Post by Big Blue on Jan 12, 2018 23:34:47 GMT
Bit late with this, but Christmas holiday rental was the current truck-sized soft roader carrying the MINI moniker. When I arrived at Sixt in Vienna I was offered the choice of an Opel Mokka or a MINI Countryman. I pictured the Countryman in my head, mistakenly for a Clubman. Was that big enough? In my defence I was pissed right off as BA had decided our child car sets were better off in LHR than coming to VIE with us, something I now have to claim €60 for. Then it clicked: this was the giant lorry of a car not the over-long coffin carrier. That'll do.
Now my first admission is that I never took any photos of the outside. Just a complete oversight as opposed to any statement as to its ugliness: in fact the 2017 Countryman is better looking than the Mk1. Anyway, here is a stock photo in the colour and spec we had:
So this car was a Cooper S JCW and when I looked on Autotrader the ones in the UK all seem to have 2.0L turbo petrol engines. Ours had a 3cylinder wheeze-o-matic. That's a bit unfair: it did go some and cruised well but I was surprised to have all this JCW trim but not the performance.
So, what was good? It had plenty of space for us, to the extent that all our stuff fitted in the boot and the parcel shelf stayed on. That was only after I'd remembered the current penchant for hiding half the boot under the floor, so both Samsonites, a Trunki, two ruck sacks, my hiking boots, four winter coats and an overflow bag all stayed out of the way for the journey back. I must say that nice deep boot is a major plus point: it's deep both down and from hatch to back of the seats and you'd need to be a removal man to need more space.
The ride was very good, not harsh or wallowy, and it wafted on the Hungarian M1 at 140-150kph cruise with good motorway stability; the mega-adjustable seating position probably helped with the feeling of comfort and control. It made the switch from 140kph to 155kph for an overtake without any fuss whatsoever, despite that 3-cyl sewing machine under the bonnet. It had some kind of adjustable handling / steering / throttle settings and that gave it decent handling in Sport mode, somewhat woolly feedback in Medium and I didn’t try Green as I’m a petrolhead not a lentil eating Guardian reader that spends my summer afternoons visiting craft shoppes on an ageing Raleigh shopper. The engine had some very useful low range torque, much like a diesel but without the running-out-of-steam-in-under-a-second trait of small diesels; this made it a very nice town car along with that cruising ability.
This particular car had what can only be described as "total spec": Sat Nav, heated sets, HK sound system, moonroof, iPhone car connect etc. all with that (for me) familiar BMW iDrive connection. The big centre console also has funky mood lighting changes of colour, which in this car followed through across the doors and other backlit areas. All in all the interior is pretty nice.
OK so pretty much all the important stuff was good, what possibly could be bad?
Number one gripe is the selection of reverse gear: totally diabolical. I'm not the best at selecting reverse in 6sp manual gearboxes but this was particularly uncooperative. Then there was the rear window wiper switch. It was clumsy to say the least. On the Gorilla the rear wiper is push the stalk back for on; push it back further for wash. The Countryman had a flimsy plastic ring at the end of the stalk that you need to turn and it's so thin that it's tricky to get purchase on it so when allied to the terrible reverse selection we can deduce that the Mini Countryman is not designed for backwards thinkers.
Design wise I find the flip switches in the centre console as seen in the dash pics above to be a triumph of design defeating function. Utterly pointless, especially the one that toggles the suspension settings. Then let's move on to that engine. I love the fact that I rented a petrol engined car; I was enthused that it had a red line at 6500 and as I said it was pretty punchy from the get-go. But then you search for that red line, hoping for a bit of rasping, small petrol engine fun as I described in the Fiat Punto that couldn't get up a hill a few summers back but could still attack the D-routes with aplomb when pushed one-up, but you soon discover that hunt to be pointless. Beyond 5000 the noise is so horrible that if you have the slightest atom of mechanical sympathy you will change up immediately and, like Stephen Fry trying out Dawn French's pussy, never go there again. I guess there's a reason for that low-down punch: it's back there where you change up early!
So that's it. Conclusion: this is one of the few family cars I looked up to buy in a long time. Great amount of space; in this spec the right kit, a better engine would suit it for my driving style and well liked by all the family. Only one problem with it is it might be a bit chavvy. I mean, who would do this to their puddle lights?:
Now my first admission is that I never took any photos of the outside. Just a complete oversight as opposed to any statement as to its ugliness: in fact the 2017 Countryman is better looking than the Mk1. Anyway, here is a stock photo in the colour and spec we had:
So this car was a Cooper S JCW and when I looked on Autotrader the ones in the UK all seem to have 2.0L turbo petrol engines. Ours had a 3cylinder wheeze-o-matic. That's a bit unfair: it did go some and cruised well but I was surprised to have all this JCW trim but not the performance.
So, what was good? It had plenty of space for us, to the extent that all our stuff fitted in the boot and the parcel shelf stayed on. That was only after I'd remembered the current penchant for hiding half the boot under the floor, so both Samsonites, a Trunki, two ruck sacks, my hiking boots, four winter coats and an overflow bag all stayed out of the way for the journey back. I must say that nice deep boot is a major plus point: it's deep both down and from hatch to back of the seats and you'd need to be a removal man to need more space.
The ride was very good, not harsh or wallowy, and it wafted on the Hungarian M1 at 140-150kph cruise with good motorway stability; the mega-adjustable seating position probably helped with the feeling of comfort and control. It made the switch from 140kph to 155kph for an overtake without any fuss whatsoever, despite that 3-cyl sewing machine under the bonnet. It had some kind of adjustable handling / steering / throttle settings and that gave it decent handling in Sport mode, somewhat woolly feedback in Medium and I didn’t try Green as I’m a petrolhead not a lentil eating Guardian reader that spends my summer afternoons visiting craft shoppes on an ageing Raleigh shopper. The engine had some very useful low range torque, much like a diesel but without the running-out-of-steam-in-under-a-second trait of small diesels; this made it a very nice town car along with that cruising ability.
This particular car had what can only be described as "total spec": Sat Nav, heated sets, HK sound system, moonroof, iPhone car connect etc. all with that (for me) familiar BMW iDrive connection. The big centre console also has funky mood lighting changes of colour, which in this car followed through across the doors and other backlit areas. All in all the interior is pretty nice.
OK so pretty much all the important stuff was good, what possibly could be bad?
Number one gripe is the selection of reverse gear: totally diabolical. I'm not the best at selecting reverse in 6sp manual gearboxes but this was particularly uncooperative. Then there was the rear window wiper switch. It was clumsy to say the least. On the Gorilla the rear wiper is push the stalk back for on; push it back further for wash. The Countryman had a flimsy plastic ring at the end of the stalk that you need to turn and it's so thin that it's tricky to get purchase on it so when allied to the terrible reverse selection we can deduce that the Mini Countryman is not designed for backwards thinkers.
Design wise I find the flip switches in the centre console as seen in the dash pics above to be a triumph of design defeating function. Utterly pointless, especially the one that toggles the suspension settings. Then let's move on to that engine. I love the fact that I rented a petrol engined car; I was enthused that it had a red line at 6500 and as I said it was pretty punchy from the get-go. But then you search for that red line, hoping for a bit of rasping, small petrol engine fun as I described in the Fiat Punto that couldn't get up a hill a few summers back but could still attack the D-routes with aplomb when pushed one-up, but you soon discover that hunt to be pointless. Beyond 5000 the noise is so horrible that if you have the slightest atom of mechanical sympathy you will change up immediately and, like Stephen Fry trying out Dawn French's pussy, never go there again. I guess there's a reason for that low-down punch: it's back there where you change up early!
So that's it. Conclusion: this is one of the few family cars I looked up to buy in a long time. Great amount of space; in this spec the right kit, a better engine would suit it for my driving style and well liked by all the family. Only one problem with it is it might be a bit chavvy. I mean, who would do this to their puddle lights?:
