Over the past five years, the automotive sector has seen an explosion in off-road-themed vehicle trims. These models can vary from real, actual off-roaders with upgraded equipment and underbody protection to standard crossovers with some extra plastic cladding labeled as “overlanders.”
Most vehicles in this segment fall somewhere in the middle. You might typically get an extra inch of ride height, along with some off-roading tires, black plastic body cladding, and possibly a unique piece of software, such as hill descent control. Subaru’s Wilderness trims are a great example of this, as they spice up cars like the Crosstrek, Forester, and Outback to make them a tiny bit more capable with minor upgrades.
Even Mini, the British carmaker known for its tiny hatchbacks, is starting to get into the overland game. It might be doing so in the laziest way possible, but honestly, I don’t blame them. In the real world, most of the “upgrades” you pay for in these trims aren’t actually necessary for the type of off-roading most buyers do.
Just How “Rugged” Are We Talking?
The Mini in question, released on Thursday, is called the Countryman Rugged Edition. Marketed by the company as a trim that “celebrates individuality and exploration,” it has a number of changes over the standard car to make it more appealing to “someone who lives for discovering new places, reaching new heights or pursuing new experiences.” Right.
What, exactly, are those changes? Well, most of them are purely cosmetic. There are stripes on the hood, a decal on the grille, and inside, all-weather floor mats. Buyers can also opt for either a roof-mounted storage box or a roof-mounted bicycle carrier.
The only real change that improves the Countryman Rugged Edition’s off-roading chops is the tires. In place of the standard all-season wheel-and-tire setup is a set of 18-inch grey-painted wheels wrapped in proper all-terrain tires (General Grabber AT3s, according to BMW Blog). That’s it. No raised suspension. No underbody protection. No revised gearing. No improved approach or departure angles. Just tires.
It’s not like there’s even standard all-wheel drive, either. The Rugged Edition can be had in two trim levels: C or S. The base Countryman C gets you a 1.5-liter three-cylinder making 154 horsepower, attached to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic sending power to the front wheels. If you want all-wheel drive, you’ll have to jump to the Countryman S, which adds an extra cylinder to the engine for 201 horsepower.
The Rugged Edition will also be incredibly rare. Right now, it’s exclusive to the South African market, with just 100 examples set to be produced. A Mini representative told me that while the trim won’t officially be coming Stateside, the company offers the same upgrades, including the mats, the wheels, the tires, and the roof accessories, as OEM accessories. So if you’re so inclined to have a Rugged Edition of your own, you can.
I’m Actually Not Mad
While the Countryman Rugged Edition is very obviously just a normal Countryman with some tires, rubber floor mats, and some stickers, I think its use case appeals to more people than buyers realize. If you’re the type that thinks you absolutely need stuff like a raised suspension, a low-speed transfer case, or hill descent control, you’ve obviously never gone offroading with a normal car that doesn’t have any of those things.
Let me use my experience with a similarly factory-modified vehicle as an example. Back at my old job, I got the opportunity to ride shotgun while my former colleague (and former writer for The Autopian), Patrick George, drove a Honda Passport TrailSport around a legit off-roading course in upstate New York. As a reminder, the Trailsport’s only real off-roading upgrades are a set of recovery points, some trail cameras, hill descent control, and General Grabber A/T Sport tires.
Patrick and I were comparing the Honda against its much more well-equipped competitor, the Toyota 4Runner. And while the 4Runner made those trails look like a newly-paved highway in comparison, the Passport was, for the most part, able to keep up just fine, even on some of the crazy articulation sections. Sure, we definitely pushed the transmission to the point where it was exuding an interesting smell, and we were scraping the underbody a lot, but it never got stuck and needed to be pulled out.
My point is, normal cars can go a lot farther than you think with the right tires. Modern all-wheel drive and traction control systems are so good that, for many situations, you don’t need locking differentials or fancy disconnecting sway bars to overcome obstacles. Sure, it won’t be as easy or drama-free, but if you really commit, you likely won’t get stranded.
I suspect the people buying this Mini will think it’s good for a dirt road and nothing more. I hope at least a few of them will attempt to push the limits, because they’re probably a lot higher than they look.
Top image: Mini
Well slap some A/Ts on a Smart and call me Mercedes Streeter!
Mini won Dakar 2012-15, 20 & 21
Tires are for sure the most important thing as even a Wrangler Rubicon on street tires would be hobbled.
Tow/recovery points should be mandatory on anything even pretending to want to go down a dirt road.
and finally underbody protection is a very good idea given our failing infrastructure.
Plastic cladding unnecessary.
We know that most people will not thing these accessory packages will make something off road-able but I still have to help people out in the national forest trails that think they can.
I see the headline, and all I can think of is Mercedes Streeter’s escapades…
My first thought too.
There needs to be a standardized test to be a true over lander. How having it complete Black Bear pass to Telluride?
Been done…in a Telluride!
Well, it made it part way and created and enormous problem when it couldn’t complete it.
https://www.wane.com/news/driver-ignores-warnings-gets-stuck-causing-colorado-mountain-pass-to-close-indefinitely/
Proving it’s a good test. The Telluride isn’t a good Overlander.
In my mind, an Overlander can go from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego avoiding all paved roads.
Check out The Turtle Expedition for reference.
100%. Jeep says that anything with a “trail rated” badge has done the Rubicon, but the Grand Cherokee they dragged through it looked like it had been tossed off a cliff by the trail’s end.
I want to see pictures of this GC. 😀
And the test should not include anything about a roof top tent.
“If you’re the type that thinks you absolutely need stuff like a raised suspension, a low-speed transfer case, or hill descent control, you’ve obviously never gone offroading with a normal car that doesn’t have any of those things”
As a 4Runner owner who owns a 4Runner precisely because he has gone “offroading” in a normal car, can I take issue with this particular sentence and the general “Passport is the thinking man’s 4Runner” brigade?
“Offroading” is a spectrum. The difficulty of a dirt road has a very wide range of possibilites. The frequency of use and desire of the owner trying to get down them has a wide range as well. If I’m just fiddling around in an offroad park and cannot choose the more difficult line, so what. Pick the easier line, I’ve lost nothing and the Passport works great. If I’m out in the real world trying to get 10-20 miles down a two-track to a campsite for the weekend and hit the same snag, well…now we’ve got issues and I’ll wish I had the 4Runner which is actually quite reasonable to drive on the highway back home. This is not an extreme example.
I think the Passport is a well-executed and appealing vehicle, and even somewhat tempting because even though I use my 4R like a 4R most of its miles are of course on pavement and the Honda is better there. But it has very real limitations compared to even a stock SR5 4runner and when they matter, they matter. And the Passport is one of the most capable CUVs. A CVT Outback or this Mini? Sorry, that first sentence I quoted above looks really silly in that context.
Finally, Patrick George’s article title is “The 2026 Honda Passport Trailsport Is An Excellent Off-Road Starting Point To Keep Up With Your Subaru Pals” SUBARU pals. Not Bronco, not 4Runner. The transmission started smelling funny, you say? Well no kidding. This is why I like the low range gearbox the Honda doesn’t have. And keep in mind this is on a course that Honda designed itself to show off to the press. They made sure they didn’t put anything on there that would embarrass the Passport. Out in the real world where Honda didn’t design the dirt road? YMMV.
This jeep wrangler owner supports your well written post. I overland and off road at least 2 weeks and many weekends a year and I am happy with my jeep.
I think their point is that most people never go offroading in their offroad capable vehicle and if they do it is most likely driving down a dirt road.
When I listen to Willie Nelson’s “Countryman” disc, this is not what comes to mind.
I mean, it looks neat, but still doesn’t fix the butt-turrible infotainment system. Couldn’t the BIG MEAT budget have gone there instead?
Honestly, it kind of reminds me of the Telluride X-Pro. Yeah, yeah, they did a couple extra things there, but it still felt like the main change was THEM MEATS. Some suspension tweaks specifically for THEM MEATS that would’ve made it handle better on-road would’ve been nice, y’know? Until then, like, you’ll be fine going down a gravel campground road on all-seasons. So, I’ve got big doubts as to whether this Mini’s meats are an upgrade or not. Swapping out tires is a bigger change than you might think! The regular one is…well, it’s An Car with one of the worst infotainment systems it’s ever been my misfortune to encounter in a motor vehicle.
(I still love seeing unusual cars on off-road trails, though. Throw a bent road sign over the important bits, get grippy meats and send it, Countryman owners. It’s probably fine.)
Maybe the infotainment circle will jiggle loose and break if you go down enough rough roads?
hahahahahaha
(it unfortunately encompasses so many controls that this would be a bad thing)
I had the opportunity to drive the last generation of the Countryman through (most of) the off-road course at the BMW factory in South Carolina a couple years ago. It was surprisingly capable. They may have swapped out the tires for something more off-roady, I don’t really recall. Other than that they were stock though.
The most important factor in how good something is off road, is how much you care
ifwhen you break it.That’s why my favorite offroader is a Chrysler Pacifica, Enterprise Edition.
Mine was the W-body Impala. Also Enterprise edition.
RIP sweet prince.
100% true. I thought I was cool taking my lifted Suzuki with A/T tires to the local Gambler 500. I did all the tricky trails, water crossings, mud holes, etc. But also so did a $250 misfiring Ford Windstar minivan on 3 different brand tires. It just slid on its belly across every obstacle like a drunken seal. A lot of folks were humbled that day, myself included.
I did our local Gambler 500 in a stock ’98 Chevy (Geo) Metro. It did have a cheap used set of snow tires, but was otherwise stock. That thing was a little billy-goat offroad.
I also rallycrossed that car for a couple years. One of our events turned into a mud-bog with turns. We really should have canceled the event, but the previous three had been cancelled and this was the last of the year, so we foolishly went for it. That Metro was the only 2wd car that never needed to be towed out of the mud. It got stuck once, but I was able to rock it out.
“It just slid on its belly across every obstacle like a drunken seal.” Thank you for that…
It’s entirely appropriate for most CUVs that see no more offroad action than the sedan they replaced. As a note, I bumped up the sidewalls two sizes on my GR86 for the snow tires, gaining about 22mm of ground clearance because the bigger obstacle with something this low is riding up on top of the snow, taking too much weight off the tires. Cancels out the winter gas mileage penalty, too, with about a 7% taller FD ratio.
When I first got into offroading and of course wanted to buy all the cool stuff, I got a good primer from the experienced guys in my Jeep club. Tires and recovery points are the most important things and you can do a lot with just that and a good friend or two. From there, protection- skid plates and bumpers, then traction if you start getting more hardcore.
I guess if your idea of “off road” is a gravel parking lot, this is entirely adequate.
But let’s face it, this is a cosplay costume. Fools and their money…
The point is that *most* “offroad packages” are exactly that
I find delusions of butchness highly entertaining. Either buy something with *actual* offroad ability if you need that, or buy a damned proper car for the road that isn’t compromised by those delusions of butchness. Those “off road” tires are loud and have relatively lousy grip on the pavement on which you will be spending the vast majority of your time, while hurting economy. And if you try to do more “off roading” than any normal car can handle you are inevitably going to break something expensive. Concerning smells from the transmission are fine in a car that belongs to an automaker, not you.
Purpose-engineered tires make a big difference when they are suited for the environment you are in. My wife’s VW feels like a sure-footed mountain goat when it is wearing snow tires, and ATs give you the same kind of confidence in the dirt and mud when stacked against all seasons. I see this as exactly the right amount of upgrade for the kind of driving these Minis are ever likely to do.