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CarsLore / Compare / Sports cars / Cooper vs Celica

MINI Cooper vs Toyota Celica

Two sports cars, compared on the same official records: MOT and inspection results, safety ratings, fuel use, recalls and owner complaints. 4 like-for-like measures: the MINI Cooper leads on 3, the Toyota Celica on 0, 1 too close to call.

Where each one leads

MINI Cooper

  • Against cars of the same year, the MINI Cooper comes out better in New York safety inspections (fails 22% less often than average) than the Toyota Celica (fails 33% more often than average).
  • Fewer MINI Cooper cars in the Netherlands carry an illogical odometer record (2.5% against 10.2%).
  • On Canada's official test the most frugal 2026 MINI Cooper uses 7.4 l/100 km, the 2005 Toyota Celica 8.5.

Toyota Celica

Ahead on none of the like-for-like measures.

Too close to call: MOT pass rate against cars of the same age.

Only measures that do not depend on how many cars were sold: pass and failure rates against cars of the same age, ratings, fuel use and CO₂. How we compare

At a glance

MINI CooperToyota Celica
Model years in the US safety record2001–20261981–2006
New cars registered in Europe799,739 (2010–2022)—
Licensed in the United Kingdom509,2887,198
On the road in the Netherlands77,9462,581
In traffic in Finland2,681668

EEA new-car registrations (CC BY 4.0) · DVLA licensed vehicles (OGL v3.0) · RDW (CC0) · Traficom (CC BY 4.0) · generations: Wikidata (CC0).

Reliability and problems

MINI CooperToyota Celica
UK MOT first-time pass rate84%61%
… against cars of the same age+7%+4%
New York safety inspections failed1.9%2.2%
… against cars of the same year−22%+33%
Illogical odometer records (NL)2.5%10.2%
US owner complaints2,236413
Most complaints aboutSteeringAir bags
Model year with most complaints2005 (372)2000 (106)
US recall campaigns277
Manufacturer service bulletins2,7191,115
NHTSA defect investigations1812

Complaint, recall and bulletin counts grow with the number of cars sold and are not adjusted for it. UK MOT: DVSA anonymised MOT results (OGL v3.0); New York: DMV inspections; complaints, recalls, bulletins and investigations: NHTSA (public domain); odometer: RDW (CC0).

Fuel, emissions and price

MINI CooperToyota Celica
Official combined fuel use, Canada7.4 l/100 km (2026)8.5 l/100 km (2005)
Real-world use in Europe, petrol7.1 l/100 km—
Official CO₂ of new cars in Europe129 g/km—
Average power of new cars in Europe100 kW (134 hp)—
Average mass in running order1,294 kg—
Dutch list price when new (median)€33,498€39,253
Average odometer in Finland168,000 km247,000 km

Canada: NRCan Fuel Consumption Ratings, most frugal version of the latest year (OGL Canada). Europe: EEA monitoring of new-car CO₂ and on-board fuel meters (OBFCM), CC BY 4.0. Price: RDW catalogue price (CC0). Finland: Traficom (CC BY 4.0).