MINI Countryman Review 2024

If you need a family car with lots of interior space, but you also want something that’s brimming with style, character and cheerfulness, not to mention cutting-edge infotainment technology, then the MINI Countryman could be a very good bet indeed. Do be aware that the infotainment tech can be quite bamboozling to use, and that the interior quality may not be up to the standard that many existing MINI customers would expect, but if that doesn’t bother you, then you’ll probably love it.

We think that most buyers will be more than happy with the entry-level engine choice, the Countryman C, because it’ll have enough performance, refinement and fuel economy to keep the vast majority of drivers satisfied.

On the trim front, all versions are pretty well equipped, but even so, we’d still recommend spending the extra it costs to upgrade to Sport trim. It doesn’t offer much more in the way of luxury equipment, but it looks better, and importantly, the upgrade earns you an adaptive suspension system that makes the Countryman a good bit more comfortable to drive.

As a premium SUV, there are several other models you might be considering alongside the MINI Countryman. These include the likes of the Audi Q2 and bigger Q3, while the Mercedes-Benz GLA is also likely to be on your radar. More German competition comes from the MINI’s own backyard, in the form of the X1 and X2 SUVs offered by parent company BMW. The Volvo XC40 and Lexus UX might also be considered as rivals, alongside the Alfa Romeo Tonale.

As we’ve just examined, the interior of the Countryman is effortlessly stylish and modern-looking. However, while it looks great at first glance, further inspection reveals that MINI may be using this flamboyant styling to distract from some rather iffy cabin plastics.

For instance, your eyes are immediately drawn to all the glitzy bits: these include the shiny circular touchscreen (more on this in a moment), the stitched leather steering wheel, and the coarse-mesh fabric covering the dashboard and door tops. However, look between the glitzy bits, and you’ll find materials that are a lot less impressive: most are hard, scratchy and rather unappealing. The very top of the dashboard and the lower parts of the doors are arguably the worst offenders. It feels rather too much like cost-cutting in our eyes, and that’s simply not what you expect in a premium product like a MINI.

Infotainment will form a big part of the Countryman’s appeal, and that’s because all versions come with a deeply impressive-looking circular OLED touchscreen mounted in the middle of the dashboard, the first circular unit ever fitted to a car, MINI claims. In the past, MINI infotainment systems have felt very much like BMW ones that have been rebranded with MINI-specific fonts and graphics: otherwise, the menu structures and operating mechanisms were largely the same, and they’ve been wonderfully simple to navigate as a result. The system in the latest Countryman, however, feels very bespoke to MINI, and this brings both positives and negatives.

On the positive side, the screen looks absolutely fantastic. The graphics are sharp and effortlessly stylish, the animations are slick, the screen sensitivity is really good and the software works in a really smooth, glitch-free manner. And, as you’d expect from such a cutting-edge new system, it also supports all the functionality customers will demand, including navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, DAB, voice control and various connected apps. What’s more, the system can be upgraded automatically over time with periodical over-the-air updates.

However, while the system is undeniably dazzling in the looks department, it’s rather less impressive from an ease-of-use perspective. Unlike in many other modern cars that have a twin-screen layout (this includes MINI’s parent company, BMW), this display doubles as both your instruments and your infotainment interface, much like it does in a Tesla. And with so much information to cram into such a small space, it looks very cluttered. MINI has at least tried to make life easier by making sure that your important driver information is a permanent fixture at the top of the screen, while the temperature controls for either side of the cabin are always displayed at the bottom, along with a line of shortcut icons. However, the sheer amount of information that your eyeballs are subjected to is still too much. The fact that you have to look to your left to see how fast you’re going, rather than that number being displayed directly in front of you, isn’t ideal, either.

Now, we’re fully aware that we’re forever moaning about how many modern cars replace physical air-con switches with touchscreen menus, but that hasn't stopped MINI taking exactly that approach. As we've said, you can adjust the temperature from the main screen, but anything more complex - such as adjusting the fan speed or the direction of the airflow - requires delving into submenus, which is more distracting, if not ultimately all that difficult. However, many of the menus for the car’s more minor functions are a lot harder to navigate through, and you’ll come across quite a few on-screen icons that are ambiguously styled, meaning that it’s not immediately obvious what they do.

The Countryman has always been the biggest car in the MINI lineup, and the latest version is bigger than ever, and by quite a distance. Measuring 4444mm long, 1661mm tall and 1843mm wide (excluding door mirrors), the car is 13cm longer and 6cm taller than the car it replaces. Thankfully, that does translate into far greater interior space.

Even with the front seats set up for six-foot-plus occupants, there’s still really generous space for those sitting behind. Even with the panoramic roof fitted to high-spec cars, headroom is more than adequate for tall passengers, but it’s on legroom that the Countryman really impresses: there’s simply tons of the stuff, allowing tall passengers to stretch out comfortably. The cabin is a bit too narrow to comfortably accommodate three people across the rear bench, but they’ll just about squeeze in for short hops.

Your Countryman can also be specified with sliding rear seats (these are standard on some models or part of an option pack on others) with a generous 13cm of travel that allow you to sacrifice some of this plentiful legroom in favour of gaining a little more boot space. Even when they’re slid all the way forward, you still have enough room for your legs (not always a given), and these seats can also be reclined if you so wish.

Regardless of the sliding seats, the boot is a very decent size: not as huge as those in some rivals, granted, but there’s easily enough space for the needs of a small family. The boot floor lifts up to reveal a deep additional storage area that’s handy for keeping items out of sight, too. The precise size of this underfloor area depends on which version of the car you go for: it’s huge in the JCW, for example, but in the C, it’s around half the size due to the extra mild hybrid equipment that the car is carrying.

You can fold down the rear seats to free up more cargo space, and the backrests lie flat and level, and flush with the false boot floor. The chairs fold in a 60/40 split with the standard fixed seats, or a more versatile 40/20/40 split with the sliding seats. Whatever the configuration, there is a small lip at the boot entrance that you’ll have to lift heavy items over.

The MINI Countryman is available in a couple of all-electric forms, but we’ve reviewed those independently, so here, we’ll concentrate solely on the combustion-engined versions of the car. The range kicks off with the Countryman C, and this uses a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine - aided by a small mild-hybrid electric motor - to deliver 170PS to the front wheels through a dual-clutch automatic gearbox. On paper, the 0-62mph sprint is dispatched in 8.3 seconds, and in reality, the level of performance provided will be entirely adequate for most drivers. There’s enough low-down punch to allow you to build up a decent amount of speed without working the engine to its limits, which is just as well because it does get rather shouty when you do, and that noise is accompanied by quite a few vibrations through the steering wheel and pedals. The gearbox in the C could perhaps be a little bit quicker and smoother in the way it goes about its business, but it’s unobtrusive enough most of the time.

Sitting in the middle of the range is the Countryman S, which uses a 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and the same mild hybrid system as the C to deliver a total of 218PS, this time to all four wheels. THe 0-62mph time is given by BMW at 7.1 seconds, but because we haven’t tried this variant yet, we can't tell you what it feels like.

The Countryman range is topped by the John Cooper Works variant, or JCW for short. There’s no mild-hybrid trickery here, just a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine that dishes out 300PS, again to all four wheels. The 0-62mph dash is trimmed to 5.4 seconds and a top speed of 155mph can be theoretically reached. And sure enough, the car feels decidedly rapid, and the power delivery is muscular and eager at all times. Having said all that, though, it’s also true that the JCW doesn’t quite feel as ballistically fast as the power output would suggest.

Like we said earlier, the three-cylinder petrol engine in the C version can sound a bit thrummy and coarse when you really work it, but there’s enough urge low down in the rev range that you don’t often have to, so it stays subdued most of the time.

We haven’t tried the 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine in the mid-range S model yet, so we can’t tell you what that’s like for refinement, but the more powerful one in the JCW version is good, staying quiet and peaceful when you want it to, and sounding nice and throaty when you’re in a more playful mood. You don’t get the pops and bangs from the exhaust that you do in JCW models of the past, but in a family SUV, that’s probably a good thing.

Wind noise is pretty well isolated for such a tall car, but whichever model you pick, you will be subjected to a fair amount of road noise, even at moderate speeds.

There’s also the effect of the ‘MINI Sounds’ to consider. These are a series of different sound effects and jingles that are piped into the cabin through the stereo speakers according to which of the eight ‘Experience’ modes you select (the modes also vary what you see on the central screen in terms of colour, content and layout, and also alter the colour and intensity of the ambient cabin lighting). For some people, this will be an appealing augmentation to the driving experience of their car, while for others, it’ll be a step too far on the gimmick scale. If you sit in the latter camp, it can be switched off.

The latest MINI Countryman comes with a very decent amount of safety kit as standard. This includes autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, blind spot detection, rear collision prevention, speed limit recognition and assist, adaptive cruise control, and emergency call.

The car hasn’t yet been subjected to Euro NCAP crash tests.

The latest MINI Countryman is built using all-new technology, so there hasn’t been enough time to ascertain whether any regular reliability issues have come to light. It also means that the car bears pretty much no mechanical resemblance to any MINI product that has gone before it, so assessing the reliability of those models will only be of limited use. Perhaps that’s just as well, because MINI placed in a rather disappointing 25th place out of 29 carmakers in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, which considers reliability alongside several other areas of general customer satisfaction.

The Countryman C sits in insurance groups 19 or 20 depending on what trim level you choose, while if you upgrade to the S, it’ll be in groups 24 or 25. Buyers of the JCW will pay most due to a group 30 classification. Premiums won’t be massively cheap on any version, then, but they shouldn’t be too painful on most, and given its level of power, it’s perhaps a little surprising that the JCW’s grouping isn’t a little higher.

The petrol-engined versions of the MINI Countryman are subject to the same flat-rate of VED tax payments as every other petrol and diesel car currently on the market. Go for the C or S models, and you’ll get a £10 discount on your annual tax bill thanks to their 48-volt hybrid tech, leaving you with £170 to pay. Go for the JCW, meanwhile, and you’ll pay the full rate of £180 per year.

That’s not the full story, though, because cars that cost more than £40,000 when brand new, including any optional extras added, are also subject to an additional £390 surcharge on top of that for a period of five years, between years two and six of the car’s life. The JCW costs more than the threshold, so all of those will be liable, while several versions of the S get quite close to that threshold on price, so adding one of the various options or packs available could well take it over and land you with the extra hit. It’s worth doing an online check with the registration of any used example you’re considering just to make sure you know exactly what you’re looking at.

The basic equipment list on the Countryman includes alloy wheels, ambient interior lighting, dual-zone climate control, roof rails, parking sensors, a reversing camera, a powered tailgate, a heated steering wheel, and rain-sensing wipers. Standard spec also includes LED lighting all round, and you can choose between three different lighting signatures and animations through the touchscreen. That’s on top of all the infotainment and safety equipment we’ve already talked about.

On top of that, you choose between three trim levels, named Classic, Exclusive and Sport. These are less about providing any additional luxury kit, and more about the exterior and interior design of your car, with varying combinations of colours, patterns and finishes. It is, however, worth noting that Sport trim does bring the very effective adaptive suspension.

As ever with a BMW Group car, there’s a wide variety of optional extras that can be added, many of them in packs, but be sensible with these as they can get the price of your car soaring skywards alarmingly quickly.