2025 Mini John Cooper Works 2 Door Is A Hoot, But You Probably Still Want The Cooper S

Typically, getting to a media drive involves getting on an airplane and flying to the event, but I got lucky when the Mini held the 2025 John Cooper Works 2 Door launch only a few hours from where I live. That meant I got to drive there instead, and to get me there, BMW sent an M3 Competition. Since more is better, you might think a 503-horsepower, rear-wheel-drive sport sedan would have been a terrible car to let me drive down since I'd be bored out of my mind in the much less powerful front-wheel-drive Minis. Having that M3 as a primer ended up being perfect to highlight what makes Minis so great, including the new JCW models.

You see, for all its power and track capability, the M3 isn't actually that fun as a daily driver. It's quick and the steering is sharp, but it's also too stiff for anything but the smoothest roads, it's a cop magnet, and — with the optional carbon bucket seats, at least — it's annoying to get in and out of even if you, like me, spent the last decade skipping leg day. The Mini John Cooper Works 2 Door, on the other hand, is still stiff and sportier than the Cooper S, but no matter where you're driving, it's a hoot. Forget the numbers, the John Cooper Works 2 Door is just fun, period. Opt for the convertible version, and it's even more fun.

And yet, as even Mini will admit, most people are still going to go for the Cooper S, and I don't really blame them. In fact, since they cost similar money, I think I'd rather have the Cooper S Convertible than the John Cooper Works Hardtop. You can't get a manual transmission in either version anymore, and neither car is setting lap records, so you might as well enjoy a little top-down fun for your money. If you can justify the higher price tag, though, the JCW convertible gives you the best of both worlds.

Full Disclosure: Mini wanted me to drive the 2025 John Cooper Works 2 Door Hardtop and Convertible so badly, it sent me an M3 to drive to the event, put me up in a hotel in Savannah that may or may not have been haunted, covered my food and drinks, then sent me home in a John Cooper Works convertible to keep for 10 days.

Even though Minis aren't really about the numbers, our readers are, so let's lay out some numbers. Regardless of whether you get the coupe or convertible, the John Cooper Works gets a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-4 that makes 228 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. That's enough to get the hardtop up to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds, while the softtop takes just a tick longer at 6.2 seconds. If you want to put a hardtop in your garage it'll cost you at least $39,375, including destination, while the convertible will run you a cool $44,875.

For comparison, the Mini Cooper S starts at $33,375 and makes 201 hp and 221 lb-ft of torque. Upgrading to the convertible adds another $5,000 to the base price. There's also an entry-level model, but Mini didn't have one of those for us to drive, and apparently that was at least partly because very few people actually buy the non-S 2 Door. If you really want, though, you can get the Oxford Edition that starts at $26,125 and makes 161 hp and 184 lb-ft of torque. At least, those are the prices Mini would like to charge. Who knows what Republican tariffs will end up doing to its prices. And if we're being honest, that probably includes Trump himself. Get your order in by the end of May, and you should be good, though. I think.

In order to turn the Cooper S into a John Cooper Works, Mini added more than just a more powerful engine. While you still get a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, this one comes with paddle shifters and a sport mode for the transmission. The JCW also gets upgraded brakes and an adaptive suspension, as well as a host of interior and exterior changes that give the Mini a sportier look and make sure you don't forget you're driving the JCW.

Mini also added a single-pipe center exhaust, which serves as a nod to the original Mini Cooper. On the one hand, I appreciate the easter egg, but on the other hand, I just think a dual exhaust would look better. Something about the look just doesn't do it for me, but if you like it, I won't try to convince you that you're wrong. It certainly wouldn't stop me from buying one if I were in the market for a third car and had a $50,000 budget. If anything, I suspect the front end will be a bigger issue for more people because that's a whole lot of grille on a pretty small car.

Since I hadn't driven either body style of the Cooper S yet, I let the other journalists grab the JCWs and spent my first several hours familiarizing myself with those. Whether I was driving around downtown Savannah, on the highway or putzing around Tybee Island, both S models felt quick, lively and most importantly, fun. I was able to actually enjoy myself instead of constantly keeping one eye on the speedometer while the other scanned the road for cops.

When I switched into the JCW, it was both quicker and noticeably more fun to drive, but was it a full $6,000 better? I'm not entirely convinced. What really surprised me, though, was just how much more fun the convertibles were compared to the hardtops. Jalopnik is officially pro-convertible, but I wasn't fully prepared for just how much more I would enjoy the droptop Minis.

If you plan to autocross or track your new Mini regularly and have the money, definitely go for the JCW 2 Door. The extra torque, better brakes and upgraded suspension will probably really shine in that application, and that's also the kind of driving where being able to control what gear you're in actually comes in handy. The S doesn't have the JCW's paddle shifters, so shifting is left up to the computers.

But if you just want to have fun around town, it's hard to recommend the hardtop JCW over the S convertible. It gives you far less cowl shake than you might expect, and you're already driving a slightly silly car, so why not drop the top and enjoy the wind in your hair? Sure, you lose trunk space, but what trunk you do have is still usable even with the top down, and whatever practicality you lose behind the rear seats, you more than gain back with the ability to easily toss things into the back seats with the top down. In fact, depending on what you typically carry, I could even make the argument that the convertible is the more practical option. Plus, more sun means more vitamin D, which science proves will make you both happier and healthier. Other than all the extra money you spend and the extra weight that cutting off the roof adds, it really is a win across the board for the convertible.

While it isn't rear-wheel drive, I'd even go as far as to say a Mini Cooper S convertible is the closest thing you can currently buy to the Miata For Tall People that will never actually happen. The John Cooper Works version, meanwhile, is the Mazdaspeed Miata For Tall People that will also never happen.

That should have basically been the end of my first drive right there, but a mix-up with the cars meant I ended up driving home in a red John Cooper Works Convertible, and that meant hundreds more miles behind the wheel of the most expensive two-door Mini currently sells. If you thought another 10 days with the car would do anything other than convince me Minis are best as convertibles, you couldn't be more wrong. I've been Mini Convertible-pilled, and I don't know if anything can change my mind. At least until we start talking about that $45,000 price tag.

Driving home, I went top-down the whole way. Did I get slightly sunburned, and is my right arm beginning to peel as I type this? Yep. Did it ever get warmer than 68 degrees that day? Nope. Turns out, I'm the kind of pale that burns when it isn't even 70 degrees out, but that's a me problem, not a Mini problem. Besides, I needed a watch tan anyway. And I kept the top down probably 95% of the time after that. Fun car + no roof = more fun.

My time with the JCW also convinced me I'm absolutely right about the convertible being more practical, too. It swallowed several months worth of groceries with absolutely no problem, and when I bought two nightstands on Facebook Marketplace, all I had to do was drop the top and we were off to the races. Well, actually, we were off to see my parents, but it's more fun to imagine it was a race. Regardless, there's no way I would have fit both of them into a non-convertible Mini. Or the M3, for that matter.

Would I have had more fun if the transmission had been a manual? Absolutely. That isn't even a question. This is a car that's begging for a manual transmission, and the fact that you can't get one hurts. I'm not convinced it'll be possible due to the Republican tariffs, but at the very least, one of the product managers I spoke to at Mini told me the manual transmission isn't dead-dead. It just isn't available for now. So maybe there's a manual JCW coming at some point in the future.

The demand is clearly there, too. They said manuals accounted for about half of all previous-generation JCW orders, but while you'd think that would easily be a high enough take rate to keep the manual around, the problem is that JCWs account for such a small portion of Mini's sales that the math isn't currently mathing. It isn't exactly clear what it would take to bring the manual back, but I get the feeling they'd at least need Cooper S sales to be high enough to make adding it to both worth the gamble.

The people I gave rides to certainly didn't miss the manual, though. Various family members, including my niece and nephew, as well as my girlfriend, all seemed to love the Mini even more than I did. While the M3 is so insulated that my brother thought we were driving significantly slower than we actually were, in the Mini, he had a hard time believing we were driving as slow as we actually were. That's just the open-top experience, not anything Mini-specific, but Mini is also one of the few automakers still selling a somewhat-affordable convertible in the U.S., so I'll give it to them. I'd also like to think I inspired my brother to get his E30 convertible back up and running, too.

If you want to go fast, then no Mini is going to be for you. That's fine. If you want to have fun, though, while still driving a car that's somewhat practical, then give the Mini convertibles a serious look. Whether it's the Cooper S or the John Cooper Works (or, I guess, the base Mini convertible, if you have to), I guarantee you'll enjoy driving it far more than one of those cars with a roof that everybody else buys.

You'll love it, other people will love it, and even the JCW convertible is still rated at 30 mpg combined. Plus, Minis have gotten pretty darn reliable, too. The price will always be an issue, and the tariffs could soon turn that into an even bigger problem, but at least even if you can't justify the cost of a John Cooper Works Convertible, I'd be willing to bet a test drive would at least leave you disappointed that you have to hand over the keys. From the size to the power and even the design, it's just a darn fun car, and it really is a shame so few people will get to experience the fun of dropping the top on a small, peppy four-seater.