MINI Cooper vs Mercedes-Benz S-Class

The 2025 Mercedes-Benz S-Class is an automotive icon that fulfills its lofty expectations for comfort, performance, technology, and refinement. Last redesigned for the 2021 model year, Mercedes’ flagship sedan receives only small changes for 2025, including newly standard features like digital key functionality and a center airbag, some additional paint colors, and wider availability of the AMG Line trim package.

Verdict: Quite simply, the S-Class is the best luxury sedan that doesn't wear a Bentley or Rolls-Royce badge. With several models to choose from and a dizzying array of options, there seems to be a perfect match for a variety of tastes, provided you have a six-figure budget.

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 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 America’s 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 will even return solid overall fuel economy in the process.