MINIUSA has now allowed the new Countryman aka F60 to be buildable on their website. http://www.miniusa.com

It's kind of amazing. There are 4 variants. Cooper Countryman, Cooper Countryman ALL4, Cooper S Countryman, Cooper S Countryman ALL4. The JCW version will be available later on this year. Also, there will be a Hybrid version coming soon.

Awesome!

Post some of your builds here. Would love to see what you guys made.

 

Yea, the first time a Cooper can come in 4 wheel drive.

 

Too bad they never made the R58 ALL4. God that would have been amazing. Looks like I'm just going to have to do it. lol

 

Yes. Actually already placed an order for a 2017 Cooper S Countryman All4 to replace our end of lease 2014 All4.

Options packaging is very different. Went with Fully Loaded options package.

While the Countryman appears to be leaps and bounds better in terms of material quality and creature comforts, it is less much funky than it used to be.

Gone are cool and funky interior color combinations and contrasts. Exterior colors are boring at best. No true silver or metallic gray. Interior options pale to what is offered in the new Clubman. Struggled to make exterior/interior selections and do not love any of them. BUT the Countryman remains one of the very few (perhaps the only?) premium small CUV available with a manual transmission.

Looking forward to power/memory seats and new infotainment/NAV system. These were two weak links in the R60 that appear to be resolved in the F60.

 

That's amazing. We are getting one in at the end of the month to show off. I'm so stoked you're getting a manual transmission one. They are less "funky", but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Think of it as the previous generation MINI was in it's teen years and now with this generation...it's now a young professional in their mid 20s - mid 30s. Progress will always happen. Might as well embrace it. I personally love the new look of the F60. Kinda wish they would make an F61 (Paceman), but we both know that isn't in the cards.

 

Thing is, this is what always happens. They upsize/upoption the car and make it less interesting. My 14 has the glued on lock button on the door. I know why they did it, but it looks awful. Oh well.
ITs like the Imprezza. I loved my old WRX, but now they look like every other car on the road. Probably wouldn't buy another one.

 

After lots of experimentation, we decided to change our order to a new configuration which achieves the level of funkiness we desired. It came at a cost though... Selected the over-priced Lapisluxury Blue with white roof/mirrors and the over-priced Leather Satellite Grey. This combination provided the contrasts we were looking for but pushed build to almost $41K.

Premium, small CUVs with manual transmissions are a dying breed. The Countryman may be last of breed.

 

Well, I think *any* manual transmission car is a dying breed. Sounds like a nice combo, but pretty expensive.

 

Not buying one but I'd be about 36k for an all4 S without most of the options most people seem to want. Interesting that they offer a space saver spare now.

 

You get to pick either the space saver spare OR the (extremely useless) "picnic cushion".

I opted for the spare despite the car coming with run flats. Guess it is a better safe than sorry move AND eliminates having to explain the purpose of a picnic cushion.

 

I wouldn't say "extremely useless"...I personally would use it to drive in the woods, canyons, beaches, etc to sit and enjoy a view and be comfortable. Knowing me, I would put a spare in there as well...along with tools and an "emergency bag".

 

Having had the opportunity to play with a pre-production F60 that my dealer was showing off (an event similar to the one LORDVDR has coming up, I'm sure) and the one they had was equipped with the picnic bench. Seems useless, but it was actually comfortable to sit on for whatever reason, but it's also useful for protecting the bumper when loading items into the boot.

Overall, I was really impressed with the car and I'm definitely thinking about going back to the Countryman when my lease is up. So much space for passengers and the whole car felt very premium. Lots of standard features too.

 

yeah, we have an event in the 26th of this month. It's insane how many new standard features there are now on the F60. They really have stepped up their game.

 

Is Blindspot Monitoring finally coming to MINI on the F60?

 

Since I'm a newbie here, am I allow to post a link to 2017 ordering guide from a different website?

 

Not my site, but I certainly have no problem with it.

 

I overheard someone else asking the MINI rep about this and he said MINI has no plans to add BSM to any of their cars. They feel due to the size, they are not needed. I, personally, have never felt MINIs have any blind spot (except the convertible) if you have your mirrors positioned correctly and you are actually using your eyes, but that's me. I'd rather keep the costs down.

 

Here is a compromise solution

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=F60+Countryman+Ordering+Guide

4th link in the results.

 

The R58 is one giant blindspot and I love it. I never look behind me. I just make 4 right turns and I'm where I need to be. lol

 

Blah, blah, blah. PDC is stupid on a small hatch, because the back is the back. Back-up Cameras are stupid because only a 'tard can't parallel park a MINI. GPS is dumb if you can read a map.

Heard them all before. I can do all of the above very well, but I love my F56's back-up camera, sensors and GPS. Most people who have these items wouldn't part with them. It's only those who don't have them that tend to vociferously pan them.

I rented a car recently with BSM, and you know what? Even though my F56's mirrors are properly aimed, rather large, and I always check them AND look over my shoulder, I would still like to have some annoying chime go BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, and avoid changing lanes into the car or motorcycle next to me, just in case I fail to see him. Is that so wrong? It's virtually a standard feature nowadays, on even the cheapest Chevy or Hyundai, so WTF not in a MINI too?

Know what else I'd like? A heated steering wheel, even though I could wear gloves instead. Imagine that!

I would rather have BSM than adaptive cruise control. I never use cruise control. Where I live, traffic is such that it'd only stay active for minutes at a time, before I had to brake.

 

It might be useless to you, but as someone who sits on the back of the car to put on and take off ski boots with some regularity, it's something I would get a lot of use out of.

 

Am I the only one that thinks the new Countryman exterior looks are terrible? Much prefer the first generation style. Obviously interior options/technology have greatly improved but the body....

 

Yes

 

Good, it's fun being different

 

They tried to make it look more butch. I read that!

In real life, the R60 Countryman sometimes looks great, and other times, not so much not sure if it's a color thing, or what. I suspect the F60 looks better in real life than in photos. We'll soon see.