This is the new Mini 5 Door, and it follows the same recipe as the car it follows. Take one, regular Mini hatchback, and make it a little longer and ungainlier (while a whole heap more practical).

It’s basically the recently facelifted Mini Hatch with another 16cm of length, half of which is in the wheelbase to help incorporate those still-rather-dinky back doors. You also get a healthy rise in boot space, with just shy of 1,000 litres of volume if you flip the back seats down. Of which there are now three, where a regular Mini only houses two people in the back.

The big news actually comes up top. Like its smaller sibling, the Mini 5 Door now offers something called a Multitone Roof – effectively a roof that starts blue at one end, becoming black at the other.

“As the roof surface has been extended in parallel with the wheelbase compared with the three-door,” Mini explains, “the appeal of the flowing colour gradient from San Marino Blue in the front to Pearly Aqua in the middle to Jet Black in the rear of the Multitone Roof can unfold particularly effectively.”

In short, the longer roof exaggerates the effect and makes it a more worthwhile option. Though perhaps only if you have a first-floor flat or a decent bedroom window to gaze out upon it, as your shiny new Mini awaits its next essential journey.

Inside, it follows the rest of the three-door’s update cues too: a new, more touchscreen-y interior being the change that’ll likely draw most new buyers in. It’ll cost £700 (RM3.9k) more than a comparative three-door Hatch, prices starting at a whisker under £22,000 (RM123k), pre-fancy roof.

Like it? Or would you head away from the Mini showroom if you needed a sensible five-door hatchback?