2024-25 Wheels Car of the Year Contender: MINI COUNTRYMAN SE ALL4

Dripping with style and personality, and packing a powerful twin motor electric powertrain that has pushed its kerb weight out to 2000kg, depending on your viewpoint the Mini Countryman SE is either a fun breath of fresh air or a gargantuan, obese and overstyled step too far for a brand made famous on the back of a very small, light car.

One thing it isn’t, however, is boring. After driving some of the more mainstream models in this year’s COTY field, slipping into the Countryman is like entering a world of hypercolour. If we gave out a gong for best interior then the Mini’s victory would be so resounding it’d make Australia’s clean sweep of the Ashes series in 2013-14 seem like a closely fought contest.

The interior’s showpiece is the knitted material used on the dash and doors, which is made entirely from recycled polyester and in our test car gradually transitions from blue into orange in much the same way as the cabin of the new McLaren W1 hypercar. The colour scheme pairs perfectly with the comfortable tan leather seats (the stitching on the upholstery uses different coloured thread for added visual interest) and the level of attention and finesse applied to almost every surface and detail is impressive. Even the middle spoke on the steering wheel, for example, is a taut cloth strap rather than a plastic or leather spar.

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Importantly, the focus on style hasn’t come at the expense of functionality. The central OLED display, which is now bigger than ever at 240mm in diameter, is crisp, fast and intuitive to use. There’s a decent amount of front storage and while Mini has tweaked the key controls to give them some flair (you twist the starter toggle, for example, rather than press a button), it’s all fairly straightforward to use.

The catch is that such a fun and individual cabin doesn’t come cheap – our dual-motor Countryman SE All4 Favoured costs $75,990 before on-roads.

One thing that’s indisputable is the impressive performance delivered by the twin electric motors. With 230kW/494Nm on tap, the Countryman is quick and it sounds unique thanks to a pronounced Hans Zimmer soundscape that delivers different noises depending on your drive mode. But while it’s quick and fluid at speed, there was no hiding the Mini’s two-tonne heft through the lane-change manoeuvre where it felt top-heavy and cumbersome.

Mini Countryman SE All4 Specifications