Mini Cooper S Countryman
BMW's “new” Mini is kind of a curious thing. What Alec Issigonis had in mind back then was something small and cheap. It was in fact a product of the fuel crisis of 1956 brought about by the skirmish going on with the Suez Canal. So what we had is best described as bare bones and economical. The trouble is he accidentally on purpose ended up designing a design classic. Skip forward a generation or two, BMW takes over the rights to the little thing and they bring us the new Mini. We now get cutesy-retro, but underlying that design that you can hug, they build the closest damn thing you can get to a go cart and still go shopping in it. Yes, a driver's car. A damn good one too. Now as we know, a company like BMW cannot leave well enough alone, and we get variants, from the Mini with no engine, the One through the Convertible, the Clubman, with at least in right hand drive markets, the extra door on the wrong side, through to the ultra-impractical, but so driveable Coupe, finally to the Countryman. Proper rear doors, Elvis after the drug addiction bloat and a hint of practicality.
Available at first in manual S only and in ALL4 “four wheel drive” (note the inverted commas) in either manual or auto. It is now available in S form, with an auto box and without the burden of a four wheel drive system that has no purpose. If we compare this car to the Coupe, not that anyone should buy the Coupe in auto, I am just saying, you get some startling differences. Built on the same drivetrain, the 1600 gets some forced induction, giving both 135kW and 240Nm of torque. And there end the similarities. 0-100, the lithe Coupe gets there in 7.1, (6.9 for the manual) the Countryman scrapes in at 7.9. Similarly, fuel consumption goes from 6.7l/100km to 7.9, a significant increase. All of this for an extra 26 thousand Rand. But none of this is as important or dramatic as the feel. The Coupe is pure driver magic. Mini, but a little more so. Hard, uncompromising, focussed. Perfect really. About as much driving fun as you are going to get for much below the R500k mark. The Countryman, has something different. It is tipping its hat to practicality, the long travel feeling suspension, is there seemingly not so much to carve your favourite ribbon of mountain pass telepathically, but more to absorb your municipalities' burgeoning pot-hole collection. So Mini, but less then. The extra doors make it easy to get in and out of, and the raised stance make it Soccer Mom friendly, but they give it that Elvis impersonation I mentioned earlier. There is more than a hint of boot, but is that really why you bought a Mini?
Therein lies the rub, who or what exactly is it for? It is a good car. It is still a Mini. Just. It does kind of look like a Mini. It does kind of go like a Mini. It does kind of handle like a Mini. Buy one, kind of.