Mini Countryman Problems

Towing capacities for hybrid vehicles has been a bit of an issue for Australian car buyers for a while now and remains one of the biggest hurdles to ownership of this type of technology. There’s also a fair bit of misinformation around, too, including the fact that hybrids can’t tow at all. That’s simply not true for some manufacturers, but in this case, it’s a fact.

While Mini specifies a 1500kg towing limited (with a braked trailer) for its Countryman range, there are exceptions. In fact, Mini does not specify a towing limit for two variants of the Countryman; the sporty John Cooper Works version and, sadly, the plug-in hybrid variant. In fact, there’s not even a factory-option tow-bar listed for those variants, which is another way of saying they’re not designed for towing at all. You may need to look elsewhere.

In terms of physical size the five-door Mini Countryman is the largest vehicle in the current Mini fleet.

You’re looking at a relatively new model so the reliability should be fine, and the maintenance costs should be ok if you use a specialist independent mechanic instead of a dealer.

What he bought is in effect a used car, not a new one, so it might vary from the specifications of a new car. In this case it seems that for some reason the run-flat tyres have been switched for regular tyres. I might speculate that as it was a demo vehicle the salespeople demonstrating it might have wanted a softer ride to impress potential buyers than the ride it would have if it were on the run-flats. But that’s me being cynical. Your son should go back to the dealer personally and talk to them face-to-face about his issue and request that they either replace the damaged tyre and provide him with a spare, or fit run-flat tyres as he believes it would have had. The alternative is to carry a can of pump-up foam in the car, which would get him out of trouble in the case of a puncture.