Looks can be deceiving in new Mini Cooper

Dan Carney • E-mail

As good as computers are at calculating your taxes, dredging up phone numbers and relaying critically important photos of Britney Spears in various states of dress, the human brain is vastly superior at pattern recognition. That’s why many Web sites use those drunkenly jagged passwords that humans can recognize and computers can not.

But the human ability to connect familiar-looking new objects with those we’ve seen before can leave us bored, even if those objects have changed in unseen ways. A case in point is the 2007 Mini Cooper S.

It’s a dead ringer for its predecessor, despite being an entirely new car with genuine improvements. That means it’s still cute enough to make “Hello Kitty” look menacingly sinister.

This apparent similarity is certain to confuse shoppers, who may think the car hasn’t changed, or, upon hearing that this is a new Mini, they might suppose that it is the usual sheetmetal “refresh,” such as the subtle changes wrought on this year’s Volkswagen “New Beetle.”

They’d be wrong, of course. The 2007 Mini Cooper and the high-performance variant I tested, the Cooper S, have new engines, new chassis, new everything. This new vehicle is 2.4 inches longer than before, with most of that increase going into the front end, which was stretched an inch and a half to help the car meet European pedestrian protection standards. The rest of the stretch went to beef up the rear bumper.

Underneath, the old car used an old engine, and there were opportunities to improve the suspension, so Mini parent BMW decided an all-new car was in order. The good news is that the upgrade is a success; the latest Mini improves on its predecessor without losing any of that car’s endearing playfulness.

But the Mini’s improvements, like its styling changes, while discernible, are small enough that consumers might overlook them. After all, the Mini Cooper has put more smiles on people’s faces than the American Association of Orthodontists, so there wasn’t really a lot of room for improvement.

Fashionistas who rush out to buy stylish accessories such as Mini Coopers may think this car looks too much like the one they had previously, but Mini is likely to hold on to them with its wide range of optional stripes, stickers (like the available roof flags), and color combinations that let buyers design their own uniquely personal Mini, explained Rich Steinberg, Mini’s manager of product strategy.

“There are an amazing number of combinations,” he said. “It’s part of the buying experience.”

Gearheads will readily appreciate the new Mini’s improvements, especially the new engines, which are both more powerful and more fuel efficient. In between the gearheads and the fashionistas is a vast middle ground of potential Mini shoppers who might only appreciate the upgrades if they take the time to notice them.

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