Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Mini Countryman Review



Definitely not MINI at all

Nope, still doesn't look MINI either.

Ahh...looks familiar!!! I wonder if i've ever seen this before?

A full 5 Seater MINI?

At least the doors close with a solid thud.
McPherson struts in front.

Similar arrangement to the regular Cooper, although slightly reworked to accommodate the rear axle.


At RM 250K this countryman is considered a premium SUV and it sits in a category of black label SUV's such as the Volkswagen Tiguan, Nissan Murano, Lexus RX and etc.

At 5.68 inches of ground clearance this is not exactly a vehicle where you would want to take it offroad. It definitely has sufficient clearance to deal with speed bumps or roadside kerbs. I was also told that the ALL4 Model has a slightly higher ground clearance, but this particular unit here is the 2WD version.

Engine wise, it's got a 1.6 litre turbo unit which is identical to the cooper S, and it pumps out 180 Bhp of power. Sufficient, but not powerful, and it loses out to the VW Tiguan's 2.0 TSI unit which produces 200Bhp.

I've yet to see any countryman's on our roads, even the MINI Clubman are so rare on Malaysian roads, so i could foresee that this countryman could be another flop for BMW. Anyway if i had that much money to spend, I wouldn't put it on the countryman, i'll either get the VW Tiguan or the Cooper S JCW.