At last, a MINI that seats five! But will the estate version of the cult BMW built car capture hearts?
MINI is now on its second incarnation since BMW brought the brand back to life. The huge success of the hatchback has led the Munich Company to expand the range coming out of the Oxford production plant to include an estate version.
Instead of a single rear door that lifts up, the Clubman gets delivery van-like twin pullout doors plus an all important additional side door for ease of access to the rear seats.
Sadly the door is on the wrong side of the car for countries that drive on the left-hand side of the road. This is a massive disappointment and very frustrating for true fans.
I have three kids and the last thing I want to do is let them in and out on the side of the traffic flow! Yes of course BMW Ireland will argue that more and more people use carparks, driveways and other off street points when entering and exiting their cars, but really this ‘line’ only temporarily deflects the deserved criticism.
As I write there are no plans to put an extra door on the passenger side and that’s a real shame.
MINI’s success has been based on remaining true to Alex Issigonis idea of building a ten-foot car that would be compact fun. The Clubman is heavier than the three-door and the weight is felt, but not really in a bad way. You can still have a ball in the Clubman, but you will be paying a premium as the engine range consists of only the higher output engines to compensate for the extra few kilos carried.
Despite the wheelbase (the gap between front and rear wheels) being longer to accommodate the extra legroom in the rear and cargo area the handling hasn’t been compromised on the twisty bits; In fact on the open road the car is more composed and comfortable.
The cargo area is not big in volume terms (260 litre boot) but compared to a standard MINI it’s positively vast.
If you fold the seats down there is a healthy 930 litres of cargo space available. The twin doors make loading easy, even if the operation requires more movements because of the split metal.
The downside of the twin doors is the fairly large blind spot created that could hide a following motorcyclist or a car a couple of hundred metres further back.
The Clubman will be a slow grower, unlike the original MINI. The original Leyland Mini Clubman was no oil painting either and had perhaps the ugliest front end of any car on the planet.
This Clubman is better looking than the original and pretty green too as it features BMW’s new ‘Efficient Dynamics’, which is a catchall word for a lot of energy efficient things going on under the bonnet, like the engine turning itself off when stopped for a few seconds and back on again when needed.
MINI Clubman might not be the prettiest, but it is a funky, chunky and practical fun.
Now listen up BMW “Do us a favour and build a Clubman with its third door on the safe side of the car for Ireland please!
Michael Sheridan
