IIHS Names MINI Countryman as a “2011 Top Safety Pick” Winner

In recent testing, the 2011 MINI Cooper Countryman has earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) designation as a “Top Safety Pick” for achieving “Good” ratings for front, side, rollover, and rear impact protection.

The Countryman is the first MINI vehicle to be named an IIHS “Top Safety Pick,” and the second model from the BMW Group to achieve top results since the IIHS tightened the criteria to include “Good” performance for roof strength in rollover crashes. The roof of the Countryman withstood a force equal to nearly 5 times the car's weight, which is more than three times the current federal standard (1.5 times weight).

“Safety is a top priority for MINI, and we are very pleased that the Countryman performed so well in the Institute’s safety tests,” said Jim McDowell, Vice President, MINI USA. “These results reinforce the idea that small cars are a safe choice in addition to being a practical one; and with a MINI, owners get an important premium small car feature... driving fun.”

In addition to “Good” crash test ratings, winners must have electronic stability control (ESC), an important crash-avoidance feature, which is standard on all MINI models.