FIRSTDRIVE MINI COUNTRYMANHow can the makers of Mini – the original small car – possibly justify making a 4x4? Quite easily when its this good, writes MARK NICHOL
THE THOUGHT of MINI making a five-door SUV will, for some, be anathema – like Burger King serving up a €100 cheeseburger.
To the myriad Mini lovers, some already aggrieved at BMW’s governance of the brand, a Mini 4x4 is an adventure too far: the German has ploughed into the English countryside and tipped over the sacred cow.
It’s over four metres long, dwarfing the three-metre 1959 original. It was designed in Austria by a man called Gert, and will be built there, too.
So, if a true Mini is just a small British car, the Countryman is about to become one of the worst and most shameless heritage pillagers ever.
But the Mini wasn’t just a small car; the Mini was a car for its time – a time when a small car was needed. Petrol rationing in the late 1950s created a vacuum for a runabout that was space- and fuel-efficient.
That vacuum was being filled by bubble cars from Germany. BMC (the British Motor Corporation) saw the hole in the market and wanted a car of its own to fill it. The Mini was its square peg.
The car has become an icon, of course, but not just because of its groundbreaking use of space and legendary “go kart” handling. A large part of its heritage lies with the reams of owners who took their Minis and used them as the basis for something else.
Even proper production versions were many and varied, including a pickup truck, a van, an estate, the Riley Elf three-box saloon, and the Moke utility vehicle – and some were four-wheel drive.
They were all cars built to service a need the original was incapable of, while retaining its charm and spirit.
Which bring us to BMW’s Countryman. It’s easy to make a “me too” argument about its existence: the brand is so strong that, at this stage, anything with the Mini badge will sell – so why not make a crossover, like everyone else?
And that might be a good point. It’s certainly justifiable if you look at the facts. The Countryman will come with front- or four-wheel drive, is powered by the full breadth of petrol and diesel engines available in the hatch, and has a conventional five-door, five-seat layout.
So, no different to the array of crossovers like the Skoda Yeti, Ford Kuga or even the BMW X1 then.
But the Countryman can trump them all. First of all, the cabin quality is a notable step higher than anything Mini has done before. The top-level surfaces have the same soft-touch pleasantness, but the lower levels seem more robust, more premium.
It’s still very much a Mini, though – bursting with the sort of character none of its rivals can touch. The driving position is higher than that of the hatchback, but there’s still plenty of headroom. That’s the case in the back too, where there’s an adult-sized slug of legroom.
Either a full rear bench or two individual chairs are available, the latter allowing a full length “Mini Rail”, on which front and rear passengers can attach all kinds of funky paraphernalia.
The rear seats slide and fold so, depending on their position, there’s anything between a reasonable and really quite large boot.
It’s the driving experience that really separates the Countryman. The wet testing track we drove the late prototype test car on was not littered with ruffled tarmac, boggy inclines, urban speed humps and dual carriageways, granted. But where there was the odd rut in the road, the Countryman soaked it up and moved on without fuss.
Big question though: does it drive like a go-kart? Well, no. But it’s probably as close as a funky family man or woman is ever going to get. Its not going to fail the elk test (which famously saw the Mercedes A-Class topple over), that’s for sure.
And then there are the running costs. Even the most profligate “All4” four-wheel drive Cooper S – the version we drove – returns 6.3l/100km (44.8mpg) and emits 146g/km (tax band C) with its 181bhp and 7.4 seconds 0-100km/h sprint.
The diesel versions, comprising One D and Cooper D, are positively parsimonious. In front-wheel drive form, both claiming fuel economy figures of 4.3 l/100km (65mpg) and less than 120g/km of CO2, putting them in tax band A.
At present, BMW is working on getting the four-wheel drive versions under 120g/km too – hardly a gas-guzzling way of beating the winter snow.
The Countryman is also the smallest car in class, shorter than a VW Golf but with tangibly more cabin space. It’s quite a feat of packaging.
And that’s what makes it a MINI. It’s not original, sure, but it’s smaller, funkier, more fun to drive and uses its space better than any other. It will also be cheap to run.
In our recession-ridden, environmental age, it’s the car for our time; a Range Rover for those more accustomed to Happy Meals than €100 Whoppers.
Factfile MINI Countryman
COOPER S
Engine:1,598cc, 181bhp
0-100km/h:7.4 seconds
l/100km (mpg):6.3 (44.8)
Emissions:146g/km (band C – €302)
Price:€31,220
ONE
Engine:1,598cc, 98bhp
0-100km/h:11.9 seconds
l/100km (mpg):5.9 (47.9) Emissions: 137g/km (band B – €156)
Price:€23,800
COOPER D
Engine:1,598cc, 112bhp
0-100km/h:10.9 seconds
l/100km (mpg):4.4 (64.2) Emissions:116g/km (band A – €104)
Price:€26,530
ONE D
Engine:1,598cc, 90bhp
0-100km/h:12.9 seconds
l/100km (mpg):4.3 (65.7) Emissions:113g/km (band A)
Price:€24,930