Compare the2023 Honda Civic SiVS 2023 MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door

For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Honda Civic Si have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.

For enhanced safety, the front seat shoulder belts of the Honda Civic Si are height-adjustable to accommodate a wide variety of driver and passenger heights. A better fit can prevent injuries and the increased comfort also encourages passengers to buckle up. The MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer height-adjustable seat belts.

In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Civic Si are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.

Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the Civic Si deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The Civic Si’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests front crash prevention systems. With a score of 6 points, IIHS rates the Collision Mitigation Braking System in the Civic Si as “Superior.” The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door scores only 4 points and is rated only “Advanced.”

The Civic Si’s blind spot warning system uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a system to reveal objects in the driver’s blind spots.

To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Civic Si’s standard Cross Traffic Monitor uses sensors in the rear to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side, helping the driver avoid collisions. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a rear cross-path warning system.

Both the Civic Si and the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, rearview cameras and driver alert monitors.

For its performance in IIHS driver-side and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, updated side impact, headlight, and daytime pedestrian crash prevention testing, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the Civic Si the rating of “Top Safety Pick” for 2023, a rating granted to only 53 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has not been fully tested, yet.

Honda’s powertrain warranty covers the Civic Si 1 year and 10,000 miles longer than MINI covers the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door. Any repair needed on the engine, transmission, axles, joints or driveshafts is fully covered for 5 years or 60,000 miles. Coverage on the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door ends after only 4 years or 50,000 miles.

There are over 10 times as many Honda dealers as there are MINI dealers, which makes it much easier should you ever need service under the Civic Si’s warranty.

The Civic Si’s 1.5 turbo 4-cylinder produces 66 more horsepower (200 vs. 134) and 30 lbs.-ft. more torque (192 vs. 162) than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door’s standard 1.5 turbo 3-cylinder. The Civic Si’s 1.5 turbo 4-cylinder produces 11 more horsepower (200 vs. 189) than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door S’ standard 2.0 turbo 4-cylinder.

On the EPA test cycle the Civic Si gets better fuel mileage than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door S Manual (27 city/37 hwy vs. 23 city/33 hwy).

The Civic Si has a standard cap-less fueling system. The fuel filler is automatically opened when the fuel nozzle is inserted and automatically closed when it’s removed. This eliminates the need to unscrew and replace the cap and it reduces fuel evaporation, which causes pollution. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a cap-less fueling system.

For better stopping power the Civic Si’s brake rotors are larger than those on the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door:

For better traction, the Civic Si has larger tires than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door (235/40R18 vs. 195/55R16). The Civic Si’s tires are larger than the largest tires available on the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door (235/40R18 vs. 205/45R17).

The Civic Si’s tires provide better handling because they have a lower 40 series profile (height to width ratio) that provides a stiffer sidewall than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door’s standard 55 series tires.

For better ride, handling and brake cooling the Civic Si has standard 18-inch wheels. Smaller 16-inch wheels are standard on the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door.

For a smoother ride and more stable handling, the Civic Si’s wheelbase is 6.6 inches longer than on the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door (107.7 inches vs. 101.1 inches).

For better handling and stability, the track (width between the wheels) on the Civic Si is 1.7 inches wider in the front and 2.9 inches wider in the rear than the average track on the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door.

The Civic Si’s front to rear weight distribution is more even (60% to 40%) than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door’s (61.5% to 38.5%). This gives the Civic Si more stable handling and braking.

Because it has more passenger and cargo room, the EPA rates the Civic Si a Mid-size car, while the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door is rated a Subcompact.

The Civic Si has 12.8 cubic feet more passenger volume than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door (96.6 vs. 83.8).

The Civic Si has .9 inches more front legroom, 5.8 inches more front shoulder room, 5.1 inches more rear legroom and 6.4 inches more rear shoulder room than the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door.

The Civic Si’s power parking brake sets with one touch and releases with one touch or automatically. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has a lever-type parking brake that has to be strenuously raised to engage properly. It has to be lifted up more and a button depressed to release it.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducts detailed tests on headlights for their range both straight ahead and in curves and to be certain they don’t exceed acceptable amounts of glare to oncoming drivers. The Civic Si’s headlights were rated “Good” by the IIHS, while the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door’s headlights are rated “Acceptable.”

The Civic Si has a standard center folding armrest for the rear passengers. A center armrest helps make rear passengers more comfortable and it can provide a boundary between children. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a rear seat center armrest.

For greater rear passenger comfort, the Civic Si has standard rear heat vents to keep rear occupants more comfortable. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer rear vents.

The Civic Si will cost the buyer less in the long run because of its superior resale value. The IntelliChoice estimates that the Civic Si will retain 53.1% to 53.47% of its original price after five years, while the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door only retains 39.35% to 49.52%.

Consumer Reports® recommends both the Honda Civic Si and the MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door, based on reliability, safety and performance.

The Civic was chosen as a Car and Driver’s “Top Ten” for 2023 and 8 more times in the last 39 years. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has never been chosen by Car and Driver in their “10Best” issue.

A group of representative automotive journalists from North America selected the Civic as the 2022 North American Car of the Year. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has never been chosen.

The Honda Civic outsold the MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door by almost 33 to one during 2022.