Hi all! I've been lurking here for about 4 weeks, since I bought my Countryman sight unseen while it was still on a boat near the Panama Canal. I picked it up last night, and so far I love it. I'm trying to figure out an hour or two today to just go driving...maybe up to Red Rocks. The Colorado folks will know what I'm talking about.

White on white, manual, anthracite alloy wheels, winter weather package, armrest, rear bench for my 3 kids, and that's it. Even then, it was pricier than I would have liked. But Ralph Schomp was pretty decent about a discount, even though demand was obviously high (I was buying off the boat, after all).

I'm coming from 9 years of Jeep Wranglers, so most of the complaints about the Countryman--too big, too slow, bumpy ride, wind noise, weird clutch--so far don't bother me at all. This thing is like a spacecraft compared to my Jeeps.

Anyway, I'm glad to be here, and I look forward to learning more about MINI and the countryman and....motoring. Still gotta get used to that one

 

Congrats on the new ride, sounds perfect for your needs!

It's interesting to me to read of new owners like yourself, who *didn't* come from a background of MINI-awareness, particularly, or who'd already owned a Mini or MINI. That a CM was offered, with a set of features / function / style / whatever that appealed to you, is of course great news for MINI-the-brand.

Enjoy, there's collectively lots of good info hereabouts!

 

Welcome and congrats! My wife has nearly 34k miles on hers, and she still loves it.

 

Ljmattox, thanks. I describe myself as someone who likes interesting cars...not necessarily performance-oriented ones, but ones that will make my day not-boring. The Jeeps were great for that, and I spent a lot of my time top-down, doors-off. That was great, but I have 3 kids under 5 years old now, and I started to think a lot more about safety and comfort. So the MINI won out because it was less-boring than some of the options--a Grand Cherokee, a Tiguan, a Juke--and because it was safer than a newer, nicer Wrangler. So far, 15 hours in, I think I made the right call!

 

I as well joined the MINI community a few years ago after leaving 2 wranglers behind....haven't looked back. Still love Wranglers, but the MINIs are sweeter to drive!
CM's rock, looking forward to adding a Paceman to the team in a few months as I will be passing the CM onto my 16 year old daughter...

 

Got mine a few weeks before you. I went with the buckets, though: just one kid (and a live in mother-in-law). My wife drives a Highlander for when we need to move more people/stuff

 

Aleclee, I followed some of your posts while waiting. Anything to read the tea leaves on how Schomp works! I too have a live-in MIL, but we have a minivan for when we all need to go somewhere.

BTW (and I'll probably post this in the R60 specific forums), so far the clutch on mine has not been difficult to figure out. There's no suggestion of stalling, or anything like that. As a late-2012 (build date in early October), I wonder if mine got the newer clutch? The releases on that suggested that it would be a rolling part change, and they didn't say it would be pegged to a model year change, so perhaps I got the new one. If so, so far so good.