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MINI Countryman hybrid or Toyota RAV4?

Hi,

I love MINIs and I wanted to trade my 2019 T-Roc 1.5 for a Countryman SE All4, the new facelifted one and the reason is I want to get better fuel economy and the joy of driving. But then my wife suggested I look at the Toyota RAV4 hybrid, which is much more practical, especially as we have an 18-month-old girl and soon another boy coming on the 20th of November. So, can you compare the RAV4 to the Countryman: which will be the best on fuel consumption? My average T-Roc consumption is 7.1 litres/100km.

Thank you so much.

Chee Yin Ng (Dublin)

Aug 2020 Filed under: choosing new car


Expert answer

Hi Chee,

The Countryman SE plug-in hybrid can, potentially, be capable of tremendous fuel economy, but it all depends on how you use it. If you (a) have a driveway or a garage and (b) can install a home charger and (c) tend to do short hops around town most of the time, then conceivably you could get from one end of the week to the next without burning any petrol at all. The Countryman SE will do in and around 30-35km (realistically) on a full charge of the battery. If you’re regularly taking on longer journeys, though, it gets a bit thirstier and can dip as low as 25mpg if you’re really using all the power. That said it is, as with pretty much all MINI models, really good to drive.

The RAV4 is not. Well, not that it’s bad to drive or anything, but it’s not sharp and rewarding like the MINI. That said, it’s squishy and comfortable, so if you’re on lots of long journeys, it’s great, and it’s massively roomy inside, much more so than the MINI, so with one kid and another on the way, that’s worth taking into account. Being a closed-loop hybrid with no plug-in version (yet) it’s also better for you if you don’t have a driveway or can’t install a charging point. Figure on about 6.0-6.5 litres per 100km overall, although you can get better than that on longer, gentler runs. Oh, and it should be more or less faultlessly reliable, too. 

Read our MINI Countryman reviews here

Read our Toyota RAV reviews here

Neil Briscoe - Complete Car Advisor
@neilmbriscoe


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