2025 Mini Countryman S: What's It Like to Live With?

• We're welcoming a Mini Countryman S to our One-Year Road Test fleet.
• It's green over brown, has some interesting exterior styling and costs almost $45,000. 
• Is it worth it? Is this a good SUV? Does it retain any of Mini's old soul? We're going to find out.

What did we get?

Our British Racing Green IV Countryman S — with the excellent Vescin Vintage Brown leather interior — comes to us pretty much fully loaded. The standard 2.0-liter turbocharged engine makes 241 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque in S models, and all Countrymans (Countrymen?) have all-wheel drive and route power through a dual-clutch automatic gearbox. 

Our Mini also gets a few extra packages. The first is the Iconic package, which adds an interior camera, tinted rear windows, power front seats and the Harman/Kardon sound system for a pretty steep $3,200. The next is the Favored Style pack, which adds some 20-inch wheels, a body-colored roof and a dark headliner for a much more reasonable $600. Lastly, the Comfort Plus package adds keyless access, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, a wireless charging pad and (most importantly) Mini's Active Driving Assistant Professional, which allows for hands-free, eyes-on driving at speeds up to 40 mph — all for $900. 

All told, the price for our big Mini is $44,295, including destination. Mini loaned us this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation. 

Why did we get it? 

We have a habit of taking on Minis here at Edmunds. Not too long ago we added a similarly green Mini Cooper S to our garage. A lot more of Mini's legacy rode on the shoulders of that car because of its more traditional size and shape, and frankly, there was only the faintest whiff of that old magic in that car's bones. But the question here is largely the same. Does Mini still have the juice? 

The entire lineup has been reborn since then — all Cooper and Countryman models are new. So does the Countryman offer an exciting, more whimsical alternative to the bland malaise of two-row crossovers you see everywhere? Is it the antidote to the relentless slog of boring, uninspired, bad-to-drive, not-so-cute utes that have taken over our roads? A year of evaluation is going to help us figure out that and much, much more. 

What's happened so far? 

We've spent a lot of time behind the wheel of our Mini already. A round-trip drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back revealed a lot about its credentials as a long-distance cruiser (and just how fuel-efficient it can be). We also already need to take it in for a service. Look for updates about all that (and more) in the coming months. Something tells us it's going to be an interesting year. 

Photos by Keith Buglewicz