Ever since the Mini Cooper brand was revived in the early 2000s, the British motoring icon strayed from its original recipe in one major area: affordability. Unfortunately, prices have only risen over the years, and the base price of the new F66 Mini Cooper continues that trend. New base Mini Coopers start $3,150 higher than the outgoing F56 base price, and the new F66 Mini Cooper S’ base price went up by a smaller margin of $1,300. The F66 Mini Cooper’s online configurator just went live, and though you can only spec out an F66 Cooper S three door right now, it ends up cheaper when fully loaded than a fully loaded F56 Cooper S three door.
The F66 Cooper S comes standard with features that were optional on the previous generation, including heated seats, remote start, a panoramic moonroof, a heated steering wheel, a wireless charger and a head-up display. The F66 Cooper S also gets a power bump, up 12 horsepower to a total of 201 while torque stays the same at 221 lb-ft. Trim packages on the new Cooper S are now more affordable too, with the top Iconic trim costing $3,700 less than it cost to add to a current Mini.
Aside from offering more standard features than the F56 Cooper, the F66 also offers more desirable available options like powered front seats with position memory for the first time in a Mini Cooper. Although it’s not specifically listed on the configurator, blind spot monitor lights are visible in the side view mirrors of the new Cooper S in the configurator, which will be another first for the little Cooper.
The new configurator is a bit confusing, with lots of different trims and bundled option packages required to spec different features, but when speccing out the most expensive F66 Cooper S possible, the MSRP was $39,045 including destination. When speccing out the most expensive F56 Cooper S three door, the MSRP was $42,545. Unfortunately, the F66 configurator does not offer any racing stripe options at the moment, a Mini Cooper trademark that I really hope makes a return before new models hit the market.
Other changes from the F56 include newly available “Styles” to choose from, Classic Style and Favoured Style. Classic Style seems to keep things aligned with a dark theme including a dark dashboard and black interior and exterior trims, while Favoured Style has a light tan dashboard and features light gold accents inside and out, a color Mini misleadingly calls Vibrant Silver. Of course there are the obligatory new color choices and wheel options. New paint colors include Chili Red II, Ocean Wave Green, and Sunny Side Yellow, and all new wheel designs including a questionable set of 17-inch “Vibrant Silver” AKA light gold U-spoke design.
In all, it seems like the price increase for the new 2025 Mini Cooper S three-door hatchback actually goes to offering more features and a better overall package than the outgoing F56 Cooper S. All I know is I can’t wait to get behind the wheel and give it a full review.
