Mini Hatch

Some cars leave a paper trail; the Mini Hatch left a name, a year — 2001 — and a place in Mini's list. What follows is what can be said with a source behind it.

Where it came from

The Mini (stylised all-uppercase as MINI) is a supermini car which has been made since April 2001. Colloquially known as the New Mini, all four generations have been produced as three-door hatchbacks and two-door convertibles, with a five-door hatchback body style added from the third generation. Introduced following the acquisition of the Mini marque by German carmaker BMW, it is a family of retro-styled cars with a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. The range has been marketed under various names, such as the Mini Cooper, Mini Hatch, Mini Hardtop, Mini One, and Mini John Cooper Works. The Rover Group (which was then owned by BMW) first unveiled the Mini hatch concept car at the 1997 Frankfurt International Motor Show. Developed as a successor to the original Mini, the styling of the concept car was well received by the public and further developed.

BMW sold the other parts of the Rover Group in May 2000, but retained the rights to Mini, although MG Rover were allowed to continue production of the original until October of that year. The new Mini entered production on 26 April 2001 and went on sale in July of that year, initially only as a three-door hatchback, in contrast to the original Mini which is predominantly a two-door saloon car. The first-generation model was facelifted in 2004, coinciding with the introduction of the convertible variant. The second generation hatchback was launched in 2006, with the first-generation convertible replaced in 2008. The third generation entered production in 2013 and went on sale in 2014. With the launch of the fourth generatio

Under the skin

The record carries the layout — and the layout: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.

In context

In the Mini line-up the Mini Hatch has a clear place: it replaced the Mini / Austin Metro; the factory was Plant Oxford. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Honda Fit, the Honda Accord, the Kia Sorento. Nearby in the Mini catalogue sit the MINI Beachcomber and the Mini (3rd Generation).