MINI Countryman - Engines, performance & drive

The blurb would like you to believe that the MINI Countryman has ‘go-kart’-like handling, MINI even naming one of the Experience driving modes as such. The reality is far from that, though.

That’s not to say the Countryman doesn’t provide a decent drive. Driven as most people normally would, it offers enough ride comfort and competent, if hardly fun, handling. 

Our main gripe is that the standard seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox used with all petrol engines is slow to react, meaning you wait for longer gaps in the traffic on busy roundabouts due to its hesitancy. And unless you go for a Sport trim Countryman, you don’t get any manual controls over changing gears, so you’re left at the mercy of the car’s dimm-whitted electronics when you need it to change down on faster A roads or motorways.

Of course, opting for the electric version solves that problem immediately since it doesn’t need to change gear, and our experience of the four-wheel drive, dual motor SE suggests it has all the punch you’d need to nip out of junctions around town, or squirt between corners on a fast country road.

However, the electric E and SE models still have the same issue as the petrol Countryman: the steering is too quick for its own good. Small inputs make the car dart in your chosen direction, making it difficult to place the car in a bend, sometimes leading you to make multiple steering corrections mid-corner. It’s a particular problem with the high-performance JCW version, which tends to tramline across all but the smoothest of surfaces. 

We’d also like to see a more settled ride on JCW models. Despite having adaptive suspension (also provided as standard on Sport trim), the ride on the JCW with its larger wheel sizes (19- or 20-inches) tends to bounce you from bump to bump and never settles, no matter the speed. The chassis can’t quite keep up with your inputs – intentional or otherwise – at the wheel, so it feels as if it's getting out of shape rather drastically, even if you’re not pushing the car all that hard.

You’re better off sticking with the smaller 17-inch wheels as fitted to Classic and Exclusive trim and just taking things steady. Do that, and the Countryman can settle into a fairly relaxed high-speed cruise, with only a little bit of wind noise from the chunky door mirrors and upright windscreen pillars kicking up much of a fuss.

Engines, 0-60 acceleration and top speed

Despite having the least power, the 168bhp 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo manages to get the MINI Countryman from 0-62mph dash in a respectable 8.3 seconds, while the four-wheel drive 215bhp 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo cuts this down to 7.1 seconds. The fastest Countryman is the John Cooper Works (JCW) with a very healthy 296bhp that’s also deployed through each of the four wheels to give a 5.4-second sprint time.

We shouldn’t discount the electric versions, though. The two-wheel drive, 201bhp E will get to 62mph in 8.6 seconds, while the four-wheel drive, 309bhp SE takes 5.6 seconds.