Mini Cooper S Countryman ALL4: Fun to drive but lacking value

Khodrocar - The first Mini was a smash hit. The style and charm were unavoidable.

The same could be said of the original Countryman, which came out in 2010. I found it a bit awkward, and the 2017 redesign did a lot to clean it up. If you're a fan of the brand, you'll find little to complain about here.

The only point of contention is the grille. It's prominent (and seemingly permanent) frown clearly doesn't inspire the same fuzzy feeling as Minis of yore.

All in, it's quite a handsome thing. The only thing I'd change is the color. If you're going for a Mini, you're saying that you want something different and a bit more fun. Why would you ruin that with a drab shade of gray?

The last Mini I tested didn't feel like a $30,000+ car. It was missing too much stuff. Play it smart with the options, and you can get a Mini feeling suspiciously like a luxury car for around $36,000.

You get a full 8.8 inches of screen real estate sporting a reskinned version of BMW's iDrive infotainment software. It's an absolute delight to use, with clear and logical menu's and the ability to show navigation and phone options at the same time. If that's not enough, the Countryman will show you directions on the heads-up display that comes in the same package.

Material quality is also excellent. The door panels feature chromed window switches, a black plastic base, gray cloth coating, and a ribbon of the car's exterior color running through.

There are a lot of strange elements that work together: LED lights that react to what you're doing, ambient lighting that doesn't always match the central LEDs but sometimes does, cloth, exterior color, leather, plastic and faux metal. I get the feeling that this is what Mini corporate has been going for with every Mini I've been in, but this is the first time I've felt it really works.

Mini's reputation was never about actually being small, it was about how that size allowed them to make a more tossable, fun to drive car.

The Countryman isn't the agile microorganism that the Mini once was, but it still drives better than just about any small SUV. Maybe the Mazda CX-5 handles better, but the Mini's turbocharged four-cylinder makes the car feel significantly quicker, even if it's 189-horsepower rating only bests the Mazda by 2.

More importantly, the Mini comes standard with a manual transmission. If you're at all concerned with having fun while driving, that makes it the obvious choice in the class.

Turn off the backroad and onto the highway and the BMW roots become apparent. The car has a delightful split personality, able to devour tight corners or swallow hundreds of highway miles. The ride is comfortable and composed, and the wind noise is only apparent because the engine is dead quiet, even in fourth gear on the interstate.

With all of that said, it's hard to make a value case for a Mini.

At $35,750 as equipped, you're essentially paying the price of a fully-optioned midsize SUV — think decked out CR-V, leather lined CX-5 or whatever you family crossover suits your fancy — for something that's sized more like a CX-3 or HR-V.