Just last night, MINI Malaysia launched their first locally-assembled cars – the MINI Countryman Plug-in Hybrid (RM255,888) and the MINI Cooper S Countryman Sports (RM245,888).
That’s a lot of money. Are you getting what you pay for? Might be subjective, and if it is, then in my opinion, no. You’re not. If you’re going to buy a PHEV from BMW Group Malaysia, add RM3000 to your budget and get a 330e.
You’ll get a longer warranty, a more dynamic and powerful car, and… actually, you might even get a sizeable discount, so forget about that RM3000 price difference.
Anyway, there are some things that this new MINI Countryman Plug-in Hybrid does alright. I believe it is the lowest priced Plug-in Hybrid on sale in Malaysia.
There’s that.
There are also 6 colour options to go for, which is good.
And the battery warranty is for 6 years/100,000km. Which is the standard in the premium segment.
The other one they launched, the Countryman Sports – that one is just made to anger enthusiasts. It’s wearing a John Cooper Works Aerodynamic Kit and JCW badges. But is it a JCW-fast? Not really. The kit cools the brakes and the sports suspension makes it more dynamic. But its 0-100km/h time of 7.4 seconds is uninspiring. Especially next to a A 250 or GLA 250. And those cars are fully-imported from Germany by the way.
So, yes. Good job MINI Malaysia for bringing in all that capital investment to locally-assemble the car. But we’re sure the pricing could have been a LOT better.
