While it’s now easier than ever to buy a nice small car thanks to the bar in the segment being raised substantially, it’s hard to buy a funky one at a reasonable price. The Volkswagen Beetle has been out of production for nearly six years, the Fiat 500e is expensive for a limited-range electric vehicle, and the standard Mini Cooper is now on the far side of $30,000. So how about a non-standard Mini to break the ice? This is the new Mini Cooper Oxford Edition, and it slashes the price of a three-door or five-door Mini by $4,000 over a standard Cooper model.
To be precise, the three-door Oxford Edition is priced at $26,125 including freight, while the five-door Oxford Edition gets a sticker of $27,125 including freight. That’s right in the ballpark of a mid-range Volkswagen Jetta SE, and not much of a stretch over a base Honda Civic. Sure, the Mini might be a much smaller car, but if you’re space-constrained or more interested in style than overall footprint, the Oxford Edition is worth a look, especially once you see what toys it’s rocking.
You might be wondering what features have been cut over the standard Mini Cooper, considering a non-special edition base model is $4,000 more expensive. Well, nothing apparent. You still get a panoramic moonroof, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, LED headlights, sport seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, parking aids, and a head-up display. Sure, you can’t get the Oxford Edition in silver, black, or red, but you can get it in Blazing Blue or Sunny Side Yellow, in addition to the Nanuk White shared across all models.
In fact, Mini has actually added features to the Oxford Edition compared to the standard Cooper. A set of 18-inch wheels wrapped in summer tires replace 17-inch rollers, the mirror caps and roof are painted black which is normally bundled in with $2,400 in options, and you get a big suite of driver assistance aids like blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and rear automatic emergency braking.
While Mini hasn’t stated exactly what’s under the hood of the Oxford Edition, it’s not hard to make an educated guess. We know it comes standard with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and we know that it doesn’t make much sense to homologate a new engine for a value-oriented special edition. It’s almost certain that it’s rocking a detuned version of BMW’s stout B48 two-liter turbocharged inline-four pumping out 161 horsepower and 184 lb.-ft. of torque. Mini claims a zero-to-60 mph time of 7.4 seconds for this powertrain, which is right in the mix with the turbocharged Volkswagen Jetta and 2.5-liter variants of the Mazda 3, and significantly quicker than a base two-liter Honda Civic or a two-liter Kia K4.
Is it ironic for a special edition model that shares a name with a university to be a no-brainer? Only if you’re Alanis Morissette. However, the Oxford Edition definitely seems like the pick of the entire Mini range, offering a whole lot of features people want at a price tag that seems like a solid value proposition.
Mini claims the Oxford Edition “will be available for production starting in March 2025, with a limited number of units produced,” but it hasn’t stated exactly how many they’re cranking out. Still, pre-orders are now open with a $100 refundable deposit, so if you’re in the market for a new car priced in the mid-$20,000 range, here’s what I’d recommend. Pop by your local Mini dealer, drive a standard Cooper hatch since it should be mechanically identical, and if you dig it, plunk down that $100 deposit on the Oxford Edition. The weird circular infotainment screen has a learning curve, but if you can work with that, the Mini Oxford Edition ought to satisfy champagne tastes on a Michelob Ultra budget.
Top graphic image: Mini
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
-
The New Mini Cooper Looks Like The Electric Mini Cooper But It’s Definitely Not
-
The Drop-Top Market’s Pretty Bleak Right Now, But The New Mini Convertible Is Here For You
-
I Bet You’re Going To Hate This Detail About The Mini Clubman
-
A Red Bull Mini Cooper Is 6.8 Inches Taller Than A Ford Raptor And Other Neat Details About The Iconic Promo Vehicles
-
The 2025 Mini Cooper E Could Become America’s Best City-Car Since The BMW i3
Please send tips about cool car things to tips@theautopian.com. You could even win a prize!
How about the Oxford Comma Edition that is cheap, cool, and fun!
For people who want to suffer the BMW ownership experience from a tiny, overpriced car.
The Mazda3 disagrees.
All good for people that just like a quirky little car, I can relate. But the newest mini has completely abandoned performance enthusiasts, killing the manual was bad enough but it doesn’t even have any method for controlling the gears manually on the auto, no shifter buttons, flappy paddles, nothing, yet it has a DCT. Baffling when basically every car has that function, even ones with CVTs that are so far from sporty it’s absurd. Very very dumb.
Long time since there has been anything cool about a Mini.
Something, something, beware the costs of a cheap German car.
Per the Mini site –
I didn’t know that was a thing but that’s a neat incentive compared to the usual extra rebate for college grads most brands do. Making it a regular special edition gives me shades of VW’s Wolfsburg Editions. Would be neat to see Oxford Editions of the other models, but it’s probably just a way to create some demand for “regular” versions that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
There are 3 on my closest dealer’s website showing as in transit too, so even if not produced yet they are in queue.
But you still have to wear the right shoes.
This would probably have to be a custom order. Ask for one of these at the dealer and the salesman will immediately try to divert your attention to one of the fifteen $43k Countryman sitting on their lot.
Probably preaching to the choir but this is the cheapest cool car to buy, not the cheapest to own long term. That award probably goes to the GR86.
This. If there ever was a brand I wish would go dealer-less (outside of you know, probably Kia) would be Mini. Not that I’ve heard anything bad about their dealers in particular, but because getting a lower-end Mini is basically impossible from what I’ve seen. Our local (sort of 40 miles away is the closest and only one) has zero cars priced under 36k available right now. So I’d imagine getting a 26k example from the likes of them is going to be somewhat unrealistic.
I agree. I’d even prefer it if they were all sold from BMW dealers like Smart was for Mercedes.
Have an Oxford Edition in BRG from before they neutered the colors and the manual transmission. For our family – an excellent buy at the peak of COVID.
They say the most expensive car is a Cheap Used BMW. Well, after years of research, we’ve concluded that they did not in fact say anything about Cheap New BMW-adjacent car. Thus, our team here at BMW Emotional Support have reasoned that nothing can go wrong with this endeavor. Perfect loophole. Checkmate Atheists. Mission accomplished. Now watch me hit this drive!
I really dislike the interiors in this generation of Mini. It feels like they were designed by a German focus group who were asked to define what British people would think is quirky. Also it’s Oxford edition because that’s where (most) Minis are built. At least for now.
This. I like Minis, and have considered picking one up a time or two, but this generation’s interiors are bad. The layouts are not cohesive, like sections were designed by teams that had no idea what any other teams were doing. The heads up display is a fun gimmick, except it is a necessary function since everything is now relegated to the WAAAYYY too busy center stack circle display. The redesign has made it a lot harder to be excited about getting a Mini for a rental car, mostly because the interior transitioned from “quirky” to “taxing” to use.
Yeah, I really feel like each subsequent version of the new MINIs has been somehow worse than it’s predecessor in interior and exterior design, the R50 was perfect, the R56 was just about right, not as good, but pretty close, the F55 started to seriously lose the plot and then became completely uglified with its second facelift
These are such shockingly poor renders!
I saw a lot of stuff they could’ve taken out to make an even cheaper version.
But government regulations might prevent that from happening.
Must not be a Canadian thing – the cheapest Mini I can build comes in at $38,709 CAD, which puts it more expensive than an MX-5, BRZ/GR86, GTI, and even a 500E with current rebates (the Fiat clocks in like $5k cheaper!).
For that matter, it’s more expensive than my mundane family crossover, which is a bit much to swallow (I sat in a new Mini at the auto show, it doesn’t feel more premium than a lot of other affordable stuff).
Very weird, you’d think Quebec would be all over this, at least. That’s usually one of North America’s best markets for small, cheap cars, especially hatchbacks
I mean, a base Mini is $15K(!) more expensive than a base Versa, I can’t imagine BMW stripping out enough to make it a Quebec special.
I haven’t paid attention to new MINIs in a while, but do the non-S ones really come with a turbo? I find that hard to believe, since they have always been naturally aspirated as far as I’m aware.
They went to all turbos several years ago (2017ish I think), but I thought it was a turbo 3 in the non S and then a 4 in the S. I didn’t realize they had gone back to a 4 cylinder in the base car.
Yeah, our 2016 base is a turbo 3. A look at the specs shows that at least for the US, the base is a turbo 4 now.
We bought our daughter a ’16 Cooper S a couple years ago for her first car. We weren’t trying to be bougie, but attempting to merge onto busy Rt 17 in Ramsey, NJ in a non-S Cooper with the I-3 turbo terrified the shit out of me. The extra power of the S definitely comes in rather handy in these parts if you like to avoid being run off the road.
I’m assuming the Oxford model will be similarly anemic. Tis a great price, though, and, oddly minimalistic interior aside, seems like a great car for the right person/area. If you can find one.
“You can’t get it in silver, black…”
What a great decision on Mini’s part.