MINI Countryman Update: Five Seats & Four Doors

There has been a lot of debate in regards to how many seats the upcoming MINI Countryman (R60) needs or will have. While the official answer will change depending on the market you’re in, we can confirm that MINI intends to allow both four and five seats in the new crossover. The optional five seat set-up will feature three across in the back much like the current BMW 1 series hatch. So that means instead of mounting the third belt on the roof like the optional set-up on the Clubman (available outside the US), MINI will mount it on the top of the seat itself.

Of course leading to those four or five seats will be four real doors plus a standard hatchback (a la the R56). So this will be the first official four door MINI. However what’s unclear at this point is what the standard configuration will be in the various markets. Our guess is that four seats will be standard with five seats remaining strictly an optional extra.