My new CM4 manual has 4 doors and 4 seats, so we loaded up with 4 people and drove over the mountains from SF Bay to the coast yesterday. I'm still breaking in so I'm keeping the RPMs under control, but the 3200 pound weight of the CM4 plus 4 occupants really showed when we were going downhill. The little high-compression 1.6L needed a lot of help from the brakes to hold the speed.

This is on a familiar road where my Honda Pilot 3.5L auto had no problem controlling downhill speed, although 1200 pounds heavier to start with.

In the much lighter MCS it's probably not a issue. Something to keep in mind.

 

What gear had you selected?

 

I think I started with (manual) 4,3,2,brakes supplementing gear. Speed about 35-45.

I have lots of hill experience and I was surprised at the result, so I brought it up.

 

Ya know, this is interesting. I too have noticed the engine does not slow the car as quickly as I would like. I suspect the tall gear ratios to support better gas mileage might be part of the issue.

 

My R53 (and the R50 before it) had much more engine braking than my wife's Clubman does. When I test drove the Countryman, it didn't seem like it had much engine brake either.

 

At my local dealer, I was pointed to a couple of service department members who had spent some time with the Countryman. When I described my experience with my ALL4 manual, they reported that the only time they had with the Countryman was with the automatic, since there were so few manuals out there and all the dealership demos were automatic. With the automatic, they recall the sport mode helping with engine braking, since it expanded the RPM range for each gear. They remember engine braking working OK.

They suggested I try the sport button to see if that improves the engine braking with the manual, and report back. They also suggested that engine breaking may have more effect after the break-in period (when RPMs are restricted to under 4500). They're standing by for the results of my experiments.

 

Does the ECU literally restrict the RPMs to below 4500?? That seems odd if so, seems like it should be up to the end user what RPM they push the car to

 

No, the ECU doesn't restrict RPMs during break-in. It's just the guidelines from MINI, the MAs, and car common sense. It's up to the driver to do this for the first 1000-1500 miles, depending on the source, for the MINIs. Of course, in KIWI land, they don't bother with such niceties and still do fine.