MINI 5-door Hatchback Cooper Resolute Edition (2021 - 2024)

MINI has launched three new special editions across its entire range called Resolute, Untold and Untamed. These models boast exclusive design and equipment features to help them stand out from their siblings.

The Resolute Edition is available on both the Mini 3-Door Hatch and 5-Door Hatch, Mini Electric and Mini Convertible. The Untold Edition is matched to the Mini Clubman while the Untamed Edition is paired with the Mini Countryman.

These new special trim levels allow customers to fully personalise their vehicle and additional packages such as Comfort, Driver Assistance and Navigation can also be added to the mix, along with a variety of individual optional extras.

We selected the Mini 5-Door Hatch Cooper Resolute Edition to see if the special edition is worth the extra £1,000 customers pay above the Mini Exclusive edition.

The Resolute Edition is a great looking car with Rebel Green paintwork that is usually reserved for the high-performance John Cooper Works models. 

Hallmark design features, such as the headlight surrounds, rear lights, side scuttles, radiator grille, tailgate and door handles are finished in Resolute Bronze, a colour that is exclusive to this car.

There are gold-coloured bonnet stripes with the name RESOLUTE as a standout feature and the final touch are the black Tentacle spoke 17-inch alloy wheels.

Moving inside, you will discover sports seats in Black Peal combined with black armrests and knee rolls. The Nappa leather sports steering wheel has an edition emblem, and the neat curved lines with shades of gold form a pinstripe pattern on the black dashboard surfaces. It is an upmarket interior and our car featured darkened rear glass which was a £250 extra.

Creature comforts are plentiful with the main nerve centre being a large circular display housing the 8.8-inch touchscreen with widgets used to activate the many on-board features. Traditional toggle switches offer quick access to certain functions and there are circular readouts on the main digital dashboard display screen.

Expect to find plenty of kit with Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity, air conditioning, plus Bluetooth with audio steaming. The Premium Plus Pack, costing £2,200, adds a Harman Kardon surround sound system, rear view camera, heated front seats, a split-panoramic glass sunroof, parking assist with front and rear sensors, wireless charging and lots more besides.

All controls, dials and readouts are perfectly positioned for ease of use in this driver-focused cockpit and there are USB and USB-C ports to keep devices connected and charged.

Powering the 5-Door Hatch Cooper Resolute Edition is the same three-cylinder, 1.5-litre petrol engine found in standard 5-Door Cooper models delivering 136hp and 220Nm of torque. It can complete the 0-62mph dash in a respectable 8.4 seconds with a top speed of 129mph.

The car features a seven-speed semi-automatic gearbox with sharp, responsive acceleration and there are drive modes called Green, Mid and Sport that alter the driving characteristics of the vehicle. Sport is the most dynamic and the car’s ambient lighting glows a shade of red to highlight the setting. If you want better efficiency, then Green slows everything down and will maximise fuel economy.

Mini hatchbacks are renowned for their superb handling with precision balance and excellent road-holding and this model lives up to the high expectations too.

When faced with twisting country lanes it is composed and can be pushed with confidence into long sweeping bends. It can cruise with ease at 70mph on motorways and is agile with nicely weighted steering in busier town centre settings.

The ride can be a little on the firm side so expect to feel the full force of any unexpected potholes along the way, but the excellent insulation keeps occupants well protected from outside engine, road surface and wind noise.

One thing that can be said with confidence about this car is it still possesses the fun-factor that makes the Mini so appealing.

The Mini 5-Door Hatch Cooper Resolute Edition looks the bee’s knees when approached from any angle. It stretches 4,023mm in length, is 1,727mm wide and 1,425mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,567mm.

Those dimensions make for a spacious cabin with plenty of room for a couple of six footers to stretch out up front. Rear headroom is impressive and legroom is okay-ish for youngsters provided the front seats are not pushed too far back. A middle seat occupant would have to straddle a large tunnel which would be uncomfortable on longer journeys.

The seats and steering wheel are manually adjusted so finding the ideal driving position is easy enough. And comfort levels are excellent up front with the sports seats offering ample support. The driver visibility also impresses forwards, sideways and backwards. However, the over-the-shoulder view is slightly hampered by wide pillars.

The boot can swallow 278 litres of kit making it ideal for weekly shopping trips and that limit increases to 941 litres with the 60:40 split-folding rear seats dropped down.

There are plenty of storage compartments scattered throughout the cabin to store away bits and pieces. These include a glovebox, narrow door bins two front and one rear cupholder and a wireless charging pad in the height-adjustable front armrest.

The Mini 5-Door Hatch Cooper Resolute Edition is priced at £26,040, although options on our test car included the very extensive Premium Plus Pack costing £2,200 and darkened rear glass that added a further £250 to the price-tag. The final cost on our car was £28,490, but Mini owners are offered a wealth of options to fully personalise their car – at a cost, of course.

According to official figures, under WLTP testing, the car could deliver a combined 47.1-51.4mpg with carbon emissions of 134g/km.

That CO2 figure would result in a first-year road tax bill (or Vehicle Excise Duty to give it its proper name) of £255 dropping to the standard annual charge of £180 after 12 months.

For anyone considering this Mini as a company car, it comes with a Benefit in Kind tax rating of 31 per cent and the model, as tested, sits in insurance group 20.

It’s a fact that Mini’s seem to get bigger with the launch of each new model and when you see vehicles from the pre-BMW-owned days, they seem really minute by comparison to current vehicles.

But one thing has always been a constant and that’s the appeal of the brand’s go-kart-like handling. When you factor in the wealth of opportunities that customers have to personalise their car and fully put their stamp on it, the Mini appeal is just as prevalent. But alternatively, if you can resist the temptation to add on the options, you get a reasonably priced car with bundles of character.