Cnet.com just posted a review on the Countryman this morning and it was not a nice review of the performance or the operations of the car. In fact, the car at one point was having a mechanical problem and the engine did not start. The review was not positive for Mini

 

Wth! Just watched the video. Does not reflect well on Mini that the car died and could not be restarted at all! This is the harshest review out there that I have seen. They said they didn't even like driving it??? Seriously?

 

Cnet is pretty harsh on MINIs...their review of the newest Cabrio & Hard top aren't very positive either...but they loved both when they first came to the States.

 

The car just ran out out Gas. They probably never even check for that screw-up.

If it's not electric it needs gas to run.

From what I have been reading on these forums. The people that have the new Countryman seem to really like them. I have not read of to many problems.

Time will tell.

 

Why in the world would MINI send CNET a car without MINI Connected?

 

Probably because they know they would have gotten an even worse review. Connected needs some serious work. IMO

 

Yea the interior shot showed 2 candies in orange. Ive never seen 2 in orange unless something changed for '11.

If I recall correctly, the more recent reviews cnet has done have been as base as they come and you are not going to get good reviews on a tech site without any tech in it.

At least the one they had is manual. Brian Cooley always deducts points for no manual trans on the test car.




http://reviews.cnet.com/wagon/2011-m...?tag=cnetRiver

 

I wonder if it stalled for some other mechanical reason. The video of the dash showed the gas tank was 3/4 full.

 

Ouch!

 

I just hope it wasn't mine - diverted for the review - sigh

 

Now I'm getting concerned! My car is at the dealer waiting its papers so I can actually buy it. Is it really this bad? Should I just walk away????

When I test drove one, it seemed like a nice handling super car...
Hmmmm... must give this much thought......

I didn't get any techy stuff like connect of nav or super radio or anything. I must wanted the car for what it was..... Now this?

 

I wouldn't worry too much. I just came back from MoTD and spent a week thrashing my all4. Our cabin was on the side of a steep gravel road about a mile from the pavement and I didn't take it easy on the car. As far as the pavement goes it was mainly second and third gear constantly over 4500 rpm. I didn't have a single issue with the car then or now and it has a little over 8000 miles on it.

 

I am not buying a gadget. I will read CNet's car review for entertainment purpose only.

 

İt has only been 150 miles since I have my CM delivered and I am loving it What Cnet or others say about the MINI does not reflect the MINI soul you can not compare a MINI with a HONDA CRV or Toyota TAV4 or others CM is a completely different feeling especially with sport suspension which I recommend.

 

I just watched the video this morning.

Their complaint? Doesn't handle as well as the other MINIs. Well, duh. It is definitely less responsive than a Cooper S. Relative to other cars in its class? It's damn sporty. I test drove the ALL4 in both manual and automatic configurations, and it's a peppy, hard-cornering car.

I do agree that there's a fraction of a second lag when you press on the gas in the automatic relative to the manual, but I find that's true of all automatic cars, and, relative to other automatics I've driven (Volvos, Jeeps, and Hondas, mostly), the MINI's lag was particularly brief. And if their guys kept stalling the car because the clutch has a relatively narrow engagement range, and they found the engine wasn't delivering power, well, their guys need to bone up on driving stick. I vastly prefer that nice, tight clutch action to a big sloppy one like the light truck clutch on my Jeep.

And the idea that the engine has poor torque at low RPMs is crap. It has particularly good torque in the low RPM range.

I'm not a major car guy, so please take my thoughts on engineering with a grain of salt, but I strongly disagree with their assessment of the car's driving.

It's also possible that there was something wrong with the engine on the one MINI sent them. It delivered poor power, stalled a lot, died while idling, and couldn't be restarted. Sounds like a mechanical problem to me.

Plus, they didn't do their due diligence on MINI-Connected. They said what it could do, but totally failed to mention the problems with it (iPhone 3GS only for full features, need for a custom cradle for newer models, saying things like "I guess that's voice activated" instead of actually trying it, etc.). So as a tech review, it gets an F from me.

All in all, it was a careless review of a car MINI clearly wasn't careful enough to troubleshoot before sending them. I'm not sure how relevant it is to the average buyer.

 

Dude, if I had only had my CM for that long, I would not be on NAM. I would be in it.

I plan on disappearing from the forum for several days once it arrives. I may drop in long enough to post pictures and let other CM waiters know what my delivery wait ended up being, but that's it.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with anything he said and still love my CMS. It isn't the most practical car on the road, it doesn't perform as well as the other mini's, but I think it is a good trade-off for having the additional space.

The only thing flat out wrong is the engine torque at low RPM. The throttle response isn't great though and it does take quite a bit of pedal pressure to get the revs up, but this doesn't have anything to due with the engine torque. I'm not sure why you would want/need a lot of torque while driving in stop and go traffic anyway, to race into the guy in front of yous bumper?? 1st gear is a bit long, but there is hardly any engine surge while coasting in 1st, so driving in traffic is fairly easy IMO.

 

My view is that this is a major embarrassment to MINI and, by extension, to all of us as enthusiasts. I recognize that stuff happens, but, still, to be the first of the many cars they've tested to break down and be flat-bedded out of the CNET garage is a big black mark.

And while this glitch may be beyond MINI's control, the fact they they sent a tech site a car without MINI Connected is inexcusable to me. Sure there are some features that can be improved, but, to me, MINI Connected is leaps ahead of most of the other head units Cooley reviews. He typically spends almost half of the review parked, going through the tech. He's a reviewer so he may have loved the system or hated it, but that's the chance you take. MINI PR needs to step it up in my opinion.

 

I agree. Whoever sent Cnet a CM without connected needs to have a stern talking too! But then again the site is not known for their expert car reviews either but what can you do.

 

over 10,000 miles and no problems.Car is fun and gets great mileage for an AWD car. Connected & Sat radio controls could use an update. Rail with Nav is pointless with the huge parking brake. overall very pleased with the car!

 

Wow over 10k miles! Thanks for the good report!

 

I've got a little over 1,000 miles on mine and have never had those problems with starting, sluggishness, etc. Sometimes it does chug in 1st or 2nd but that's because the RPMs are low.

 

Cnet are a bunch of dumb @!#$# when it comes to cars.

That being said, Of course a AWD 180hp TURBO car is going to be tough a bit tough to start off (in normal driving) without bogging. Even the S model at 1500rpm probably only makes 90 hp(random guess). 90 hp to start off in a 3000lb AWD car is going to be tough without experience.

 

That's when they were showing MINI Connected. That's not the test car. The test car showed the gauge was pretty low when they showed it in the video. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually did run out of gas during the shoot.

 

I would bet a million dollars that they ran that car out of gas. (If I had a Million dollars)

When I showed the video to my GF she said:::"It looks like the car ran out of gas"

The idiot testing the car did not like the big speedometer. That big speedometer is part of what a Mini is all about. Is he that stupid?

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If you can't drive a stick, Why even try??????? Every car made is a little different and getting the clutch & throttle is part of the learning process of the car being driven.