MINI Countryman Review & Road Test: MINI Countryman Cooper D All4 (2011) Part 2

MINI Countryman Cooper D All4 - Style over substance?

It seems incongruous at first, this MINI Countryman. It’s as if BMW has sent their MINI off to beef-up for its new role as a mover of stuff and people. It looks like it’s expanded every which way – up, out and around – and yet it still looks like a MINI, but a MINI viewed after months of working out.

But the look passes and its incongruity only returns if you see the Countryman parked by a regular MINI. Then it seems a bit bloated; less refined; almost a caricature.

But that’s nothing compared to how it looks next to an Issigonis original. Hilarity ensued when we chanced across a ’65 Mini whilst out playing; we could have popped it in the boot of the Countryman and taken it home as a desk ornament. How soon we forget.

But away from comparisons, the look actually works. It makes the Countryman look like a rufty-tufty off-road MINI, which it is. It still comes with lots of cutesy bits and sometimes daft detailing, but that’s what the MINI lover loves.

MINI lovers – and we’re not sure the Countryman would entice non-MINI lovers to the brand – want the style they know, and the Countryman delivers on that front.

The Countryman delivers stuff like a central rail running down the middle of the interior to bolt ‘Accessories’ to. It boasts the button-fest that is a MINI dash and it also boasts the great big, retro-feel centre speedo designed to evoke the original.

A great big centre Speedo that only works as the housing for the MINI version of i-Drive. As a speedo it’s a dead loss. But that doesn’t really matter as there’s a digital readout in front of the driver. It’s style than matters.

That style goes as far as having two individual seats in the back, with the accessory rail bisecting the pair. Which almost makes the point of a more commodious MINI obsolete. Thankfully, our MINI had the bench option in the back which meant we really could get three in the back. And three people who aren’t under-5s or devoid of lower limbs, at that.

Not only does this MINI with muscles have enough room in the back for real people, it has enough room in the boot for their stuff. Yes, it’s a MINI that can take more than one sports bag at a time. It won’t quite take a couple of golf bags – at least not with the back seats up – but it will take a pile of kids and their sports gear to school or the pool. And you can slide the seats to and fro and up and down and split them.

So what you get is what MINI intended – a MINI for the family. A MINI for the MINI lover to progress to when life catches up and a regular MINI no longer cuts the mustard. The styling cues are all there and the cuteness remains, just mixed with a bit of rufty-tufty. In fact it’s a lot like its target demographic – more to love than there was a few years before.

But how does the Countryman drive? Does that blubber break the handling or has MINI contrived to make the much bigger Countryman just as agile as its little brother?

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By Cars UK