Mini of Honolulu has a justa F60 CM and I was able to look at it close up and sit in it... no driving allowed just yet... You can tell that when they built the first CM they rounded it off, tapered the nose, the boot, the roofline, trying to not offend Mini loyalists with such a huge Mini. Well with the F60 there's no apologizing, it is huge and it looks huge. Standing in front of it, it looks so wide, on the sides it has some fender flares, the boot has some huge taillights and the roofline is so tall. This time Mini wants you to know the CM is huge and in your face! I have to admit the interior is really nice and clean, lots of quality materials, the outside on the other hand will take some time for me to like. We'll see...

 

Let us know if you drive it!

 

Did it look as sad-sack mouthed as the press photos make it look?

 

I've now seen the F60 at the dealer launch event and the Philly Auto Show and my opinion is that it looks great in the metal. The wheel well arches and other lines seem to get lost in photos but look great in person. At least to me and my wife, looks of course are subjective.

 

It really looks better in person and with the right color combo and wheels it probably looks really good. This was just a base model so it was ok.

 

When I saw the new F60 in person the interior was a huge upgrade, the exterior did not look on the front end as good as the R60 JCW. But overall it looked good. It will have 5x112 wheels, they share the same roof rack with the F54. The center console was huge and the lights under the front seats for the rear was nice. The back seat are easy to get into and the have a better rake for comfort on them.

 

I went to a release party for the CM. They had on display an S fully loaded. They also had a base model there which they were letting folks drive. Surprising it was quite peppy! I am now waiting to drive the S model. The dealer was prepping a pretty sick looking S which they cannot sell until March 3.

I really like the new style. Longer and Wider and a lot of nice touches. The chestnut leather seats are amazing (from 7 series I have been told). Overall I am very impressed with it.

A year or two ago during one of my service visits I asked for the Countryman to get my wife on board. Well unfortunately they gave us the base model, and we all hated it (sorry no offense to anyone). We have a Mini JCW that is very comfortable and quick. Now my wife is on board and she would like one

Here are some pictures. I think it looks good but it actually looks a lot better in person.

 

Yea, those new wheels I was hoping the CM I saw would have those. But there was only one.

That front end looks much better then the inserted bumper.

Like this

 

Looks much better in white here, than it does in the configurator.

 

What's up with those driving lights, they're not installed correctly, they're sitting too low, they should be sort of on top of the silver bar as seen below.

 

Sorry it looks like a wannabe Skoda Yeti or a Fiat Panda.

While both those two are good looking cars, the R60 had a more cheeky or retro style of it's own and they killed it to copy these.

 

Seriously? No. That Skoda looks like a miniature Land Rover and the Fiat a shrunken CR-V clone.



Neither first nor second gen Countryman looks like either Skoda or Fiat. For an awful Countryman knockoff, look no further than the hideous Fiat 500L.

 

Completely agree with your assessment here.

 

I got to test drive a manual '17 Countryman All4 S today and I have to say, I was impressed! It doesn't really look or feel much bigger (IMO), but you can definitely notice the extra space inside! The back seat has a TON of legroom (especially compared to ours) and it handled quite nicely! The interior is WAY better as well. They definitely took issues that ours had and made tham much better. It also had the new touchscreen, and it was really nice and responsive! I still want CarPlay as well, but it's definitely a nice upgrade as is! Overall, I was definitely impressed and can't wait to order one! :D

 

What did you think of the clutch engagement, the shifter and manual transmission in general? Hoping MINI has learned its lesson from the clutch fiasco when Countryman R60 first launched.

 

It's MUCH better than the '12 we have! Coming off the line, it doesn't feel bogged down at all (especially in Sport Mode)... I felt like the engagement point was about the same as ours, just no bogging at all. The only thing I didn't like was that the shifter itself doesn't feel as "crisp" as ours... Apparently, what the sales guy said was that it's an electronic shift mechanism now, so it's not directly connected to the transmission, which feels, kind of odd. Not bad, per se (definitely something I'll have to get used to), but different than what I am currently used to... It's a minor point overall though and still an improvement over our '12!

 

Thanks, that is good to know. The salesman's claim sounds dubious to me, though I am no expert. I've not heard of an electronically controlled manual transmission (other than DCTs).

 

Me either! But there definitely felt like a disconnect with shifting, so I am not sure what that means...

Since there really isn't much info out yet (and the sales people are still learning about the car), he might have confused some facts, I am not sure... *shrugs*

 

Wow, now I really want to test drive one! Wonder when our dealer here in Hawaii will let us drive them?

 

The day we went was like 2 days after they got their first ones in (and they can't start selling till the 5th)... I just happened to look on the website and see that there was some "in stock", so I emailed our sales guy and he said that a few of them were still in transit, but luckily the one we wanted to test drive was there (All4 S manual)!

 

New countryman looks like crap compared to the R60. Glad we ended up with a '17 F48 X1 instead.

 

F60 is far and away a better looking car than the F48. Leave the MINI bashing to you bmw forums.

 

Agreed on both counts! While we removed the X1 from consideration right away due to lack of a manual transmission, my wife and I agreed that the F60 was still the better looking vehicle. X1 is nice but fairly generic looking. We prefer the more unique look of the F60.

 

Agreed as well. I priced out a similarly spec'd X1 (for giggles) and it was like $6k more than the Countryman. Even pricing aside, I still would rather have the Countryman. It's good looking, has a manual and *I* liked the way it drove... To me, it was still pretty comparable to our R60!

 

While I also compared the Countryman vs X1, definitely preferred the Countryman. In the X1 the base seats lacked support and the sport seats seemed too confining. What I disliked about the Countryman is that they de-tuned the the 2.0L turbo to 189hp...apparently so they could bring it back up to the X1 level for the JCW. Grrrrrr!