Countryman C
| Photo Credit:
Anubhav Sharma
The luxury compact SUV segment in India has become a comfortable place to shop and a difficult one to choose from. The BMW X1, the Mercedes-Benz GLA and the Audi Q3 are all competent, all similarly proportioned, and all have almost the same feature lists. Mini, thankfully, has never worked that way. Since 1959, the brand has sold an idea first — a car that feels alive in your hands and looks like nothing else on the road — and it has stayed true to that philosophy even though the cars have grown in size. A big Mini sounds like an oxymoron, but it does have an audience and with the ‘made in India’ tag it has become relatively affordable.The Countryman C looks like a Mini still, but one that has been inflated rather than redesigned. The octagonal grille, the short overhangs, the upright glasshouse and the jet-black roof are all carried over from the small cars, but scaled up. Adaptive LED headlights and matrix LED tail-lights get three selectable signature modes, each with its own welcome and goodbye animation… more content for social-media natives. Nineteen-inch wheels add to the SUV cred and the two-tone alloys are standard, because there is only one trim. It’s a good strategy to have just one fully loaded variant.vintage vibesIf the exterior seems evolutionary, the interior is straight up revolutionary, especially if you are comparing it to its German trio of rivals. The dashboard and door panels are chrome-free and leather-free, finished in a two-tone recycled knitted textile that the ambient lighting and the display projections play across. The 240-mm circular OLED display is the centrepiece and it is brilliant, quick and iOS-like in the way it responds. There is no driver’s display at all, which takes some adjustment, though the standard head-up display covers most of what you need.Despite the screen’s size, the physical switches handle all the important stuff. The start button is like an old-school key (which I loved), the toggle bar below the screen handles gear selection, and another toggle takes you through the eight experience modes; ‘go-kart’ is my favourite. JCW sports seats in ‘vescin vintage brown’ are electrically adjustable with a massage function for the driver. The rear seats slide by 130 mm and recline up to 25 degrees, although space back there is not generous. The entire cabin looks designed, and not assembled, which is a win in today’s world.The 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine that powers the Countryman C is the same as the BMW X1 sDrive18i, but it makes 154 bhp and 24.5 kg-m, about 22 bhp more. It does not sound especially good, however it is among the more refined three-cylinders around. For city driving, the power feels adequate and the 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox is smooth at low speeds. For a heavier right foot, you might miss the paddle shifters, which incidentally the X1 gets. Ride quality is what you expect in a Mini, firm but decent. The 190 mm of ground clearance is quite useful, especially on Gurgaon roads and in the rains. Barring the GLA, while driving this feels smaller than everything it competes with. It never really comes across as an SUV, but always feels like a Mini, which is a good thing.At ₹47.5 lakh (ex-showroom), the Countryman C is not exactly an affordable fun-to-drive hatch nor is it the most engaging and powerful Mini on offer. But I don’t think most prospective buyers will miss either. What the Countryman C offers instead is individuality and a view on how legacy can be modernised. If you are tired of how similar everything has become, the Countryman definitely deserves a look.@TheMotorGramPublished on August 7, 2026
