Cooper S Petrol All4

Alternative Chelsea Tractor

Having been snow/ice bound for two weeks in winter 2010/11 we wanted a four wheel drive with four seats and able to occasionally pull a small trailer off road and we didn't want a Tonka Toy lookalike.
We didn't want diesel (low to medium annual mileage) so the only Countryman option with 4WD was a Cooper S.
Drives nicely, plenty of room. Build quality good to date. Weaknesses are:
*Turbo engine with close ratio gearbox is not the thing for towing or off road. Engine is light on low down torque so a low bottom gear is needed. Supercharger would be better than the turbo. In practice bottom is too high and top could be higher; even so you have to row through six gears to get from one to the other. Gearbox ratios were clearly chosen to match the diesel option.
*No option (on the S) other than low profile run flat tyres on large rims. Ride on poor roads is as terrible as you would expect.
*Headlight pattern hopeless- caused by the triumph of style over form in the reflector design. As a result I have joined the plonkers who drive around with fog lights on just so that I can see cyclists/pedestrians at night.
*Millions of options to apparently choose from, but the option of sensible, large section, conventional tyres with a plain petrol engine and sensible gear ratios not available- pity because fundamentally it's an excellent concept.

Fuel consumption is about 35/36mpg whether local driving, town or country or on the motorway.

Overall it does what we expected.

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