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five doors as the Countryman has been
around since 2010. As a colleague said, “It
looks like a hearse for hipsters!”
This is the third generation of Mini
since BMW acquired the brand and the
first to use an engine made by them.
The original had an engine shared with
Daimler-Chrysler while the second one
was powered by Peugeot’s ‘Prince’ 1.6-litre
motor.
Nestled underneath the short bonnet
of this car is BMW’s brand-new B48
four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbocharged engine,
which is part of their newmodular engine
The Practical Mini
Car
Review
It is not cute and cuddly but two extra doorsmakes this the
bestMini you can buy.
M
ini
. A modern day
icon and some-
thing universally
loved. When the
British Motor Cor-
poration unveiled
Sir Alec Issigonis’s
masterpiece, the Morris Mini-Minor, in
1959, it was hailed as the perfect answer
to the fuel shortage brought on by the
Suez Crises. 56 years later there’s still
a regular Mini 3-door but there’s also a
Clubman, Countryman, Coupe, Paceman
and the test subject, the Mini 5-door, here
in Cooper S form.
The 5-door sits on a 2567mm wheel-
base and measures 4005mm from end to
end. That’s 155mmmore than the 3-door
with 72mm of extra space between the
wheels. Interestingly, the Mini Country-
man SUV has a 2595mm wheelbase and
4110mm overall length, so it remains the
biggest Mini for now.
The extra length and doors affect the
looks. While the 3-door is every inch a
modern interpretation of the original, the
5-door looks awkward. If I were being
kind, I would liken it to a family hatchwith
a Mini family nose tacked on, especially
when viewed from the side. It’s surprising
because we are used to seeing a Mini with
W o r d s :
F a i s a l S h a h
family.
The headline figures are 192hp at
4700rpm and 280Nm at 1250rpm and it’s
mated to an Aisin six-speed automatic.
Despite an extra 120kg of kerb weight
Mini, claims a 0-100km/h time of 6.8
seconds with a 230km/h top speed for
the 5-door, which is only 0.1 seconds and
3km/h down on the 3-door.
It actually feels quicker frombehind the
wheel. Rev the engine hard and every gear
up change is accompanied by an exhaust
pop as the car rockets away. There’s a
visceral quality to the way it accelerates