MINI Countryman (2010/2011)

MINI Countryman 'On the road' video below

We have the first video of the new MINI Countryman on the road. And for a high-riding, stretched MINI it doesn’t look too bad.

It’s been a bit of a MINI week this week. Or rather a bit of a MINI Countryman week.

We started off a couple of days ago with the latest teaser video for the new MINI closely followed by a leak from MINI of a handful of pictures of the new crossover MINI. Which meant it was pretty likely MINI would get their act together and shove out the official details now there was nothing to hide. So they did. Press release and a pile of photos. And confirmation that the new ‘All4’ MINI is the Countryman. In most places round the world.

So the obvious next place to go is video of the Countryman. And actually, the MINI Countryman doesn’t look too bad at all driving around. I half expected the longer body, four doors and higher ride-height to make the Countryman look a bit incongrous. But it doesn’t. True, it’s not the most elegant MINI ever made, but it’s going to find a ready market.

The Countryman is a new enough iteration of the ubiquitous MINI to have ‘must-have’ appeal. It’s four doors, hugely bigger boot and rufty-tufty looks will make it a perfect yummy-mummy, school-run car. And, for a while at least, it will even be perceived as almost cool.

This fourth iteration of the MINI will go on sale in the UK in September and in the US in early 2011 from around £17k.