There was a rather strange story on the BBC News website over the weekend, written by a journalist attending the UK launch of the new MINI Countryman. Given this particular online portal doesn’t do car reviews, the story was written by a business journalist, and I was at the same event, I thought it worth a read.
The writer questioned whether the Countryman – the first four-door MINI, a sort of crossover SUV – was a brand extension too far. He concluded that further models, beyond the Roadster and Coupé already announced, wouldn’t be signed off until the Countryman had “won over the buying public”. But he seems to have missed one very relevant fact; the car is sold out for the rest of the year and there’s already a healthy order bank for 2011. The Countryman is a hit already.
I drove a couple of versions including the Cooper S performance flagship. But my preference was the Cooper D, the diesel. It felt like a more sensible choice and the torquey nature of the 1.6-litre 112bhp engine suited the car’s character better than the frantic 184bhp acceleration of the S.
There was one thing about which I did agree with my BBC colleague. In his words, this is a car that’s “moved miles away from the marque’s roots and seems to defy much of the logic of the tiny original”. He’s right, but buyers don’t seem to mind.
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