2025 MINI Cooper vs 2025 Toyota Prius

The Mini Cooper is redesigned for 2025 with a host of alterations throughout. It’s a little bigger inside and out, while sporting all-new infotainment tech and quirky interior design to help maintain the badge’s fun personality. It still weighs less than 1,400 kilograms (3,000 pounds), too, and when combined with a potent turbocharged four-cylinder in the Cooper S, that makes for some truly hilarious fun-to-drive attitude.

Verdict: Although substantially larger than the original BMW Mini that reached North American shores in 2002, and no longer offering a manual transmission as standard, the new Mini Cooper continues to be a stylish and fun-to-drive way of getting around. And it will even return solid overall fuel economy in the process.

Decades ago, few cars were anywhere near as fuel efficient as the Toyota Prius. Today, the 2025 Prius remains a fuel economy champion, but numerous alternatives are close. Some even offer more interior room at a lower price. That reality, coupled with the cramped interior, limited trunk space, and general weirdness of the Prius, means hybrid car buyers have options.

Verdict: The point of the 2025 Toyota Prius is fuel economy, but our test car averaged 6.0 litres per 100 kilometres, falling significantly short of the Natural Resources Canada estimate of 4.8 L/100 km in combined driving. That certainly isn’t superior to roomier hybrid cars from Honda, Hyundai, or from within Toyota’s own lineup.