MELBOURNE: The facelifted MINI Cooper Countryman has been unveiled at BMW World Malaysia – as with the F55 5 Door Hatch, the updated maxi MINI gets a new lower-powered variant to join the Cooper S that has been on sale since last year.
Coming in at RM44,000 under the Cooper S, the locally-assembled Cooper Countryman is priced at RM198,888 on-the-road without insurance, inclusive of 6% GST, a two-year, unlimited mileage warranty and a three-year/50,000 km MINI Service Inclusive package. It’s also RM19k less than the pre-facelift Cooper (which confusingly is still on sale), even though it has slightly better kit.
A pair of oil crises and government-mandated curbing of automobile emissions in the 1970s all but killed off the once mighty American V8 muscle car. But in the wake of neutered Ford Mustang Cobras and castrated Chevrolet Camaro Z28s rose a raft of relatively fun-to-drive small cars, led by the likes of the Volkswagen GTI and the Honda Civic Si.
Although not as popular as they were in the 1980s, more than three decades later, so-called “hot hatches” are still a great way to get a ton of performance in a small package. To see which one is more engaging and fun-to-drive for today’s hot hatch buyer, we put two of the best contenders head t0 head: the 2015 Ford Fiesta ST and the 2015 Mini Cooper S 5 Door:
What sets the ST apart from the regular Fiesta is a more aggressive look that includes an attractive body kit complete with bolstered side sills and a bolder rear spoiler, larger 17-inch wheels and twin tailpipes.
The 2015 Ford Fiesta ST does come with a few options, none of which should be considered mandatory — the navigation system was Mickey Mouse and the power moonroof added unwanted weight!
The long-awaited ST version of Ford’s subcompact, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger, Fiesta hatchback arrived for 2014. And compared to the new-this-year Mini Cooper S 5 Door, the feisty Ford is not only less expensive to get into, but also more fun for keen drivers.
Inside, the Ford is all business. If not as stylish or as premium feeling as the quirky Cooper S’s interior, the Fiesta ST’s ergonomics are more intuitively accessed. Included in its $26,514 price (all prices include freight and pre-delivery inspection fees) is also a pair of torso-hugging Recaro thrones.
The Fiesta ST’s turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder gas engine makes 197 horsepower and 202 pound-feet of torque, and only comes with a six-speed manual gearbox. Clutch engagement is smooth, and the stick’s shifter is easy to swap cogs with. Zero to 100 kilometres per hour takes only 6.9 seconds in the Ford — 0.1 seconds quicker than the Mini.
Sure. Some family sedans are quicker in a straight-line. Yet when the Fiesta ST gets moving is when it impresses the most.
