The third generation Mini Countryman has been out for a couple of years now, but this will be my first time living with one. Mini as a brand has always been what I would consider an “alternative” brand. They’ve always been quirky and arguably have been in their own segment, for the person that wants something different compared to the traditional car or SUV. Mini has been leaning heavily into that image and have been really successful with it, and this 2026 Mini Countryman S, is evidence of that.
Design notes
My first impressions of the vehicle was how gorgeous both the interior and exterior is, and following tradition it's really like nothing else out there. Keeping its iconic center focused stack. It really feels “Mini” here and it's obvious they haven't lost their heritage after all these years.
The partially textile interior is unique and honestly feels premium and comforting, like a cozy warm home, despite fabrics being traditionally reserved for more economy cars; their creative use of it elevates it.
The only thing I'd be worried about is the longevity of the textiles and the potential difficulty to keep it all dust free and clean. The brown on blue colorway, especially accentuated with the textile gradient looks great.
The interior ambient lighting is one of the most unique applications I've ever seen; instead of a lightbar that most manufacturers do, they project rather interesting patterns and design onto the dashboard via projectors built behind the infotainment screen. The seatbelt-like third spoke is just about the most unique steering wheel design feature I’ve seen.
The heads up display being its own separate motorized glass I think is one of the coolest features, not only does it make it feel like something straight out of a fighter jet, but it also gives your eyes a target to look at rather than trying to focus on your windshield, and I prefer it that way. It's just a really nice place to be, and when we spend so much time commuting you want to be in an interior that's nice to be. Rear seat space is better than you'd think for something that's supposed to be miniature, and the same goes for the cargo space.
The exterior follows a similar design language with the champagne gold accents just to make all the design features of the Countryman stand out.
Driving Impressions
How is it to drive? For a compact SUV, I’ve had a blast. I think it's the most tossable SUV I’ve driven. With 241 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque, the power delivery is confident and the transmission that directs it is precise. Despite weighing close to 3800lbs, it hides its weight really really well.
I honestly thought it was closer to 3300lbs until I looked it up. The brakes feel great and very well balanced, not twitchy or over-boosted at all. However that said, what disappointed me the most about the drive is the lack of paddle shifters.
I think it's an absolute sin to have a vehicle as fun and as tossable as this that lacks a feature that a lot of economy vehicles include as standard in the modern landscape, especially since it's equipped with a rather responsive 7 speed dual-clutch transmission that would be fun to dictate manually.
Driving tech
The Advanced Driver Assistance package thoroughly impressed me. On my first day with the Countryman, I encountered a properly nasty rainstorm on my drive home, and surprisingly it was still able to see and have steering assist enabled even when my own visibility was less than 5 meters.
Driving Assist Plus (Mini/BMW-speak for adaptive cruise control) worked well and I’ve had no complaints with it in the slog of Highway 401’s peak rush hour traffic. The driving “experiences” are Mini’s way to be quirky and fun, however I found them rather gimmicky, especially since they only stay in an experience of your choosing per key cycle, and switching to your preferred “experience” is a little tedious. I appreciate having a physical switch for it, but I don’t love having to switch through every mode every time.
I found the only “experiences” worth driving in were “Go-kart” mode and “Green”. “Go-kart” mode enhances throttle response and gives you an athletic visual theme with all the vehicle info you’d want, and an RPM gauge that’s normally missing. It's essentially Sport mode in any other car, with Mini flair. What Mini (and BMW, for that matter) do really well is the economy mode.
My biggest complaint with most vehicles with eco modes is that they’re not at all fun to drive in, however Mini’s Eco-coach genuinely makes driving in it fun, coaching you to make a game out of driving efficiently; I was able to coax an impressive average fuel use of 6.4L/100km out of it. Hypermiling can be fun if done right, especially if the system rewards you for it, and that's one function that’s done exceptionally well here.
Infotainment
What I didn't like about the Countryman is this generation's Mini OS. While this complaint really only pertains to the initial setup. I found the UI a little bloated, hard to navigate, and too big and bubbly to be effectively usable. It's like someone turned all the accessibility settings on a phone to max. My initial setup, especially coming from someone with a former IT background, took me an hour and a half to go through all the menu items, and understand what they do while parked.
While I understand the general public wouldn’t go as far and as in depth as what I would go through, it's still super easy to get lost in the UI, with no clear back or forward buttons, and no real indication on what “page” or “tile” you're on. The lack of physical climate controls never really bothered me personally, especially since auto climate controls have become standard with most vehicles, all you really need is temperature controls.
Another annoyance I’ve found is using Android Auto, while the fact that it projects as a rather small square into the infotainment screen doesn’t bother me, what does is that the background it chooses is the default “core” blue background, rather than whatever mode you're in, so it ruins whatever “experience” you choose, especially if you rely on Android Auto to begin with.
I can’t speak for Carplay, but I've heard the implementation is better. This can be worked around if you go back into the home screen and choose the navigation card with maps enabled.
The most frustrating thing I’ve encountered is that a lot of convenience features are locked behind an account wall. Seems like every modern vehicle now forces you to make an account with them just to use basic convenience features.
Tell me why being able to fold the mirrors in when locking and unlocking the car is now greyed out unless you log in to “mini-ID”. We’ve done it for years without accounts, on a per key basis. So what's the real reason except data collection on your driving habits? This is the worst thing about modern vehicles I find, and it's something that needs to be pointed out and called out as we shouldn’t accept this as the new normal, but I digress. It doesn’t spoil an otherwise excellent driving little vehicle.
Money & Wrap it up
The Mini Countryman S I think is a rather unique vehicle, I find that it's a great alternative to the average bloated SUV for what it is. I’ve personally enjoyed my time with it and can overlook most of its minor grievances. For it's sticker price of $54,340, this 2026 Mini Countryman S offers a decent dose of practicality and a generous amount of unique and boutique charm, plus some very impressive driving tech. It's a great vehicle overall and stands out as a great driving compact SUV, because at the end of the day, there's really nothing else quite like a Mini.
