Consumers looking for Mini Cooper styling but with more practicality need look no further than the 2011 Countryman, according to Cars.com senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder. The compact CUV offers more versatility for cargo and superb gas mileage compared with the Nissan Juke and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport. But does the Countryman live up to the handling prowess of other Minis?
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced today that Mini's latest model, the Countryman compact SUV, has earned the agency's highest safety designation of Top Safety Pick. That means the Countryman earned scores of Good in front, side and rear crash tests as well as roof-strength tests and has an electronic stability system.
The Countryman is the first Mini model to get the award. In the past, the Mini Cooper hardtop earned scores of Acceptable in side crash tests and roof-strength tests.
The federal government has not yet tested any Mini model under its new crash-test parameters.
The results from IIHS should provide a slight boost to Mini's mainstream appeal. While Mini has enjoyed niche success, many potential buyers have been put off by the cars' diminutive size, which some correlate to being unsafe. The Top Safety Pick designation should help with that, along with the overall larger size of the Countryman.
Last month, the new Countryman was the second-best-selling Mini, registering sales of 886 units. The traditional Cooper hardtop sold 1,931 units, and the Clubman wagon 427 units.
Mini’s vehicle proliferation has mainly involved ways to make the Cooper lineup larger and more versatile with the Clubman, Paceman and Countryman. If the Mini Rocketman concept is any indication, the British automaker is now looking for something smaller than the already diminutive two-door Mini Cooper.
The Rocketman concept’s approximate 135-inch length, 55-inch height and 75-inch width (including side mirrors) places it squarely in the city car category with players like the Smart ForTwo and the upcoming Scion iQ.
While the vehicle is small on the outside, Mini claims that its carbon fiber space-frame construction allows it to maximize interior space. Even so, Mini says the Rocketman has a “3+1” passenger layout design. That’s a nice way of saying there’s room for two, possibly three passengers and four on very short and uncomfortable trips. That versatility comes from the ability of individual seats to move fore and aft in an offset manner and an instrument cluster that can slide back and forth, too. The iQ features a similar 3+1 offset layout.
Super Bowl XLV had more car commercials than recent Super Bowls. That’s partly due to GM getting back into the big game; the automaker hasn’t aired a Super Bowl ad since 2008.
With commercials highlighting the best that Chrysler, GM, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Suzuki have to offer, you may have seen cars and car names that are new to you, but they’re not to us. In fact, we’ve tested and reviewed many of the featured cars.
Below are links to our reviews of some of the cars that automakers thought were worth $100,000 per second of airtime.
Well, that didn’t take long. We received word today that the Mini Paceman concept will, in fact, go into production, according to BMW Group, owner of the Mini brand.
The concept vehicle was officially unveiled Monday at the 2011 Detroit auto show. The Paceman will become the seventh member of Mini's growing lineup.
The crossover coupe will go on sale later this year. A roadster — same model but with the roof chopped off — will show up later in 2012. The production model will include an available all-wheel-drive system and the 1.6-liter turbocharged power plant currently found in Mini's John Cooper Works editions, the automaker says.
BMW did not give a specific launch date for the model and wouldn’t confirm if the “Paceman” moniker would stay, but the company said more info will be announced later.
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Mini Cooper Paceman Concept at 2011 Detroit Auto Show
Just in time for the holidays, Mini is treating its fan(atics) to an early look at the concept it will roll out at the upcoming Detroit auto show in early January. Called the Paceman — perhaps the worst concept name I can recall — this concept shows what a two-door version of the new Countryman SUV would look like.
The newest body-style extension to the Mini brand, the 2011 Countryman, is supposed to offer better versatility and more comfort for people interested in the Mini look, but not the traditional Mini size. But can a larger Mini still be a Mini? That’s what Cars.com senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder aimed to find out. The Countryman seems a little soft around the edges compared with the more hard-nosed coupe and convertible models, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing, Wiesenfelder says.
Our latest mileage challenge revealed the Volkswagen Golf TDI as the most efficient of our high-mileage hatchbacks. However, mileage alone doesn’t make up a buyer’s mind when car shopping, especially considering that between our mileage challenge’s winner and loser the gas savings would total about $1,000 over the course of five years. So, after a day behind the wheels of these three, which one would we put in our own driveway? Editors Mike Hanley and Kelsey Mays weigh in below.
Gas, diesel or hybrid? That’s the question we set out to answer in our latest mileage challenge of small, sporty cars.
There’s the hybrid Honda CR-Z, the diesel Volkswagen Golf TDI and the conventionally powered Mini Cooper. Combined EPA fuel-economy ratings for all three cars fall within 2 mpg of each other, but each car takes unique fuel. The Cooper sips premium gas, and the CR-Z takes the cheap stuff; the Golf TDI needs diesel.
Each car’s trip computer offered a gas-mileage readout, which we reset to begin each of the three legs on our 330-mile daylong route. The winner came down to the car that had the lowest fuel costs over a 15,000-mile year of driving, given our observed mileage.
The scrutiny, it turned out, made little difference. Each hatchback handily beat its combined city/highway EPA fuel-economy rating, but the Golf TDI ran away with the gas mileage and remained victorious even after we accounted for the high cost of diesel.
Check out the results below.
BMW announced today that it and French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroën will jointly develop a new hybrid system that will likely end up in Mini and BMW vehicles.
The hybrid system will be developed for front-wheel-drive powertrains — BMWs are currently rear-wheel and all-wheel drive, and Minis are front-wheel drive — and will likely combine the jointly developed four-cylinder (equipped in 2011 Mini Coopers) that the two automakers collaborated on earlier.
BMW said it plans to introduce a new front-wheel-drive platform to the BMW brand for its future small-car models, so this hybrid system could come equipped on it and various models in the Mini lineup as well.
No date was announced for this new hybrid system yet, but BMW already sells two rear-wheel-drive hybrids, the ActiveHybrid, in its 7 Series and X6 models. An all-electric BMW vehicle, the Megacity, will also debut sometime in 2013.
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