The R60 MINI Crossover Gets an Official Name & a Revised Debut

Why should delay in Countryman launch which will be built in Austria interfear with the Oxford built r55/56/57 facelift by any substantial amount. Do marketing have this much power?

LOL Jon. Have two friends who said the same about the MINI Clubman when it was announced (though with other anatomical male body-parts removal promised). Now they both drive one. I haven’t asked if they followed through with their, ahem, gelding promise.

I’m all in on the Countryman name, but not entirely enthusiastic about “All4″.

The fact that the X3 is BMW’s most profitable vehicle says everything about why MINI is launching this vehicle. (The fact that MINI is/has made very little if anything off of MINI vehicles thus far seems to me to be the elephant in the room in every conversation about new MINI iterations.)

The Countryman will go a long way toward getting a MINI dealer in my hometown, Boulder. While the all-Winter-long blanket of snow is a myth, Subaru’s are the vehicle of choice here (for those who can’t swing something with Quattro or XDrive).

I mentioned previously that I don’t like the idea of a bloated MINI SUV/SAV/Softroader/Whatever, but if it’s smaller (more MINI-like) in person than it looks in photos I’ll come around. But for now, I just look at it and think it’s too big and too common.

Living in Michigan, I’d be severly dissapointed if I didn’t have a chance to go see the Countryman at the Detroit show… pooh. At least we’ll get images to pick apart online well in advance of it’s physical debut. While I won’t be able to afford an R60 until I can nab a 2 or 3-year old used one down the line, unless she ends up being hideous, put me on the “poser-mommy-wagon-I make-REAL-mini-enthusiasts-nauseous-list” with all due speed… I can’t wait.

Mk1 be sure if I were to ever buy a suv/sav or crossover I would check myself into a sanatorium. I have a 4 door car that the rear doors stick shut most all the time because I never open them. I have huge fun seeing my cars parked at work while a majority of my co-workers with awd cars are hiding at home. Add to this the numbers of awd vehicles off the side of the road, and on their tops and side I would generally say awd is more than a tad not much more than a warm blanket. Its something that can be sold endlessly to people since the common concept says awd vehicles are better and safer.

Another common concept, also correct, is that lack of driver skill can cancel out any mechanical advantage. I’d like to know what system All4 refers to. Is it the Getrag application tested in 04/05? Quattro, 4matic etc. all refer to specific ways to achieve awd distinction and some are “better” than others. I really hope this is a more appealing car in the flesh than what we’ve seen so far. I think the Crossman has strayed a little too far from the MINI look that has served BMW so well.

The split already took place in February 2007 when the R56 was launched in the US.

What’s sad here, is that one of the largest opportunity for growth in the Mini marketplace is getting the ugly stepchild treatment because of conflict with the X3. (BTW, how is the X3 the most profitable? Margin per car as a percent or gross dollars? If it’s the latter, BMW is in some trouble.) And really, with good planning, there shouldn’t have been much question about the scheduling of the move in production. Overall, this isn’t encouraging. Especially now when production capacity is anything but challenged.

MINI! Baastard Step-Child of the BMW Empire! not too good a marketing ring, is it?

Matt

Mini purists, I’ve never seen any posts of anyone saying the 15″/16″/17″ rims on MINIs are too big and they should go to 10″. Move cautiously forward with 20/20 hindsight of the Mini heritage. The Countryman fits that bill, to me, but with the extra AWD.

Countryman was a cool movie. I doubt the car will be as cool. Although if they were to paint it red, yellow, black and green and pack the boot with a bale of Jamaican ganja…

I think that James Irmiger has it right, they are not marketing the Countryman to MINI owners. BMW/MINI management is just trying to increase brand appeal. I just hope that they do not screw everything up too much, and get it back to the original feel, before I have to replace my R53.

Isnt this Countryman the same platform as the future BMW X1, if I am not mistaken that was what I had read

Veggievet- The pictures up top are of the concept; the spy photos you can find on the web (search “MINI Crossman”) show the design not anywhere near as bubbled and bloated, with better visibility out back (and four full doors). IMO, the more recent shots look ALOT more like an actual mini than the concept does…

How’s this for a name for it: Fugly.

Or Barf? Maybe NOF’INGWAY?

Does anybody have any information regarding whether the BMW mini crossover/countryman/AII4 equipped with the “ MINI Centre GLOBE” ??

Greg W – re. A114 – yer joking, right?

As Dogtanian said,

.All4:1 and 1:4All…

No Globe? One can only hope that means no Key Balls, too.

Gotta say I think the car is sharp. I always hated the fake extra doors on the Clubman. The Mini Countryman ads have been fun. Saw pics of the sno globes in NYC and walked past the Union Square cereal boxes just this morning. It did what it was supposed to do – it made me want to buy the car!