What Car Awards MINI “Best Hot Hatch”

For the third year in a row our own MINI Cooper S has been named the best Hot Hatch on sale in the UK at the annual What Car awards ceremony. But it didn’t win just on looks alone…

Sure, the MINI Cooper S offers a lot of bang for the buck as far as performance goes. It doesn’t cost a lot to run or maintain. And its looks? You just know it’s going to be a blast to drive before you even get in it.

So… for the third year in a row, the UK’s “What Car” Awards named it the best “Hot Hatch” for ’09. But the MINI is so much more than all that. In July ’08 it won the “Green Sports Car” category, recognizing it for its frugal approach to motoring.

This year, those who thought MINI would rest on its many laurels were shaken up a bit when the new MINI Convertible blasted – literally – into the Detroit Auto Show. (See “How Do You Sell A Convertible In January…?) Along with some new design and drop-top treatments on the convertible, the entire MINI line was lauded for recent CO2 emission reductions provided by its MINImalism technology, which includes Auto Start/Stop, Brake Energy Regeneration and Shift Point Display.

In fact, recognition of the strides MINI is making in reducing CO2 emissions across its model range was underlined in research findings published earlier this week by CleanGreenCars.co.uk. The website released figures which detailed calculations of the average CO2 emissions of each car sold during 2008, and the cleanest car manufacturer of 2008 was found to be MINI at 137.24 g/km (the industry average: 158.7g/km.)

MINI’s average CO2 output improved by an impressive 6.8 per cent in 2008. All proving, of course, that fun and frugality are not mutually exclusive.

Hot Hatch… indeed!