{"id":278,"date":"2011-05-12T10:14:37","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T14:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/12\/countryman-all4-test-drive\/"},"modified":"2011-05-12T14:25:30","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T18:25:30","slug":"countryman-all4-test-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/12\/countryman-all4-test-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"Countryman ALL4 Test Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/20110512-095800.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/20110512-095800.jpg\" alt=\"20110512-095800.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the BMW was in for scheduled service today, I strolled over to the new MINI of Peabody to say hi and decided to take the new all wheel drive Countryman for a test drive now that plenty are available. The last time I drove a newer MINI was when were last shopping for a new car and ended up with the BMW.<\/p>\n<p>Overall I was impressed. The Countryman didn&#8217;t really have the &#8220;big&#8221; feeling I was expecting. It was definitely much more floaty than my cars. But the grip was all there. What really impressed me was the all wheel. Getting a rear-wheel drive BMW has made me hate front wheel drive and its constant sliding and wheel spin whenever I pull away from a stop while turning. That doesn&#8217;t exist with the Countryman. Dropping the clutch in any gear (sorry!) translated to instant grip and go. Powering around exit ramps is a blast. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/20110512-100705.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/20110512-100705.jpg\" alt=\"20110512-100705.jpg\" class=\"alignnone size-full\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Not that I am considering one, but I need to keep tabs on things so I can have accurate opinions and recommendations. In fact, it is a perfect companion if you also have a first-gen mini when you want handling. We probably would have considered it more seriously than the other minis when we were shopping for a slightly larger but still fun hatchback (and then went with a 128 coupe\u2014handling always wins!)<\/p>\n<div class=\"geolocation-link\" id=\"geolocation278\">Posted from Peabody, Massachusetts, United States:<\/div>\n<div id=\"map278\" class=\"geolocation-map\" name=\"42.545587,-70.944432\" style=\"width:350px;height:150px;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the BMW was in for scheduled service today, I strolled over to the new MINI of Peabody to say hi and decided to take the new all wheel drive Countryman for a test drive now that plenty are available. The last time I drove a newer MINI was when were last shopping for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars","category-mini"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279,"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jwardell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}