Photo: SB Medien
It’s not the first time we have a close encounter with the upcoming MINI Countryman but it is the first spotting of the car playing hard in the heavy snow near the Arctic Circle. That’s right, our spy photographers caught up with a prototype during hard winter testing and we simply had to share the shots with you.
It would seem like the drivers were given express orders to put the car through its paces and see how the new engines and chassis can handle the big size of the crossover. And yes, this is the biggest MINI ever made and that has to be taken into consideration.
The original Countryman was launched back in 2010 and received a mild facelift just last year. That gives us an idea of when the new model will come which we expect it’s going to be somewhere in 2016 as a 2017 model.
By then, the current model will be the last one in MINI’s line-up that's still using older engines and the old platform. That’s, of course, if BMW doesn’t decide to speed things up to save some money.
The thing is, the UKL platform will be used to underpin all the British cars done under BMW’s umbrella and some wearing the blue and white roundel as well, including the 2 Series Active Tourer and the X1.
Since it allows the company to cut considerable costs using the same underpinnings and engines on a variety of models, the Countryman could get the new tech sooner than expected as keeping the old production lines running could raise costs.
Nevertheless, the spotting of the car performing hardcore tests in the Scandinavian Peninsula is a good sign for fans of the model since MINI plans to drop the underachieving models from its line-up.
That means that the Coupe, Roadster and Paceman (that shares its underpinnings with the Countryman) will be gone soon, leaving the Oxford-based company with a core offering of models that should perform better.
In the future we’ll only be able to count on the 3-door and 5-door hardtop models, the convertible MINI, Clubman and Countryman, a grand total of 5 ‘superheroes’ as Peter Schwarzenbauer calls them.
Unfortunately, we can’t offer any additional details surrounding the design as the car seems to be in its early stages of testing but rest assured that it will still be recognizable as a MINI. ‘Evolution’ seems to be the word to use here.
The original Countryman was launched back in 2010 and received a mild facelift just last year. That gives us an idea of when the new model will come which we expect it’s going to be somewhere in 2016 as a 2017 model.
By then, the current model will be the last one in MINI’s line-up that's still using older engines and the old platform. That’s, of course, if BMW doesn’t decide to speed things up to save some money.
The thing is, the UKL platform will be used to underpin all the British cars done under BMW’s umbrella and some wearing the blue and white roundel as well, including the 2 Series Active Tourer and the X1.
Since it allows the company to cut considerable costs using the same underpinnings and engines on a variety of models, the Countryman could get the new tech sooner than expected as keeping the old production lines running could raise costs.
Nevertheless, the spotting of the car performing hardcore tests in the Scandinavian Peninsula is a good sign for fans of the model since MINI plans to drop the underachieving models from its line-up.
That means that the Coupe, Roadster and Paceman (that shares its underpinnings with the Countryman) will be gone soon, leaving the Oxford-based company with a core offering of models that should perform better.
In the future we’ll only be able to count on the 3-door and 5-door hardtop models, the convertible MINI, Clubman and Countryman, a grand total of 5 ‘superheroes’ as Peter Schwarzenbauer calls them.
Unfortunately, we can’t offer any additional details surrounding the design as the car seems to be in its early stages of testing but rest assured that it will still be recognizable as a MINI. ‘Evolution’ seems to be the word to use here.
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