That matches what we have been hearing for some time. The difference is that someone at MINI has now said it on the record.

What Brockhoff said

Drive put the awkward layout to him directly. CarPlay and Android Auto are built for rectangles, so they sit as a small window in the middle of the 9.4 inch OLED and leave the rest of the circle empty. That often shrinks Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze.

Brockhoff did not dodge it. He acknowledged that CarPlay has to be kept contained to a rectangle on the round screen, then argued that the native navigation uses the whole display and that customers who experience the system in person find it works quite well. On the future, he said there may be more MINI can play with as technology moves on, that keeping the character alive matters from a design point of view, and that integrations should keep getting better.

He named no features and no timeline. That is worth stating plainly, because it keeps this as direction rather than a roadmap. It is still a clear statement of intent from MINI.

It matches what we have been hearing

The consistent message we have received is that MINI sees the round display as a platform to develop, not a design it is trying to move past. The operating system and the display are both expected to keep being updated and refined, with the circle as the fixed point. Until now that was sourced direction, not something MINI would say in public.

Brockhoff’s comments close that gap. The public line (keep the circle, keep improving what runs on it) is the same one we have been hearing privately. We still have no confirmed timeline or feature list, and nothing says a specific fix is on the way. What we have is agreement between what MINI says in public and what we hear behind the scenes.

It also fits how MINI built the system. Every new MINI runs the same software stack, built on a surprisingly capable Android-based foundation, and the display was developed with Samsung Display as the first fully usable round touch screen in the industry. One shared stack means one place to improve, and every improvement reaches the whole range. It also means every flaw does.

CarPlay is the visible limitation, not the whole problem

The small CarPlay window is the complaint that gets the headlines, and it is only partly MINI’s to fix. CarPlay does not support freeform displays in a way that would remove the hard edges of the rectangle, or at least soften the visual transition between projected content and the rest of the screen. Digital Trends made the same point when the car launched: the compromise is not something to blame on MINI, but it is something MINI has to contend with if it wants a round screen.

The deeper issues sit on MINI’s side of the line, and we laid them out in our August critique, MINI OS9 in 2026: Two Years In, Still Not Finished. CarPlay dropping out mid drive, Bluetooth that will not hold a pairing and audio that stops working without explanation were the problems at launch, and they were still there two years later. Add a system that remains sluggish, and an interface so consistently structured that common tasks take too many steps. None of that is a round display problem. A rectangular screen running the same software would hit the same walls.

That changes how Brockhoff’s answer should be read. The shape of the glass is a design decision MINI has made and defended. Whether the system behind it is reliable and quick enough to justify that decision is a separate question, and it is the one owners actually live with.

This is not a new position

Holger Hampf, MINI’s head of design, told Motor1 that MINI has “enough touch interface,” and that the plan is to refine the digital layer and pair it with physical controls rather than change the shape. We covered that stance when he talked screens, buttons and the brand’s future, and spoke with him again about his first two years at the helm and what comes next.

The design side has been equally consistent. In a BMWBlog interview, Designworks described keeping third-party apps feeling like a MINI as a core challenge, noting that “nobody makes a round phone.” MINI knew about the integration problem from the start and built the car anyway.

Design in Munich, the interface team at Designworks and now sales in Australia all say the same thing. The circle is the point.

What evolving has to mean

This part is analysis, not announced plans. OS9 was pitched to us as software that would be updated early and often, with bugs fixed and features added as it went. We covered the functionality boosts and the over the air updates as they landed, and each looked like evidence of progress. By 2026 the core complaints from day one had not moved.

So when Brockhoff says the technology will keep evolving, the test is not whether MINI can tweak the layout around the CarPlay window. MINI controls the background behind it, how the interface frames it and how the car hands off between native and projected apps, and better handling there could soften the transition even with the rectangle intact. A true fix depends on Apple. The test that matters more is whether the evolution reaches the basics: stable connections, dependable audio, a faster interface and fewer steps to common tasks. Because every new MINI shares one stack, an update that fixes those things fixes them for the entire lineup.

We asked in August for a real and transparent plan, the kind a software company would publish. Brockhoff’s comments do not provide one. They do confirm that MINI intends to keep investing in the platform, which is the necessary first step.

MINI has been here before

The history Brockhoff invokes is real. MINI has had a centrally mounted instrument since 1959. The first BMW-era MINI in the early 2000s paired a speedometer behind the wheel with a tachometer in the centre. The 2014 to 2023 generation kept the circle but filled it with a conventional rectangular screen. In 2023, the OLED and Operating System 9 moved nearly all of the car’s functions into the centre display, with a head-up display covering the rest.

That last step is what raised the stakes. When the circle was a surround and the gauges sat behind the wheel, software was a feature. Now nearly everything runs through it. It fits the pattern we saw when the start switch was reinterpreted as a nod to the original key: MINI treats its history as a design brief and keeps iterating on the answer.

The tension MINI has to manage

There is a tension here between identity and utility. The round screen is the most recognisable thing in a modern MINI cabin, and MINI has now committed to it in public, with an executive on the record. That commitment is a fair one. It is also a promise that the software behind the glass has to earn.

MINI’s mechanical reliability has improved enormously in recent years. The software has not shown the same pattern, and a brand cannot keep a circle at the centre of its cabins while the system inside it feels unfinished. The round display stays, MINI has said so on the record, and what we are hearing says it plans to keep making it better. Now it has to show that.

The post MINI’s Round Display Will Stay but Updates Coming appeared first on MotoringFile.

For anyone who follows MINI Cooper production, this is less glamorous than a new engine and arguably more consequential. It changes how the cars get from one stage to the next, which is where a lot of factory time quietly disappears.

What BMW says AFW actually does

According to BMW Group, AFW moves new vehicles without a driver in defined production and logistics zones. The clever part is that the intelligence lives in the building, not the car. LiDAR sensors along the route track people, other vehicles, driverless transport vehicles and temporary obstacles, while cloud software and motion planning direct the car in real time.

Because the sensors are offboard, the cars don’t need any particular equipment specification to take part. That matters in a plant like Oxford, where one line has long handled a wide mix of variants. Our own visit to the plant in late 2023 found a factory already thick with automation, and AFW is the next layer on top of it, as we described in our inside look at how MINI Coopers are made at Oxford.

The system is CE-certified for production use and was developed with Swiss company Embotech. BMW i Ventures took a financial stake in Embotech in December 2024, following a multi-year relationship through the BMW Startup Garage.

The Oxford detail that matters

The headline number is network-wide, but the Oxford specifics are the more interesting part. BMW reports more than 53,000 automated vehicle movements at the plant in the past year. Across the whole network the average is around 3,500 movements a day, so on a rough daily basis (our arithmetic, not BMW’s) Oxford is still a small contributor, at something like 145 a day.

What sets Oxford apart is the integration. It is the first BMW Group site where automated vehicle movements connect directly with existing control systems. The car is positioned precisely next to a lifting device, where a defined work step takes place, with the handshake between vehicle and equipment handled through a cloud-based solution. BMW doesn’t say which operation that is, so we won’t guess.

Context: a plant with a long memory

Oxford has been the home of the modern MINI since production began in 2001, and the plant celebrated its three millionth car back in 2016. More recently it started building the F66 MINI Cooper, which is the car most readers will picture when they search for a MINI Cooper. BMW frames the setting nicely: cloud software and LiDAR in a place with more than a century of industrial history behind it.

On paper and in practice

On paper, this is a clean efficiency story. Fewer manual moves means less waiting, fewer chances for a scuffed bumper and a more predictable flow. BMW also positions AFW as part of its iFACTORY strategy, with Spartanburg the next site to adopt it, in 2027.

In practice, there are things BMW isn’t telling us. It offers no figures on time saved, cost reduced or damage avoided, only the phrase “significant efficiency gains.” It also doesn’t say how many of the 3,500 daily movements happen at each plant, or what share of Oxford’s internal car movements AFW covers. Even the milestone wording is slightly muddled: in places BMW describes the million as reached at Oxford, while elsewhere it makes clear this is a network total. We read it as the latter.

None of this is a criticism of the technology. A million movements without drivers is a real operational track record, and the pilot only began in Dingolfing in 2022. But a milestone is a count of activity, not proof of payoff, and BMW hasn’t yet published the numbers that would settle that.

What it means for MINI fans

Nothing about this will change how a Cooper drives, looks or costs. What it signals is that Oxford is being treated as a showcase site inside the BMW Group network, and that it is getting the same industrial tech as the biggest German plants. For a factory that has spent the last few years in debates about which models it would build, that is a reassuring sign of investment, even if it’s the kind you’ll never see from a driver’s seat.

The more interesting question is what comes next. Once cars can navigate themselves between stations on a site-wide sensor grid, the line between “moving cars” and “running the plant” gets thinner. BMW hasn’t said where it goes from here beyond Spartanburg, and we’ll be watching for the efficiency numbers when they come.

The post MINI Production Gets Driverless: Oxford Joins BMW’s Automated Driving Production appeared first on MotoringFile.

Automotive News published a report today on how the US is becoming an outlier in the global EV race, and it reads like a diagnosis of MINI’s predicament. Combined EV and plug-in hybrid sales reached 53 percent in China in 2025, versus about 10 percent in the US, per the International Energy Agency figures the report cites. Europe sits in the middle: EVs took 23.2 percent of the market through September, up from 17.7 percent a year earlier, according to ACEA. MINI sells in all three places and is trying to run one electric strategy across them. The seams are showing.

Europe is where electric MINIs are at home

The Automotive News piece notes that higher fuel prices have long pushed Europeans toward smaller cars, and that Europeans rarely cover huge distances in one sitting. That describes the J01 Cooper and the Aceman almost perfectly. Since the start of the year, MINI has delivered 220,247 vehicles, up 6.8 percent, and 37.2 percent of those were fully electric, according to BMW Group’s third-quarter 2026 delivery release. That works out to roughly 82,000 electric MINIs through September (our math, since BMW doesn’t publish the absolute figure). BMW doesn’t split MINI’s electric share by region, but the group as a whole is telling: in Europe, one in three BMW Group vehicles delivered in the third quarter was fully electric (34.7 percent). Our read is that Europe, rather than North America, is carrying MINI’s number.

Our own seat time with the J01 has been limited, which is its own commentary on the North American situation, since the J01 has never been sold here. When a European contributor drove the electric J01 JCW back to back with the petrol F66 JCW, the verdict was that it’s less a replacement than a parallel interpretation: quick early, honest about its weight, and rated for about 250 miles on the WLTP cycle but more realistically good for 180 to 200. That’s a fine car for the European usage the Automotive News data describes. It’s a harder sell anywhere that distances stretch.

The problem is where these cars come from.

The electric Cooper 3-Door and Aceman are produced in Zhangjiagang, China, while the electric Countryman is built in Leipzig. A 20 percent tariff on the Chinese-built cars will hit either the price buyers pay or the profit MINI makes, as we noted in our look at the future of electric MINIs. We’ve been tracking whether electric Cooper production could move to Europe, and that logic gets stronger every quarter.

North America gets only one of three electric MINI models

North America is where the strategy really breaks, and the US sets the terms. The federal EV tax credits ended after September 30, 2025, and the Automotive News report describes automakers struggling to commit long term while policy keeps swinging. North America is expected to account for just 5 percent of global battery-electric production in 2026. Canada is a much smaller market whose imports tend to follow US volume, so US policy swings often land there too.

MINI’s answer has been to send North America no J01 electric Coopers at all. The J01 has never been sold here, and the Aceman hasn’t either. BMW paused its plans for electric MINI production at Oxford, and the announcement removed the most obvious route to a North American electric Cooper. The Countryman SE is the only electric MINI currently on sale here, starting at $46,375 in the US, roughly $10,000 more than the petrol version. That context matters when you read MINI’s headline electric share. A 37.2 percent global figure includes a North American lineup where the Countryman SE is the only electric option, so North America’s share of electric MINI sales almost certainly sits well below the average, though BMW doesn’t publish it. The brand’s electric success is a European story, and North America is mostly watching it from outside.

Here’s the twist: the one electric MINI we do get is the best one for most people, and especially for North American buyers. We’ve called the Countryman SE the best Countryman for most people, and our review goes further, calling it the best MINI ever made for daily use. It doesn’t win on range, speed or charging numbers. It wins on predictability: no sudden drops, no surprises on long highway stretches, and a cabin that’s roomy and surprisingly practical. Next to the petrol Countryman S, the SE is calmer, quieter and more composed at speed. After plenty of miles in the SE, the trade is clear: it carries 886 pounds more than the petrol JCW and never feels quite as light on its feet, but that weight buys silence, long-legged comfort and about 245 miles of real-world range. That suits North American driving, where distances stretch, better than the 180 to 200 real-world miles our contributor saw in the J01 JCW.

It isn’t perfect. But as an argument for electric MINI ownership, it’s the strongest one the company has.

It also happens to be built in Leipzig. That means it sidesteps the China tariff in Europe, and it’s the one MINI EV that doesn’t carry the exposure we flagged earlier. The same Automotive News report notes that a Commerce Department rule banning Chinese connected-vehicle hardware and software starts taking effect with the 2027 model year. The J01 and Aceman are built in China on a platform developed with Great Wall Motor. Whether that rule would touch them is analysis on our part, not reporting, and BMW hasn’t said so. But it’s one more reason a US launch of the Chinese-built pair looks unlikely, and with Canada’s imports tied to the US market, a North American one too.

The F56 Cooper SE becomes an accidental cult car

There’s a side effect of MINI’s North American absence that the Automotive News data doesn’t capture. With no J01 on offer, the previous-generation F56 Cooper SE is becoming sought after in some North American circles, something it never was when new. The first production electric MINI, built at Oxford on the same line as the petrol cars, was criticized at launch for its modest range. That same modesty now reads differently to buyers who want a small, light electric MINI hatch and have nowhere else to find one.

Its appeal is partly negative. The only new electric MINI a North American dealer will sell you is a $46,375 crossover in the US, and the small electric hatch that should be the brand’s electric heart is something North American buyers can read about but not buy. Enthusiasts who want an electric Cooper have one realistic option, and it’s a used one.

That’s an unusual position for a brand to be in. MINI’s most desirable electric Cooper in North America is a discontinued one, and its replacement is a car it won’t sell us. If you’re looking for evidence that North America has been underserved, you don’t need an IEA chart.

The strategy that’s emerging is pragmatic

MINI isn’t charging at an all-electric future anymore. We told the story of how BMW almost killed the combustion Cooper, and the lesson is that the dual strategy MINI landed on is why it’s in a stronger spot than most rivals. Petrol and electric Coopers are expected to coexist well into the 2030s, with the J01 running through mid-2031 and an LCI of both planned for the 2028 model year. Our look at what’s next for the Cooper covers the details, including the cancelled J03 electric Convertible, which showed MINI will walk away from EV derivatives that don’t pay.

The longer-term play is BMW’s Neue Klasse architecture. We’ve reported that the next electric Cooper could go rear-wheel drive and that software will shape the driving experience of future Coopers. On paper, that’s the right answer: a BMW-engineered platform, built where MINI can control costs, define production on their own terms and avoid tariffs. In practice, it’s years away. The Neue Klasse Countryman is currently pegged for around 2032. Until then, the MINI EV line-up will continue to look very different depending on where you live.

The post MINI EV Sales Are Booming, Just Not in America appeared first on MotoringFile.

Two years in the chair

MINI named Hampf its head of design in September 2024, moving him from BMW Group Designworks and replacing Oliver Heilmer, as part of a wider BMW design reshuffle. We covered the move at the time in MINI Gets New Head of Design Amid a Larger BMW Shake-up.

Asked to sum up what the period has produced, he was modest, with a small caveat.

“I hope I’m not patting my own shoulder too much, but we have (recently) fired on all cylinders.”

The list he gave was long: one-offs and collaborations, the Paul Smith edition, the Countryman Untamed Edition and an Oxford Edition. He also pointed to the Icon Drops programme as a way of building anticipation, saying people are starting to wait for what MINI does next.

Activation first, then the next idea

What he treats as the main job is less glamorous than a concept. The current MINI range, he said, is still young, and parts of the world have barely seen it.

“There are still markets where you hardly see any of them.”

That is why getting the existing cars in front of people is his priority.

“That’s the most important, visible to the outside world, visible job we are doing.”

It fits with how he talked about the Untamed Edition and the collaborations: each one is a way of making the existing range louder, in a specific market, for a specific customer. It also fits his view on timing. The full family has been on sale globally for roughly two years, some markets earlier and some later, and he wants to see how it performs.

“Let’s give the current portfolio just a chance to show what they’re able to do sales-wise.”

What surprised him

Asked for the biggest surprise of the job, his answer was not about a car.

“It’s not just a car with a name on it.”

Hampf said he has been struck by how closely brand and product are tied together at MINI. The brand and the product, he said, are discussed together. He added that many other car companies do not manage this, and let a good product and a brand strategy run side by side without meeting.

Down to the millimetre

The second surprise was about precision. Hampf has worked as a designer for a long time, with external clients and with brands within BMW Group. Even so, he said the level of detail in a MINI caught him out from the first day.

He gave two examples. One was a headlight configuration. The other was the Untamed wheel, which went through three design loops. The first rim looked too flat and lacked three-dimensionality, so the team painted the next version differently and tried again.

“It’s a surprise how much down to the millimetre the car is.”

Some people, he said, would call that slow. He does not.

“As long as I’m given the time to explore a topic and make it good, I’ll do that. I’ll take the time.”

What comes next

Asked what he is working on now, and whether MINI might revisit a compact MPV given renewed interest in the segment in Europe, Hampf declined to go there. He said it is not the right time to talk about the future, and that there are many things coming that he cannot discuss.

The line he offered instead was a careful one.

“We obviously think about the future, we work on the future, we just don’t talk about the future.”

He added that the sketch walls in the studio are full and that his team is very busy.

There is one more signal, from earlier in the conversation. Talking about the Deus Ex Machina and Vagabund one-offs.

“We’ve set the bar high. So now the pressure is on.”

Where our own reporting stands

Hampf did not discuss the next-generation Cooper in our conversation, so nothing here should be read as confirmation of anything. What we have reported so far is sourced direction, not confirmed platform. The petrol Cooper is expected to stay on a revised version of the current UKL architecture, while the electric Cooper is expected to move to BMW’s Gen6 platform, shared with the iX3 and upcoming i3 saloon. The next Countryman EV is also said to share that architecture. None of that has been confirmed by MINI.

What Hampf did make clear is the order of work. First, show what the current range can do. Then, in his words, a lot of things are coming that he cannot talk about. But there was thing that stood out to us as he said it. The smile on his face which clearly hinted and good things to come.

The post Head of MINI Design on His First Two Years at the Helm & What Comes Next appeared first on MotoringFile.

A manual that isn’t, reviewed as one that is

Ferrari calls the system Manuale By-Wire, engineered in Maranello by a team led by Valentin Marguet. The lever and pedal have no mechanical link to the gearbox. Sensors read both, and software tells the DCT’s clutch packs what to do, giving you six forward gears plus reverse. The car starts in automatic, and dipping the clutch below 70 km/h and selecting a gear hands control to you. As we noted in our original report on the Manuale, it is homologated as an automatic, a detail that matters later.

The question in July was whether it would feel like the real thing. The reviews are now in, and they are better than a “fake manual” has any right to expect. Top Gear went furthest, headlining its first drive “an all-time great manual”. It noted that the car lets you make mistakes, including slipping the clutch, stalling and kangaroo-hopping away. There is no rev-matching, though a sixth-to-first shift gets a small rev surge to protect the rear wheels.

CAR gave it five stars and argued the shift action is more enjoyable than many genuine manuals. Autocar said the brain accepts it as the real McCoy within minutes. Auto Express found itself using the V12 in ways the paddle-shift car never invites, and GTSpirit reported almost no learning curve for anyone who can drive a conventional manual.

The complaints are worth reading closely. CAR flagged the price, the roughly 43 mph limit for engaging manual mode and the lack of automatic rev-matching. Autocar noted you can’t powershift. Every one of those is about what the system declines to do, not about how it feels, which is a very different problem from the one most simulated gearboxes have.

We have been making this argument since 2015

None of this surprises us. We argued back then that nothing adds more to a MINI than a manual, even when the automatic was faster. Our 2018 notes on the JCW Countryman said the manual gave back so much engagement that it was hands down more enjoyable than a very good eight-speed. A year later we went further and claimed that even the worst manual MINI sold beat the best automatic.

Ferrari’s reviewers are now saying the same thing in different words. The third pedal changes what the driver is doing. You plan shifts before corners and choose the gear instead of requesting it. A paddle-shift car is fast, but a manual one is involving, and those are different virtues.

The MINI Cooper manual was never an engineering problem

The last mechanical manual MINI left Oxford in February 2024, and we reported at the time that the decision was regulatory, not about demand. More than 40 percent of F56 JCW hardtops sold in the US were manuals, and MINI USA was still lobbying internally to bring one back in late 2024.

Our ranking of every MINI transmission since 2001 put the Getrag GS6-59BG first. It is rated for roughly 435 lb-ft and only has to handle 236 in the F56 JCW, which is why we called it the best MINI manual ever. The Getrag family from the R56 generation took second and the R53 Cooper S box third. That hardware died because of testing methodology, not because it failed.

Here is where Ferrari’s approach gets interesting. A by-wire manual that is legally an automatic sidesteps the exact obstacle that killed the real one. And MINI already has a dual-clutch to build on, the 7DCT300 family that our ranking named the pick of the automatics. This is analysis, not a leak, but the pieces exist.

Porsche is filing patents, BMW is quiet

Porsche is the clearest follower. A European patent filing describes a dual-clutch with a clutch pedal and shifter, plus a mode that makes the lever behave like an H-pattern. It reportedly works with combustion and hybrid drivetrains, which matters because the 911 T-Hybrid’s electric motor is integrated into its DCT and rules out a conventional manual. A patent is not a product, but it is a sign of intent.

BMW is murkier. We reported in July that the M2 manual is reportedly on the chopping block despite a North American take rate above 50 percent. Our colleagues at BimmerFile put the central question well: Ferrari solved the physics, but whether the economics work at BMW Group scale is unresolved, and nobody has said anything on the record. The logic still holds, though. Clutch-by-wire actuators, load-simulating springs and the control software are things a supplier could industrialise and sell to more than one client.

The catch is price, and feel

Ferrari’s premium over the standard car is roughly 50 percent, and a Cooper JCW cannot absorb anything like that. There is also a purist objection we should take seriously. Our own ranking rewarded mechanical positivity, the slight notchiness of the R53 box and the weight of the R56 gearbox. A by-wire system can only imitate those qualities, and on paper that works. In practice it depends on how convincing the pedal and lever feel, and Ferrari had a half-million-pound budget to get that right.

Our take

Ferrari has shown that a simulated manual can win over sceptical reviewers. It has not shown that the idea scales down to cars people actually buy. For MINI, the more relevant point is that the regulatory wall now has a possible way around it. Whether anyone at BMW Group is willing to build the door remains an open question. But one thing it clear, suppliers like Getrag and others are quietly working on solutions that could one day end up in more affordable enthusiast cars. It’ll be up to MINI and BMW if that extends to the Cooper.

The post The Future of the MINI Cooper Manual: What Ferrari’s 12Cilindri Manuale Just Proved appeared first on MotoringFile.

Day 1: Nevada into Utah

The Rebelle opened with the longest first day in its history, a 377 kilometer loop from Base Camp 1 near Pioche into western Utah and back, only the second time the course has entered a third state. MINI’s Team #206 ended it third in X-Cross on 149 points, behind two Subarus.

It was not a day for the faint-hearted rookie. Killman and Ferrer Lozano were handling a brand-new car, a new navigation format and a partner they had met in person only weeks earlier, at Rebelle U in Ridgecrest. By their own account, the best moment of that training was high-centring on the tallest dune in sight.

Days 2 and 3: the marathon

The first marathon took teams 360 kilometres north from Caliente to Eureka, the farthest north the rally has ever gone. Day 3 began as an all-day visual roadbook, then the weather arrived and teams headed to base camp early with five checkpoints scored.

Day 4: storms and water crossings

Day 4 was presented by MINI, which made the weather feel like a test with the brand’s name on it. Teams left Base Camp 1 on the second marathon, running Rainbow Canyon, passing Valley of Fire and Lake Mead before entering the Mojave towards Route 66 and the camp at Roy’s. Storms and water crossings reshuffled the 4×4 top five. The MINI regained third in X-Cross on 463 points. Our mid-rally report covered that stage as it happened.

Days 5 and 6: Johnson Valley

Johnson Valley brought rocky trails, sand washes and dry lake beds. Day 6 opened with a curveball start that sent every team out at once for a full day of rough, rocky terrain. For a car whose pitch is capability, this was the stretch that mattered most.

Days 7 and 8: dunes and a whiteout

Day 7 took teams around the Salton Sea and into the Imperial Sand Dunes. Before it, Killman said she believed the Countryman’s low centre of gravity would help in the sand, adding, “she was made for it.”

Day 8 stayed in Glamis, in wind gusting to 50 mph. Blowing sand turned the morning into a whiteout, with visibility cut so sharply that some teams let early checkpoints go. The four X-Cross teams ran the dunes as a pod, taking turns to lead and sharing headings. The MINI finished the rally on 1,149 points, third in the class behind the Subaru of Carey Lando and Andrea Shaffer and the Subaru of Kendra Miller and Tasha Krug.

Three awards, one team

Three awards, one team

The MINI crew left Glamis with three honours: third place in X-Cross, Rookies of the Year in the class, and the Challenge Accepted Award presented by Stryten Energy, which is voted on by fellow competitors and event staff. That last one may say the most. It rewards attitude and how a team treats the people around it, and the field chose to give it to the crew in the grey Countryman.

MINI USA’s Sean Green, vice president of MINI of the Americas, credited the crew’s determination and the car’s capability. Ferrer Lozano said the team’s mission was to show what MINI can do, and that other competitors told her watching the Countryman clear obstacles inspired them to attempt their own. Killman described the same effect from the driver’s seat.

What the Rebelle says about the MINI Countryman Untamed

Start with what it does show. The Untamed Edition is a production crossover that can spend eight days on rock, sand washes, water crossings and dunes, in storms and 50 mph gusts, and still finish in a competitive class. Killman bet before the final stage that the Countryman’s low centre of gravity would suit the sand, and the car completed the dunes with its crew intact. That is a meaningful result for a model whose lift is modest, 15 mm for up to 19 mm of extra ground clearance, and whose real upgrades are the all-terrain tyres, recalibrated stability and steering, ALL4 and underbody protection.

The wheel and tyre swap is the most revealing detail. The rally car dropped to a smaller 18-inch accessory wheel with a more aggressive tyre because rough terrain demands a taller sidewall. That suggests the showroom 19-inch wheel is a compromise aimed at the road as much as the trail. Read that as analysis, not a flaw: it is exactly how an owner who wants to go further would configure the car. It also means the Untamed arrives as a capable platform with room to grow, not a finished rock crawler.

What the result cannot show is how the car compares with purpose-built rivals, because the Rebelle rewards navigation, not pace. The winning Subaru was modified, the MINI crew were rookies, and third of four is a place on the podium, not proof of superiority.

The honest conclusion is a measured one. The MINI Countryman Untamed is a credible adventure crossover, not a gimmick, and the rally was a fair test of that claim. Production is due to start in November, and the next test belongs to buyers: whether the lift, the tyres and the electronics earn their premium on ordinary dirt roads. Our launch report has the specification, and the 12th Rebelle runs October 6 to 16, 2027, if MINI wants a second attempt with a seasoned crew.

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Driving the two back to back in sequence is useful in its own right. A late validation car sits one step before pre-production, so the gaps between the two are informative: the prototype had a different set of wheels and tires that gave the car less of a crisp turn-in as compared to the pre-production with the final package. Where the two agree, the character of the car is likely settled.

The recipe is simple. A raised suspension, 19-inch wheels with all-terrain tires, and recalibrated braking, stability control and steering give the Countryman a more capable stance and, on paper, a more capable setup. It’s the brand’s most serious attempt yet to push its largest model toward outdoor buyers, and what matters is whether that holds up on pavement and off it.

On the road, there’s a slightly more relaxed vibe to it. A lifted car on chunkier rubber should trade some sharpness for ability and a little more lean in corners. In practice, it does but not quite as much as you might think.

Off the road, it feels far more capable than the rather modest upgrades would have you think. Still the limits deserve honesty here. A 19mm raise is a modest change, and this is still a sporty crossover, not a Defender rival. What’s interesting isn’t whether it can match a dedicated off-roader, it’s whether MINI can give weekend adventurers a car they’ll enjoy driving the other five days of the week.

MINI Countryman Untamed key facts

• Suspension: raised by 15mm, with up to 19mm of added ground clearance depending on market and powertrain
• Wheels and tires: 19-inch wheels with Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tires
• Chassis: braking, stability control and steering recalibrated for the new setup
• Drivetrain: ALL4 all-wheel drive on S models
• Models: Countryman C, D and S ALL4, plus the electric E and SE ALL4, depending on market
• Towing and loads: tow bar fitted in some markets, with a towing capacity of up to 2,000 kg; roof load of up to 75 kg while driving and 300 kg stationary
• Accessories: optional roof tent co-developed with Autohome and an outdoor equipment range with Helinox, depending on market
• Exterior: redesigned vertical grille with a Dark Steel accent, Untamed logo with a mountain panorama on the C-pillar, Dark Steel finish on emblems, Countryman lettering and underbody protection
• Paint: Hideaway Grey, Nomad Blue, Frozen Nomad Blue, Nanuq White and Midnight Black, with Frozen Nomad Blue the first matte paint in MINI series production
• Production: begins November 2026 at BMW Group Plant Leipzig, with markets worldwide from early 2027
• US pricing: reported to start at $43,900

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The final standings

Carey Lando and Andrea Shaffer won X-Cross on 1,411 points in a modified Subaru Forester Hybrid, their third consecutive class win. Kendra Miller and Tasha Krug were second on 1,393, just 18 points back. The MINI took third, with fellow rookies Amy Hein and Abby Connolly fourth on 1,086. Only four cars were entered in X-Cross, against 41 in the 4×4 class, so third place needs to be read with that in mind.

The gap is the honest part of the story. The MINI finished 262 points behind the winner and on 68 per cent of available points, to the leaders’ 84 and 83. For context, our look at BMW’s history in this event noted that the X2 took second on its 2023 debut and that last year’s X5 finished second in X-Cross on 72 per cent. MINI’s first attempt landed a place lower than both.

On the last day, the margins tightened. By my arithmetic from the published totals, the MINI scored 173 points on Day 8, against 185 for Miller and Krug and the 188 and 187 posted by Lando and Shaffer and by Hein and Connolly. So the final stage was a respectable close, and most of the deficit was built earlier. Our mid-rally report had the car third after Day 4, and it never moved from that position.

The car was the other half of the question. The rally Countryman was a standard Untamed Edition with the smaller 18-inch accessory wheel and a more aggressive tyre, chosen for the taller sidewall rough terrain demands. Subaru’s own release describes its winner as specially prepared, so MINI went to the desert with the less modified hardware. The Countryman completed the course and ran in the pack, which was the pass-fail test we described in our preview of the entry. It did not show that the car collects points faster than a veteran Subaru crew, and nobody should claim it did.

One detail says more about the event than the leaderboard. On Day 8, the X-Cross teams ran the dunes together through gusts of up to 50 mph, taking turns leading to checkpoints and sharing headings and distances. Shaffer said the aim was to make sure every team in the class crossed the finish line. The MINI crew was part of that pod, which is a better advertisement for the Rebelle than any result.

What comes next

The 12th Rebelle Rally runs October 6 to 16, 2027, and registration is open. MINI has not said whether it will return. If it does, the better experiment is the same car with a seasoned crew, so hardware and learning curve can be separated. For now, the MINI Countryman Untamed has a third-place finish, the rookie standing, and a lot left to prove.

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The rally runs from Las Vegas to Glamis, California, over eight days and more than 1,500 miles of the American Southwest, finishing on October 16. This is not a speed contest. Teams navigate with maps, compasses and roadbooks, with no GPS, and the scoring rewards checkpoint accuracy over outright pace. Behind the wheel is Felicia Killman, a rising competitor from Washington state. Navigating is Erika Ferrer of BMW Group Mexico, who has three co-driver championship titles at home.

What makes this more than a marketing exercise is the car’s specification. The rally Countryman is a standard Untamed Edition with two changes: the smaller 18-inch accessory wheel, paired with a more aggressive tyre. The reason is practical. Rough terrain demands a taller sidewall, which gives the tyre more cushion against rocks and ruts and lowers the risk of a pinch flat or a damaged rim. Dropping wheel diameter to gain sidewall height is the standard answer to this problem, and it is a sensible one.

That matters for how we read the result. Rally entries are often so heavily modified that they say little about the car on the showroom floor. Here, the changes are modest and come from the accessory range, which means what Killman and Ferrer are doing is a reasonable proxy for what an owner could do with the same wheel and tyre choice. Ferrer says other teams have told her they weren’t sure they could clear an obstacle until they watched the MINI do it first. That is a more credible endorsement than any brochure line, though it is also a quote from a team member, and worth reading as such.

On paper, it works. In practice, there are limits to what third of four tells us. The class is small, the standings are provisional, and MINI USA notes that final results are still to come. Because the format scores navigation rather than speed, the result says as much about the crew as it does about the car, and Killman is candid that there is room to become more precise and pick up some speed. The tyre is also doing a lot of the heavy lifting. A more aggressive tread and taller sidewall transform what any crossover can tackle, so the credit belongs to the package as much as to the Countryman itself. That might be fine, if the Untamed Edition’s pitch is a capable platform that responds well to the right rubber, but it is worth being clear about which part is which.

Vikash Joshi, MINI USA’s product manager, calls the event a real-world proving ground, and for a brand whose crossover has long been asked to justify its adventure credentials, that is a fair choice of venue. It also fits the history. MINI’s reputation was built on the Monte Carlo wins of the 1960s, and the marque later returned to the sharp end of off-road competition with its Dakar victories in the early 2010s. Putting a Countryman in the Rebelle Rally continues that thread, even if the context has shifted from outright competition to a navigation-and-endurance showcase. It is also a long way from the original MINI Cooper Hardtop that launched the brand in the US in 2002, which rather makes the point about how far the line-up has stretched.

For now, the takeaway is positive with caveats. The Untamed Edition has survived the first half of one of the country’s tougher off-road events in near-stock form, with a respectable standing and a reputation among rivals. The second half will show whether that holds up as the terrain and the fatigue pile on.

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MINI is about 12.9% of BMW Group Automotive volume year to date, and it is carrying more weight than that implies. It also beat the BMW brand in Q3, even while declining.

Why MINI is growing

BMW credits the John Cooper Works models and the MINI Paul Smith Edition for the positive trend. That is a revealing answer: the growth drivers named are a performance trim and a special edition, not a new platform. It fits what we have been covering about MINI turning special editions into drops, though the release does not say how much each contributed.

The other number worth stopping on: 37.2% of MINI’s year-to-date deliveries were fully electric. That works out to roughly 82,000 cars, and about a quarter of the BMW Group’s 314,552 battery electric deliveries from a brand that is around 13% of its volume. The group as a whole sits at about 18.4% battery electric. Both of those are my arithmetic from the release, not figures BMW stated. The electric side of the range runs through the J01 Cooper EV and the J05 Aceman, plus the Countryman SE.

The slowdown inside the growth

Year to date, MINI is up 6.8%. In Q3 it was down 2.4%. Those two numbers cannot both describe the same trend, and the math says the first half was far stronger. Backing out the prior-year figures from the rounded percentages, the first half of 2026 comes to roughly 149,500 deliveries, up about 11.8%, which means the brand has swung from double-digit growth to a small decline in a single quarter.

That is derived arithmetic, so treat the exact figures as approximate. The direction is not in doubt. MINI’s lead over the rest of the group is also narrowing: it was growing in double digits, and now it is merely falling less than the others.

What the release does not tell us

The regional table covers BMW and MINI combined, so there is no MINI-specific split for Europe, China or the Americas. The combined China region fell 24.8% in Q3 and 21.8% year to date, but it is dominated by BMW volume, so it says little about how MINI is faring there. Europe was up 2.7% in Q3 and 4.5% year to date, which hints at where MINI’s strength lies without proving it.

There is no model-level breakdown either. BMW mentions the Countryman Untamed Edition as a source of future momentum, but gives no figure for any specific car.

What to watch

Q4 brings the first full quarter of the Countryman Untamed Edition, and BMW’s October decision on where the next Cooper EV will be built. Then there is the 2027 refresh, which will show whether the first half’s pace was a peak or a baseline.

For now, the numbers say MINI is growing faster than anything else BMW Group owns, and that the growth rate is slowing.

The post MINI Global Sales 2026: Up Almost 7% for the Year appeared first on MotoringFile.

The two tests for any MINI collaboration

First off we wanted to get a sense of how MINI chooses partners, and his answer was a two-part filter. The first test is personal.

“Number one is the chemistry between the partners.” The second is about the customer. A collaboration has to mean something to the person buying the car, not just to the marketing team. Customers see this collaboration as meaningful, and it’s not only for business purposes, or to shout out, or to promote something. To me this is still a vehicle that people buy and they drive.” 

Paul Smith passes both tests. Hampf described a relationship that goes back a long way, one that is “almost like a friendship“, with the designer sending him witty text messages and arriving with new ideas. He said the design process had little friction, and that the mutual respect shows up in the finished car.

On whether the partnership continues, he was warm and careful. He hopes and expects it will, but would not say what form it might take. The Paul Smith edition has only just reached some markets, and he is proud that it is a fully fledged production offering, not a one-off.

A short list, kept short

The discussion went into how the Paul Smith car feels like a true joint effort vs many collaborations in the wider industry that feel like a label added to a product. There was a sense of agreement from Hampf but naturally he didn’t name names. What he did say is that MINI’s approach takes time.

“Collaborations are not an easy one. We take our time to find the right partners. It’s a very short list.” When asked whether he keeps a wish list, he said yes, but not a long one.

A US partner is on the table

One thread stood out. Hampf said he has been talking with colleagues about the possibility of a US-based company as a partner, which makes sense for a brand that treats America as a key market. He framed partner choice as a global question, not a design one: which market would welcome a collaboration with which brand, tested with research and the analytics team before anyone sketches a car. “This is also a global phenomenon.” He did not name any brands, and he made clear it is not a simple call. A brand that works in one country may mean little in another, and MINI has to weigh how each of its markets would respond.

Why too many special editions is a real danger

The sharpest exchange came when the conversation turned to whether MINI risks over-doing it. Hampf agreed that it does.

“It’s easy to over-extend… Yes, it’s dangerous. Especially when you lose the ‘why did they do this.’ So we’re very careful.” 

He counted only “a handful” of companies he could imagine as a good match. He also said sequence matters. After a fashion or customisation partner, MINI should not follow with something too similar in the next couple of years. Another outdoor brand is possible, he said, but not as a reflex. His central point was about the product, not the partner.

“We don’t just want the collaboration. We want the outcome of that collaboration to be a very desirable car.”

He added that he could call five companies tomorrow, and that they would all work with MINI and put their names on a car. That is exactly what he does not want to do.

“If I think I can create something nice with another company, yeah, I’ll do it. But too many partnerships is not good.”

Three lanes, one believable brand

Hampf described MINI’s current identity as a set of segments that each have to feel authentic. Rally and John Cooper Works are the performance lane. Paul Smith covers lifestyle, urban design and fashion. The Countryman Untamed adds outdoor adventure.

His test for any of them is simple.

“I don’t want customers to scratch their head and say, ‘I don’t get it.'” 

That also explains his view of the one-off concepts, such as the Vagabond collaboration in Austria, where he acted as art director and then gave the builders freedom. A one-off can be more extreme than anything he would put into production, he said, and fans reacted strongly to the connection to MINI’s rally history. Those projects are a way to learn what people want, not a preview of the showroom.

Protecting a brand with a long memory

Hampf kept returning to the idea that MINI has more history and a more committed fan base than most brands, and that comes with obligations.

“With a brand like MINI… there is something to protect about it. It’s not ‘oh, let’s try this.'” 

He used Britishness as an example of a theme brands reach for often. It is not easy, he said, and the story has to be handled carefully because it can go wrong.

MINI could fill its range with limited editions and name-brand partners tomorrow, and Hampf knows it. What he described instead is a short list, a possible US partner, and a clear view that every collaboration has to end in a car people want to drive. Paul Smith set the standard, and the next partner will be measured against it.

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Those figures come from BMW of North America’s Q3 2026 sales report, which gives MINI two sentences and a table. The table is where the story is.

The numbers at a glance

The Convertible is closing in on the Cooper Hardtop 2 Door

Year to date, the Cooper Convertible has sold 3,887 cars against 4,021 for the Cooper Hardtop 2 Door, and it has already passed the Cooper Hardtop 4 Door at 3,669. In Q3 alone the gap to the 2 Door was just 70 cars (1,359 against 1,429), and the Convertible beat the 4 Door by six.

A year ago, the Convertible trailed the 2 Door by 2,534 cars through the first nine months (2,756 against 5,290). It has closed nearly all of that.

A summer quarter flatters a drop-top, so the Q3 gain of 29.8% on its own would be easy to wave away. The year-to-date figure of +41.0% is harder to dismiss. That is nine months of growth, not a sunny-weather blip.

MINI’s release offers no explanation, so what follows is analysis, not reporting. Availability and pricing against the Hardtop are the questions worth putting to MINI retailers. What the numbers do show is that the Cooper Convertible now accounts for about a fifth of MINI USA’s volume, which is a lot of weight for a niche body style.

The Countryman problem

The Countryman fell from 3,323 to 2,390 in the quarter. That is 933 fewer sales, more than the entire brand’s decline of 739. Take the Countryman out and the rest of the lineup sold 4,141 cars against 3,947 a year ago, up 4.9%.

That cuts both ways. The Cooper range is not collapsing, but MINI USA leans heavily on one model. The Countryman is still 42.8% of year-to-date volume (8,670 of 20,248), so when it stumbles, the brand’s totals follow. One caveat: the sales chart does not split the Countryman by powertrain, so we cannot say whether the slide is gas, electric or both.

Hardtops: the 4 Door holds, the 2 Door fades

The Cooper Hardtop 2 Door, the car the Cooper name was built on, sold 1,429 in Q3, down 9.2%. Year to date it is down 24.0%, from 5,290 to 4,021. The 4 Door did better, up 2.0% in the quarter, though it is still 11.2% behind for the year.

Combine the two Hardtops and Q3 was down a modest 4.0% (2,782 against 2,899). Year to date they are down 18.4% (7,690 against 9,422). Do the subtraction and the first half was far worse, with Hardtop sales down roughly 25%. That is the closest thing to good news for the core Cooper Hardtop line: the bleeding has slowed. The Clubman, meanwhile, is a rounding error, with one sale all year.

The broader BMW context

BMW brand sales rose 3.4% to 100,210 cars in the same quarter. MINI’s share of BMW of North America’s total volume slipped from 7.0% to 6.1%. One rough piece of arithmetic: spread across the 104 MINI retailers listed in the release, Q3 works out to about 63 cars per retailer, or roughly 21 a month. It uses the current network rather than the Q3 average, so treat it as a sketch, but it shows how little room a small-volume brand has when one model has a bad quarter.

What to watch

Q4 will be decided by the Countryman, which has to recover for the brand’s trend to move back toward flat. The Convertible’s run is the other number to track. If it holds, the Cooper Hardtop 2 Door could lose its place as the best-selling Cooper in the US, which would have been hard to imagine a year ago.

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The short version: it is a weekend car, built for the 80 percent of driving that happens on tarmac, with enough lift, rubber and protection to make a gravel road feel like an invitation rather than a risk.

The MINI Countryman Untamed Edition at a glance

• ALL4 all-wheel drive in the US, on the Countryman S and the electric SE
• A 15 mm suspension lift, adding roughly three-quarters of an inch of ground clearance, with ABS, stability control and steering recalibrated (availability depending on marketing)
• 19-inch wheels with Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tires, standard in North America
• Frozen Nomad Blue, MINI’s first regular-production matte paint, plus Nomad Blue and Hideaway Grey
• Underbody protection front and rear, a restyled grille, and a mountain-range Untamed logo
• In the US, a $1,600 Untamed Edition package that requires the $3,400 Iconic Trim
• Production in Leipzig from November 2026, with US deliveries expected in the first quarter of 2027

Balance first, rock crawling never

The obvious question for any lifted crossover is how far MINI was willing to go. Hampf’s answer was that the limit was never technical. It was brand.

“Most important to me is to strike a balance of retaining MINI, making something essentially MINI that feels very right as a brand, and then branching out and offering a slightly more extreme character. But that has to be in balance.”

He was blunt about the competition. A Countryman built to out-crawl a Bronco would be a worse Countryman, and a worse MINI.

“Making something that people would compare to a Bronco or a Rubicon doesn’t feel very meaningful. It also comes with sacrifices in comfort.”

His reasoning is about how people actually use these cars. Oversized tires look the part, then show up in noise and vibration on every commute.

“Still 80 percent road use, maybe 20 percent or even less off-road.”

He had a line for the other end of that bargain too. The Untamed has to be believable when the pavement ends.

“One thing that would upset me is if you take it on a gravel trail and it would perform badly.”

The hardware reflects that. A modest lift, all-terrain tires, recalibrated stability and steering systems, and underbody protection add up to a car that handles forest roads and trailheads, not a low-range trail machine. Hampf was happy to say that other vehicles at the Tahoe event were more capable.

A weekend escape, not a build sheet

The Untamed’s job description, in Hampf’s words, is almost domestic.

“I want this to be a weekend escape. I want this to sit in your driveway, ready to go Friday afternoon, two, three nights.”

That framing explains the accessories. MINI developed a roof tent with Autohome and a camping collection with Helinox, and the roof carries 165 lb in motion and 661 lb stationary. It also explains why he is relaxed about owners taking things further. He pointed to the way Mercedes Sprinter vans are customised in the US, often into something unrecognisable from the delivery van underneath.

“Could you go more extreme? Yes, always. But I also leave this to the customers.”

For Hampf, individualisation is already part of MINI ownership. The factory car does not need to start at the extreme end.

A new segment: the family weekend away

The Untamed also opens a door MINI has not really walked through. Hampf described the buyer as a family with a dog, two bikes and a plan for Saturday.

“The family’s weekend escape with your dog, two bikes and a bike rack. That is interesting to me, because MINI so far had its limitations.”

Historically, he said, a MINI was the second or third car in the household, with something bigger taken on the weekend. The Countryman Untamed is an attempt to be the only car that makes the trip, while staying “small and authentic MINI”. It sits alongside the brand’s other lanes: rally and JCW performance, and the lifestyle and fashion world of the Paul Smith edition.

What about the rally history?

It is tempting to draw a line from the Untamed back to the first-generation Countryman’s WRC years. Hampf did not see it that way.

He said he sees the car as more about light off-road activity than competition. Rally heritage, for now, belongs to John Cooper Works. He added “never say never” when pressed on top level rallying, but asked that it not be read as confirmation of anything. A MINI spokesperson added that the brand not only supports the MINI JCW Team in the American Rally Association and the team currently racing in the Rebelle Rally in an Untamed.

What he did describe is a broader brand structure. MINI stands for fun to drive, performance sits under the JCW roof, and adventure is a pillar growing in importance next to it.

“It’s not one or the other. It’s both.”

We’ll have more from our time with Holger Hampf later this week. But in our time with MINI’s head of design, two things are clear to us. First, the Untamed Edition is designed very purposefully to be a light off-roader, with added capability and without losing what makes the Countryman fun to drive on tarmac. Second, MINI’s head of design is looking at the big picture, and he spoke at length about the brand as a whole. How MINI will choose its collaborators, and why he thinks too many special editions can do more harm than good. How the brand will balance its rally and John Cooper Works performance roots, its lifestyle side and a growing adventure pillar. And how MINI plans to keep the current range fresh while the studio works on what comes next. That conversation is coming soon.

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We start with a walkaround of the changes that matter, from the bespoke Pirelli tires on 19-inch wheels and the underbody protection to the 15 mm lift, which brings up to 19 mm of extra ground clearance. Then we tour the interior, where the gray and blue knit dash, dark steel trim and strap details set the edition apart from a standard Countryman.

The second half is the drive. We take the Untamed Edition onto back roads and a light trail in the Sierra Nevada, with DSC off, to see how the longer dampers, bespoke ABS and DSC tuning and new tires work together. The short version: it’s no Jeep, but it’s a capable light off-roader that still drives like a MINI on the road, if a little dulled by the tires.

In the US, the Countryman S ALL4 Untamed Edition costs about $44,000 and the electric SE about $50,000, with availability in the first quarter of 2027. For the full breakdown, including the AUTOHOME roof tent and how the edition differs by market, read our full first drive review.

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That’s the point of the Untamed Edition. It’s the first Countryman that backs up its off-road looks, thanks to a handful of thoughtful changes: up to 19 mm of extra ground clearance, bespoke all-terrain tires and recalibrated traction and stability software. MINI isn’t trying to build a true off-roader here. It has built a capable one that still drives like a MINI on tarmac and through the corners.

We spent our time in the Sierra Nevada on low-traction mountain roads, a rocky light trail and winding mountain tarmac. Here’s what we found.

What the Untamed Edition is

The Untamed Edition is MINI’s first factory off-road take on the U25 Countryman. It is an edition, not a limited run, and it will be offered in almost any Countryman color. Our car was the Countryman S ALL4, which MINI USA will price at about $44,000. The electric SE version follows at roughly $50,000. Production starts in November at BMW Group Plant Leipzig, with cars reaching North American dealers around January.

We first reported an off-road Countryman package in March 2025, then watched a prototype testing in the Rocky Mountains. [Link to the debut article here.] This is the first time we have driven the finished car.

The tires change the game

The Untamed Edition rides on bespoke Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tires, size 245/45 R19, fitted to exclusive 19-inch Untamed Edition Spoke wheels. The tread is chunky, with big shoulder blocks, and it gives the Countryman grip no MINI we have driven has ever had. On loose surfaces and low-traction climbs it kept finding purchase when we expected it to run out.

It’s worth separating this from what MINI has offered before. The brand has sold an accessory setup for light off-road use, pairing General Grabber AT3 all-terrain tires with 18-inch MINI wheels. The Untamed Edition goes further, with a larger wheel and a more aggressive tire that delivers even more grip.

The trade-off is small. There is some added road noise from the all-terrain rubber, but it is modest. A 45-profile sidewall is also a road-first choice on a car with trail ambitions, so we would like more time on sharp rock before calling it a non-issue.

What MINI changed underneath

The lift is 15 millimeters, which MINI says gives up to 19 millimeters of extra ground clearance depending on market and powertrain. It comes from longer dampers. The springs are the same as a standard Countryman, which is an interesting choice and explains why the car still feels like a MINI.

The rest is protection and software. The Untamed Edition gets front and rear skid plates, a redesigned rear diffuser and matte black protective cladding on the wheel arches and sills, with a dashed texture molded into the arch surfaces to shrug off gravel. The ABS, DSC and steering calibration are all bespoke, tuned to work with the new tires, and ALL4 all-wheel drive is standard. MINI has not published approach, departure or ramp angles yet.

Driving impressions off-road

Nineteen millimeters of increased ground clearance sounds minimal, and it would be easy to dismiss. On the light trail sections, though, it was enough to change the approach angle in a way you could feel and give you confidence where you’d normally have little. While this is not a true off-roader, I was surprised and some of the approach angles I could achieve. That said MINI could have done a bit more in terms of underbody reinforcements. While the skid-plate is modified, it’s subtle and is still made of plastic. Furthermore we scraped the bottom of the bumper on some approaches (which you can see in the video) which had us wondering if MINI should have re-profiled the bottom of the air intake slightly.

All that said traction is the real headline, and the lift is a helpful bonus.

That sandy hill is a good example. With DSC off, the car stayed composed and kept moving, and the quick steering that makes a Countryman fun on tarmac works just as well here. You know where each contact patch is, and the car is nimble when the surface keeps changing. The articulation surprised us more than anything else. For a car based on a street platform, MINI has engineered wheel travel well beyond what we expected, and our photos show it working across a granite slab, one rear wheel up on the rock while the opposite front sits lower.

This is not a Jeep, and MINI never claims it is. It is a capable light off-roader, which is something we have never been able to say about the brand before.

Driving impressions on-road

The increase in ride height and off-road tires if the Untamed Edition contributed to a slightly more relaxed feeling Countryman. There’s slightly more body roll in corners of the raised US spec version and a little less sharpness on turn-in. But these are small tradeoffs that some might actually prefer. The longer dampers allow more travel and a bit more comfort while the tires soak-up imperfections creating the most comfortable Countryman we’ve ever driven. Critically it still felt like the Countryman we know; predictable and eager.

Design and interior

In person, the Untamed Edition looks better than the spec sheet suggests. The new grille uses a vertical pattern that has a hint of Jeep to it. The dark steel trim and matte black graphics look modest alone, and together with the three new colors (Hideaway Grey, Nomad Blue and Frozen Nomad Blue) they make a noticeably different Countryman. Our car wore Frozen Nomad Blue, the first matte paint ever offered by MINI in global series production, and it is a bold choice for a car meant for gravel roads. But as Head of MINI Design Holger Hampf explained it works particularly well with the U25’s surfaces.

Inside, MINI made some thoughtful choices. The dash and door panels use what MINI calls “Millennial Melange”. Rather than a flat color, the yarn uses a bespoke two-tone woven design combining a dark heather grey surface layer stitched tightly over an intense, rich blue base. This reveals glimpses of blue undercurrents depending on how light hits the cabin textures.

The standard sport seats are finished in Nightshade Blue sport seats alongside Cornflower Blue contrast details.

For the interior trim MINI uses the same Dark Steel we see outside. It completely replaces the standard “Vibrant Silver” accents found on other Countryman variants and creates a more technical and robust off-road look.

MINI’s AUTOHOME tent Completes the package

MINI is selling the outdoor idea as a package. The roof tent, developed with Italian specialist AUTOHOME, is a first for the North American market, where it will be offered as an aftersales accessory for about $5,000. Elsewhere you can order it direct from AUTOHOME for € 5,049.00.

The tent is built around a 100 percent fiberglass shell, with an insulated sandwich base reinforced by two steel C-shaped bars. The Medium size, which sleeps two adults and one child, measures 145 by 210 centimeters when open and 150 centimeters tall inside. Closed, it stands 30 centimeters above the roof. It weighs about 65 kilograms including the ladder, and clamps to the roof rack with four steel clamps. Two gas springs raise it automatically. The fabric is AIRTEX, which AUTOHOME describes as weather-proof and tear-proof, and the tent comes with a high-density mattress and two pillows. Each side has a door with a roll-up mosquito net, which zips into a window, and a full-size rear opening adjusts in six positions. Inside you get a touch-sensitive three-LED light with a 12-volt battery, an elastic roof net and two fold-away pockets. The height-adjustable aluminum ladder includes a safety clamp and a zip cover.

In my brief time with it, I found the tent surprisingly sturdy and well built, despite how light it is. At 6’2″, I had no trouble getting comfortable inside, and getting in and out was simple.

Even so, weight is the figure to watch. At about 65 kilograms, the tent leaves little headroom under the Countryman’s 75-kilogram roof load rating while driving, but plenty under the 300 kilograms allowed when stationary, which is what matters once you’re asleep up there. The 30-centimeter closed height also adds to the car’s overall height, so check garage and parking clearances before you commit. With the optional tow hitch, the car can pull up to 2,000 kilograms.

In addition, MINI has partnered with outdoor equipment specialist HELINOX to create an exclusive camping collection. Folding chairs and camping tables are all part of the package and like the AUTOHOME tent, they combine functionality, lightweight construction and outstanding build quality.

Specification and pricing differs wildly by market

The Untamed Edition won’t be identical everywhere. MINI says availability of variants, powertrains and equipment varies by market, and even the headline ground clearance gain of up to 19 millimeters depends on market and powertrain. In North America, the edition arrives as the Countryman S ALL4 at about $44,000 and the electric SE at roughly $50,000, with the tent sold separately as an accessory. But in Europe and elsewhere the Untamed arrives a bit more tamed. For instance in the EU the 15 mm lift is only offered on the electric E and SE ALL4. The all-terrain tyres are optional across the board, and the tow bar is optional too.

MINI hasn’t explained the split. Our read, and it is analysis rather than anything MINI has said, is that it comes down to CO2. A taller Countryman on knobbier tyres carries more drag and rolling resistance, which would push WLTP emissions up on the petrol and diesel cars as every gram counts against EU fleet targets. An EV pays for the same changes in range, not grams and there’s no regulation against losing a mile or two of range.

Our verdict

The Untamed Edition is a convincing step for MINI, and a far more serious answer than the Adventure packages that added all-terrain tires without changing the car underneath. It suits buyers who want a Countryman for rough mountain roads, gravel and the occasional trail without giving up daily usability. It will not satisfy anyone who expects a rock crawler, but it’s hard to imagine anyone thinking MINI would offer one.

What MINI has done instead is build a car with more capability on the trail without spoiling the on-road driving experience we all love. The lasting impression I took away is that MINI has found a formula so convincing it feels like it should have been offered on the Countryman all along. In markets like North America, it might just become a smash hit.

We still want to know the approach and departure angles, what the SE brings to the party, and how it holds up over longer, tougher terrain. We will have more drives and impressions soon. Everything we have covered so far lives in our U25 MINI Countryman hub, and the history of MINI’s off-road concepts explains why it took this long to get here.

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The surprises don’t stop there. In the UK, the electric SE, the only British Untamed with the full hardware, costs just £250 more than the petrol S. Europe’s version can tow more than America’s, despite having less capability as standard. And going Untamed costs roughly the same on both sides of the Atlantic, even though American buyers get significantly more for their money.

We covered the car itself and US pricing. Now that MINI USA, MINI UK and MINI Germany have all published their details, here’s how the three markets compare.

The specification split at a glance

What doesn’t change

The design and interior are the same everywhere. Every Untamed Edition gets the vertical Dark Steel grille, the underbody protection elements, the textured matt black films, the C-pillar mountain logo and the 19-inch Untamed Edition Spoke wheels. Inside, every car gets the same Vescin Nightshade Blue sport seats, with Vescin Vintage Brown and Vescin Black as alternatives. MINI UK calls them JCW sports seats, but that’s a naming convention, not different hardware.

The colour palette is global too. Hideaway Grey and Nomad Blue are joined by Nanuq White and Midnight Black. Frozen Nomad Blue, the first matt finish in MINI series production, arrives worldwide at the same time.

The differences are all mechanical, and they’re the ones that matter.

North America: the complete version

North America gets the Untamed Edition as MINI clearly intended it. Both US models, the Countryman S ALL4 and the all-electric SE ALL4, come with the 15 mm lift, the Untamed-specific chassis calibration and Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tires on 19-inch Untamed Edition Spoke wheels as standard. A factory trailer hitch is also standard, rated to tow 3,500 pounds.

There’s no front-wheel-drive Untamed in the US, which removes the awkward mismatch elsewhere between the off-road look and the drivetrain underneath. Every American Untamed has ALL4, the lift and the tires. It’s the only market where you can’t accidentally buy the costume without the hardware.

United Kingdom: one fully realised car

The UK gets four powertrains, the C, S, E and SE, but the hardware is spread thin. MINI UK fits the 15 mm lift only to the SE. The all-terrain tires are optional, and only on the S and SE. The C and the front-drive E get the Untamed design and interior, but neither the lift nor the tyres.

That makes the SE the only UK Untamed with the full specification, and the pricing makes the case for it. At £40,775, the SE is just £250 more than the petrol S at £40,525. For that, the SE gets the lift the S doesn’t, plus electric running costs. If you’re buying an Untamed in Britain for what it can do, rather than how it looks, the SE is the obvious choice.

The tow bar is optional, rated at 2,000 kg. The AUTOHOME roof tent is sold directly by AUTOHOME rather than through MINI retailers.

Europe: the lift is for EVs only

Mainland Europe has the broadest range of powertrains, with the C, D, S ALL4, E and SE ALL4 depending on market, and the narrowest hardware spread. The 15 mm lift is only offered on the electric E and SE ALL4. The all-terrain tyres are optional across the board, and the tow bar is optional too.

MINI hasn’t explained the split. Our read, and it is analysis rather than anything MINI has said, is that it comes down to CO2. A taller Countryman on knobbier tyres carries more drag and rolling resistance, which would push WLTP emissions up on the petrol and diesel cars as every gram counts against EU fleet targets. An EV pays for the same changes in range, not grams and there’s no regulation against losing a mile or two of range.

The result is that a European Countryman C or D Untamed on standard tyres is mechanically very close to the regular car. It’s the F60 Untamed formula again: a strong design edition wearing an adventurous name.

One other difference worth noting. The tow rating of up to 2,000 kg works out to roughly 4,400 pounds, comfortably above the US figure of 3,500 pounds. However that reflects different rating standards on each side of the Atlantic rather than different hardware.

Pricing by market

Comparing across currencies is never clean, but the structure tells a story. In the US, the Untamed content itself costs $1,600. It does require Iconic Trim with the Comfort Package Plus ($3,400), so the real step up from a base $38,900 S ALL4 is $5,000. In Germany, the Untamed Edition is a flat €4,700 supplement, including VAT. Switzerland follows the same pattern at CHF 4,990.

On that basis, the headline cost of going Untamed is broadly similar in the US and Europe. What that money buys isn’t. An American buyer gets the lift, the tyres and the hitch included. A German buyer of a petrol or diesel Untamed gets neither the lift nor, unless they pay extra, the tires.

Our take

The Untamed Edition is the rare MINI that works best in America. That makes sense, given that it was tested in the Rocky Mountains, revealed at Lake Tahoe and debuted in the Nevada desert at the Rebelle Rally. Given what we heard at the car’s launch, MINI built this car primarily for North American buyers, and the US spec reflects that, with no front-drive versions, no lift-less versions and no tyre option to forget to tick.

In the UK and Europe, the Untamed is a more nuanced proposition. Buy the E or SE, add the all-terrain tires, and you get essentially the same car Americans do. Buy anything else and you get a very handsome Countryman with an off-road look it can’t fully back up. The design is identical everywhere. The capability isn’t.

The post MINI Countryman Untamed Edition: Why North America Gets the Better Car appeared first on MotoringFile.

We argued back in July that this entry was really a preview of the off-road Countryman, and that the rally would be its first public exam. Now the car has a name, a [US price of $43,900](LINK: pricing story) and a starting line. What it doesn’t have yet is proof. That’s what the next ten days are for.

Why the Rebelle is the right test

The Rebelle Rally isn’t a speed event. It’s a navigation competition for women, scored on precision rather than pace, and it punishes bad judgment far more than a lack of horsepower. That makes it a smart venue for a car like the Untamed Edition, which was never meant to be a Baja racer. It was built to be a slightly more capable Countryman that looks the part, and the Rebelle tests exactly that kind of capability. Can it get there, keep going and get back?

It’s also a test with a scoreboard. BMW Group has been running this playbook since 2019, starting with a Rolls-Royce Cullinan and then a BMW X2 in 2023, an X3 in 2024 and an X5 in 2025. Last year’s nearly production-spec X5 took the Bone Stock Award and finished second overall in the X-Cross class. That’s the bar MINI inherits. Matching it won’t be easy.

Meet the team

The driver is Felicia Killman of Lacey, Washington, an American Rally Association competitor and longtime MINI enthusiast. She has co-driven at regional and national level with the grassroots team Lab Rat Garage, and has navigated nationally for the MINI JCW Rally Team. That second point matters. The JCW team has been quietly stacking up podiums in American rallying, and Killman brings that institutional knowledge into the Countryman.

In the navigator’s seat is Erika Ferrer, from BMW Group Corporate Communications in Mexico. It’s easy to raise an eyebrow at a comms staffer in a competition car, but Ferrer’s résumé shuts that down quickly. She managed championship rally teams before moving into the co-driver’s seat. She has won three consecutive regional rally co-driver championships in Mexico, and she has called notes for rally champion Benito Guerra at La Carrera Panamericana. In a rally where navigation is the whole game, that’s the more important seat.

The pairing is deliberate. Killman brings driving and MINI-community roots, Ferrer brings navigation, and both have spent the run-up training on dunes, rock and loose surfaces, along with plenty of map-and-compass work.

How the car was prepared

A BMW Group engineering team led by James Wallace, Dennis Heaphy and Eran Garma prepared the entry alongside their day jobs. Wallace describes the process as thinking through every bracket, mount and panel for what happens far from pavement, then testing, adjusting and testing again. It’s an unglamorous answer, and the right one. Rally cars rarely fail in dramatic ways. They fail because something small shakes loose on day four.

The supplier list hints at what’s been added. Thule, Pelican Cases, Morimoto Lighting, Peak Design and GoPro point to roof storage, secure cargo, auxiliary lighting and cameras. MINI Tire Center and Heinlein Racing Development cover the rubber and the rally-prep side, and MINI Motoring Protection is funding travel, shipping and media support. MINI hasn’t said which class the car is entered in, or how far it sits from showroom spec. Our read, and it’s only a read, is that it’s a lightly outfitted Untamed rather than a purpose-built special. That’s the version that would mean the most to buyers.

Underneath, the fundamentals are those of the production car. That means the 15 mm lift, up to 19 mm more ground clearance depending on market and powertrain, Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tyres on 19-inch wheels, ALL4 all-wheel drive, and ABS, DSC and steering calibrated for the new setup. The Rebelle will reveal more about that calibration work than any press drive could.

The heritage MINI is leaning on

MINI’s release reaches for the obvious history: the original Mini Cooper S’s Monte Carlo victories in 1964, 1965 and 1967, and the brand’s Dakar success with X-Raid. Both are legitimate, but neither had much to do with a showroom Countryman. Monte Carlo was won by small, light cars outfoxing bigger ones on tarmac and ice. The Dakar wins came from a purpose-built racer that shared little more than a silhouette with the road car.

The Rebelle is different, and arguably more relevant to anyone actually shopping for a Countryman. This is a production-based crossover, driven by a privateer-rooted crew, on terrain a buyer might plausibly try to reach on a long weekend. If the Untamed Edition gets through 1,500 GPS-free miles without drama, that will say more about the car than any heritage reel.

How to follow along

Live tracking starts October 9 on the Rebelle Rally live page, with coverage on the rally’s YouTube, Instagram and Facebook channels and daily email updates from the organisers. MINI USA will post updates on Instagram and TikTok, and we’ll be following the team’s progress here throughout the event.

Our take

Entering the Rebelle is a confident move. It’s one thing to put a mountain logo on a C-pillar and a lift under the car. It’s another to send that car into ten days of desert in front of an audience that knows exactly what the BMW X5 achieved last year. MINI has given itself a public pass-fail test on day one of the Untamed Edition’s life.

We think it’ll pass. The production hardware is sensible, the preparation sounds methodical, and the crew is stronger than a lifestyle-marketing exercise would need. A clean, quiet finish would do more for the Untamed Edition’s credibility than a podium would. If MINI gets a podium as well, the name might finally start to sound earned.

The post MINI Rebelle Rally: The Countryman Untamed Edition Takes On 1,500 Miles With No GPS appeared first on MotoringFile.

MINI USA will offer the edition on two cars: the Countryman S ALL4 Untamed Edition and the all-electric Countryman SE ALL4 Untamed Edition. Pricing for the SE ALL4 isn’t official but we hear that will be around $50,000.

How the $43,900 breaks down

What $1,600 actually buys

This is where the value case gets hard to argue with. The Untamed content includes:

• The 15 mm suspension lift, standard in the US, with increased ground clearance and an Untamed-specific chassis calibration
• 19-inch Untamed Edition Spoke wheels with Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tyres
• Dark Steel exterior details, including the grille surround, badging and underbody protection elements
• Textured protective films on the wheel arches, side sills and bonnet
• Exclusive Hideaway Grey and Nomad Blue paint
• Vescin Nightshade Blue sport seats with grey knit surfaces and Cornflower Blue accents
• Untamed logos, a redesigned centre console storage box, and rubber floor and luggage mats

Put that in context. A set of quality 19-inch wheels and all-terrain tyres from the aftermarket would likely cost more than $1,600 on its own. That’s before a lift, before any electronics calibration and before anything changes inside. Until now, MINI’s own answer to this buyer was the port-installed Adventure packages, which we described as grip, not engineering. The Untamed Edition costs barely more than a dress-up package and delivers engineered hardware.

The standard factory trailer hitch adds to the case. In the US, the Untamed Edition can tow up to 3,500 pounds. Roof load capacity is 165 pounds on the move and 661 pounds when parked, which matters once a tent goes up top.

The catch: there’s no stripped-down Untamed

The one real caveat is how you get there. Because Iconic Trim with the Comfort Package Plus is required, the true price of entry is $43,900, not $38,900 plus $1,600. If you want the lift, wheels and tyres without the premium trim, there’s no way to spec it.

That’s a reasonable trade, though. Iconic with Comfort Package Plus is where most well-equipped Countryman S ALL4s end up anyway, and it fits the car’s role as a do-everything road-trip machine. It just means the Untamed Edition is a well-equipped car first and a bargain second.

Where the price climbs

The options list is short. The Comfort Package Max is $900, a universal garage door opener is $250, and a space-saver spare is $300. Tick that last one. A car built for forest roads and trailheads is exactly the car you don’t want on a tyre repair kit, miles from pavement. With all three, an S ALL4 Untamed comes to $45,350 before destination, or $46,700 delivered.

Buyers can also choose Midnight Black Metallic or Nanuq White Metallic with a body-colour contrast roof, and Vescin Vintage Brown or Vescin Black upholstery as alternatives to the edition-specific choices.

One notable absence is Frozen Nomad Blue, the matt finish MINI calls the first in its series production. It doesn’t appear on the US price sheet, and MINI USA hasn’t said whether it will arrive later. For a car whose launch imagery leans so heavily on that colour, it’s a conspicuous omission.

The AUTOHOME roof tent: expect around $5,000

The AUTOHOME roof tent is sold separately, and US pricing is still being finalised. We expect it to land at roughly $5,000. That’s in line with a hard-shell, handcrafted Italian tent with gas-strut opening, and it would put a fully optioned S ALL4 Untamed with the tent at roughly $51,700 delivered.

That’s real money. But it’s still a turnkey, factory-backed weekend camper for less than many competitors charge before they’ve added a single accessory. We’ll update with confirmed tent pricing as soon as MINI USA releases it.

What about the SE ALL4?

MINI USA will announce pricing for the electric Countryman SE ALL4 Untamed Edition later. Expect it to follow the S ALL4’s structure, with the same $1,600 Untamed content on top of the SE ALL4’s higher base price. We’ll know for sure when MINI publishes it.

Our take

MINI could easily have charged a premium for this car. It has the look, a real mechanical story and a buyer base that has been asking for exactly this for years. Instead it priced the Untamed content at $1,600, less than many cosmetic packages, and included a lift, tuned electronics and proper all-terrain rubber in that figure.

The required trim stops it from being a cheap car, and the missing matt paint is a shame. But for anyone who was going to buy a well-equipped Countryman S ALL4 anyway, the Untamed Edition is close to an automatic upgrade. US deliveries begin in early 2027.stination and Handling charge.

The post MINI Countryman Untamed Edition Priced at $43,900, and It Just Might Be a Bargain appeared first on MotoringFile.

It also lines up almost point for point with what we first reported in 2025 and have tracked through Colorado testing and the Rebelle Rally entry. The question was never whether MINI would build it. It was whether MINI would build a more capable Countryman or just a better-dressed one. The answer depends heavily on where you live.

Mostly what we expected and a few things we didn’t

Our original reporting described a subtle lift, unique wheels, all-terrain tires and revised trim inside and out, and Holger Hampf later confirmed the car was engineered with off-road intent from the start. All of that holds. The lift is 15 mm, the wheels are bespoke 19s, the tires are a Pirelli developed specifically for this car, and the design changes run well beyond a graphics pack.

The suspension is where that reporting mattered most. We expected a reworked, firmer setup with a subtle lift rather than a pile of bolt-on hardware, and that’s what MINI delivered. It paired the lift with recalibrated ABS, DSC and steering, all tuned around the new ride height and tires. In our look at what might be under the skin, we explored how far MINI could push the concept, from terrain modes to more ambitious suspension options. MINI took the simpler path. For a Countryman that still has to be a comfortable daily driver, that’s a defensible choice.

The name is the real surprise. MINI’s own teasers leaned on Rugged Edition, a badge MINI South Africa had already used on a 100-unit paint-and-tires run in January. Instead, MINI has brought back Untamed, a name we once called arguably the worst MINI had ever used when it appeared on the F60 Countryman. Fourteen thousand miles in our own F60 Untamed won us over on the car, if not the name. Still, the old car was mechanically identical to any other Countryman. This one finally gives the name something to live up to.

The technical changes are small numbers with real consequences

The suspension lift is 15 mm, which translates to up to 19 mm of additional ground clearance depending on market and powertrain. MINI doesn’t break down where the extra 4 mm comes from, but the taller all-terrain tyre is the likely contributor. Approach and breakover angles are improved, though MINI hasn’t published figures yet.

For perspective, the 2020 X-Raid Countryman ran a 40 mm lift. This is a measured step rather than an overlanding kit, and that’s deliberate. It keeps the Countryman a Countryman, with the U25’s on-road composure largely intact, rather than turning it into a caricature of something from Moab.

The tires matter more than the lift. The Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus is new, and it replaces the approach MINI has taken until now: port-installed General Grabber AT3s on the US Adventure packages and the South African car. We described those as grip, not engineering. The difference here is that ABS, DSC and steering have been tuned around the tyre, so the car’s electronics actually know what’s on the corners.

There’s a tension in the wheel choice. Nineteen inches is a lot of wheel for an all-terrain tyre, since sidewall is exactly what you want when airing down on rocks or washboard. It’s also what preserves steering precision and handling on tarmac, where these cars will spend nearly all their lives. MINI chose the road, and for most buyers that’s the right call.

Then there’s all-wheel drive. MINI’s release leans hard on ALL4, but three of the five launch variants (C, D and E) are front-wheel drive. Only the S ALL4 and SE ALL4 send power to both axles. A front-drive Untamed on all-terrain rubber will be perfectly happy on a gravel road to a trailhead. It is not the car the dust-cloud press photo implies.

Load ratings round it out. An optional tow bar allows up to 2,000 kg, while roof load is 75 kg on the move and 300 kg when parked. That static figure is the one that matters, because it’s what makes the new roof tent viable with two adults inside.

The roof tent and camping kit are the lifestyle play

The tent is developed with Italian specialist AUTOHOME and opens in seconds thanks to integrated gas struts. The hard shell and tent are handcrafted in Italy, with a glass-fibre reinforced construction for insulation and durability, plus panoramic openings. MINI and AUTOHOME aren’t new partners; an F60 Countryman carried one of their tents through the Swedish archipelago in 2022, back when those accessories simply weren’t sold in North America. Given that this car’s strongest specification is the North American one, it would be odd if that remained true.

MINI has also partnered with HELINOX on a camping collection of folding chairs and tables in Untamed design. Pleasant, lightweight, and exactly the kind of thing that looks better in a launch video than it will ever matter to the car.

How the Untamed Edition differs by market

This is where the story gets interesting. Depending on the market, the Untamed Edition will be offered on the Countryman C, D, S ALL4, E and SE ALL4. There’s no JCW. But the hardware that actually makes it more capable is split sharply by region.

North America gets the real thing. Every Untamed variant can have the lift, and the all-terrain tires come standard. MINI USA hasn’t confirmed its variants, but since it doesn’t sell the Countryman C or the diesel, expect the US lineup to centre on the S ALL4 and SE ALL4. That’s fitting. The Rocky Mountain testing, the Rebelle Rally entry and the Lake Tahoe dateline all tell you which market this car was built for.

Europe is more complicated. The lift is reserved for the electric models, and the tires are an option. Our read, and it is analysis rather than anything MINI has said, is that this comes down to emissions. A taller Countryman on knobbier tires carries more drag and rolling resistance, which would push WLTP CO2 figures up on the combustion cars at a time when every gram counts against fleet targets. An EV pays for the same changes in range, not grams.

The consequence is that a European Countryman C Untamed on standard tires is, mechanically, very close to a regular Countryman C. It gets the grille, the underbody pieces and the interior, but not the lift. That’s essentially the F60 Untamed formula again: a strong design edition wearing an adventurous name.

Range deserves a note too. MINI quotes the standard WLTP figures for the electric models, 454 to 500 km for the Countryman E and 424 to 467 km for the SE ALL4, which reflect the range increase that arrived with March 2026 production. No Untamed-specific numbers have been published. With a lift and all-terrain tires, expect the real-world figure to land at the low end of those ranges or below.

The exterior finally looks the part

The design centrepiece is a reworked front grille with vertically oriented geometry and angular inserts, framed by a surround in a new accent finish called Dark Steel. It makes the front end look more upright and more purposeful, which is precisely what the U25’s face needed for this role.

Below that, new side sills, redesigned front and rear underbody protection elements and a newly sculpted rear diffuser add bulk. Textured matt black protective films cover the wheel arches, side sills and the Power Dome, the raised section of the bonnet, guarding against stone chips. Films are a clever way to add texture and protection without the weight or bulk of plastic cladding, though they’re protection from gravel, not from rocks. How robust those underbody elements actually are is one of the first things we want to see in person.

Dark Steel is doing a lot of work here. It covers the MINI emblems front and rear, the Countryman lettering, the grille surround and the underbody pieces. The Untamed logo, now a stylised mountain motif, sits on the C-pillar rather than splashed across the side scuttles as it was on the F60.

The new 19-inch Untamed Edition Spoke wheel takes its cue from classic off-road steel wheels, with five heavy spokes, technical fastening details and a Dark Steel MINI wordmark on the centre cap. It’s the most convincing wheel design MINI has done for the U25 so far.

Five colours are offered. Hideaway Grey, Nomad Blue and Frozen Nomad Blue are exclusive to the edition, with Nanuq White and Midnight Black also available, and roofs in Glazed White or Jet Black. Frozen Nomad Blue is the first matt finish in MINI series production, and it suits the Countryman’s surfacing, making its contours read more clearly than any gloss colour does.

Inside, outdoor gear is the brief

The cabin borrows from technical outdoor equipment. The headline is a set of Vescin Nightshade Blue sport seats, combining perforated Vescin with knitted surfaces at the shoulders and headrests. The knit pattern is inspired by rock formations, with Cornflower Blue piping and stitching and an integrated Untamed mountain logo.

Knit continues on the dashboard and door panels in a new Millennial Melange tone, dark grey over a blue base. Interior accents switch from Vibrant Silver to Dark Steel, with Cornflower Blue on the steering wheel strap and spoke. The centre console storage box gets a chunkier shape with elastic retaining straps that reference backpacks and climbing gear. Rubber floor mats and a matching boot mat, with a three-dimensional rock pattern, are the kind of practical detail that actually earns its place in an adventure edition.

It’s a thoughtful interior, if a more restrained one than the F60 Untamed’s Highland Green leather, which remains some of the best seating MINI has offered. Whether Vescin and knit can match that is something only time in the car will answer.

Production, timing and price

Production begins at BMW Group Plant Leipzig in November 2026, with market launch in early 2027. Pricing hasn’t been announced. With the Countryman S ALL4 already at $40,500 before destination, our expectation is that a US-spec Untamed S ALL4 lands in the mid-$40,000s.

Our take

This is the Countryman MINI needed. Nobody was asking for a MINI-badged Defender or Wrangler. What many owners and shoppers wanted was a Countryman that’s slightly more capable on a forest road or a snowy trailhead, and one that looks the part when it gets there. The Untamed Edition delivers exactly that, and it’s smarter for knowing where to stop.

The name is the regret. It was a misstep on the F60 special edition, and it hasn’t improved with a second outing. It’s the kind of word that might land differently for non-native English speakers, but to native ears it tries far too hard. A car this carefully judged deserved a name with the same restraint.

Everything else is a genuine upgrade. The wheels look fantastic, and even the graphics, from the textured films to the mountain logo on the C-pillar, are more interesting than they had any right to be. Frozen Nomad Blue gives MINI its first matt paint at series level, and it suits the car. Most importantly, the mechanical changes underneath aren’t there for show. The lift, the tires and the retuned electronics are critical to what this car is meant to do, and they’re what separates it from the dress-up editions that came before.

The market split says the most

MINI has spent more than a decade building off-road credibility it never sold, from the Dakar-winning X-Raid Countryman to the Beachcomber and Clubman Scrambler concepts. The Untamed Edition is the first time that story reaches a dealer lot with real engineering attached, and the fact that North America gets the most complete version is telling. MINI clearly sees this car as a way to compete for buyers who would otherwise look at a Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness or a lifted rival, not just as another trim.

It won’t satisfy anyone hoping for air suspension, terrain modes or a JCW version. But with the next Countryman moving to Neue Klasse in 2032, the more interesting question is whether Untamed becomes a permanent part of the range rather than a one-generation experiment. If it sells in America the way MINI clearly expects, it will be.

We’ll have first-hand photos and impressions from the debut shortly.

2027 MINI Countryman Untamed Edition Photo Gallery

The post MINI Countryman Untamed Edition: The Off-Road Countryman Is Finally Here appeared first on MotoringFile.

The California leg starts in Monterey, heads north along the Pacific Coast Highway to Sonoma, then cuts east toward Lake Tahoe. MINI lists the Golden Gate Bridge, the Napa vineyards and the climb through Carson Pass among the highlights. Each day follows the familiar Rise & Rally format: breakfast, activities, music and a morning send-off before the drive.

Starting in Monterey is a nice bit of symmetry. The first MINI Takes the States launched there in August 2006, at Pirate’s Cove after the Monterey Historic races, to celebrate the arrival of the MINI GP. Over 3,300 owners signed up for that one, and it ran 3,123 miles to Connecticut. Twenty years later, the rally begins where it began.

The remix is a soundtrack

The musical theme is delivered through the YouTube Music Foundry Concert Series, one headline show per weekend. Tonight at Lake Tahoe it is Sugar Ray, with The Paradox opening. Smash Mouth plays Lake Placid on October 24 with Momo Boyd, and Fitz and The Tantrums close the series in Key West on November 14, with 8RO8 opening.

That lineup reads as an analysis point, not a stated strategy: Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth and Fitz and The Tantrums are acts that will land squarely with owners who bought into the brand in the R53 era. Whether that is clever audience matching or a nostalgia tour with a sponsor logo on it depends on how the crowds respond. On paper, it works.

This year’s cause is Best Friends Animal Society, with opportunities to support its work at stops throughout the series.

What three weekends gain, and what they cost

The new structure is the real story. Kate Alini, Head of Marketing, Product and Strategy at MINI USA, framed it as three distinct weekends in three different parts of the country. Owners can register for one, two or all three. We covered the thinking behind that when MINI announced the 2026 format and again when registration opened.

The case for it is practical. Few people can clear nine days for a cross-country run. In 2024, nearly 2,000 owners took part but 958 completed the entire route, with an average of 650 MINIs on the road each day. Most participants were already doing MTTS in pieces. A weekend format simply admits that and lowers the barrier for newcomers, of whom 2024 had 517.

The cost is the thing that made the old format mythical: one unbroken line of cars crossing a continent, with the convoy itself becoming the event. Three self-contained weekends will give you good roads and good company, but they are three rallies, not one epic. MINI is betting that access beats scale of journey. Given the numbers, it is a defensible bet, if not a free one.

What to watch

California is only the opening act. The New York weekend runs Buffalo, Syracuse and Lake Placid, past Niagara Falls and into the Adirondacks. Florida goes Fort Myers to Miami and down the Overseas Highway to Key West. Anyone still wanting in can register at MINITAKESTHESTATES.com. The real test of the remix will be whether the second and third weekends fill as well as the first, and MINI has not yet shared California turnout figures.

We will be following the rest of MTTS 2026 here on MotoringFile.

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