With decent room for four and a good boot, the Countryman opens the possibility of MINI ownership to buyers who find the smaller models in the range too impractical.

It especially targets buyers who like Nissan Juke-class SUV-style Crossover models, yet brings them more performance, sharper handling and all the cute retro design cues that have underpinned this brand's success.

You get this remarkably quick steering which immediately gives the car a keen, alert feel. Throw the car hard into a corner, though, and it becomes clear that you're driving something quite different from the MINIs we know and love. It rides 10mm higher than the brand's ordinary three-door model and it's nearly 300kgs heavier, statistics that have to tell somewhere. But by some margin it's still the best driver's choice in a segment not noted for setting any standards in dynamic prowess.

No other Crossover would dare come equipped with as much as the 184bhp developed by the pokey 1.6-litre petrol Cooper S, which can sprint to sixty in as little as 7.6s on the way to 134mph. It can be ordered conventionally front-driven, or, for the first time in any MINI, with clever ALL4 4WD. But it won't thank you for taking it off road – it simply isn't that kind of car.

Think of it more as the fun family runabout that's more comfortable than an ordinary MINI, if not quite as good as some rivals.

Look around the Countryman and all the usual MINI design traits are there. Everything is scaled up for this larger five-door car though, with the wheelbase and the overall height far in excess of anything that this marque has tried before.

So another MINI joins the burgeoning range - but it's a rather different animal, as clever in some ways as it is compromised in others. Part of the Countryman's job is to keep existing MINI people loyal when they out-grow their city runabouts and shopping rockets, but mostly it's about tempting new buyers to the brand. Customers that like the vibrant SUV-inspired Crossover concept, but want it with a little more tarmac verve and sparkle.

In Cooper S form, the Countryman will do both these things, though it's a shame some of the 3-door MINI's agility and responsiveness has been lost. All the same, it looks like a well-judged package, suited to the urban jungle – a car created for the times we live in.