Tackling the Tail of the Dragon with a flock of Minis
Road trips deserve the long route, and some of the best things come during detours.
Road trips deserve the long route, and some of the best things come during detours.
When you've been test-driving nearly every new vehicle on the market for as long as I have, you get to the point where you mostly know what to expect. Not that I or most other veteran car reviewers make up our minds about new products before we drive them, but certainly we formulate theories to go about testing once a new car lands in our driveway. More often than not, our experiments confirm our hypotheses. This can be a great triumph or a crushing let-down, but rarely does a vehicle manage to
Our long-term 2011 Mini Countryman is nearing the end of its year-long stay in the Autoblog Garage, the past six months of which have been spent bouncing back and forth between the various Detroit-based team members (and Cleveland – we mustn't forget about Herr Neff). And while we've all had plenty of time behind the wheel of the biggest Mini, this is one car that always see
April was a busy month for the long-term 2011 Mini Countryman, with over 2,500 miles added to the odometer and a heaping helping of people and things passing through its doors. When I picked up the Countryman, I was impressed by the fact that all four of its winter tires were neatly stowed behind the front seats. However, the biggest of
When our friends at The Tire Rack told us they'd be sending over a set of Bridgestone Blizzak WS-70 tires mounted on 17-inch Sport Edition alloy wheels for our long-term Mini Countryman, our minds were immediately filled with images of the little blue hatchback bounding along snowy roads with razor-sharp precision and confidence. Instead, editors Neff, Paukert and myself can litera
The Mini Countryman equipped with the John Cooper Works package is the latest diminutive to be loaded into the brand's eccentric ad machine. As if a 211-horsepower, all-wheel-drive crossover on 18-inch alloys from a brand called "Mini" weren't novel enough, we're admonished to "Expect the unexpected" as the most powerful vehicle it makes is flicked through the desert and the snow.
I regret to inform you that despite what the image above indicates, Autoblog's long-term Mini Countryman will again be passing hands without having been thoroughly tested in the type of inclement weather for which it's been prepared. While we thought there was no way it would escape a February in Cleveland without slogging through weeks of snowfall, our Countryman's Bridgestone Blizzak WS-70 winter tires only met the c
With a model like the Countryman in its lineup, Mini may not be so mini anymore. At least not in an absolute sense. But since BMW has remade the brand in its own image, Minis have become mini BMWs. That's certainly the case with John Cooper Works – the brand's the performance label – which Mini's C
Literally two days after my last update about our long-term Mini Countryman, I found myself trudging through a snowstorm at 30 miles per hour on Interstate 94 along Michigan's west coast. I guess Mother Nature had heard my cries about not being able to test our Mini in the snow, and decided to re
It may not be a World Rally Championship event, but Mini is celebrating its first win at an international rally (at least its first such win of the modern era).
Mini has reportedly confirmed its 2012 World Rally Championship entry after initially missing the December 19 entry deadline. According to Autosport, the delay may have had something to do with concerns Mini parent company BMW had over television coverage of the sport in Germany. Now it would seem the FIA is working to address those i
As much as I detest the winter months here in Detroit, the truth is, I'm kind of bummed that we've only seen about a half-inch of snow so far this season. In fact, I was happy that our most recent snowfall actually started to stick to the parking lot across the street from my loft, simply so I could capture this photo of our long-term Mini Countryman with some powder on the ground. Two hours after I took this picture,
After spending September in the San Francisco bay area with Senior Editor Damon Lavrinc, our long-term 2011 Mini Cooper S Countryman All4 moved to southern California during the month of October to serve our estee
The last time we updated you on our long-term 2011 Mini Cooper S Countryman All4, it was in Northern California with senior editor Lavrinc. Since then, we've driving the car down to Southern California, although not before it served as our mode of transportation for the Rennsport Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. We'v
Welcoming Mini's Burly Uncle into the Family