After a long time I'm forced to retire my Saab 9-5 Aero. Its been a great car, but now will require too much to fix up again. Its also the largest car I've ever owned or want to own. My previous list of cars is
- Audi A4
- Audi S4
- Toyota Celica GT4
So I went looking for a "practical" car, good power, excellent handing, MANUAL transmission and should be fun to drive.
Most of my driving is city, with weekend jaunts to the cottage. 400 km (round trip) of twisty, narrow country roads.
My short list was
- Lexus IS250 - nothing on this car makes sense to me. As one reviewer said: "its a great car...for people who don't like to drive" I.e. BORING
- Audi A4 - completely unchanged from 12 years ago when I last bought one. And no manual anymore ???
- BMW 325/8 - refined, nice, welcome to yuppie suburbia. Expensive and I've heard horror stories about dealer servicing costs
Mazda / Nissan something or other = meh...
Countryman S All4 - big surprise.
Fun to drive, nice handling, and I love turbo 4 cylinder engines and a MANUAL tranny.
Yes the JCW was fun to test drive, but more than I want to send. Its quite a premium.
OK - so I'm looking for a used one to keep costs decent. Likely a 2011 to 2014. Normally I buy 3 year old versions when most of the depreciation has been written off and they off lease.
Desires are
- 17" rims. Lots of snow here and I have a stack of tires left over. I can get 18's for summer later if I feel like it. However the roads are SO bad around here that my 18's always got banged up too fast.
- AWD - is there anything to look out for here?
- Sport / Comfort mode. I like that feature. Comfort for the urban crawl through the mine field. Sport for a blast through the country.
Since I want manual I assume it will just tighten the steering and maybe shocks? Is this on all models or do I need to look for it?
- sport/bucket seats - are there specific trim versions, options to look for?
- seat heaters. My wife's one request.
Electronics: about the only thing I want there is Bluetooth or USB connectivity for the iPhone / iPad. Is that available in 2011 or only later models / trim levels?
Are there any major differences between the model years 2011 to 2014?
In regards to maintenance: is there anything specific to the Countryman I should look out for? Common weaknesses etc.
Sorry for all the questions. I've been reading posts and reviews but haven;t really found any good info for these yet.
Thanks
Olaf
Toronto, Canada
- Audi A4
- Audi S4
- Toyota Celica GT4
So I went looking for a "practical" car, good power, excellent handing, MANUAL transmission and should be fun to drive.
Most of my driving is city, with weekend jaunts to the cottage. 400 km (round trip) of twisty, narrow country roads.
My short list was
- Lexus IS250 - nothing on this car makes sense to me. As one reviewer said: "its a great car...for people who don't like to drive" I.e. BORING
- Audi A4 - completely unchanged from 12 years ago when I last bought one. And no manual anymore ???
- BMW 325/8 - refined, nice, welcome to yuppie suburbia. Expensive and I've heard horror stories about dealer servicing costs
Mazda / Nissan something or other = meh...
Countryman S All4 - big surprise.
Fun to drive, nice handling, and I love turbo 4 cylinder engines and a MANUAL tranny.
Yes the JCW was fun to test drive, but more than I want to send. Its quite a premium.
OK - so I'm looking for a used one to keep costs decent. Likely a 2011 to 2014. Normally I buy 3 year old versions when most of the depreciation has been written off and they off lease.
Desires are
- 17" rims. Lots of snow here and I have a stack of tires left over. I can get 18's for summer later if I feel like it. However the roads are SO bad around here that my 18's always got banged up too fast.
- AWD - is there anything to look out for here?
- Sport / Comfort mode. I like that feature. Comfort for the urban crawl through the mine field. Sport for a blast through the country.
Since I want manual I assume it will just tighten the steering and maybe shocks? Is this on all models or do I need to look for it?
- sport/bucket seats - are there specific trim versions, options to look for?
- seat heaters. My wife's one request.
Electronics: about the only thing I want there is Bluetooth or USB connectivity for the iPhone / iPad. Is that available in 2011 or only later models / trim levels?
Are there any major differences between the model years 2011 to 2014?
In regards to maintenance: is there anything specific to the Countryman I should look out for? Common weaknesses etc.
Sorry for all the questions. I've been reading posts and reviews but haven;t really found any good info for these yet.
Thanks
Olaf
Toronto, Canada