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Post by racingteatray on Apr 19, 2017 13:33:44 GMT
Got my first gander at my mother's new Countryman last week when she came down to stay. As a reminder, it's a Cooper S All4 auto. Have to say that it's a very smart-looking piece of kit – we've nicknamed it the "Granny Rocket" – in silver with blacked-out light surrounds. The design has aged well in my view. I didn't find time to get a go in it, but I did have a poke about inside and everything feels sturdy and looks good. There are a few cheaper plastics in places, and this particular one has an entirely black interior which I would find a bit oppressive, but the design remains fresh with modern touches such as a big colour screen in the centre of the mammoth central speedo.
My mother seems generally very chuffed with it.
She likes:
- the elevated ride height which she finds makes it much easier to get in and out of, plus she likes the better visibility afforded by the higher seating position;
- the size, in that it is manages to be usefully small but still have plenty of interior and boot space;
- the level of performance on offer which, combined with the automatic box, she finds make it an easier and more relaxing car to drive;
- the way it drives (says it feels tied-down and nimble);
- generally having an automatic gearbox;
- the comfortable seats/driving position; and
- having mod cons such as a phone system she actually understands how to use, parking sensors and xenons.
She is less keen on:
- the ride quality on bumpy roads;
- general noise level (says it is noticeably noisier at a cruise than her old A3); and
- some of the spec omissions given the price (she would have liked eg folding mirrors and heated seats).
Obviously, with the latter, I had to point out that when you go for an "in-stock" car, you kind of have to take what's available but I could see that she rather thought such niceties ought to be standard on a £28k Mini. As regards the ride, I've suggested she might think about having the 18" wheels swapped for a 17" set, but she seems to think she'll get used to it.
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Post by Stuntman on Apr 19, 2017 19:04:42 GMT
I think these are quite smart as well. My own Mum is in the market for a new (or at least newer) car and this may well also make her shortlist. She currently has an 08 reg Honda Jazz.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Apr 20, 2017 8:05:37 GMT
I have to say this pretty much echos my own Mum's thoughts on her Countryman. She's now had it just over 4 and a half years and it's been trouble free for 30k miles. She gave us a lift home from a family party at the weekend and a couple of negative things did strike me - the ride for one is quite firm and unforgiving, even on 17" wheels, and the interior plastics are a bit hard and hollow in a lot of areas, certainly compared to those of the Qashqai, which also rides much better. That said, it suits her well in terms of driving position and size so I can't see her changing anytime soon.
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Post by racingteatray on Apr 20, 2017 10:54:00 GMT
What version does she have, suspension-wise?
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Apr 20, 2017 12:07:20 GMT
What version does she have, suspension-wise? It's a Cooper Petrol Auto. I don't know the exact suspension set up. I have noticed that after i get out of the Qashqai and back into my 320d MSport with the 19" wheels the suspension feels horribly firm and unforgiving over road imperfections but that feeling diminishes over a day or so. It may have been the case getting in the Countryman the other night. |
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Post by racingteatray on Apr 20, 2017 15:28:12 GMT
I dare say that had I got directly out of the squishy Golf we had over Easter and back into the GC, I might have thought similarly.
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Post by racingteatray on Jun 4, 2017 14:59:32 GMT
I finally got to take the Granny Rocket for a spin today and must say I was favourably impressed. At low speeds, the auto 'box is slightly "old-skool" compared to the ZF 'box in my GC, but then again the latter is particularly peachy. But it's nothing more than a slight reluctance to shift from first gear as smartly as you'd like if you are pulling off at a gentle pace. Apart from that, it was really rather good. Plenty of poke - enough for you to overtake with ease - without being enough to scare the horses. But what really impressed me was the handling and roadholding. It feels very secure and planted on the road and corners flatly and fluently. It also feels nimble and easy to place, with keen turn-in, and is just rather good. I can quite see why my mother, who has always enjoyed driving, says she loves driving it. Says it is "fun". Moreover the ride is not any worse than my car in "Sport" and actually I think slightly better. They've resurfaced many of the roads around Aldeburgh which I tried it on and it felt smooth and comfortable. When I mentioned this to my mother, she immediately said that she had definitely noticed it had softened up quite a bit from when it was new.
So three months in, she's still very pleased with it. Says the only problem comes from various of her similarly aged girlfriends who look at it and go "oh, what did you buy something like that for?". Apparently women in their 70s are not supposed to buy cars that are even remotely "sporty" or "flash"...
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Post by johnc on Jun 5, 2017 7:16:47 GMT
My MIL loves her 5 Door CooperS for all the same reasons. Her previous 420D XDrive was too big and boring! However she now takes any opportunity to go for a drive and can't stop telling everyone how much she enjoys it.
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Post by PG on Jun 5, 2017 10:10:25 GMT
Great that she's enjoying it. A good car for Mrs racing then when the 500 goes?
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Jun 5, 2017 10:24:14 GMT
So three months in, she's still very pleased with it. Says the only problem comes from various of her similarly aged girlfriends who look at it and go "oh, what did you buy something like that for?". Apparently women in their 70s are not supposed to buy cars that are even remotely "sporty" or "flash"... Your mum sounds like mine - she consciously shuns any of the pensioner cars her friends have, with a particular dislike of the Honda Jazz (which is a bit unfair really as the new Jazz is quite a good car). |
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Post by michael on Jun 5, 2017 10:41:19 GMT
My mother also. She has a VW Touran as she needs it for my fathers wheelchair but the rest of the time drives an XF Sportbrake which she is incredibly fond of.
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Post by racingteatray on Jun 5, 2017 12:58:44 GMT
My mother did comment that lots of her friends have become quite nervous drivers who won't, for example, countenance driving on motorways in their Polos and whatnot, and prefer to leave the driving to their husbands. But she's lived on her own in a tiny country village for the last thirty years, which (a) means she always needed to drive a larger family car that could fit three kids, a dog and associated clobber rather than just having a runabout, and (b) our family is quite widely spread out across the UK, so she has always regularly driven quite long distances to visit friends and family. For example, in July she's driving up to Islay to spend a few weeks with her sister who lives there in a remote farmhouse. That's pretty good going for a septuagenarian, and she just takes the view that it's really only doable if you have a proper car with decent mod cons. It must be in the genes – my grandmother was still driving out to Tuscany on her own well into her early 70s.
To be fair on her, my mother wasn't after a sporty car. She just wanted something petrol-powered that was easier to get in and out of than her old A3, which she had started to find too low, and had an automatic gearbox (the A3 was a manual). She had decided that something should be a Countryman and it was simply because the only petrol automatics they had left were all Cooper S All4s left that she thought "sod it, you only live once!". It probably helped that I was there…
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Post by Roadsterstu on Jun 7, 2017 8:46:55 GMT
Good on her. Glad to hear that she is smitten with it.
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Post by Big Blue on Jun 7, 2017 10:44:29 GMT
Good stuff. My Ma is a keen driver and loves her DS4 but I am wary of the day she becomes less confident a driver (she'll be 77 this year) as it will inevitably mean a lot more time on a plane and Skype for me. Her neighbours all wade in at present and 25 years in the same French town with the last 17 of those being as a permanent resident helps.
I like MINIs but I also feel the interior plastics could be better and the ride errs on the side of firm.
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Post by racingteatray on Aug 6, 2020 10:21:38 GMT
How time flies. Am currently in Suffolk staying my mother and she commented that, with only six months to go before the end of her 4yr PCP, she's been peppered with calls from MINI Ipswich asking if she'd like to trade up to a new one.
Obviously, given she's very happy with her car and it has only 27k miles on the clock, the answer to that is a firm no (not least because the new Countryman is too big, and the MINI 5dr and Clubman are both too low, so they don't really have anything that suits her as well as her current car). But they do keep asking.
Oddly, by contrast, I haven't heard a peep from BMW yet despite my PCP ending in four months' time. They enquired once, when the car was about to turn three, but haven't heard a word since.
Don't know whether this is pressure selling on the elderly, or just different dealers with different approaches.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Aug 6, 2020 10:36:59 GMT
Every time my mum's goes in for a service she gets a friendly approach to see if she's interested in changing, or a phone call. Her Countryman is on a 62 plate but she's only done about 45k and it's never let her down - she paid the PCP balloon payment about 4 years ago and this is the longest I can ever remember her keeping a car. I've told her just to run it until it starts to cost her money and now she's thinking that this will probably be her last car (she says that, but I doubt it). I think the problem she will have is staying with MINI - the new Countryman is too big for her but the normal hatches are a bit low. Maybe she will have to re-think that Jazz aversion after all.
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Post by racingteatray on Aug 6, 2020 11:14:44 GMT
Every time my mum's goes in for a service she gets a friendly approach to see if she's interested in changing, or a phone call. Her Countryman is on a 62 plate but she's only done about 45k and it's never let her down - she paid the PCP balloon payment about 4 years ago and this is the longest I can ever remember her keeping a car. I've told her just to run it until it starts to cost her money and now she's thinking that this will probably be her last car (she says that, but I doubt it). I think the problem she will have is staying with MINI - the new Countryman is too big for her but the normal hatches are a bit low. Maybe she will have to re-think that Jazz aversion after all. Sounds like our mothers are in exactly the same position, and my advice to my mother was the same as yours. I told her under no circumstances to change it now unless it was actively causing her back problems or something (which it isn't). |
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Post by PG on Aug 6, 2020 11:46:47 GMT
When I see first gen Countryman about now, I do think that they have aged very well.
I, like you, think that the new one is much bigger. So I just looked it up - this from t'internet: The MINI Countryman is 4.3m long, 1,82m wide and 1.56m tall. That's 20cm longer and 3cm wider than the previous car, although the height hasn't increased. That has the effect of making the Countryman look longer and more squat.
20cm isn't a big difference in length really, but it sure looks a lot, lot more than that.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Aug 6, 2020 12:41:31 GMT
Every time my mum's goes in for a service she gets a friendly approach to see if she's interested in changing, or a phone call. Her Countryman is on a 62 plate but she's only done about 45k and it's never let her down - she paid the PCP balloon payment about 4 years ago and this is the longest I can ever remember her keeping a car. I've told her just to run it until it starts to cost her money and now she's thinking that this will probably be her last car (she says that, but I doubt it). I think the problem she will have is staying with MINI - the new Countryman is too big for her but the normal hatches are a bit low. Maybe she will have to re-think that Jazz aversion after all. Sounds like our mothers are in exactly the same position, and my advice to my mother was the same as yours. I told her under no circumstances to change it now unless it was actively causing her back problems or something (which it isn't). Yes, I have to keep reminding her not to talk to the salesperson as she's likely to buy a new car "because he seemed such a nice lad and they've got a new baby and he won't have had much commission during lockdown..etc" |
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Post by racingteatray on Aug 6, 2020 14:34:50 GMT
Fiat 500X? Sort of a cut-price Countryman, and not as big I think as the current Countryman.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Aug 6, 2020 14:46:13 GMT
Fiat 500X? Sort of a cut-price Countryman, and not as big I think as the current Countryman. What's the auto box though? I know anything but a straightforward RPND auto with creep would be step too far. |
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Post by Martin on Aug 6, 2020 14:50:05 GMT
Fiat 500X? Sort of a cut-price Countryman, and not as big I think as the current Countryman. What's the auto box though? I know anything but a straightforward RPND auto with creep would be step too far. More importantly, why would you do that to your own mother? I suppose it does have a face only a mother could love!  |
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Post by racingteatray on Aug 6, 2020 16:45:43 GMT
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Post by racingteatray on Jul 19, 2021 16:11:54 GMT
Had cause, for the first time, to drive the Granny Rocket further than 5 miles up the road. My mother needed driving to Ipswich hospital (she's due a knee replacement shortly) and can't get in and out of my car, so I drove her there and back (about half an hour each way).
I still don't think a great lot of the engine/gearbox combo, although I admit that it got considerably better (mainly improved throttle response) once I finally located the Sport button hidden in a low-down row of chromed rocker switches, and it does go with some vim if prodded. But what I mainly noticed is that it corners remarkably flatly and handles actually quite decently. The ride has also softened off usefully since it was new. It's still firm but acceptably so.
Mum still very pleased with it, but she's going to be off driving for 6-8 weeks (right knee unfortunately).
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Post by Big Blue on Jul 19, 2021 17:11:44 GMT
Yeah our Cooper is pretty dull in Normal mode but peppy in sport. Then more so again when you shove the auto gear lever left to even-more-sport.
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Post by racingteatray on Jul 19, 2021 19:02:41 GMT
I don't know that Mum's does that - it's a bit more of an old-fashioned gearbox where you physically move the gearbox through PRND.
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Post by Martin on Jul 19, 2021 19:31:42 GMT
I don't know that Mum's does that - it's a bit more of an old-fashioned gearbox where you physically move the gearbox through PRND. I think it will have. Could you move the lever to the left to change manually? If so, left and centre will be sport for the gearbox. |
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Post by Martin on Jul 19, 2021 19:35:26 GMT
Quick look on Autotrader, this is a 2016 Cooper S and is has sport for the gearbox as well as the driving modes.  |
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Post by racingteatray on Jul 19, 2021 23:56:14 GMT
Oh well maybe then. It certainly has flappy paddles. To be honest with my mother in (her) car I wasn’t hammering it!
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Post by Tim on Jul 20, 2021 7:54:48 GMT
Is this the same drivetrain/engine that would've been in my 320d xDrive?
That thing needed to be in Sport mode to feel like a BMW (for the engine, the stiff suspension was always there!)
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