Unpretentious Style With A Cheery Punch

Photography by Jake Hoare

My earliest memories of a car are my mum’s bright orange MINI. In the days before child seats the kids would rattle around in the back without a care. My eldest sister sat her driving test in that car. In those days it was ‘one-and-done’, a quick test and you had your full license at 15 years of age. She picked me up from school that same day – the first time I’d been scared in a car, but we made it home. 

MINI changed a lot in the intervening years, including moving to the stable ownership of BMW. Updating a classic is hard. When do you look to your legacy, when do you set a new future? This latest MINI is special – nothing else looks like it – except another MINI. Put aside the fabulous paint job and that unique shape. It’s a car that makes you smile when you see it, and beam when you drive it. You can no longer hide the MINI’s BMW underpinnings, with a steering wheel and control switches lifted from the parent company’s range, as well as electronics, handling dynamics, and many great things. Still, this car has managed to keep a ‘Charismatic Simplicity’ with a distinct character that winks at you and whispers “MINI” everywhere you look. The round motif has been retained and extended, with rounded oblongs appearing for mirrors and the like.

The interior is unique, with a dash made from recycled materials into a functional, tactile material. The seats also use recycled components, and in fact a substantial percentage of the interior has come from reused materials. You wouldn’t know it; they’ve just chosen great quality materials that happen to have a lighter impact on the planet. Door handles and vents include a new chrome finish, handsome yet environmentally gentle.  A full 95% of the interior can be recycled, and the battery is removable also for future recycling. There are many adorable details in this top-of-the-line ‘Favoured’ model, including a huge opening panoramic sunroof and too many features to list.

This 2024 MINI Countryman All4 John Cooper Works – Favoured (to give it the full title) surprises in many ways. Very much MINI, yet it gives you more space than you expect, more power than you thought, and delivers oodles of fun-factor. The main display is like nothing else I’ve ever seen. A huge round main dial offers a logical and highly interactive experience. It provides the best Apple CarPlay / Android Auto implementation I have seen – you don’t feel you are moving from one system to another. Icons from your phone hover over the selectable wallpaper. And say “Hey MINI”  and a cutesy Avatar pops into the screen and helps you manage your car.  It might sound silly but I did not get sick of it, it was like my little friend hiding there to help. The seats are excellent: Comfortable, supportive, vegan-friendly, 100% leather-free. The back seat is spacious, and being a four-door car makes access easy. This car has a “do anything, go anywhere” feel – while it’s not an off-roader, it has the safety and practicality of four-wheel drive.

The JCW or John Cooper Works version of any MINI is always meant to be a bit mental, fiery, and performance-oriented, and this is exactly that. Yes, it’s got the layout of (dare I say), a medium-sized family car and the capacity to match, yet it’s packing firepower. The engine is a 2.0-litre, 221 kW / 400 Nm unit, delivering 100kph in 5.4 s, but ignore all that; this is a MINI, and it goes like a stylish little bat out of hell. I took it through urban, rural and highway – and in all situations, it’s smile-inducing; cornering hard and gobbling up the straights. The steering is taut and precise, and the handling is excellent.

It’s a tough road for car manufacturers if you want to make an engaging yet efficient car. MINI straddles that with a green mode for efficiency, but most entertainingly, a go-kart mode that hollers at you when engaged, announcing you are in for a good time. The driver assistance features are great, and not too intrusive. I predominantly left them on, apart from when I was on the twisty roads. Let’s highlight the excellent braking. It’s no surprise when you look inside the 20-inch (!!) wheels. Behold some of the largest brake discs you’ll ever see on a car of this size; they look like they belong on a BMW M2. You’ve never seen a MINI with wheels this big, but they integrate well visually and dynamically. Packing an unpretentious style with a cheery punch, the JCW Countryman is a pleasure to drive. MINI carries a cache that transcends buyer personas or any of that; carrying legacy and modernity it appeals to all.

Test drive the 2024 MINI Countryman All4 John Cooper Works – Favoured today at Auckland MINI Garage and East Auckland MINI Garage.

East Auckland MINI Garage, 8 Beale Place, East Tamaki, Auckland 2013

Auckland MINI Garage, 381-383 Broadway Newmarket, Auckland 1051