138 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | APRIL 2019
Our Mini meets
its maker
For all its practicality, the Clubman stays true to
60 years of Mini heritage. By Chris ChiltonThe last time I came to BMW
Plant Oxford, way back in 2001,
I was young, free and single. So
was the three-door Mini hatch, the
only version then available.
Almost 20 years later I’m
playing at grown-up as the
nominal head of a four-strong
family, and the Mini has a family
of its own to enable people like
me to stick with the brand. One
of those cars is the Clubman,
and it’s built right here in the
UK, just across the road from the
original Morris factory in Cowley
where the Issigonis prototypes
were assembled 60 years ago. We
thought we’d see our Clubman
off by sending it back home.Modern car factories are
fascinating. Bright, clean, quiet
and spectacularly efficient, Plant
Oxford pumps out a hatch, cabrio
or Clubman every 67 seconds (the
Countryman is built in Holland).
Soon it will build the electric
Mini too. Engines come from
Hams Hall, 80 miles north; body
pressings from Swindon, 35 miles
south-west. Wheels, doors and
dashboards arrive on conveyors
in the correct order to match the
VIN of the car on the mile-long
production line where they meet.
Our long-term-test Clubman
rolled down this line almost
exactly a year ago, a very different
car to the 2007-14 previous-generation Clubman, a small
estate that was big on the small
and small on the estate. Current
Clubmans still get the funky
retro rear doors instead of a
hatch, but they have conventional
rear side doors and enough space
to stand comparison with the
small family cars they’re gunning
for, including the VW Golf.
A 1.5-litre petrol Cooper,
the most popular engine and
trim combo available, ours was
finished in Moonwalk grey and
equipped with a smattering of
options that lifted its £21,085 base
price to almost £30k.
The biggest of those options
was the Chili Pack (£3500: leather
trim, keyless entry, LEDs), a Mini
staple since 2001 but recently
axed following a range rejig to
make homologation for WLTP
fuel and emissions regs simpler.
Now you choose one of three
Minis: Classic, Sport or Luxury.
Choosing the right options
can only do so much if the basic
recipe is wrong. From our time
with the Clubman we wanted toanswer two questions: can a Mini
made bigger and more sensible
to compete with cars like the
Golf still feel like a Mini? And is it
really big and sensible enough to
actually cut it as a Golf rival?
The answer to both is an
emphatic yes... mostly. First im-
pressions were good. They lasted,
too. We think it looks great: long,
low and wide, and though the
boot isn’t class-leading, it’s not
far off, and its square shape helps
redress the balance.
It still looks like a Mini, and
drives like one too. Yes, the
handling and performance are
dimmed slightly by the longerIt has enough
space to stand
comparison with
the small family
cars it’s gunning
for, including the
VW Golf