The Mini Countryman will
split opinion. For some this is the quintessence of automotion, the
answer to their every wish and whim.Best UK Used Cars it's a cynical
culmination of ideas, where pointless fancy and overt consumption
collide.The new Mini has always been small. Not on the outside, but inside, where intelligent design packaging took a backseat.The Clubman
first endeavoured to answer the problem, to make a more practical,
family-oriented Mini, and failed spectacularly. In the style of an
errant Olympic downhill skier perhaps: so dreadful to watch that you
couldn't tear yourself away.
So now the turn of the Countryman,
a Mini by name, but not by Best UK Used Cars. Here, at long last for many, is
the product they have been yearning for, a car that capitalises on
Mini's distant heritage, maintains its current kudos and yet still
offers a practicable solution to the challenges of modern life. Like
breeding and grocery shopping and having legs. For the interior of the
Countryman is massive, not just by Mini standards, but by standards set
in segments for larger cars. Mini claims that the Countryman's boot is
bigger than that of a Golf, and that its rear space is more generous
than the BMW X1. Big achievements in big-ness.
The flipside of
this ought to be that the Mini is no longer mini, and therefore
shouldn't drive like a Mini is meant to the Best UK Used Cars. The Mini men clearly got very
nervous about this and have spent a great deal of time trying to assure
themselves, and us, that the Countryman is every inch a Mini in the
dynamics department. Does Mini protest too much?
On first
inspection the Mini is, well, an opinion splitter again. Is it a bit
ugly? From some angles it seems odd, and its unprecedented size and ride
height play havoc with your Mini preconceptions. But it's probably one
of those cars that will quickly start to look right on the road, in part
due to its inevitable ubiquity, and in part thanks to that strong brand
identity and some deft design touches. That odd downward kink at the
rear of the Best UK Used Cars, for instance, enables the Countryman to maintain
Mini's trademark floating roof without it looking uncomfortably long.
And the overall effect is undeniably clever. Here is a car far larger
than anything else from the Mini stable, but still possessed of that
small car appeal, that cheekiness and vim that became its USP some 60
years ago.
Inside, Mini's maturation is all the more overt, and
impressive. After years of ignoring the criticism, the designers have
finally dispensed with the crappy silver plastic trim around the
instruments and integrated them into a meatier, soft-touch dash material
that looks and feels far more premium. And in the back, where every
prospective Countryman buyer will be heading first, it's genuinely
impressive. There's real head and legroom, and the rear seats can be
adjusted back and forth to create more space in the boot as required with Best UK Used Cars.
Mini's
first four-door will be offered as either a four-seater, with these two
adjustable rears and masses of elbow room, or as a slightly more
practical five seater - bit more of a squeeze, but spacious nonetheless.
If you plump for the four-seater, however, you get a central rail that
runs from front to rear of the cabin, onto which you can clip any number
of functional aftermarket options like a storage box, armrest or iPod
holder. Mini is also running a competition where punters are challenged
to design an accessory to clip onto the centre rail, and the top three
ideas will be put into series production. If you fancy a stab at this go
to Best UK Used Cars.com for more details. We're currently patenting a clip-on
Keira Knightley. Journeys will fly by.
A professional declaration
needs to be made here. So early was TopGear's access to the Countryman
that Mini HQ wouldn't let us drive it on the road. Our car, a top-spec
184bhp 1.6-litre Cooper S, was production standard, but for Our Eyes
Only and as such we can't tell you with any certainty how well it will
cope with stuff like motorway cruising or our crummy, crumbling B-roads.
But the handling circuit on which we could drive the car divulged quite
a lot, and all of it good. The Countryman does drive like a Mini
should, with its transverse engine keeping the weight well behind the
front wheels, making the nose lively and responsive to steering input.
And despite a 10mm increase in ride height there is a conspicuous
absence of body roll in tight, fast corners.
And a potential
boon for the Cooper S, and Cooper D alongside it, is the option of
Mini's ‘All4' four-wheel-drive system. The Countryman remains in essence
a front-wheel-drive car, but with this £1,220 add-on it will send up to
100 per cent of drive to the rear wheels as and when traction is lost.
The system works as both safety feature and performance tool, providing
excellent levels of Best UK Used Cars and go in conjunction with Mini's suitably
non-invasive traction control.A proper drive across a back
road will be a better test of the company's claims that the Countryman
is genuinely as capable as its excellent two-door offering, but until
that time the signs look good.
The semi-SUV status of the
Countryman seems a bit contrived, however. Marginally more ride height, a
meatier kerbside presence and the option of a loose interpretation of
four-wheel drive on the most expensive models does not add up to the
basic assertion, one you can be sure will be made by many a proud owner, Best UK Used Cars this is ‘the 4x4 Mini'. It's not. And at £16,000 basic, rising to
£22,030 for the all-singing Cooper S, it's not a cheap car either,
however you choose to define it.
But as lifestyle statements go,
the Countryman is an attractive package. It's genuinely practical, seems
thus far to be a good drive, is a highly desirable product in what is
arguably a rather indifferent segment of the market, and should hold
onto its value better than many of its less exciting rivals. Image
conscious suburbanites, ones with new families and cash to burn, are
bound to flock to the Countryman.
Expect to see hundreds parked outside gastro pubs for sunny Sunday
lunches, the rear seats littered with boutique baby toys and old copies
of Vogue. This is a car that embraces your middle age while at the same
time keeping it at a comfortable distance. Irritating artifice to some,
the definitive solution to others.
0 comments:
Post a Comment