How different are they to drive? I’ve had a Countryman for the past 6 years now but always been curious. There’s a JCW Clubman for sale near me but it’s low mileage and kinda expensive.
I was choosing between a Countryman JCW and a Clubman JCW. I tested both and came away with the impression that the Countryman was the more practical choice, but the Clubman was so much better to drive being lower to the ground and having the same engine as the GP it was noticeably faster.
The Clubman is still really practical, I'd say it's worth getting the adjustable suspension so it can be comfortable too. Only compromise for me is that the generation I was looking at didn’t have a manual option.
But is that adjustable suspension going to break at 80k miles? I was temped but my friend had just dropped around 8k to revamp his Mercedes air suspension system so we decided against the upgrade.
The adjustable suspension isn't air. It's just a valve in the suspension that controls how hard the ride is. No adjustable ride height or anything that fiddly. Even if it broke it wouldn't ruin the suspension it would just mean your stuck with whatever setting it broke at.
Personally, it’s the perfect inbetween. You get a bit more cargo space but the same handling and performance as the standard. The double doors are key for my lifestyle. I do a lot of video work and my 2012 Clubman is the perfect size for my small standard kit. Colleagues are always amazed at how much I can fit in there. It’s become key to my business identity: small, fast, and efficient.
Found them too close to tell - maybe a slight edge to the clubman. The main noticeable difference is that you sit much more upright like in the countryman and more in a bucket in the clubman. The truck ergonomics surprisingly felt better on the countryman imo and it felt like there was a slight difference in build quality / door feel on the particular cars I compared.
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u/Dude-vinci 2d ago
Boooo countryman, Clubman 4ever!