[teleski]

My wifes car is a Clubman, base and automatic. Fun car to drive. I had a Countryman as a loaner for two days while they did the annual fix and replace all of the broken parts (keep that in mind for any Mini!) Frankly this is a poorly designed car. The Mini coupe and Clubman are properly powered (even the base engine) and balanced. This beast has the same size engine, and mostly the same suspension, but the car is much higher and weighs more. I even had the turbocharged S version and it was still underpowered with terrible turbo lag. I was surprised by that as my friends Mini S coupe is a blast. The Countryman is just a terrible drive in my experience. SoCal is the largest Mini market in the world and you hardly see any of these, and for good reason.

My DD is an Outback. If I didn't need as much space for ski trips with a family of four, I would definitely have gone with the Impreza hatchback, and possibly the WRX version. Much better car than the Countryman.