Escape to the Country (Man) Part II
Discussion
Haven’t seen anything on the U25 Countryman and while it’s not very pistonheads thought I’d document how we are getting on with it as it’s a fairly new shape.
Winding the clock back before we begin. With the arrival of Mini-Exocet and my wife changing jobs, which meant handing the keys back to the a leased XC40 T5 Recharge in October 2023 we were in the marker for a stop gap.
Prior to the Volvo she’d enjoyed a couple of mini hatches a couple of emails saw us order from factory a F60 Countryman Cooper Exclusive. It was an attractive spec car in sage green with malt brown leather interior. It fulfilled the role of a family car well, although with Mini-Exocet getting bigger her feet were starting to reach the back of front seats and the boot wasn’t quite big enough for all the required paraphernalia. The 1.5 engine was also fairly sluggish, lots of noise but no real action which was noticeable on overtakes.
Fast forward to the middle of November this year and I have a look at the settlement figure and realise, somewhat surprisingly we are in a nearly positive equity position. I don’t think anything more of it but receive an email from the supplying dealer asking if there’s anything they can do. A couple of emails back and fourth and they’ve got a U25 Countryman Cooper S All4 exclusive just leaving the factory. Mrs Exocet liked the look of the spec, we organised a test drove at our local dealer.
Initial thoughts; much bigger (the irony of calling it a mini) build quality is excellent, lots of tech (I’m not sure on it but home command wasn’t phased) and most importantly plenty of room for mini-exocet.
Signed on the dotted line with a cost to change of £500 - a complete no brainer. Finished in midnight black II, with ink blue interior with 19” kaleido spoke alloys and silvery/bronze trim it looks smart.
Winding the clock back before we begin. With the arrival of Mini-Exocet and my wife changing jobs, which meant handing the keys back to the a leased XC40 T5 Recharge in October 2023 we were in the marker for a stop gap.
Prior to the Volvo she’d enjoyed a couple of mini hatches a couple of emails saw us order from factory a F60 Countryman Cooper Exclusive. It was an attractive spec car in sage green with malt brown leather interior. It fulfilled the role of a family car well, although with Mini-Exocet getting bigger her feet were starting to reach the back of front seats and the boot wasn’t quite big enough for all the required paraphernalia. The 1.5 engine was also fairly sluggish, lots of noise but no real action which was noticeable on overtakes.
Fast forward to the middle of November this year and I have a look at the settlement figure and realise, somewhat surprisingly we are in a nearly positive equity position. I don’t think anything more of it but receive an email from the supplying dealer asking if there’s anything they can do. A couple of emails back and fourth and they’ve got a U25 Countryman Cooper S All4 exclusive just leaving the factory. Mrs Exocet liked the look of the spec, we organised a test drove at our local dealer.
Initial thoughts; much bigger (the irony of calling it a mini) build quality is excellent, lots of tech (I’m not sure on it but home command wasn’t phased) and most importantly plenty of room for mini-exocet.
Signed on the dotted line with a cost to change of £500 - a complete no brainer. Finished in midnight black II, with ink blue interior with 19” kaleido spoke alloys and silvery/bronze trim it looks smart.
Edited by Exocet_90 on Sunday 17th November 13:10
Picked the car up on the 31st October and Mrs Exocet has covered just over a 1,000 miles, a couple of work trips and a funeral, earning its name as a Countryman.
Longest journey was 5 hours, decent MPG and only complaint so far has been the that the seat bolster aren’t changeable. Most functions can be controlled by the voice command of “hey mini” which seems to work most of the time.
I’ve driven the car a couple of times, circa 75 miles. It drives nicely, it’s got quite a bit of presence (unsurprisingly), the “experiences” are a bit gimmicky but in go-kart you forget the size of the car and it’s very similar to the F40 M135i that’s also in the Exocet fleet.
One thing, surprisingly, the car didn’t come with was rear half tints. This is in the level 2 pack I believe. I’ve got global tints coming out on Friday to do the rear windows.
Longest journey was 5 hours, decent MPG and only complaint so far has been the that the seat bolster aren’t changeable. Most functions can be controlled by the voice command of “hey mini” which seems to work most of the time.
I’ve driven the car a couple of times, circa 75 miles. It drives nicely, it’s got quite a bit of presence (unsurprisingly), the “experiences” are a bit gimmicky but in go-kart you forget the size of the car and it’s very similar to the F40 M135i that’s also in the Exocet fleet.
One thing, surprisingly, the car didn’t come with was rear half tints. This is in the level 2 pack I believe. I’ve got global tints coming out on Friday to do the rear windows.
Our neighbour had one of these as a courtesy car for most of last week. I just couldn’t get over the sheer size of the thing - like you said they’re not very “mini” anymore, are they? It was almost as big as their Evoque!
It’s certainly not my cup of tea but I hope it serves you well!
It’s certainly not my cup of tea but I hope it serves you well!
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