Design Review: Mini Clubman (2016)
Getting to grips with the longest Mini of all time
Today’s consumers understand that Mini is a brand. Judged by sales of cars like the Countryman, they care little about Mini’s migration away from its micro-car roots, an issue that so upsets many car designers.
Part of the strategy of the new-generation Mini range is to widen its appeal into new segments, rather than overlapping multiple models as the previous range of cars did. This means that the Clubman – previously an expensively-engineered micro-wagon with a single suicide door on one side – is repositioned as a more conventional car, taking the Mini right to the heart of the C-segment hatch category for the first time.
Within a few millimetres of the Golf in every dimension, this new Clubman should boost Mini’s sales immeasurably and give the mainstream European brands whose heartland it attacks, a headache.