New F60 MINI Countryman Spotted Before LA Debut

It won’t take long before we get to see the new F60 MINI Countryman. The official world premiere in Los Angeles will happen in a few weeks. It makes a lot of sense to do the American launch at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show because it is the largest market for the Countryman SUV. Before we see the new F60 MINI Countryman completely unveiled, here are some spy photos from Spain.

These photos show a prototype with minimal camouflage and is likely the last spy photos of the new F60 MINI Countryman that we’ll ever see.

The new F60 MINI Countryman is built under the BMW UKL architecture. Soon enough, all the following MINI cars will have the same front-wheel drive platform: the hatch, five-door, convertible and the compact class offshoot Clubman. Safe to say, it’s going to be the entire MINI range.

Similar to the MINI Clubman, the F60 MINI Countryman has a slightly bigger architecture that’s called UKL2 internally. This architecture will also work if integrated with a four-wheel drive. Thanks to a Haldex clutch, the power is routed to the rear wheels for additional traction.

Under the hood, it is powered by the transversely mounted three-cylinder variants from the new family of BMW engines namely, the B37 and B38, and the four-cylinder B47 and B48. There will also be a plug-in hybrid MINI Countryman E that will be launched a few months after the new Countryman is released.

For the interior, the new 2017 MINI Countryman has more space, and higher quality materials used.

Thanks to Bimmertoday for the photos!