Hot Mini JCW SUV on its way here

Friday, 24 July 2020

This is the new Mini John Cooper Works Countryman, due here by the end of 2020.

Mini has announced the refreshed John Cooper Works Countryman and confirmed that the hot crossover will land in New Zealand late this year.

The JCW Countryman gets similar design tweaks as other members of the JCW family, comprising a horizontal red stripe rather than an outline, standard LED headlights in a new shape and at the rear, the Union Jack designs integrated into the LED rear lenses.

Two new colours are available, White Silver metallic and Sage Green metallic, along with the new Piano Black exterior option that darkens the headlamp surrounds, rear lights, radiator grille, door handles, and model lettering on the luggage compartment lid.

The changes are small but effective – there’s a red slash through the grille instead of an outline and new LED lights front and rear.

Inside are fewer changes, with a new surface around the centre control unit, reorganised controls and more Piano Black trim. A 5.0-inch digital instrument display is standard.

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The rear lights get Mini’s Union Jack motif while the 95mm exhaust outlets should produce some tasty audio.

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Power is kept the same as the previous iteration, that being 225kW/450Nm generated by a 2.0-litre turbocharged inline-four borrowed from the BMW X2 M35i. The SUV should sound pretty good too, thanks to a sports exhaust system with 95mm outlets. Mini says the 0-100kmh sprint is done and dusted in 5.1 seconds.

Paired with the potent powertrain is a “high-rigidity” chassis, an electromechanical steering system, body stiffening components, dampers, suspension parts and a DSC system recalibrated with John Cooper Works’ racing know-how.

Standard equipment also includes a sports brake system with four-piston fixed caliper disc brakes on the front wheels and single-piston floating-caliper discs out the back, as well as 18-inch John Cooper Works light-alloy wheels with Chili Red brake calipers.

Finally, Mini Connected features have been expanded to include Navigation Plus options, better Intelligent Emergency services and Amazon Alexa integration.

We’ll see the updated JCW Countryman in the fourth quarter of 2020, with prices to be announced closer to release.