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"  Hamburg, Germany-Insisting that the new Mini Countryman is not an SUV nor even a small crossover, the engineers at BMW have nonetheless emphasized both off-road ability and people/cargo-hauling utility to give Mini a more family-friendly and spacious offering. Back in the &amp;#039;60s, the original Mini Countryman was a wood-sided station wagon with only two doors, so the new four-door is the first such to wear the name. The new model, coming to America as early as next year, is not only longer but also taller and notably wider than the Mini Cooper Coupe, Cabriolet and Clubman models in dealerships today. By also expanding on feature offerings\u2014including access to Web radio and other features via an iPhone link and Mini-specific app\u2014and on personalization via paint and interior choices, the Countryman maintains Mini&amp;#039;s hipness factor even as it makes room for child seats and trips to Costco.  The Specs Arriving 10 years after BMW&amp;#039;s original reincarnation of the Mini brand, the Countryman answers the need for a &amp;quot;step up&amp;quot; model dealers can offer to loyalists whose lifestyles may now include children, homeownership or other demands for a somewhat larger vehicle. It also has more ground clearance and a more upright seating position, which Mini refers to as a &amp;quot;semi command&amp;quot; view of the road. We don&amp;#039;t think they mean you&amp;#039;re only half in control, just that it&amp;#039;s not as tall as a full-on SUV. With the optional ALL4 all-wheel-drive system, the Countryman is hardly an off-road adventurer but does pose fewer worries on dirt two-tracks through the woods or in slippery weather conditions. Munich would deny this, but the cutesy pretensions that Mini is an &amp;quot;English&amp;quot; car are all but abandoned with this one\u2014in its details, from the iDrive-like interface with the navigation screen to the array of electronic driving aids, the Countryman is the most BMW-like of Minis. This fact is emphasized\u2014albeit unintentionally\u2014by the introduction taking place in the countryside outside Hamburg. The Countryman won&amp;#039;t even be assembled with its brand mates in Oxford but at the BMW Group&amp;#039;s Austrian partner firm Magna Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik in Graz. This emphasizes that this is an all-new vehicle, not a stretched Mini, even as it hews closely to Mini exterior design and engineering traditions. &amp;quot;Biggest-ever Mini&amp;quot; is a relative expression\u2014even at a shade more than 4 meters long, at 161.8 inches the Countryman still casts a smaller shadow than a comparable 165-inch five-door VW Golf. The Mini-characteristic design pushes the wheels out to the corners, so the wheelbase is an inch longer than the VW&amp;#039;s, and it&amp;#039;s also a bit bigger at 70.4 inches wide and 61.5 tall, the latter figure incorporating both the raised roof rails (which enhance interior headroom) and a half-inch more ground clearance with the all-wheel-drive system (branded ALL4). Inside, the Countryman feels significantly less cozy than your standard Mini Cooper coupe\u2014driver and passenger bang elbows less often, and the rear seat is a place where adults can sit for longer than a quick trip out to dinner. With a seats-up cargo capacity of 41.3 cubic feet, there&amp;#039;s even enough luggage space for a week in the country. ALL4 sends 100 percent of drive torque to the front wheels until it detects slip, whereupon the electronically controlled center couple sends torque rearward. It&amp;#039;s not a high-speed system, though, and it shuts down at freeway speeds (140 km/h, or 87 mph). Along with the new model comes an enhanced engine for the top Cooper S model, making 184 hp (versus 172 today) with a dual-scroll turbo, direct injection and variable valve timing to ensure that the performance enhancement does not cut into fuel economy. The combined rating in the European driving cycle for the Cooper S (the only model we drove) is the equivalent of 38.5 mpg, or a 9 percent improvement on the previous engine. We&amp;#039;d expect to see something in the mid-30s on the U.S. EPA test cycle, perhaps less with the automatic, though both the manual and automatic trannies offer six speeds.      The Drive We drove a pair of manual-transmission Mini Countryman Cooper S models several hundred miles over a couple of days in northern Germany. Whether at high speed on the limitless autobahn or crawling over sandy forest two-tracks, we found them much as the engineers and marketers suggested\u2014bigger, heavier, all-wheel-drive Mini station wagons (except that marketers won&amp;#039;t concede to the station wagon words any more than they would to SUV). The good consequences of that would be evident in daily life, when the easier ingress and egress, larger cargo capacity and smoother ride from the longer 102.5-inch wheelbase would make the Mini a more livable proposition for many a small family. For the hardcore enthusiast drivers who have made up the bulk of Mini&amp;#039;s buyers, it&amp;#039;s more of a mixed bag. The taller ground clearance and softer springing made for more fore/aft pitch and roll in cornering. That&amp;#039;s to be expected even if it makes the Countryman handle less like a go-kart and more like a five-passenger ATV. The one real objection we had was to the steering\u2014as calibrated today, it delivers a very Mini-like sharp turn-in response immediately, followed by a less linear effect as the chassis rolls over and takes a set. A small initial steering input delivers a large effect, followed by less responsiveness as you negotiate a corner. Engineers said these preproduction models were still subject to final calibration, however, so we&amp;#039;ll have to wait and see what we get when the car arrives in the U.S. market in early calendar 2011. There&amp;#039;s also a &amp;quot;Sport&amp;quot; suspension option that lowers the vehicle nearly half an inch, and that, too, might be something to interest the &amp;quot;motoring&amp;quot; driver. The Bottom Line With that delivery date still so far off, neither final fuel economy nor pricing information is available, although we expect base prices to hover around $30,000 and go up from there. The Mini Countryman Cooper S will appeal most strongly to those who are already big fans of the Mini design and brand, which would include those moving up from previous Mini models or those who liked the idea but couldn&amp;#039;t justify the inconveniences of the smaller models. It may have turbo power and all-wheel-drive, but it shouldn&amp;#039;t be confused with the rally-inspired like of the Subaru WRX\u2014the Countryman is a nimble, small car with upscale features and attributes, and we expect it will be priced accordingly. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/reviews/a5963/2011-mini-countryman-cooper-s-test-drive/>