FIRST DRIVE: New Mini Cooper SE – 215bhp, £38k Hot Hatch

Video Description

In recent years, the hot hatch has become rather rarefied. Both literally and figuratively: RS Renaults and GTi Peugeots are dead, while the likes of Audi and Mercedes chase outputs of 400bhp. The Mini Cooper though, was always a little more grounded. And now there’s a new one! This generation of Mini three-door hatch comes with a choice of petrol or electricity driving the front wheels, with two variants of each. Pick from Cooper C and Cooper S if you like pistons, while Cooper E and SE are the battery and motor offerings. The Cooper SE starts at £34,500, rising to £38k if you want the butcher body of the Sport model we’re driving, and offers 215bhp, 0-62mph in 6.7 seconds, and a WLTP range of nearly 250 miles. Is it a good hot hatch? Does it still offer ‘go kart’ handling. Over to Top Gear Magazine’s Tom Ford… Subscribe to Top Gear for more videos: http://bit.ly/SubscribeToTopGear WATCH MORE TOP GEAR: First Looks: https://bit.ly/TGFirstLooks  First Drives: https://bit.ly/TGFirstDrives American Tuned ft. Rob Dahm: https://bit.ly/TGAmericanTuned LISTEN to the Top Gear Magazine Podcast: https://topgear.podlink.to/Podcast Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.topgear.com/newsletter-signup Chapters: 00:00 Intro 00:36 What's New? 01:58 Available Models 02:41 Interior 03:23 Central OLED display 04:06 Driving Modes 05:50 Digital Assistant 08:05 Boot 08:23 Driving 11:45 Conclusion MORE ABOUT TOP GEAR: Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you'll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You'll also find the latest performance car reviews from the TopGear.com crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig. This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios. Service & Feedback https://www.bbcstudios.com/contact/contact-us/