My wife would like a MINI to be her next car.
However, I live in Apeldoorn. As you know, this is outside civilized society,
past Amersfoort, so paved roads are rare.
A MINI may not be the most practical car there, plus we need room for the kids.
They need to be able to sit in the back seat, so you want doors there.
Where does this lead to? The MINI Countryman.
It's been here for a while, but this is the second generation. It has changed a lot.
However, before I'm going to tell you all about it, I want to tell you how this car came to be.
I had problems with it as well. The name MINI suggests something small.
It's put on big cars nowadays. This car is 20 cm bigger than the previous MINI Countryman.
That itself wasn't a small MINI anymore.
It is a huge car. Why is it still called MINI?
In short, it's a brand name. If you want a successful brand, you have to listen to your customers.
What do MINI customers want? More room compared to the previous Countryman.
Like I said, the car grew 20 cm longer and it's 3 cm wider.
In all, there is more room. 450 liter luggage space is suddenly very important for a car like this.
No one bought a Mini for its luggage space.
It's a small car that should be able to take you anywhere.
Anyway, enough about that. We're going to talk about this car.
You get to choose from different engines; diesel and gasoline.
The question is, how does this one perform? We're driving the Cooper S.
I have to say the engine doesn't disappoint.
It's a turbo engine and some people hate these, but this one works well.
It's a 2.0, which may be the difference with the 1.6 turbo engines of other brands.
It feels cooler. When you hit the throttle, stuff happens.
Especially in sport mode, like this car can do, the exhaust starts burbling and roaring.
It becomes a fun MINI, a fun car to drive. More fun than I expected it to be for such a big MINI.
It is a rather big car.
About the handling... You can see I'm on the wrong side of the car.
The steering wheel is on the other side, which brings me to the steering of this car.
It's not bad. We're in England. I'll talk about that later, because I like they brought us here.
We're in England, where there are lots of narrow roads and hills.
I expected I had to be careful with this car because of understeer, that I wouldn't dare much with it,
but it's not that bad. It has the playful character of a smaller MINI.
I think it's more fun and inviting to drive than a SEAT Ateca,
which I think is a good handling SUV / crossover this size.
We have to talk about the design of the new MINI Countryman.
Opinions in the comments were divided.
I didn't like it when I first saw the photos, but in real life...
I think it's 10x better than the previous Countryman, which I think is very ugly.
I think it's a good looking car, a bit sporty. I think it's nice.
The headlights reminded me of the Fiat 124 Spider, but now...
More so in photos than in real life.
Of course it has the typical MINI roof; in white, but it comes in different colors as well.
Kick it and it works. Nice. It all works.
Here we have something important in this class. A number of brands offer an optional 3rd row of seats.
MINI has this too. They're a sort of balcony seats, so...
It's easy to make a mother-in-law joke, but my mother-in-law is sweet. I'd never put her here.
But yeah, like this.
You're in the open air, which isn't very nice in England because it was snowing when shooting.
It is possible, though. There we go. I'm sitting down.
Switch it on for the lights. The interior lights are blue, giving a special effect.
A head-up display.
And this thing looked like a giant bicycle wheel on the photos, but it's not that bad.
It is typically MINI. It doesn't have intuitively easy-to-find buttons that are easy to use,
but it's typically MINI; different from all the other brands.
I would come back to the subject of England. We're near Oxford.
That's where Mini originates, but this MINI has little to do with Oxford
except for the brand name originating here. MINI is in German hands; owned by BMW.
However, the car is built in the Netherlands, at Nedcar in Born.
They will start producing the BMW X1 there soon.
That car shares a lot of technology with this one, so that's logical.
All engines are optionally available with an automatic transmission.
They have a 6-speed Steptronic or, in case of the Cooper S models, an 8-speed Steptronic.
We have the 8-speed automatic transmission. It's fun, because I've been using the flappy pedals a lot.
I'm usually very lazy with an automatic transmission. I let it do all the work.
But here, on the English roads, I've been shifting gears.
You do find the right gear, but it has to be in sport mode. You need to hear the engine.
If not in sport mode, you're rather soundproofed and don't hear the engine well,
shifting down a gear too many. On the other hand, the torque solves this. It's not a disaster.
Another piece of powertrain technology we have to talk about: all Countrymans are available with ALL4.
It's not an SUV that looks tough but really isn't.
Of course, we'll mainly see FWD cars in the Netherlands, but you can get AWD on all engines.
Keep in mind this costs 4,000-5,000 euros more than a FWD car.
Speaking of the prices...
The base model MINI Countryman Cooper with 134 hp starts at 33,000 euros.
That is much cheaper than its technology partner, the BMW X1. That one starts at 40,000 euros.
It's cheaper than the Q3 and Mercedes GLA as well.
That's funny. There's a big difference of 4,000-5,000 euros between these cars. At the least.
The car we're driving, the MINI Countryman Cooper S...
The car we're driving is the MINI Countryman Cooper S, available starting at 45,000 euros with ALL4.
I'd do this. When it's wet and a Cooper S without help of the rear wheels doesn't get anywhere.
I think you don't want that. You can also choose the John Cooper Works (JCW), the most powerful one.
It has 228 hp, many party features, cool wings and stickers, a firmer suspension, etc.
This costs a little over 50,000 euros. That's a lot of money for such a small car.
On the other hand, you don't buy this car rationally. You buy it because you like it.
You have to think it's cool and fun to drive, be okay it's less comfortable than its rivals,
but if you like driving and need cars with more ride height because there are no paved roads,
this can be a good option. Or, if you live in England with its bumpy roads, the extra ride height is nice.
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