My wife has a '11 Mini Cooper S and she LOVES it. But we sold our VW Touareg family hauler and want to move up in size. We have a 2 and 4 year old and they are getting too big for me to drive the coupe with the kids behind me. And a stroller won't fit in the back.

Anyone made the move to the R60? I'm thinking about a used all4 so hopefully the trade up won't cost a fortune.

What else did you cross shop? I like the idea of the Subaru outback- more room, real all wheel drive, lots of ground clearance, but I think it'll be a dog compared her S... and everyone has one too.

She commutes 20 miles highway each way to work.

 

I would say the CM is not quite big enough for a family with two infants and their strollers and carry alongs. Unfortunately, anything that will fit your family in this price range will not be fun to drive.

 

It is a reality that strikes many when faced with trying to retain the fun of youth vs. the responsibilities of raising a family. Post #2 is right. When you have 2 young ones in the back seat, focus on safety not fun in your driving.

 

We're a family of 4 and find our CM All4 S to be quite practical for us for family trips. My kids are teenagers, so no stroller, but our trips often involve hauling karate gear to tournaments. The CM has a wider boot than most "small" hatchbacks and could easily fit a stroller that measures 41" or less in length when folded.

 

We're going to go test drive a countryman and the other contender is a Subaru outback. I drive a ford F250 crewcab, so that works for hauling lots of stuff. This vehicle will be replacing the mini cooper and VW touareg as my wife's commuter and family/shopping hauler.

 

We have a CMS and a 2012 Outback. The two cars don't compare. The Outback has SUV-type space but it's a dog and is sooooo boring to drive. Good, trouble free car, great in bad weather, really safe, comfortable and very practical otherwise.

The stroller is the biggie on a daily basis for the CM. And maybe groceries (I do large grocery shops in my CM and usually have stuff sitting in the back seats since it won't all fit in the boot.) For long trips, you can always add a car top box for luggage.

 

Thanks for the comparison Ragnar. I figure as much, but since since my wife's last cars were a corolla, civic hybrid, and a jetta TDI, she's used to slow and boring.

Here's our stroller, a Joovy. http://www.joovy.com/p-505-caboose-t...-stroller.aspx



And folded:


Folded dimensions are 16.5x21.5x38" long. With the snack tray off it actually fits into the boot of the mini cooper, but I can't get the hatch shut because of the wheels. If it fits into the countryman, that might be the ticket.

For long trips or bad weather, we can always take the F250 if she picks the Mini.

 

Well then you've got options! CMS definitely isn't boring. My wife was used to slow & boring cars and now wants to replace her Outback (in a few years it'll become the kids' car) with another CM. Our two kids (middle school) fit just fine and always prefer to ride in the MINI over the OB.

I'd take that stroller to your MINI dealer and put it in the back of any CM they have sitting around just to make sure it fits (I bet it does).

 

If you're not familiar with the workings of the folding seats in the Honda Fit you owe it to yourself to check them out. Incredible space in a small car.

 

I went from an R56 to an R60 because we were expecting our son. For me it was a nice decision but it is still limited on space for everything that you take for the kids. If we took our Britax stroller, nothing else except for a small bag would fit in the back and if my wife was riding in the back seat with our son, then the option of putting the second seat down was out of the question. For having the rear facing car seat the car did it's job for small trips and daily driving for the 3 of us. Now since my son is 2 1/2 and been facing forward for a while, I actually traded back to an R56. Yes smaller but more fun to drive. This is just what I experienced. With 2 kids, IMO I would look into something else that is a tad bigger for a family hauler. For us we also have a VW Passat and that is plenty larger enough to be hauling the family and all things needed for trips. In the end, it is totally up to you and your family as what you want for comfort. Happy shopping.

 

Actually, safety is one reason why I would choose the CM - it is an IIHS "top safety pick" and has also achieved a "good" rating in the challenging small-overlap test:

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/article/49/6/1
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/veh...per-countryman
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/n...test/index.htm

Most small cars do not do well on this test and many larger cars struggle with it too (note that other "small" cars have also achieved a good rating in the test since the 1st article was published).

I originally wondered why the CM seemed quite heavy for its size, but now I know.

As for space, there's plenty of room in the back and 2 front-facing toddler child seats would fit easily. I'm pretty sure rear-facing child seats/infant carriers would be fine back there as well however we hadn't gotten our CM yet when my son was using one. FWIW, I'm 6'0 and very comfortable in the back even behind the driver's seat with it set to my driving position.

You should be able to fit your folding stroller in the rear hatch (we only have an umbrella stroller which fits easily) - and if you need to carry two I suppose you could stack one on top of the other. One nice thing is that the rear bench can slide forward about 5" if you need a bit more depth in the back for carrying stuff. Also due to the height I'm able to carry things in the back of our CM that I'm not able to in my sedan (Ford Mondeo), such as my son's Smart Trike.

I would have a hard time recommending the CM as an only car for a 2-child family, but as a second car for my wife to drive around the city with my son it seems perfect. It's also our "default" car for the weekends since I enjoy driving it so much. My wife previously had a new Fiesta 5-door and we have found the gain in utility and comfort with the CM to be much, much more than what the modest difference in overall length (less than 5") would suggest.

That all said, I'm still dreaming of replacing my Mondeo with a Volvo V60.

 

Can you take the wheels off? Usually they have a very fast disconnect- it's what we do with our britax stroller when we fly with it or need to make it fit in small spaces. My britax b agile fits in the back of my r53 with no issues though

 

we don't have any toddlers anymore, but the countryman fits 2 adults and 3 kids 8-15 in the back without any problems. Plenty of room in the boot, too. As the amount of stuff needed to support the kids goes down, there's a ton of space for reasonable use of the rs60.

 

In my countrymen I am able to fit more then one might think. I don't have children but being in the military stationed in Italy I easily fit 4 grown men and four sniwboards on the roof as well as all of our jackets boots and other gear in the vehicle. I also regularly move my gear which takes up tons of room in the car and still fit it all with the seats up. So do I think you could fit a stroller with two car seat absolutely. I moved to this vehicle from a alfa Romeo 147 which is way smaller and still fit the same amount of people. So as long as you pack smart the sky is the limit.