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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

Truck Trend Drives Countryman NY To LA

Motor Trend's Truck Trend just drove a 2011 MINI Countryman S All4 more than 2,500 miles in 42 hours road time from New York to Los Angeles and then answered its readers' questions:
Mininut:What’s the interior build quality like? How well is road noise suppressed?

The interior quality is great. With more than 20,000 miles on the odometer, our Mini’s interior is still holding up well, with nothing faded or (to my knowledge) broken, and everything still looking fresh. Road noise is well suppressed but as I mentioned in a previous post, the all-season run flat tires do get noisy over rough roads.

Paul: After spending some time in the car, do you feel like you got used to the quirky interior, or did it annoy you?

Can’t say I was ever annoyed by the Mini’s quirky interior. I’ve always been a big fan of quirk in cars and I appreciate that Mini tries to stand out from the crowd with its interiors.

After your experience, would you consider buying a Countryman? Who is this car for/not for? Is there a good reason to pay the extra $8K or so to get it instead of the [Nissan] Juke?

That’s tough; while I’m definitely in Mini’s target demographic, I don’t know if the Countryman’s for me. It’s a bit too cute and too ‘nice’ for me, I prefer a ride that’s sportier, meaner, and a bit rougher around the edges.

I’m a big fan of the Nissan Juke but I can still think of a few reasons why I’d fork over the extra cash for the Countryman: the manual transmission/all-wheel-drive combo, better interior quality, and more cargo space being among them.