• Interesting layout and quirky design
• Much easier to navigate than previous car
• Driving position won’t suit all

How is the quality and layout?

MINI is controlled by BMW – and that’s a brand which doesn’t have a reputation for building shonky motors. Thanks to some German sensibility, the quality of the Countryman’s cabin is up there with the very best in the segment.

Sadly, we can’t say the same about the car’s interior layout. The Countryman’s dashboard and centre console is certainly more characterful than the Volkswagen T-Roc‘s or Nissan Juke‘s, but it’s rather busy.

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We’re also not stuck on the design of the square-peg-round-hole infotainment screen. The layout has resulted in a very wide and narrow screen, which makes it feel like you’re trying to operate the unit through a letterbox. We found the instruments to be rather limited, too.

All you get is a rev counter with a small digital speedometer on its face. We understand the decision from a design perspective. MINI was trying to copy the original Mini’s central speedo and column-mounted rev-counter. It looks great, but rival systems are easier to use and offer more configurability.

Infotainment and technology

That huge central binnacle houses an 8.8-inch infotainment system which is based on BMW’s iDrive system. You can operate it with a rotary controller mounted on the centre console, which is a good thing because the menu buttons at the side of the screen are miniscule, making them infuriatingly difficult to hit on the move.

There are some ergonomic problems with the rotary controller, though. The central armrest makes accessing the dial mounted immediately in front of it a tad uncomfortable, as it’s set low down on the centre console behind the gear lever.

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We’ve already had a whinge about the Countryman’s narrow touchscreen – and we’re about to have another concerning its connectivity. The unit only supports Apple CarPlay so, if you’re an unwavering Android user who likes the convenience of smartphone pairing, you might want to look elsewhere.

Comfort

• Plenty of adjustment in the seats
• Although driving position won’t suit all
• Fidgety ride at sensible speeds

The front seats are comfortable, although you need to hike them up a fair way to see over that imposing cliff of a dashboard. The wheel also adjusts for reach and rake and, if you can find a part of it that isn’t littered with switchgear, it’s well-sized and well-shaped for your palms.

However, not all drivers will be able to entertain the Countryman’s driving position, as we found during our long-term test with the car. The pedals are too far away for those with shorter legs (a fault that’s especially noticeable when operating the clutch) – and if you pull the seat forwards to get your legs comfortable, your arms will be scrunched into the steering wheel.

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Moving the seat up higher can help to solve both of these issues but, with your head jacked into the roof lining, you’re miles away from the centre console which makes reaching the controls difficult.

The Countryman’s cabin is fairly composed at a cruise. Road noise is well suppressed and wind noise is only marginally more noticeable, which is to be expected given how blunt the angle of the front screen is. Either way, you can have a comfortable conversation at motorway speeds.