Let’s Talk about Just How Big the New Countryman Is

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Yes it’s a big boy. But how does it actually weight and how does that compare to the previous generation Countryman? Ahead of getting behind the wheel next month, we wanted to take a deeper look at the Countryman’s size and weight and see just how much its changes over the generations.

The new Countryman has grown in every dimension over the previous generations. But we’ve seen this before. The F60 Countryman debuted in 2017 and looked massive in comparison. It grew 8″ in length and offered much more legroom (especially in the rear) and a huge increase in luggage space. The new Countryman has grown almost 50% less than the F60 grew over the R60 yet it seems massive, why? Some of that is surely down to it being a new car, a new shape and a larger MINI than we’ve ever seen before.

	R60 Countryman Cooper (’10-’16)	F60 Countryman Cooper (’17-’23)	U25 Countryman C (’24-’32)
Length	4097 mm / 161.3 in	4298 mm / 169.2 in	4429 mm / 174.37 in
Height	1562 mm / 61.5 in	1557 mm / 61.3 in	1613 mm / 63.5 in
Wheelbase	2596 mm / 102.2 in	2670 mm / 105.1 in	2670 mm / 105.11 in
Weight	3,020 lbs	3,318 lbs	3,571 lbs

Having spend a fair amount of time in the new U25 Countryman we’ve found a car that noticeably bigger on both the outside as well as inside. There’s a touch more legroom, elbow room and noticeably more luggage space in the back. You can see in the numbers above where that space comes from. The biggest change is the length and a lot of that is in the rear luggage area which has grown considerably.

The new Countryman and Its Weight

When we looked at the new Countryman’s technical specifications for the first time, thing that jumped out to us was the curb weight. It’s up as we anticipated but (also as we predicted) not as much as you’d think given the size dan equipment increase. For instance the F60 2023 JCW Countryman weighs 3,688 lbs. Compare that to the all new U25 JCW Countryman at 3,825 lbs and you have only a 137 lbs difference. We say only because there was a lot of us who assumed it would be quite a bit higher. This is likely due to the various weight savings measures that BMW built into the new FAAR platform including extensive use of aluminum and lighter steel.

Countryman Model	Countryman E (EV)	Countryman SE (EV)	Countryman C (ICE)	Countryman S (ICE)	JCW (ICE)
Power	204 hp	313 hp	167 hp	241 hp	300 hp
Torque	TBD	TBD	206 lb	295 lb	295 lb
Transmission	1 Speed	1 Speed	7 speed DCT	7 speed DCT	7 speed DCT
Drivetrain	front-wheel	all-wheel	front-wheel	all-wheel	all-wheel
Powertrain type	electric	electric	petrol	petrol	petrol
WLTP l/100 km	N/A	N/A	40.9 – 46.3	TBD	34 – 36.2
Length (mm/inches)	4444 / 175	4444 / 175	4444 / 175	4444 / 175	4444 / 175
Width (mm/inches)	1843 / 73	1843 / 73	1843 / 73	1843 / 73	1843 / 73
Height (mm)	TBD	TBD	1661 / 65	TBD	1665 / 66
Wheelbase (mm)	2069 / 81	2069 / 81	2069 / 81	2069 / 81	2069 / 81
Curb weight (LBS)	TBD	TBD	3,571 lbs	TBD	3,825 lbs
Fuel Capacity L/Gallons	N/A	N/A	45 / 11.8	54 / 14.3	54 / 14.3
Luggage capacity (liters)	TBD	TBD	450 – 1450 L	TBD	505 – 1530 L

European Specs. MINI USA has different output numbers across the board.

The new Countryman next to a true heavy weight – the BMW X7

But this new, larger Countryman is still the largest and heaviest MINI ever. Perhaps MINI has followed BMW’s lead and engineered the new Countryman in a way that hides that weight and produces an F60 like driving experience? We won’t know the answer until next month when we get behind the wheel. But until then we can’t help but wonder just how MINI this new Countryman will feel.

What do you think? Has the Countryman grown to the right size or is the F60 (or R60) your ideal MINI crossover?

The post Let’s Talk about Just How Big the New Countryman Is appeared first on MotoringFile.

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