Announced in June, the all-new Mini Cooper Hardtop 4 Door makes its U.S. public debut at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show. Mini stretched the hardtop two-door's wheelbase to make room for the two additional doors, but it rides on the same chassis as the redesigned 2014 Mini Hardtop; a good one by our account. Mini USA's Patrick McKenna walked us around the new four-door and explained how this new car fits into the expanding Mini lineup.
Related: More 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show Coverage
"Customers' first reaction is generally the hardtop two-door is too small," McKenna said. The additional doors address that problem head-on and give those buyers a new reason to revisit the Mini dealership. What I found most interesting after poking around the four-door is that there's still plenty of distinction between this and the larger Mini Countryman SUV, the only other four-door Mini.
According to McKenna, all-wheel drive makes up 40 percent of the Countryman's sales, so Mini believes it's looking at a different buyer for the Hardtop 4 Door, which is front-wheel drive only. The Countryman is also notably bigger compared to the four-door Cooper hardtop with an ample backseat and easier egress and ingress with its higher ground clearance.
You won't mistake the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door's backseat for an extended-wheelbase Mercedes-Maybach. It's cramped back there and the small rear doors aren't the easiest to navigate in and out of. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door's biggest rival, the four-door Volkswagen GTI, is an overall larger hatchback with its additional space showing in a more generous backseat and cargo room.
Back in the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door, headroom is surprisingly sufficient — more than the GTI — thanks to the four-door's roofline that tapers less at the rear than the two-door. Comfort levels were livable once shoehorned into the four-door's backseat, but at 6 feet tall, I wouldn't want to spend too much time back there.
The backseat is still infinitely easier to access compared to the contorting and twisting required when climbing into the Hardtop two-door's backseat, and the additional cargo area is a big plus. Cargo space increases from 8.7 to 13.1 cubic feet behind the backseat, and maximum cargo space is 40.7 cubic feet, which is just shy of the Countryman's 41.3 cubic feet. The GTI still wins out, though, with 22.8 cubic feet behind the backseat and an overall 52.7 cubic feet of maximum cargo volume. But now Mini has a four-door that measures up in other ways.
Cars.com photos by Evan Sears
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