MINI COUNTRYMAN I CUPRA FORMENTOR I VOLVO XC40
Giant test: Mini Countryman vs rivals
Look at me! No, look at me! Me me me! There’s an outbreak of excitement in the middle of the road, starring the Cupra Formentor, Volvo XC40 and outrageous new Mini Countryman
Giant test
THE DEFINITIVE VERDICT
As I point the stubby prow of the new Mini Countryman down a wet, hedge-lined B-road towards my favourite farm shop, I have a small moment of doubt. Am I, I wonder, wasting my time, not to mention my money? Thing is, by the time you’ve added onion, peppers, cheese, mushroom, tomato, mustard and a dollop of HP Sauce, does it really matter what eggs you’ve used in your omelette?
Barn-reared, organic, free-range, richly yolked – it’s all going to taste much of a muchness.
And if the car taking you to the farm shop, or supermarket, or corner shop, or indeed petrol station, is shaped like a pumped-up Mini or a downsized XC90 or a spiky coupe-SUV, it’s the same roads to the same destination. If the experience is mostly about the shopping and the podcast you listened to on the way – and surely for many people that will be the case – then a lot of supposedly key differentiators have failed.
The cars may start out with different intentions, but they all kind of meet in the middle once you strip away the hype. Right?
The Countryman, Volvo XC40 and Cupra Formentor are here to tell me I’m wrong. They are all gagging to show that not all £30k-£40k compact family cars are the same, that there are valuable differences in how they drive and in what they say about you. Increasingly, they also want to persuade us that how they’re made and what they’re made of are significant distinguishing points.
The Volvo is the most known quantity, having been around for six years, although there have been various revisions since then. The range was for a while expensively topped by an all-electric version, but that has now morphed into the EX40, leaving a modest choice of front-wheel-drive mild hybrids. Ours is a B3 in Plus spec. The XC40 line-up currently starts at just under £36k, for the B3 in Core spec, while our Plus can be had from £39,445, although the lovely metallic paint nudges it over £40k.
Experience in various XC40s over the years suggests that it’s actually fine in its most basic form. The shapes, the simplicity, the move away from traditionally fancy fabrics – that’s all designed in.
The Cupra has been around since 2020, but I think it’s fair to say has not made quite the same impact as the XC40. Although Cupras are selling well, and the imminent Tavascan electric coupe-SUV will doubtless boost that success further, the brand identity is still a work in progress. While the Born is electric-only, and shares much with the VW ID. 3, the combustion
