We have almost come to the end of this year and it seems like BMW saved their best for the last. The company will launch the Mini 3-door and 5-door models on November 19 in India.
Both the 3-door and 5-door models are new, the chassis has been worked upon and there are many mechanical changes as well. The original Mini had a cult following for being a 3-door small car and the modern car introduced in 2001did carry its lineage further and the new five-door Mini is more of an evolution. While it might be frowned upon by some, it might find favour in India for being practical.
Mechanically, the Mini now gets a new 1.5-litre 3-cylinder and a 2.0-litre 4-cylinder unit engine powered by its parent company’s twin-turbo technology. The twin-turbo 1.5-litre three-pot motor produces 135bhp and 220Nm of torque, the larger four-cylinder engine with a turbocharger churns out 191bhp and 280Nm of torque. There is also a 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel engine churning out 168bhp and 360Nm of torque. These engines can be paired with a six-speed manual or a six-speed Steptronic and a Steptronic sports transmission. We might only get the automatic transmissions here.
The new Mini is bigger than its predecessor by 98mm in length, 44mm in width and 7mm in height with an increase in wheelbase by 28mm. While the 5-door Mini measures 4,005mm in length 1,727mm width, 1,425mm in height and gets a 2,567mm long wheelbase. This makes it 11mm taller and 162mm longer than the regular 3-door model, also the wheelbase is longer by 72mm.
We expect a positive response for the 5-door Mini in India and expect the diesel variant to sell in good numbers. It might be priced from Rs 27 lakh onwards(ex-showroom Delhi).
