This week we have the Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4 our model was assembled in Born in the Netherlands with an MSRP of $41,627 CDN.
Fun Factor: 9
Can it Family: 7
Fuel-Friendly: 6
HWY-warrior: 7
Karaoke Friendly: 7
Baby friendly: 7
City Cruising: 8
We wouldn’t hide how much fun we’ve had with the Countryman, since Mini has updated their engine line up and ditched the 1.6L from the line up and replaced it with a 2.0L engine now producing 189hp and 207 lb-ft of torque and its updates size the new Countryman feels more potent and actually more agile even though the Countryman isn’t that Mini anymore. The Handling of the Countryman was close to the Porsche 718 we drove early this year, we were blown away by the precision of the mini, BMW has typically built some great handling cars however they’ve outdone themselves with this car. If you want to have fun, the Mini Countryman should be your daily driver.
Can it Family, now with a car manufacturer’s name being called Mini, some would imagine that the Countryman isn’t meant for the family. Actually we found that the Countryman can transport both the family and your belongings and be fun at the same time. The back seats are limited to 2 adults in the back with one child. It is possible to have a child seat on all rear seats as long as you leave one seat out per child seat. As for Cargo, a medium sized stroller fits perfectly in the trunk while still having a place for 4 grocery bags.
Now for the average gas consumption, we would like to add a disclaimer to our average gas consumption for results of 12.3L per 100km, we drove the car heavy footed as the engine revs even if it is fake sound coming out of the sound system you’re rewarded with some fantastic crackles and pops. Mini’s combined figures are 9.2L per 100 km. As for the highway, our results were 8.2L per 100km when driving smoothly over the course of 200km. As for the city, we were always above 13L per 100km as we were always in sports mode. If you can tame yourself to drive in Eco or normal mode, the figures provided by mini are 10.5 L per 100km.
The Countryman is well planted and feels safe at higher speeds you’ll never be guessing how long it will take to overtake or if you have enough torque at higher speeds. These are nonissue with the Countryman. Where the Countryman lets down with some of the material used in was we would consider for the price a premium compact SUV, can feel something out an economy car, with our car some rattling was apparent even driving over bumps at higher speeds. Some of the plastic on the door handle did also feel of lower quality.
The sound system of the Countryman is satisfactory, however, what some of us dislike is while in normal mode and sport mode and what may sound amazing to the driver may irritate your passengers, while listening to music you’ll always have the speaker induced engine revving sound, while the sound is pleasing the high notes should be reserved for sports mode only. We would also suggest upgrading the infotainment to the touch screen as it is faster and more user-friendly.
The ISOFIX ports were placed perfectly and could be accessed at any time while the latches are nicely hidden when not in use. We’ve found that the Mini Countryman has one of the most straightforward mechanisms for child seat installation.
As for city driving the Mini Countryman ALL4 was a blast to drive, it can be easily be parked, the ease of turning the steering wheel brings confidence and helps greatly when parallel parking, we wish the rear camera would be of higher quality, however with anything from BMW you can add options and one of these is the 360 degrees camera found on higher-end trim models.
We would suggest the Mini Countryman to anyone that can tame themselves not going over the speed limit as the Countryman will always give you more speed when you want it.
Items we liked on our Countryman: Exquisite handling, comfortable seating, larger panoramic root, excellent visibility.
Items we’ve disliked on our Countryman: security feature like emergency braking are still optional, cockpit gages have only received minor teaks currently no digital gages available, the price of the hybrid version.
