2017 Mini Clubman Reviews

But the really important question is: what do women want in a car?Finding the answer keeps carmakers tossing and turning at night, because they are well aware that women choose more than half the vehicles sold in Australia. There are all the ones they buy for themselves, as well as the deciding vote on most of the ones bought by households.Sorry, fellas. It’s true. No matter how much you want that souped-up sports car, unless the head of household finances agrees you may as well back away from the vehicle now.One of the earliest attempts to deliver a car for women was the mid-1950s Dodge La Femme. It was actually a 1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer under the skin, but the Detroit designers camouflaged that skin as thoroughly as a make-up artist doing Vogue covers.The car was decked out in pink paint, with an interior covered in pink vinyl, set off by pink rosebud tapestry. And to show that this was not merely a cynical marketing exercise, Dodge kitted the car with accessories they thought reflected the growing independence of post-World War II women moving into meaningful career paths - a pink handbag complete with office essentials like a matching powder compact, lipstick case and comb.Sales estimates run as low as less than 1000 cars. And the pink panderer was quickly dropped from the Dodge range at the end of the following year.Australia’s own Carla Zampatti tweaked a Ford specifically for women in the 1980s, but whether it won women - with accessories including a hanging hook for handbags - is still open to question.However, Dodge and Ford weren’t completely on the wrong track. Women want a car to be stylish, but also practical. Luckily, these days there are quite a few vehicles that fit the bill – without playing the pink paint card. These are the best style picks for women today, from a woman's perspective, with the figures for the basic car.Don’t agree with these? Let us know what YOU think women want in a car in our poll at left.LIGHTMazda2Price: from $16,030Engine: 76kW/137Nm 1.5-litre petrolTransmission: manualEconomy: 6.4L/kmEmissions: 152g/kmThe baby 2 has cute and slightly edgy looks, is compact with usable space, and the long doors make it easy to get in the back seat. The auto will be preferred by most, but it adds to the weight of the little car.Close calls: Ford Fiesta from $16,990; Peugeot 207 from $22,490.SMALLBMW 1-SeriesPrice: from $38,900Engine: 160kW/270Nm 2.0-litre petrolTransmission: manualEconomy: 8.2L/kmEmissions: 190g/kmA pocket-sized entry in German prestige – without breaking the pocket. Looks stunning, an amazing amount of room, and great to drive.Close calls: Mazda3 from $21,330; Hyundai i30 from $20,390.MEDIUMFord MondeoPrice: from $31,990Engine: 118kW/208Nm 2.3-litre petrolTransmission: manualEconomy: 9.5L/kmEmissions: 227g/kmThe best thing Ford has brought to Australia in … ever, possibly. Enough space to make you wonder if you’ll ever need a larger car, elegant design and well built.Close calls: Mazda6 from $31,834; Audi A5 Sportback from $78,400.LARGEAudi A6Price: from $74,500Engine: 125kW/350Nm 2.0-litre petrolTransmission: automaticEconomy: 5.8L/kmEmissions: 153g/kmThere’s not a high chic quotient in this class - where the homegrown Falcon and Commodore lean more to aggressive styling - so the Audi’s restrained elegance makes it a clear winner.Close calls: Honda Accord from $36,381Mercedes-Benz E-Class from $80,900.PEOPLE MOVERHonda OdysseyPrice: from $46,166Engine: 132kW/218Nm 2.5-litre petrolTransmission: manualEconomy: 8.9L/kmEmissions: 212g/kmIn a class that’s dominated by lumpy boxes, the Odyssey is a sleek stand-out. It's low-slung, car-like and leading with a fashionable face.Close calls: Citroen C4 Grand Picasso from $39,990; Chrysler Voyager $60,990.SPORTYBMW Mini Cooper ClubmanPrice: from $36,600Engine: 88kW/160Nm 1.6-litre petrolTransmission: automaticEconomy: 6.8L/kmEmissions: 163g/kmA bonsai wagon with go-kart street cred and revamped retro lines, this one will get admiring glances from everybody.Close calls: Kia Cerato Koup from $23,690; Audi S3 from $69,100.CONVERTIBLEVolkswagen EosPrice: from $47,990Engine: 103kW/320Nm dieselTransmission: automaticEconomy: 6.0L/kmEmissions: 158g/kmThe EOS is streamlined and sophisticated, looks equally good with the roof open or closed – and has enough room in the back to get a couple of extra friends in for short trips.Close calls: BMW Z4 from $86,200; Lexus IS250C from $80,150. SUVHyundai ix35Price: from $26,990Engine: 122kW/197Nm petrolTransmission: manualEconomy: 8.5L/kmEmissions: 201g/kmThere’s heaps of practicality but precious little style in the SUV paddocks. But Hyundai’s new compact ix35 proves you can have both. Ultra-modern lines, trim shape and space to spare.Close calls: Jeep Wrangler (medium) from $31,590; Land Rover Range Rover Sport (large) from $99,900.

There were motor shows coming, Mini's retro look-at-me originality was becoming a little ho-hum and there was a niche or two still to fill. The answer for BMW was to track the path of the original Mini ... move from the idea of a small passenger sedan to a small everything van in the style of the quirky little Traveller.Thus was born — or reborn — the Traveller Concept, an ultra-compact two-seat load carrier with the Mini's funky front-end and cabin and a bread van at the rear. A couple of years on the show circuit and the idea was tweaked and refined. A second row of seats added along with a rearward-opening “suicide” door in the style of Mazda's RX-8 — just one, in this case — and the modern rendering of the Clubman was born. What is really interesting about the Clubman is how cleanly it divides opinion.It is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition, even among those enamoured of the little sedan. My 15-year-old daughter, already plotting ways to get her hands on a Cooper S, turned away in disgust. “It's gross ... how could they even do that?” she said. Evidently the opinion only bore depth if one was outside looking on or sitting to the rear of the B-pillar. Everything about the cabin and the front of the car still passes muster. The funky bits ... oversized dials, tactile switchgear and huggy seats still push the right buttons.However, it appears that the rear seats and the admittedly Mini-sized load area are going to win favour from the practical set — those stable, left-brain utilisers of society. That is strange because practical and sensible are not catchwords that go hand-in-hand with Mini. Look under fad in the dictionary and you will find Minis in general and the Clubman in particular. Yet, perversely, to a goodly degree the Mini Clubman is practical — particularly if you pretend it doesn't have rear seats and fold them out of the way. In that case you are going to be able to fit in a bike, a huge weekly shop or lots and lots of nice things to drink. The rear barn doors swing wide on clever hinges to ensure unfettered access to the load area. Coupled to the car's natural low ride height, this makes for very comfortable loading.You just have to be careful when closing the doors that you do so in the correct order — something you would probably get used to as an owner.What you are less likely to brush aside any time soon — particularly if you are using the rear seats for the children — is the self-centred design team that made those seats accessible only from the traffic side of a right-hand drive model. The criticism will carry little weight in Germany and continental Europe but for the Australian owner it's a biggie.All that aside, Clubman buyers will still know they have bought into what the manufacturer will have us believe is the most fun club in the country.And driving the Clubman is fun. Despite its longer body and the 80kg of extra bulk, the go-kart qualities of the original brick-on-wheels still shine through. While it may not be as sharp through the really twisty bits — or even around the cones at a gymkhana — it still has the ability to bring a smile to your face and leave a host of beefier, bulkier rivals wondering which way you went, as we discovered in testing with the Cooper S. The sports suspension tended towards being harsh but it did all that was required of it to maintain connection with the road.That impression of a firm ride is not helped by the use of run-flat tyres — but that is nothing new in the BMW stable. But under the bonnet the Clubman is exactly the same package as the basic Mini. In the Cooper S test car that means a punchy turbo 1.6-litre four-cylinder with 128kW of power and a noticeable 240Nm of torque there for the asking.The engine is a real treat. It provides more than enough punch to explore the well-sorted Mini chassis and brakes that allow you to dive deep into corners without any sense of fade.You will be able to find a touch of torque steer, particularly if overly enthusiastic on the throttle while the steering is loaded.But it is not snappy and merely acts as a reminder to wait through the corner before getting stuck in again.It is, after all, a front-driver.In the test car, drive was through a snicky six-speed manual — which begs the question: why anyone would want to dull the performance by paying a $2200 premium for the automatic.Does anyone really need a Clubman? Probably not, but there are going to be more than a few who will want one ... and the extra space won't hurt when putting forward a business case.

They planned for 100,000 global sales per year. Last year they sold 222,000 and production is being ramped up to 260,000.So thousands of people loved it, and a fair proportion of them were the hip young things the brand markets to.But lots of the hip young things are now hip young-ish parents. And when you have kids, the Mini is not so much fun.It’s a hassle to get a large stroller plus the other truckload of stuff that comes with babies into the cargo part, especially if you have a capsule in the back seat. And getting the bub into the capsule amount to a short course in pilates muscle-wrenching. When they gravitate to the child seat it’s much the same, except the child is heavier.So here’s the Mini Clubman, with a longer wheelbase and body, and a suicide door on the driver’s side to give more access to the back row.That it’s on the driver’s side is a carryover from the left-hand drive markets, and there’s been a bit of grumbling about the door opening into the traffic. But really, unless you’re parallel parking all the time, it’s probably not going to be an issue.The Clubman is identical to the hardtop up to the A-pillar, but is 239mm longer and the wheelbase is stretched 80mm (which translates to 77mm more legroom).Rather than the hardtop’s gentle dome profile, the Clubman roof has an upright line that runs to the spoiler lip above the rear doors, which have a contrasting sill colour that harks back to the wood-framing on the early Minis.The rear door is a split pair - rather than the hatch on the new hardtop - which loses a bit in practicality. But BMW’s Mini has always been about style over stowage, so buyers probably won’t mind, especially since they’re getting 260 litres of cargo capacity, 85 more than the hardtop, plus another 250 if they fold the rear seats. There is an underfloor storage area where the wheel well would have been, as the Clubman is fitted with runflats across the range.Taillights are attached to the body, so they can still be seen from behind when the doors are open.To trumpet its grooviness, the newcomer brings a new colour to the range, Hot Chocolate, which is very much the fashion at the moment but runs the risk of being so five minutes ago in about, say, five minutes.But otherwise there is the same brainfreezing number of paint and interior combinations and options available on the other models.And like them, the Clubman comes as either Cooper or Cooper S with the additional choice of Chilli spec fit-outs for each.There are the same front-wheel drivetrains. The Coopers get an 88kW/160Nm 1.6-litre four-cylinder, which gets to 100km/h in 9.8 seconds for the six-speed manual and 10.9 for the $2200 six-speed sequential auto with paddle-shifts, and has a top speed of 210km/h and claimed fuel consumption of 6.0L and 6.8L respectively.The `S’ versions get the 126kW/240Nm turbo 1.6-litre, with acceleration sharpened to 7.6 seconds for the manual and 7.8 for the auto, with a top speed of 224km/h and economy posted at 7.0L and 7.8L.Standard equipment list for the $34,400 Cooper level features 16” alloy wheels, stability and traction control, anti-skid brakes with brake force distribution, six airbags, parking alert and the usual cabin comforts including the changeable ambient lighting colours that have been a hit in the hardtop.The $43,200 Cooper S gets 17” alloys, bonnet scoop, sport button to boost steering feel and throttle and shorten shift times, larger front brakes, twin chrome exhaust tips and front foglights,Shelling out the extra $3800 for the Chillli spec adds things like a front armrest, flat load cargo floor, wheel upgrade and Bluetooth with USB/audio interface to the Cooper, and xenon headlights, sports suspension, better wheels and climate control to the Cooper S.A number of option choices and packages upgrade to leather, sunroof, TV/nav and more storage options, so you can ensure your Mini is different to the neighbour’s.But with any spec, the Clubman remains a niche within a niche. BMW sold just under 2300 Minis last year in Australia, and expects to top that plus sell about 300 of the Clubman this year.BMW spokesman Alexander Corne admits that initially the new arrival is expected to be snapped up by existing owners. Which basically means that 300 households won’t be moving to another brand just because they no longer fit in their current Mini. Which is probably the whole idea.The suicide door makes it easier to throw a bag or a passenger into the back seat, but only just. The opening is fairly narrow, but at least on that side there’s no longer the hated squeeze past the tipped front seat.The cabin is a chic as ever: groovy toggle switches spaced among their tiny `roll bars’, funky shaping to dash and trim, and a speedo the size of an entrée plate. We felt several degrees cooler from the instant we slid in there.As with the other body styles, the Clubman’s drivetrains are great for the job, with the Cooper’s flattish torque curve and the S’s early turbo thrust giving them plenty of push.But with the longer wheelbase and 80kg heavier weight the equivalent of adding another adult in the Clubman they’ve got a bit of extra work to do.It shows most in the combination of Cooper engine and automatic transmission, where you discover that fully auto mode is best left for urban traffic or relaxed highway cruising.The sport and simulated manual modes wrung the required zip out of the engine although the paddles with their pull-up/press-down action are more awkward than the ones where one paddle is up and the other down.But the manual transmission is such a sweet-shifting little thing that even with the Cooper engine it offers a lot of fun, while added to the turbo version it’s an absolute joy.But if the longer Mini is not quite as nimble around the tight corners, it’s also less twitchy in the faster ones and seems calmer over the rougher stretches.It still feels like a hot hatch, but the heat is less hellish. It’s not yet a family car, but it’s as close as you’ll get in a Mini.

The arrival of the Mini Clubman brings the back-seat freedom and luggage space that has been missing since BMW brought the 60s swinger back from the dead.The maxi new Mini is fatter in almost every area, including price, which will probably be between the existing Cooper S and convertible at $45,000 and $50,000.Running a tape over the Clubman shows it is 240mm longer, has a 160mm longer rear overhang and sits on an 80mm longer wheelbase than the Cooper.That means usable rear legroom for the first time, as well as 260 litres of luggage space with the rear seats upright or 930 litres with them folded flat.BMW believes the cult car following of the born-again Mini will be boosted by the Clubman and Clubman S, which arrive in April.The bigger Clubman will take the number of Minis to three, sharing the limelight with the Cooper and Cabrio, though the open-air model has not yet had the overhaul of the second-generation model.The Clubman shares almost everything with the Cooper, including the suspension, interiors and 1.6-litre four-cylinder normally aspirated and turbocharged engines.Visually, with its rear barn doors and long, flat roofline, it pays homage to the original 1960 Mini Traveller and Clubman .The roof, the longest of any BMW product, including the X5 four-wheel drive and 5 Series Touring wagon — has a slight hump. A 20mm high dune line along the sides extends from the windscreen pillars to the tail, finishing with an integrated rear spoiler.The Mini's designers have added a twist with the Clubdoor, effectively a rear-opening suicide door on the passenger side of the car for left-hand drive markets. But the rear-hinged door is on the wrong side for Australia, because there was no way to re-engineer the fuel filler.High-strength steel ensures the Clubman is as strong in a side impact and frontal collision as the Cooper, which means it should achieve a five-star crash rating.BMW Group head of driving dynamics Heinz Krusche says the stiff body ensures optimum performance of the steering and suspension. The MacPherson struts in the front and the Z-axle with longitudinal arms and centrally pivoted track arms at the rear have been tweaked a little from the Cooper. Front and rear roll-bar thickness and suspension rates were altered to maintain the sharp, near-neutral driving experience of its shorter-wheelbase sibling.Australian specifications and prices are yet to be set, but buyers can expect similar equipment levels to the Mini and Mini Cooper S.BMW Group Australia spokeswoman Laurissa Mirabelli expects the Clubman to make up 10 per cent of overall Mini sales locally. Two hundred are coming to Australia next year. The Clubman has the same driving fun that has made the Mini a hit.It may be 60kg heavier and 80mm longer in the wheelbase than a Mini Cooper hatch, but the Clubman is just as engaging to drive and more user-friendly.It is agile, composed and, if anything, the longer wheelbase helps smooth out the ride quality over indifferent roads. Particularly on the sportier 17-inch wheels.The turbo 1.6 on the Clubman S sings as sweetly as the Cooper and provides plenty of low-down urge and mid-range acceleration.The limited-slip differential fitted in the European evaluation cars aided performance, getting the power to the ground without spinning the front wheels.At first glance the Clubman looks the same as the Mini, but from the B-pillar back things change. Walk around the car and view it from the side and you can see how it has grown. And almost all of the added length in the wheelbase has gone into rear-seat legroom.So passengers sitting behind a driver of average height still have plenty of legroom, and the rear seat is still cosy even when the front seats are set to the rear-most setting.Even though the Clubdoor will be on the drivers side of the car in Australia, it still adds a dash of user-friendliness.The rear barn doors take some getting used to in a passenger car, but it's a small price to pay for individuality.