Perseveration Ends

[JST]

Most of you saw this coming, but we picked up the new family truckster on Thursday--a 2011 MINI Countryman Cooper S. At the end of the day, it was hard to beat this car's combination of attributes. It's big enough to hold four people (including car seats), yet not so big as to make me file like I'm driving a minivan. It's got decent power, decent economy, and is a more involving drive than the GTI and A3 that were it's main competitors in my mind.

I haven't had much time to form many impressions, but here are a few--it's quick around town and has good punch on the highway, though the extra weight over the R56 is clearly noticeable. It's taller than the R56, too, and you can feel that in the corners, but there's very little body roll. Suspension compliance is similar to the R56, though since it's both heavier and longer it rides a bit smoother (even on 17" runflats and the sport suspension). It is nice to have four doors.

This is a hard vehicle to classify. Those who say that it's a crossover aren't really right. It's shorter than a GTI and weighs substantially less. It's also not really a sports car, because it's too tall and doesn't have quite enough beans. If you can make do with a Cooper S or a Clubman, those are better drives.

OTOH, if you are someone who is being dragged kicking and screaming out of a Cooper S because you need more space and don't mind giving up a bit of performance, this is just about custom fit for you. That is, for me.

Negatives? The armrest isn't in a great position, and the new MINI Connected/Nav interface is an abomination--it makes the old Audi MMI (which I used to bitch about constantly) seem like the apogee of easy to manage UI design.