Is Mini Reliable? What the Roadworthiness Test Shows

Mini cultivates a premium, fun-to-drive brand image, inherited from its British heritage and its instantly recognisable compact body. But that strong identity also comes, in car culture, with a more mixed reliability reputation than mainstream marques — particularly around electronics. Here’s what France’s official roadworthiness test data actually shows.

Mini against the other brands

Out of the 38 brands tracked on this site, Mini ranks 34th, with a weighted average retest rate of 25.46% across the 8 models tracked (228,900 roadworthiness tests represented). That’s well above the national reference rate (18.94% across all models, see the 2025 barometer), and Mini ends up surrounded by mainstream generalist brands rather than alongside other premium marques: just behind Renault (24.91%, 33rd) and just ahead of Peugeot (25.55%, 35th) and Honda (26.28%, 36th). Mini sits in one of the bottom places of the overall ranking, far behind the Audis (17.76%), Mercedes (18.48%) or BMWs (18.55%) that its premium image might otherwise associate it with.

With 8 families tracked, Mini’s range is narrower than the mainstream generalist brands (Renault: 40, Peugeot: 36, Volkswagen: 32) — a similar order of magnitude to Porsche, Land Rover or Honda (8 families each). The site doesn’t flag this sample as statistically limited, unlike brands with only 1 or 2 models (Alpine, Cupra, Tesla…), but the volume of tests represented mechanically weighs less on the national average than for high-volume generalist brands.

Model by model

Here are the 8 Mini families tracked, ranked from most to least reliable by retest rate:

Model	Retest rate	National rank (/530)
Countryman II	12.60%	168
Mini IV	22.22%	280
Mini II	26.09%	351
Mini I	26.09%	352
Clubman II	26.33%	355
Clubman I	26.33%	356
Mini III	31.21%	422
Countryman I	32.23%	450

One model stands out from the pack: the Countryman II, the only Mini in the top half of the national ranking (168th/530), with a retest rate half that of the brand’s average. The rest of the range — the Mini hatchback itself (generations I to IV), the Clubman and the older Countryman I — sits in the bottom half of the overall ranking, between rank 280 and rank 450. The Mini IV hatchback (the brand’s most recent and best-selling generation, 39% of the volume tracked) does better than its predecessors but still sits above the national reference rate.

Manufacturer recalls

RappelConso lists 12 distinct notices concerning the Mini families tracked on this site — and they’re concentrated entirely on a single family: the Countryman (6 notices for each generation, I and II). Several risks recur: badly manufactured seatbelts, a front subframe not properly bolted to the engine subframe, a faulty weld on the brake servo motor (ABS/ESC left unassisted), a badly welded seat recliner mechanism, an armrest bracket poorly screwed near the thorax airbag, and a head-airbag ignition unit that can detach. By contrast, no recall is listed for the Mini hatchback (I to IV) or the Clubman (I and II) over the period covered by RappelConso.

Counted using the same method as our recalls-per-brand ranking (a recall counts once per family it affects), that also comes to 12 recalls cumulated, since no Mini notice affects several families at once — unlike what’s seen with other brands whose models share the same platform. As with other brands, a recall doesn’t mean a widespread defect across every unit of the model concerned.

What this means for a purchase

The retest rate measures compliance with the safety points checked (braking, suspension, emissions, lighting), not the mechanical or electronic reliability that Mini’s reputation is questioned over in car culture — see the full methodology page (in French). On this specific measure, the data doesn’t confirm a “premium” exception: Mini ranks among the weakest performers on the site, with a fairly uniform range aside from the notable exception of the Countryman II. The full model-by-model detail is available on the Mini brand page (in French).

Source data: UTAC-OTC (French roadworthiness test, 2025), RappelConso (data.gouv.fr). Full methodology on the methodology page (in French).