2011 Mini Countryman – Prototype Drive « New and Used Car Listings

2011 Mini Countryman – Prototype Drive

There’s a theme to the new Mini Countryman: four. Four passenger doors, four-wheel-drive, four seats, four cylinders, four wheels—okay, maybe that last one’s a bit of a stretch. Of course, nothing embodies that theme as well as Bobby Orr’s legendary 1970 Stanley Cup goal—he wore number four, and it was scored 40 seconds into the fourth period of game four to win Boston’s fourth Stanley Cup—but the four-door Countryman is nonetheless a big deal for Mini. It’s the first time a Mini has come with so many doors. And it’s an effort to lure in more buyers to the Mini brand, by recapturing former owners who have outgrown the diminutive brand’s lineup and by adding new customers who previously dismissed other Minis for being too small.

But if you’re worried that Mini has sold out its identity in search of a bigger market with the Countryman, well, fear not. The big Mini is over 16 inches longer than the Mini Cooper hardtop but still 3.6 inches shorter than a Volkswagen Golf. This means the largest Mini ever is still pretty small. And more important, the Countryman still feels like a Mini.

Supersizing It

The Countryman is to the rest of the Mini lineup as anything American is to its European counterpart. Take our refrigerators, for example. The basic operating principle, a box in which to keep your vegetables, meat, and beer cold, is the same as in Europe. It’s just that the American fridge is scaled up one size. Such is the case with the Countryman. It’s longer, wider, and taller than the Cooper hardtop and the Clubman, but it still looks like a Mini. There are some subtle changes, like the oval headlamps that have been squared off, but the Countryman fits in visually with the rest of the Mini family.

The interior, although unique to the Countryman, is easily recognizable as that of a Mini as well. Oval-shaped door cutouts like those in the smaller Minis are stretched out along the front and rear doors. And rear-seat power windows are operated via a toggle switch, just as in the front. The Countryman’s biggest feature, aside from the four doors, is its center rail system that runs between the front and rear seats and can accommodate everything from an armrest and sunglasses holder to as many cup holders as you want to buy. And speaking of rear seats, the Countryman will only be available in the U.S. with a four-passenger configuration—Mini cites our stringent crash standards as the reason for a lack of an optional rear bench. The rear seats fold flat and travel fore-and-aft 5.1 inches.

The Countryman’s H-point is 2.8 inches higher than in the other Minis, and the raised driving position is noticeable. Mini might market the Countryman as an alternative to small crossovers, but the feeling is definitely carlike. Shoulder room is four inches wider in the front seats, and the extra elbowroom is nice. Think of the Countryman as a Mini you can actually stretch out in. The width difference is even more apparent in the back seat, with 7.6 more inches of shoulder space than in the Clubman. And all seating positions are more chairlike; your knees are at hip height instead of above. Still, six-footers will need to slouch in the second row to keep their hair from brushing the roof. Our exposure was limited, but it looks like all four seats in the Countryman are adult-friendly, even for long trips.

As one would expect, the Countryman comes with more space for cargo: 12.4 cubic feet in the smallest configuration and 41.3 cubic feet at maximum capacity. As in the Clubman, there’s a false load floor with extra storage underneath. And taking a cue from the BMW 5-series Gran Turismo, the Countryman has a foldable vertical wall that closes off the luggage compartment from the rest of the cabin.