2017 Audi Q2 vs Mini Countryman

What's the difference?

Small SUVs have been a thing for a while now, so it seems odd that it's only now Audi has finally brought its take on the idea to market. The Q2 enters the fray in a segment occupied by a gaggle of (cheaper) French and Japanese cars, as well and the new Mini Countryman.

The Q2 is now on sale after months of drip-fed information, in all its angled, better-than-the-pictures glory.

The Q2 is going to be big for Audi in Australia, so the ads are already running, declaring the car "hashtag untaggable." I've driven the car on Australian roads and made the best effort I can to find a tag that might fit.

Way back in January (yes, it's August already), I was piloting a second-generation Mini Countryman through Oxfordshire's back roads and I rather enjoyed it. Partly because my perverse nature marvelled at how cranky this car makes traditionalists but mostly because it was good. Very good. 

Another reason I enjoyed it was the fact that there was clearly plenty more to come from the chassis. 

Mini agrees and as surely as night follows day, the Countryman now has a JCW pack which will no doubt make the even crankier. Mini put us to work driving the new Countryman JCW on both sealed roads and gravel for the first time in Australia.