For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Kia K4 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 Kia K4 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 K4 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.
In a Vehicle-to-Vehicle Frontal Crash Prevention 2.0 test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the Kia K4 achieved a “Acceptable” rating - the second highest possible - for its performance in forward collision warning and automatic braking systems, demonstrating its excellent capabilities in preventing collisions. The MINI Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has not been tested.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The K4 GT-Line Turbo offers optional Reverse Parking Collision-Avoidance Assist that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
The K4 GT-Line Turbo offers an optional Surround View Monitor to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The K4 LXS/EX/GT-Line’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 K4 LXS/EX/GT-Line’s standard Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning uses sensors in the rear to alert the driver to vehicles approaching from the side and Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist automatically engages the brakes to help avoid a collision. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door doesn’t offer a rear cross-path warning system.
Both the K4 and the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front wheel drive, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, rearview cameras and driver alert monitors.
The Kia K4 (Built after January 2025) has achieved the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) highest rating of “Top Safety Pick Plus” for the 2025 model year. This distinction is based on its exceptional performance in IIHS’ rigorous battery of safety tests. Specifically, it earned a “Good” rating in the latest, more stringent moderate overlap front crash test, a “Good” result in the updated side impact test, and a “Good” score in the revised pedestrian crash prevention test. The Cooper Hardtop 4 Door has not yet been fully evaluated by the IIHS for 2025.