2025 Mini Cooper E and Countryman score top marks for safety

The all-new 2025 Mini Cooper E hatch and 2025 Mini Countryman small SUV have both been awarded the full five stars for safety in the latest round of Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) crash tests.

Judged to have performed well across each of the key assessment areas, testers said the Mini Cooper E’s structure remained stable in frontal offset impact and full-width frontal tests, with the little hatch said to provide a mixture of good and adequate levels of protection for the driver and front passenger and those in the second row.

Criticisms concerned the lack of AEB driver assist in reverse and difficulty fitting child seats using the ISOFIX child restraints, as it was impossible to see if the ISOFIX visual indicators had turned green.

The Cooper E was given an 89 per cent score for adult occupant protection, an 83% rating for child occupant protection, 77% for pedestrian impact and 83% for its driver assist aids.

The Mini Countryman, meanwhile, also impressed but did not have the ISOFIX visibility issues of the small hatch.

The Countryman was scored 83% for adult protection, 86% for child protection, 81% for pedestrian impact (on account of its pop-up bonnet on impact) and a further 84% for AEB.

Tested alongside both MINIs was the second-generation 2025 Skoda Kodiaq SUV.

Again, the big seven-seat Kodiaq won praise and a respectable 89% for adult occupant protection, 87% for child occupant protection, 82% for pedestrian impact and 81% for its driver assist tech.

Blotting its copybook, ANCAP said it was disappointed that there were no top tether child seat mounting points in the third row, with the safety body advising owners to not fit baby seats on the sixth and seventh seat.

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