2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition review: Value, but at what cost?

Mini’s Oxford trims are meant to supply excellent worth for new automobile customers without the need of breaking the bank. New for 2021, the Mini Countryman Oxford Edition wraps those people endeavours in a compact SUV shell, supplying purchasers added place without the need of a major footprint. Issues is, when you strip absent the fripperies that Mini shoehorns into its far more high priced variants and start out evaluating it to the levels of competition, what stays isn’t going to exactly come to feel like a excellent worth.

The 2021 Mini Countryman is a quirky very little factor. In a entire world of ever-sharpening creases and intense styling, the Mini’s Hardtop-but-stung-by-a-bee curvature delivers a friendlier aesthetic alternative. The headlights are anime-character large and the Union Jack layout in the taillights is fun. The Oxford Edition rides on 18-inch wheels (the foundation model gets 17s), earning the complete shebang appear a very little significantly less entry-level than it is.

Inside, the Countryman’s aesthetics again individual it from the pack, but at the exact same time, it feels a very little meh for a automobile carrying a $thirty,000 value tag. None of the softer plastics come to feel especially quality, but they do a excellent career at finding up and keeping onto far more dust than more difficult products generally would. The huge swath of trim across the middle layer of the dashboard appears amazing on far more high priced variants, but the Oxford’s shiny gray piece appears kind of boring and low-cost. It really is superior than piano black, although, simply because this just one at minimum hides fingerprints superior. Then there is certainly the aviation-fashion switchgear, which will for good keep on being the most worthwhile toggles to flip in the vehicle field.

2021 Mini Countryman Oxford Edition has a refreshing, pleasant encounter

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Despite its compact form factor, the Countryman is decently useful. The tray in advance of the cup holders is fantastic for stashing a mobile phone or a mask, even though an exposed tray less than the armrest is sizable enough for a compact purse. Visibility is solid, way too, thanks to tall glass and styling that isn’t going to sacrifice significantly for an desirable roofline. The Countryman’s condition also usually means there is certainly ample interior place for adults across each rows.

The 2021 Mini Countryman is not without the need of its disadvantages, although. The cargo region has a small load ground, which is awesome, but its in general capability of seventeen.six cubic toes driving the 2nd row lags driving just about every possible competitor, from quality choices like the Volvo XC40 (20.7 cu. ft.) to mass-current market subcompacts like the Kia Soul (24.2) and Hyundai Kona (19.2). The solitary USB-A port up entrance smashes your cable in opposition to whatever’s in the cup holders. The interior door handles are the opposite of ergonomic, a attribute I have disliked from the starting. Probably most galling, although, is the 2nd-row heart armrest, which isn’t going to exist without the need of a $850 Convenience Deal that isn’t really even available on the foundation trim. 

BMW’s perseverance to squeeze every milliliter of blood from the stones that are its customers’ wallets extends to the Mini Countryman’s in-automobile tech. As a younger, strapping new-automobile buyer, possibly you have heard of these very little factors named Apple CarPlay and Android Car. Probably you have found that they’re now conventional tools in a staggering amount of new cars across the socioeconomic spectrum. When the Oxford Edition does present an 8.8-inch touchscreen display that is much larger than the conventional six.five-inch getup, you can’t get it with Apple CarPlay, Android Car or navigation. It’s going to continue to engage in tunes from your app of option by means of USB or Bluetooth, but if you happen to be driving somewhere unfamiliar, you happen to be trapped hoping to stare at a very small Google Maps display screen down in the cup holder. Thinking of you get CarPlay conventional in a Chevrolet Spark, Mini’s decision to lock worth-looking for purchasers out of a generally vital technological inclusion is, frankly, stupid and pointless confident, it can be available on other trims, which can make the omission in this article come to feel totally unnecessary. The huge, LED-bedecked round bezel about the display screen can make it hard to press the very small icons alongside the touchscreen’s edges, but generally, this iteration of BMW’s iDrive program is fine.

Considering that the Oxford Edition is meant as a no-haggle, what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of trim, protection programs are constrained to the most noteworthy ones. This Countryman comes conventional with ahead-collision warning, computerized crisis braking and rear parking sensors. If you want access to adaptive cruise command, a head-up display or self-parking support, you can have to move to a far more high priced trim and throw a $1,250 package deal into the blend. If you happen to be on the lookout for lane-departure warning, lane-retaining support or blind-location checking, you can have to appear at a different automobile totally.

That leaves us with the driving knowledge. Guess what? That’s underwhelming, way too. The Countryman Oxford’s sole motor featuring is the foundation 1.five-liter inline-3 that generates 134 horsepower and 162 pound-toes of torque. It’s going to produce enough oomph to dart by means of city traffic with ease, but it feels lifeless underneath the belt in broader-open suburban and exurban settings. Regularly sounding as if it can be performing less than duress, this three-banger does not like the freeway, and even some thing as uncomplicated as accelerating from 70 to 80 mph necessitates organizing. The problem is dire even on paper, with my all-wheel-drive tester set to achieve sixty mph in a leisurely nine.six seconds.

The 7-pace dual-clutch transmission is at its ideal when it isn’t going to have to have to transform gears pushing off from a stoplight feels clunky, deceleration incurs small-pace driveline vibrations and the cease-start out procedure is so annoyingly evident that I am ready to shell out the added fuel revenue to retain it off completely. It really is not very effective, possibly, featuring just 23 miles for every gallon town and 32 mpg freeway as it attempts to shove about 3,three hundred-as well as pounds with four pushed wheels. Oh, and it necessitates quality fuel.

Perhaps the journey is Okay? Nah, fam. In its have internet site duplicate, Mini refers to the Oxford Edition’s mounted suspension as “tremendous-tight,” which is accurate to the advantage of no one. The Countryman is perennially stiff, transferring all way of bumps and humps immediately to the occupants’ skeletons, and in city regions where by the inline-3 thrives, that usually means the journey will practically usually be unpleasant. Positive, its handling is flat as a pancake, which could make for some thrilling situations on curvy roadways, but not when an motor this weak has to move this significantly mass with a transmission that is loath to act with any diploma of haste.

I could forgive a ton of this if the 2021 Countryman Oxford basically presented a solid worth, but BMW’s impact bleeds into the value, way too. Such as $850 in place rates, my all-wheel-drive tester rings in at $29,350, which I come to feel is about $four,000 way too significant given what you can’t get. Sure, there is some worth inherent in some of the conventional tools, which includes computerized local weather command, heated entrance seats and the much larger touchscreen, but when you line this wannabe-quality featuring up in opposition to mass-current market subcompact rivals like the Hyundai Kona or Mazda CX-thirty, it can be hard to recommend the Mini when its rivals present so significantly far more. Somewhat far more high priced foundation-trim variants of the Mercedes-Benz GLA-Course and Volvo XC40 come to feel considerably far more fully baked, way too, even if the window sticker asks a little bit far more from your paycheck.

That’s the trouble with the 2021 Mini Countryman. Even in its Oxford Edition trim, hoping to stand out from the crowd isn’t really enough to outweigh an undermotivated powertrain and bizarre attribute packaging with some very noteworthy omissions. If you basically must worm your way into the BMW life style before possessing the monetary usually means to place a Roundel in your garage, the Countryman will provide its mission, but when you acquire a range of other variables (and cars) into account, its luster fades speedily.