{"id":545,"date":"2011-07-20T17:52:56","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T17:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carpages.ca\/blog\/?p=545"},"modified":"2019-09-29T15:56:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T15:56:54","slug":"2011-mini-cooper-s-countryman-all4-road-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carpages.ca\/blog\/2011\/07\/20\/2011-mini-cooper-s-countryman-all4-road-test-wvideo\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4 Road Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s a Mini\u2026or is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m fairly certain that there are a select few out there that may be, well, rubbed the wrong way, we\u2019ll say, by the Mini Countryman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the video below says, it really isn\u2019t anything like any Mini before it (well, the Mini Moke<\/a>, maybe, but that\u2019s really pushing it), and the \u201cMini purists\u201d\u2014of whom there are more than you may think\u2014are probably going to look down their nose a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I challenge them, however, to drive one for awhile. To look past the slightly bloated exterior styling and the high ride height. They may just emerge with a different perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That all being said, when I first saw pictures of the Countryman, I remember thinking \u201cwhat\u2019s the big deal? It\u2019s a Mini<\/a> with four doors and optional AWD.\u201d It still looked<\/em> like a Mini from the photos\u2014round headlights, upright windshield, squared-off lines all over the place, wheels pushed to all four corners an so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, now that I\u2019ve seen it \u201cin the metal\u201d, as it were, my opinion has changed a little.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not really a small car. Well, in the crossover sense (and yes, this is a crossover vehicle\u2014make no bones about it) it may be a little smaller when compared to its competition, but a hot-hatch it most definitely ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put it plainly, it looks a little like what a Mini would look like if you made it mad, like Bruce Banner<\/a>. Or if you gave it some steroids. The proportions are all mini-esque, just on a grander scale. The biggest eye-catching style details\u2014for better or worse\u2014are the plastic fender flares, massive headlights that create equally massive holes in the hood because it closes over them and big bumpers, front and rear. The result is a vehicle that looks cool and purposeful from some angles (the side) and a little bulbous from others (the back and front). Our test car had the optional 18-inch \u201c5-Star\u201d wheels, painted in Jet Black as well as a black-coloured roof, which are styling additions that I am a big fan of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the touches\u2014the black wheels especially\u2014because they do very well to instil an image of sportiness to the Countryman. It does, however, pose an interesting question: should a Mini\u2014ANY mini\u2014need boy-racer touches to reinforce its performance credentials? Then there\u2019s the fact that the Countryman is the first Mini, since the original Cooper in the \u201860s, to compete in a top-tier motorsport discipline\u2014the World Rally Championship<\/a>\u2014with full factory backing. Parent company BMW<\/a>, on the other hand, is all over the motorsports world. Does Mini really need to be there too, or is BMW worried that the Countryman needs the fancy wheels and motorsport pedigree because, as a crossover, it will never be considered as \u201csporty\u201d as a Mini Cooper?<\/p>\n\n\n\n