MINI Release Final European Countryman Ferring Street, Worthing Sussex England

With the official press introduction of the MINI Countryman kicking off this week in Hamburg Germany, MINI is finally rolling out the full and final European specifications of the crossover. No surprises as we had seen preliminary specifications earlier this year. What we can gather from this is, yes, there are a couple of models that come close and or break the 3,000 lbs barrier (notably the MCS at 2,882 and the MCS ALL4 at 3,042). However the Countryman will surely be one of the lightest and perhaps the most nimble mass produces small crossover on the market.

Can I Retrofit the Refreshed Interior?

We’ve had a number of emails asking about the possibility of retrofitting various parts of the 2011 MINI refresh. Specifically the interior.MF reader Houshmand Moarefi from Denver, CO wrote in earlier this week wanting to know what many of you have asked over the last few days. Is it possible to retrofit some if not all of the refreshed MINI interior?

The answer is yes and no. Yes you swap parts but each component comes with a set of different issues. On the steering wheel for instance the updated part is tied to the airbag which is extremely expensive and likely not worth replacing to get the new chrome trim. The radio face can be swapped out but the lower portion (where the buttons are) may be difficult considering that the volume knob has now moved into this module.

Yes it is possible to replace various parts of the HVAC interface but again it involves taking apart the entire center stack and the components underneath.

With the previous generation car, MINI did not offer upgrades that brought your car up to the same look as the refresh.

All that said, where there’s a will, there’s a way. We’d guess that (through trial and error) we’ll soon find out what parts of more easily swappable than others and we’ll post an update once 2011 parts are available.