Auto’s final test of ’25, JCW was among the most fun too
Twelve minutes 41.18 seconds of zero to hundred ,12,480 cumulative quarter mile terminal speed kilometres an hour and 65,000 km later, welcome to Auto’s 90th and final road test of 2025! And it’s a cracker too!
Resplendent in Christmas gnome green and red, appropriately enough, the latest Mini John Cooper Works attracts attention enough to stop the traffic at just about every turn. Splendid shiny face buffed 17” wheels, two-bar DRL LED headlamps, a blackened grille and extra bumper vents to suck in more air to cool its 170 kW 380 Nm TwinPower 2-litre turbo four pot, offset the Festive cheer.
You’ll find a cheeky junior WRC twin wing, black diffuser, and fat central tailpipe around the back. The top petrol model of the 3-door Mini hatchback range is 20 kilowatts and 80 Newton-metres up on the standard Cooper S. The 1405 kg JCW is however 150 kgs up on the far rarer old model, which made the same power and 60 Nm less than this latest version.
Step aboard to a minimalist JCW cockpit
Step aboard to a minimalist cockpit centred around a significant round infotainment screen. The sportier JCW steering wheel with a flamboyant textile lower spoke and paddle shifters sits ahead of a cool and clear optional heads-up display. Once you’ve figured out how to place it right to read it, that is. JCW gets a wild go-kart mode for extreme handling performance, all the Works branding, black, red and blue accents, and a becoming combination of fabric and faux leather trim.
Comfy and supportive JCW sports seats had power activation on ours. For all that dynamic driving. Cobbled together in brilliant BMW style, the knitted surfaces and zany high-resolution OLED display brings a unique and pleasing environment. Well, to most of us, anyway. Its run by either steering controls, or Mini’s familiar toggle bar with starter, gear, brake, experience and volume knobs that sit atop a wireless charging shelf. Or use Hey Mini to voice command it. But all that split opinion in the office.
The latest Operating System 9 with new Mini Experience Modes and a wide range of digital functions is said to create an immersive user experience. It does not work very well at all on its lonesome. But if you download the Mini App, they sat that changes everything. Even with the app, however, some of us still struggled.
Beam me up Scotty!
If you were born in the year two-thousand and grew up with an iPhone in your crib, I suppose it’d all be second nature. Problem is over half the population are boomers or older. Take the kids out of it, and that old fart proportion jumps closer to two thirds. In other words, the majority of the commercially active world population first saw a mobile device when Spock asked Captain Kirk to beam him up in Star Trek in the ‘sixties.
Most of us boomers never saw a computer until after we left school. Sadly we still wait to be beamed up, but we were in our ‘thirties when we got our first cell phones. In fact, more than half the world’s people were teenagers or older when mobile phones first arrived. So forgive me if I we’re reluctant towards overbearing tech. We try, we try, we try, but it can all be a bit much.
So yes, the app and all the rest is cool. But the Auto office also happens to reflect that two to one boomer to gen-zee slash millennial ratio. And somehow there’s consensus around here the that Mini probably has gone a few steps too far with this cyber-rich interface. Sure, we love it and we want to learn it. But in our own time. Just give us our old knobs and buttons too, while we learn!
We love JCW. Knob free, boomers & all
Look, the interface is probably the biggest challenge facing all automakers now that EVs are sliding into oblivion. There’s so much wrong with so many systems. In time, even us boomers will become au-fait enough to work the gizmos. So not fully understanding it all would certainly not deter us from buying a Mini. In fact there’s so much going for it, that a JCW would be a likely choice. Knob free, boomers and all.
See, the JCW handles exceptionally, is an absolute hoot to drive, especially in go-kart mode and is among the quickest. Front drive cars we ever tested. Sadly that hundred and fifty kilos JCW has put on, and which is likely more than the fattest man you know, prevented it from toppling our front drive champion Hyundai i30N in our tests, but that certainly doesn’t curtail the fun
Besides great BMW build quality, JCW also carries some great Mini features over. Like rear seats that fold nicely into a far larger load bay. Sure, there are offsets. The go-kart handling also brings extremely harsh ride quality and an especially stiff rear axle. And not even our petrol hear gen zees could put up with the fake engine noise. But for pure fun and excitement, the John Cooper Works delivered and then some.
JCW: best fun for buck on the road today?
And best of all? Price. Once an almost impossibly rare commodity, the Mini Cooper JCW now comes in a fair bit cheaper than a Golf GTI or a GR Yaris at a most appealing R745K. Yes, you read that right. Which makes this the most fun for buck we’ve driven for a long while. No matter how you tune the radio. – Michele Lupini
Images & test data: Giordano Lupini
ROAD TESTED: Mini John Cooper Works
Engine: 170 kW 380Nm 2-litre turbo petrol I4
Drive: 7-speed double clutch automatic FWD
TESTED:
0-60 km/h: 2.91 sec
0-100 km/h: 5.51 sec
0-120 km/h: 7.20 sec
0-160 km/h: 11.73 sec
400m: 13.6 sec @ 173 km/h
80-120 km/h: 3.06 sec
120-160 km/h: 4.53 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 250 km/h
Fuel: 6;8 l/100 km
CO2: 165 g/km
Range: 650 km
Warranty/Service: 2y unl./ 5y 100K km
LIST PRICE: R745K
How does it shape up?
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