Mini Countryman 2016

Mini Countryman 2016 Q&As

Check out real-world situations relating to the Mini Countryman here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• What is the towing capacity of a 2018 Mini Countryman?

  Towing capacities for hybrid vehicles has been a bit of an issue for Australian car buyers for a while now and remains one of the biggest hurdles to ownership of this type of technology. There’s also a fair bit of misinformation around, too, including the fact that hybrids can’t tow at all. That’s simply not true for some manufacturers, but in this case, it’s a fact.

  While Mini specifies a 1500kg towing limited (with a braked trailer) for its Countryman range, there are exceptions. In fact, Mini does not specify a towing limit for two variants of the Countryman; the sporty John Cooper Works version and, sadly, the plug-in hybrid variant. In fact, there’s not even a factory-option tow-bar listed for those variants, which is another way of saying they’re not designed for towing at all. You may need to look elsewhere.

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• Which is the biggest Mini Cooper?

  In terms of physical size the five-door Mini Countryman is the largest vehicle in the current Mini fleet.

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• 2014 Mini Countryman reliability

  You’re looking at a relatively new model so the reliability should be fine, and the maintenance costs should be ok if you use a specialist independent mechanic instead of a dealer.

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• Countryman run flat tyres

  What he bought is in effect a used car, not a new one, so it might vary from the specifications of a new car. In this case it seems that for some reason the run-flat tyres have been switched for regular tyres. I might speculate that as it was a demo vehicle the salespeople demonstrating it might have wanted a softer ride to impress potential buyers than the ride it would have if it were on the run-flats. But that’s me being cynical. Your son should go back to the dealer personally and talk to them face-to-face about his issue and request that they either replace the damaged tyre and provide him with a spare, or fit run-flat tyres as he believes it would have had. The alternative is to carry a can of pump-up foam in the car, which would get him out of trouble in the case of a puncture.

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