 99g/km thanks to stop-start, gearchange advisories and a part-time alternator control. The 111bhp/199lb ft Cooper diesel sprints to 62mph in 9.7sec, while the boggo derv mixes 89bhp/159lb ft for a 11.4sec sprint time.
The Mini rag-top is available for the first time with this new diesel engine.
Mini Connected
A new multimedia system, dubbed Mini Connected, is launched with the 2011 facelift. It is an option that lets iPhone owners (surely most Mini owners?) use web radio, Google, Facebook and Twitter from the centre console. Messages can be read out on a text-to-speech function, so cool urbanites can witter on about their lifestyle dahhling 24/7.
Other new options available for the first time on the Mini include active headlights and auto-dimming rear-view mirrors.