2012 MINI Cooper Countryman Overview Change Vehicle

This 2012 Mini Cooper Countryman review explains changes for the model year, provides a summary of the 2012 Cooper Countryman, and includes Mini Cooper Countryman safety, reliability, and fuel economy ratings.

Remember when enterprising (bored) young people with too much time on their hands and unrestricted access to blow torches and welding equipment would slap a four-wheel-drive SUV chassis under a car body and then terrorize the roads with the resulting hand-built sport-ute? The four-door Mini Countryman crossover SUV is kinda like that, but much more sophisticated.

Mini has a handful of changes in store for the 2012 Cooper Countryman. Perhaps most important, a rear bench seat option becomes available, bringing passenger capacity to five. Option package contents are shuffled around, booting the available dual-panel sunroof onto the a la carte menu. A new Technology Package groups Mini Connected Bluetooth and smartphone integration with Harmon/Kardon premium audio, parking sensors, and the high-tech center armrest option. Mini also offers a new auto-dimming rearview mirror with an integrated compass for the Countryman, as well as a smoked headlight housing treatment.

Buying a 2012 Mini Cooper Countryman is easy, yet hard. Easy, because there are only three models from which to select, and they’re all equipped with the same basic feature set. Hard, because Mini offers a veritable blizzard of options and packages, colors, interiors, cabin trimmings, and wheels. Check out the Cooper Countryman configuration tool on the Mini website, and you’ll see what we mean.

In the meantime, Vehix will sum things up a bit. There’s a Cooper Countryman, a Cooper S Countryman, and a Cooper S Countryman ALL4 that essentially adds all-wheel drive to the Cooper S Countryman.

All Countrymans have a manual transmission, air conditioning with a climate-controlled glovebox, power windows with one-touch operation, power door locks with remote keyless entry, power side mirrors, a tilt-and-telescopic leather-wrapped multi-function sport steering wheel, cruise control, and floor mats. You start the engine by pushing a button, and music is piped into the cabin through a six-speaker stereo with HD Radio, satellite radio, an auxiliary audio input jack, and for buyers over the age of 40, a CD player. The Countryman is a four-seater with independent back seats and front seats with manual height adjustment, and is equipped with leatherette upholstery, stainless steel pedals, floor mats, map and footwell lighting, ambient cabin lighting, LED waterfall lighting, and a trip computer. Base models have chrome grille trim and 17-inch split-spoke wheels.

The Cooper S Countryman comes with a turbocharged engine that gives this little crossover thingamajig the power necessary to get the hell out of its own way in traffic. You should only consider this model – and for this reason. Additionally, if you want the ALL4 all-wheel-drive system, it’s only available on the Cooper S Countryman. The black mesh grille, brake cooling ducts, dual tailpipe outlets, fog lights, and sport seats are ancillary to the equation.

Options are grouped into packages or offered individually. The Cold Weather Package adds heated side mirrors and front seats; the Sport Package includes Xenon headlights and 18-inch wheels; the Premium Package provides automatic climate control, Comfort Access keyless entry and ignition, automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, and some other stuff; and the Technology Package installs Mini Connected with Bluetooth calling and music streaming, a Harmon/Kardon audio system, and parking sensors.

Additionally, Mini offers an automatic transmission, leather, a dual-panel glass sunroof, a navigation system, a sport suspension, adaptive headlamps, and a universal garage door opener on the Countryman. As with any Mini, there are numerous extra-cost paint, trim, and wheel choices which allow buyers to create a customized Cooper Countryman all their own.

The standard Cooper Countryman is powered – and we use that term loosely – by a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine mustering all of 121 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 118 pound-feet of torque at 4,250 rpm. A six-speed manual gearbox is standard, and strongly recommended if you’re getting this version of the Countryman. The optional six-speed automatic is expensive, adds weight, and produces somnambulant acceleration.

The EPA estimates that this engine will provide 26 mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway (the automatic gets 25 mpg in the city). We think that is extraordinarily optimistic, considering that most owners are going to be revving it for all its worth just to keep up with Toyota Prii. Adding insult to injury, the engine requires premium fuel.

We think the Cooper S Countryman’s turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder ought to be standard equipment. It makes 181 horsepower at 5,500, but more importantly this engine serves up 177 lb-ft of torque everywhere in the powerband between 1,600 and 5,000 rpm. A six-speed manual gearbox or a six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters is available, as well as Mini’s ALL4 all-wheel-drive system. With front-wheel drive, the Cooper S Countryman’s fuel economy is identical to the anemic base engine. With ALL4, this model is rated to get 25-city/31-highway with the stick shift and 23-city/30-highway with the automatic. Premium is also required with this engine.

Every 2012 Mini Cooper Countryman is equipped with seven airbags (including a driver’s knee airbag), stability control, and four-wheel-disc antilock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution and Cornering Brake Control. The teensy tiny crossover also has a crash-sensor system that unlocks the doors, activates the hazard lights, turns on the cabin lights, and shuts off the supply of fuel to the engine in the event of an airbag deployment.

Optional safety-related features include automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, parking sensors, and adaptive Xenon headlights that swivel to help see around dark corners and curves.

If a crash is unavoidable, the Mini Cooper Countryman is a crashworthy conveyance, scoring a Top Safety Pick rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in its debut year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not crash-tested the Cooper Countryman.

As for reliability predictions, Consumer Reports thinks the Countryman will prove average in this regard. J.D. Power and Associates is slightly less enthusiastic on this front, or at least the market research firm was in 2011, when it assigned the car a slightly below average rating for predicted reliability.

All Mini Countryman models feature a Sport button that modifies the steering feel and adjusts the automatic transmission’s shift points for a more sporting drive.

Not sure how much that’s gonna help with the standard engine. Acceleration to 60 mph takes 9.8 seconds, and that’s with the manual gearbox. Select the automatic, a $1,250 option, and in exchange for your money you’ll get to 60 mph in a stunning 10.9 seconds. Stunning because the Countryman is so slow. Imagine what happens when you get aboard. Or some friends.

Weight is part of the problem here. The base Countryman with a manual gearbox weighs 2,954 pounds. Models with the automatic eclipse 3,000 pounds. With the automatic, each of the standard engine’s horses is responsible for 25 pounds of curb weight. Put another 600 pounds of people into a Countryman and you might as well get out and push. Especially on hills.

This is why the only Countryman you should be considering wears an “S” badge. The Cooper S Countryman weighs just a little bit more, but it’s turbocharged engine produces acceleration to 60 mph in seven seconds flat with the manual transmission (7.4 seconds with the automatic). Plus, turbocharged engines aren’t much affected by altitude the way a normally aspirated engine is. Trust us. Even if you don’t care about anything else that comes on the Cooper S Countryman, this is the one to buy.

Get the ALL4 model, and performance won’t suffer much. Acceleration to 60 takes 7.3 seconds when rowing your own gears, or 7.7 seconds with the automatic. Weight rises with the model, to as much as 3,252, but the Cooper S Countryman ALL4 has the best front-to-rear weight distribution of all models at 58.4/41.6.

Mini says the Countryman can hold 41.3 cubic-feet of cargo with the rear seat folded down.

The Mini Cooper Countryman was named the Most Appealing vehicle in its class by the people that own them, according to J.D. Power and Associates. They must have surveyed only those people who bought the Cooper S Countryman.

If we have any advice, it is to get the Cooper S Countryman. Seriously. If you want to know what it feels like to accelerate down a freeway entrance ramp in a standard Countryman with an automatic, get out of your car, start running, and keep going until you merge with traffic. Splat. Not even Usain Bolt could escape such a fate.

By Christian Wardlaw