Buried in the 2014 pricing update MINI USA has announced that it will no longer be offering the full length rail option and split rear seating on the Countryman. As some MF readers may remember we had the option on our longterm Countryman test car. After 12 months and 12,000 miles we had to admit [...] (visit MotoringFile for the full article) More...
....on the other hand we like the split rear seat in our CMS. It doesn't have the full rail so it's easier to crawl through to access either seat. We also like the sporty look of the rear buckets. I'm sorry to see the option go away.
When we test drove a Paceman a few weeks ago, and noticed the same bucket/rail rear seat as the early Countryman, we hoped that it would also be offered as a bench seat option in future years.... I mentioned this to Jim McDowell this weekend at the Philly Mini Anniversary bash...his response: "Don't hold your breath on that...." Straight from the horse's mouth...looks like we won't be shopping Paceman pac:frown2:
We just ordered our CM last night in fact. We opted for the lounge leather in black/red on the JCW and my wife was admiring the idea of buckets in the back.......then our MA told us about the full length rail. Who the heck thought it was a good idea to run a rail straight across the dead area between the front and back seats? How long would it take until someone kicked it getting in or out of the back seat, dented it, and then nothing slides on it anymore.... Not to mention the fact that you can't really put anything in the floor behind the front seats... Mini has some ingenious design features, but that one has me really scratching my head. Needless to say, we opted for the bench seat ! I suppose you could just remove the rail altogether....rear buckets are certainly nice looking, that's for sure.
Our 11 CMS has the buckets and the split rail where you can go from one side to the other without crawling over the rail.
Ah, I see. Now that makes perfect sense. Boy, i wish they offered that as an option for 2013 and we likely would have gotten the bucket seats...