I'm curious, what are the worst winter conditions you've driven your Countryman through?

I have a Forester and have had to drive it through up to 3' of freshly fallen snow (on a gravel / dirt road) to get up to our mountain house. Would that be too tough for the Countryman to handle?

 

My CM All4 has been through many multi-foot dumps of snow on paved roads.

It handled this very well with no traction or clearance issues. Car is equipped with a set of winter performance tires; Stock all-season tires won't perform as well.

 

3 ft of snow for an extended distance would be hard for the countryman. That said, I'd think the countryman could go anywhere a forester could go, given comparable tires.

 

+1 on good tires. I replaced 19 inch Perilli run flats with Faulkin all weathers. They are great tired. Handles 3 inches of snow no problem and do great in the heavy water on the raod issues we have here.

 

Lets just say the CM will not perform as well as the Forester in the snow.

 

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with that - I've experienced both cars and the CM is, in my opinion, far superior. We run Blizzaks on ours and it has out performed previous Subarus and Audis we've had. The weight of the CM vs Subie is a huge advantage IMO.

Even compared to two Quattro-equipped Audis, I'd take the CM.

 

It's all about tires...
If you have enough ground clearance and you have good snows, a MINI, ANY MINI, is a blast to drive in the snow...they can zip up an on ramp, and the big hulking 4x4 on all seasons will not only not keep up, but will end up in the snowbank...I have had it happen to me at least TWO TIMES...one minute they are tailgating, next, pooff!!! You see a momentary movent of headlights, and catch a big puff of snow in your prefferal vision/rear mirror's...And that was with a r53....

 

The Countryman is the best car I have ever driven in the snow. I've owned a few AUDIs and an FJ Cruiser.

 

I agree with ZippyNH. It's all about what tires you have on the car. I drove one last winter for a couple of weeks with a set of Nokian Hakkepellitta's installed and it was amazing in the snow. It was considerably better than my Justa Countryman that has Michelin X-Ice tires on it during the winter.

 

my all4 has been unstoppable through 3 illinois/wisconsin winters so far ...

i have driven in 2 feet of snow with 4 foot drifts with the only problem being water temp rising (via scan gauge2) ... had to stop and brush snow off the grill and go again

i am running dunlop grandtrek sj6 studless ice and snow AT (all terrain) winters in size 205/70R16 on mini oem 16 inch alloys i got from ecstuning

 

Agreed that the tires (including how much tread is left on them) is by far the most significant issue.

In really deep snow, doesn't the Forrester have the advantage of having more ground clearance?

So far as the four-wheel-drive systems, don't do these vehicles have similar systems in terms of how many wheels have to loose traction before you are completely stuck?

 

Tires being equal, Blizzaks and all, the Forrester and Audi'sAWD will outperform the CM. The CM has a reaction based AWD system, mainly FWD until it detects wheel slippage, while the Subaru and Audi are permanent AWD which apply power to all 4 wheels all the time.

 

How exactly is "applying power to all 4 wheels all the time" going to keep you from getting stuck any more than a system only sends power to all 4 wheels when slippage is detected? Also, I don't understand what's wrong with a reaction based system. In fact isn't it true that Subaru and Audi are actually reaction based systems too? Subaru proudly markets their 4wd systems as "sending power to the wheels that grip". I'm not an automotive engineer, but that certainly sounds like a reaction based system to me.

 

I thought that initial assumption about FWD first was proven incorrect after speaking with the designers of the system?




"While in Austria during the JCW Countryman preview, I had a chance to spend some time with Heinz Krusche, the head engineer for BMW’s Driving Dynamics devision. Driving Dynamics is the group responsible for the DSC, DTC, xDrive and All4 systems for both BMW and MINI. Much of the press event was about experiencing MINI’s All4 system on the snowy mountain roads of Austria. While previewing the JCW Countryman prototype, Herr Krusche gave me a full run-down on how the system works and just when the rear wheels are pitching in to do their part. Turns out, the system works a little bit differently than we’d previously been told.

Originally, MINI’s All4 system was explained to us as being FWD first, then AWD on-demand as a traction control aid. Apparently, this was not entirely accurate. While yes, up to 50% of the engine’s power can be diverted to the rear wheels, the system actually defaults to AWD from the get go, not FWD. Similar to BMW’s Xdrive system, which defaults to a 70/30 split rear to front and is able to divert 100% of power to the rear wheels, All4 starts at 50/50 and is able to re-allocate up to 100% of power back to the front wheels. It’s a subtle difference, but has pretty profound ramifications on our understanding of the system. I clarified this with Heinz two separate times just to make sure we weren’t getting stuck in a language barrier. Each time he was insistent. The system defaults to AWD."

 

That was my understanding of the all4 system as well. It is an all4 system with power being distributed to all 4 wheels as needed until high speeds of 80 mph or higher then it switches to 2 wheel drive. I guess you can not disagree with the designer of the system. Btw I have had multiple 4x4 trucks as well as a BMW x5 with xdrive system. The CM is the most confident fun to drive vehicle of them all in snow/ bad weather conditions due to its size weight ratio in my opinion. Just my 2 cents Motor on.

 

It seems like even BMW and Mini cannot get their story right with regards to the All4 system. The CM is not bad in the snow, but in my opinion, some Subaru and quattro are better.

 

I live in Annapolis MD and i got my mini CMS 2wd last year in November and in December one of the first snow storm with a light patch of ice underneath i slammed into a curb. So just to let you know the car comes with summer tires. i would was told to invest in a set of winter tires so i did and i will hopefully be alot better this year in the snow.

 

last winter i did some snow drag racing ...

my all4 beat all, including many subarus, jeeps, 4x4 p/u trucks and audis ... the closest race was an a8 audi ... we were racing about 100 yards ... the a8 was slow to launch but would have got me by 150 yards or so

btw ... the all4 absolutly starts as 4wd ... simple observation on a low traction surface will show all 4 wheels spinning from rest

 

First off we're talking about All WD vehicles here and the Countryman FWD simply wont compete in the winter. You were expecting the summer tires on the car to be okay in the winter? Summer tires aren't worth a damm in icy/slippery conditions and most drivers would know that...