The resurrected Mini brand is moving into whole new territory these days - gone is the cheeky insurgency spirit of the BMW-engineered hatchback, a bit of retro-inspired designer cool (it was all the rage at the end of the Nineties, you know). Now the company has to make money and cash in the chips it has been stockpiling over the past ten years.
Where the first generation hatch capitalised on the retro craze, now Mini hopes to wade in on the crossover craze that is sweeping the country - think Nissan Qashqai as a key competitor. Those hip young things who bought the modern Mini a few years ago are now married with children, so the imperative for Mini is to provide them with something further up the range they can slide right into.
The Countryman is that upgrade - strangely, it doesn't move the Mini styling language on at all, it just looks like the hatchback has been put the through the photocopier on 200 per cent. It doesn't work very well either - it's immediately obvious at first sight that this is not a Mini by any accepted definition, but a compact 4x4 made to look like one.
Where the standard car is about cheekiness and fun driving, the Countryman has to move the brand back to more shallow values. We like the funky Disney-esque dashboard and the practical touches inside like the sliding rail system, but that's where the 'traditional' Mini-ness ends. BMW has attempted to engineer some verve into the car by giving it extra-sharp steering, but it's at odds with the Countryman's bulk and the body fights to catch up through corners.
The car rides well, if a little firmly - the seats are comfortable, but mightn't remain so over longer journeys - and the interior quality is up to BMW standard. Objectively this is a fairly decent car. It's not massively roomy inside, space perhaps only equal to something like a VW Golf or a Ford Focus, which is perhaps surprising given the Countryman's visual girth.
But that said, objectivity doesn't necessarily come into it - BMW has built the Mini brand around subjectivity and fashion. It is clear that the whole venture is at an interesting crossroads that will either make it or break it. The Countryman, much more than the Clubman, takes the idea beyond a simple rehash of an older car like the Beetle or Fiat's 500 - and it'll succeed simply on whether you buy into that or not.