MINI Cooper S Clubman John Cooper Works package sports-auto – lifestyle estate living?

Been hunting for an estate?

In the market for a spacious estate car, but having surfed websites, consulted the local newspapers and magazines and have been hunting across media you only find a very short selection?

The station wagon market in South Africa has grown so small that only very few survive, namely Mercedes-Benz C-Class estate, Volvo V60 and… that’s it, folks!  Excluding the off-road-ish estates namely the Subaru Outback and the Volvo V60 Cross Country, the only other estate car remaining is the Audi RS6 Avant (a supercar in a bold estate body, at R1.5m+ price).

New Clubman mans up

Enter MINI with its new Clubman.  Hold on, isn’t there already a 5-door MINI or two?  Yes, the Hatch 5-door and the Countryman.  So the Clubman fits in, where?

To file them into their holes, the MINI Cooper 5-door starts at R 346 000, the Clubman at R 362 000, and the outgoing Countryman (outgoing as in soon-to-be-discontinued, not as in personality… only) starts at R 365 000, with the 2nd-generation Countryman due here after the onset of 2017, likely to start over the R400k mark.

So the Clubman fits in the middle?  Not exactly.  You see, the Clubman is 25cm longer than the 5-door Hatch, and even longer than the current Countryman.  If you want a Hatch, the 5-door is the one, but if you need more space, the Clubman will tick that.

Clubman is also 7cm wider, which may not sound like much, but on a MINI it can be – viewing the Clubman directly from the front will show it has certainly grown in width.  Clubman mans up, and is the longest widest MINI yet… until the new Countryman arrives, which is even longer and even wider, and more cross-overy than the 1st one.

From cute to practical

The new MINI Clubman cleverly disguises itself as an estate refusing to be called that, as it is a sporty and doesn’t have the negative station wagon image (unnecessarily so in this country).

Where the previous Clubman was small and cute, with that oh-look-at-that! one-side side-door, the new one is an estate without any of the previous one’s cuteness or quirky lovable personality.  It has become a practical MINI.  Where the previous one smiled at and winked to come and play, the new one frowns and groans it has to work.  Aaaahh.

While the side-door may be missed, thankfully MINI carried over the rear barn-style doors, which swing open, one, then the other.  It can be done from the key remote, and is a neat party trick to entertain anywhere, when visiting people or just in the local shopping car park.

Cooper S

The Cooper S has the 2.0 turbo petrol engine, which produces just slightly more power than the older 1.6 turbo, but at lower revs.  To start it, locate it the pulsing red starter toggle switch on the lower centre console.

Driving this Clubman with an owner of a Countryman (both Cooper S, also with JCW exterior and interior package, also auto) in the car as passenger, we all felt that the new bigger-engined heavier car doesn’t have the same mid-range urge as the older car.  Is it perhaps more refined?  The 0-100km/h time shows the new Clubman to be 0.7 seconds quicker than the current Countryman, but still, the new one doesn’t give you that surprise kick-down sudden-thrust as the previous car.

Fuel consumption is markedly better for the more modern, bigger engine, and it is quieter.  Then again, that 8-speed can keep engine revs so low, it has an advantage over the previous 6-speed auto car’s.  Time to fill up, and the on-board calculator shows 9.2 l/100km average.  My, what an overgrown fuel filler cap you have?!  Why does it have to be this oversize?  Where is the round chrome fuel filler cap as on the Cooper S Hatch?

Want more power and traction, then order the John Cooper Works ALL4 Clubman, from R551k. 

Smooth operator

Taking a Sunday outdrive to a flea market on a rainy afternoon voted the red wagon as the preferred wheels for the trip.  Can this be a MINI family wagon.  Sure, it is no Buick Roadmaster, but those on board all commented favourably on their allocated seats.  It is more spacious, for sure.

The MINI Hatch 5-door is already refined and all premium (the Cooper 5-door was reviewed) but the Clubman has just gone a step above it.  It could be the longer wheelbase and that extra girth that makes it feel flatter and fatter on the road, but it is noticeably quieter and more refined… a smooth operator.

Pure Burgundy, Indigo Blue

Unfortunately the test car was specced not in the “positioning” colour of the new Pure Burgundy metallic paint, exclusive to the new Clubman, with the also-new Indigo Blue Chester criss-cross stitch leather (Cross Punch Pure Burgundy leather is also an option).  Instead it was delivered in rather predictable done-it-all-before Chili Red with black leather (yawn). 

Probably a safe bet, as most of the local media are allergic to anything outside of the usual colour range.  Don’t dare be creative and give them a baby-blue Fiat 500 with ivory interior or Fortuner with the stylish brown cloth, or they’ll go ooh yuck!  MINI Clubman in Pure Burgundy with Indigo leather… probably too much for them.  If you want to get out of the pale groove, choose innovative tasteful colour combinations.

MINI also caters for a more stylish black interior, by offering MINI Yours Carbon Black leather, which gives you a more luxurious interior feel complete with suede trimmings and Union Jack flag tags on the seats.

Some pleasant trimming is the check-pattern rubber let-me-hold-that-for-you places in front of the cupholders, in the door pockets, and even the cubby hole base lining.

Options

The Cooper S Clubman does have a good equipment list, including items like LED headlights, autodim interior mirror, rain sensor and various safety systems. 

The Clubman is also the 1st MINI to offer big-car luxury items like electro-mechanical parking brake, and optional electric seat adjustment, and techie stuff like head-up display and active cruise control.

Pure Burgundy paint can, thankfully, also be combined with the John Cooper Works exterior and interior packages – both packs were fitted to the test car – would not make much sense to take only one without the other.  These add, respectively, R 28 000 and R 6 900 to the price tag, which gives you items like chunkier bumpers and 18-inch wheels.

Add the Climo View (not kidding) pack which is the Panorama roof (in truth, 2 normal sunroofs – not a full panoramic like you’d enjoy in an Evoque, for example) and sun protection glazing (privacy glass) and seat heating for front seats, at R 14 000.

The Wired pack added gives you the larger MINI Connected XL centre screen which houses the Navigation System Professional, plus Comfort telephony with wireless charging, for R 28 000, and requires the front armrest to be added onto which you can rest your arm to write letters/numbers to enter into the system, eg to write a destination address.

Automatic transmission suits this car, and this new 8-speed (first appearance is on Cooper S Clubman) is great at quickly shifting smoothly through gears to keep revs and thus fuel consumption and engine noise low.  Your choice is R 19 500 for the regular or R 27 500 for the sport automatic.

What started as a base-spec Cooper S manual R 438 000 car quickly swelled to nearly R 640 000.  For a MINI.  Ouch!

Ranking new estate cars from lowest price, the MINI Cooper Clubman is by far in top spot, starting at R 362 570 including taxes.  The Cooper S Clubman auto costs R 459 552, and exactly R100 more is the Volvo V60 T3 Momentum (automatic only).  A Mercedes C180 estate standard manual costs R 509 768.

Illuminated trim

Bored with the normal interior trim strips in the doors and dash?  Already cycled through all the ambient interior lights rainbow colours in your current MINI?  Now MINI has added a new toy: in addition to the usual choice of silver, piano black or chequered, MINI added the option of MINI Yours illuminated multi-colour trim strips.  Say whaaaaat?  Best experienced at night, these strips now have backlit elements inside them, and can also cycle through a range of ambient colours like the red or green or pink or indigo, or a mix of colours like green-and-red dots or red-and-blue, etc.  You can choose a base colour when not lit, including burgundy.

If you / your kids are done playing with the MINI Excitement package, which lights up the overgrown central console ring based on Engine Speed (changes colour as the engine revs rise and drop), Driving Mode (Green, Mid or Sport), or match the ambient lighting, you can just select None to switch off this distraction.

A new take on the immobiliser red flashing light?  MINI thought to not put it inside the car on the mirror or dashboard, but inside the rear roof fin.  Yes, that “shark fin” on the roof which acts as antenna now also houses the blip-blip red light.

Where would you put the brake lights?

The new Clubman has yet another MINI 1st:  horizontal taillights.  With all that width to work with, the designer (who also created emotional creative MINIs like the Coupé and Roadster) stretched wide new lights across the new bigger canvas.  These have circles as main lights, echoed by 3 sideways ripples.  These look great, if not MINI-like, at night. 

Lots of space to work with.  So where would be the ideal place to put the brake lights?  Ask any teenage boy, as was done, where the best place would be to put the brake lights, and we all agree an obvious “in the taillights, where else?”.  Surely these widest of lights have space for driving, brake and indicator functions?  But no.  Let’s put small brake lights… in the rear bumper!  MINI, seriously?  This is not a 4x4 SUV, where this, inexplicably, is sometimes the position.  Not only is this embarrassing when you have to drive the Clubman without obvious high-mounted brake lights (a scathing remark was that these look like after-market parts you’d buy for your home-made trailer) but as following traffic expects to see your brake lights where any sane person would expect them, it is, honestly, dangerous.

The MINI salesperson tried to explain that this is because the taillights swing away out of sight when opening the door, but when exactly do you need to show brake lights while parked with the tailgate doors open?  When you park with hazards on, the normal indicators in the tailgate swap to the in-bumper position where there are more orange lights.

All these lights, inside and out, reminds one of those bright unnecessary Las Vegas casino lights.

To wrap it up

To wrap it up, you’ll go to your MINI dealer to buy the Clubman because you are looking for an estate car which doesn’t necessarily look like the typical one, has more space than a hatchback, is not another cross-over, and has a smooth premium ride and stylish customisation options… perhaps you can ask your MINI dealer to hook up those brake lights to the correct place.

The MINI Clubman has matured into lifestyle estate living.