Shift Paddles Finally Coming to the New MINI Cooper in The US

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Shift paddles are finally coming to the new MINI Cooper in the US, albeit with a caveat. If you read our report a few months ago you’ll know that MINI didn’t just kill manuals but also eliminated the shift paddles on all cars unless they are JCWs or are equipped with the JCW style. With the US not offering the JCW Style on the F66 or U25, things looked dim for anyone wanting some interaction with their transmission without buying a JCW. Now that’s changing.

It seemingly started with MINI USA not wanting to dilute MINI’s performance brand and offer the JCW Style in the US. Why? MINI USA made the decision not to offer the JCW Trim in the US because they believed that it would take away the specialness of the full JCW and perhaps even negatively affect the JCW brand. And we agree. It’s something we’ve seen BMW offer with its M Sport kits for years and has led to general confusion from buyers around what the M brand even stands for.

But that decision has apparently cost MINI USA the chance to offer shift paddles on any non-JCW model. It would seem that MINI global isn’t giving any exception in making paddles exclusive to JCW Trims and thus no non-JCW MINI sold in the US will have shift paddles moving forward.

MINI USA’s Changing Strategy

Either MINI USA heard your voices or they realized the issue themselves. Either way it looks like things will be changing. That starts with the F65 five door Cooper which will be available with the JCW Style from launch. While that doesn’t solve the problem that many have with the JCW Style taking away for the full JCW models, it does allow for potential buyers get shift paddles. And that’s a good thing. Without the manual transmission on the order books, MINI has lost a major connectivity point with the car. While shift paddles don’t replace it, they do allow for some connection to the car and ability to control shift points.

It’s important to note that all full petrol JCW products like the forthcoming F66 MINI Cooper JCW and the currently available U25 Countryman JCW have paddles as standard. However there will be no full JCW version of the F65 five door Cooper which gives MINI USA another good excuse to bring the JCW Style to the US.

F66 MINI Cooper JCW prototype with clearly visible shift paddles

What does this mean for the rest of the range? While MINI USA hasn’t said anything official about shift paddles spreading to the F66 3 door Cooper or the non JCW Countryman, they hinted strongly that we’ll see more availability of the option in the the future.

What do you think? Has MINI USA done the right thing by offering the JCW Style on the F65 the US and thus giving buyers the option for shift paddles? Or should they have saved that look at the ability to shift yourself for full JCW products?

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