The Country Man

      It’s highly unlikely that many buyers

 of the new Mini Countryman would have

 any recollection of the derivation of its

 name. However, those with long

 memories and advancing years would

 remember the heady days of the

 expansion of the Mini that started with a

 simple design by Alec Issigonis. This

 subsequently grew to become an iconic

 brand that ranks only with the VW

 Beetle for originality and longevity, and

 perhaps the Citroen 2CV for instant

 identification.

    The wagon or estate version of the

 original Austin Seven Mini collected the

 name Countryman, with the Morris Mini

 Minor version being called the Traveller.

 Along with the name it also inherited

 wooden battens on each side of the

 wagon body and around the edges of

 the barn-style doors fitted to the rear. As owners would also come to realise, washing a car and maintaining it would subsequently include rubbing back the woodwork and revarnishing every few years to prevent the onset of wood-rot, something few other cars could claim as a necessity.

Now there’s a new version of the Countryman, and it has the extended length that takes it past four metres plus it offers the option of all-wheel-drive.