MINI Clubman REVIEW | 2016 Cooper And Cooper S – MINI To The Max
THE 2016 MINI COOPER CLUBMAN, ALL SIX DOORS OF IT, IS MORE ‘MAXI' THAN ‘MINI’ – HELL, IT’S AS LONG AND AS WIDE AS AN EH HOLDEN SEDAN, TRUE, AND THIS IS A MINI?
Stretched, it most certainly is, and it comes with proper rear passenger doors, not the narrow openings of the five-door MINI, but one on each side and made for people (not Hobbits and small dogs).
And the space there is also made for people – there is room for average legs and average feet.
More, there are barn doors at the back that open up to a proper wagon cargo space. The kind of space a family might find useful – like, enough for larger cases and golf bags and ‘school projects’.
And the thing is, Cooper or Cooper S, the new Clubman is a racy drive, it goes and turns and stops just like a MINI, and not like a fatty-boombah wagon.
Better yet, starting at $34,900 for the Cooper, and $42,900 for the very rapid Cooper S, it’s priced for families.
Vehicle Style: Compact wagon
Price: MINI Cooper Clubman - $34,900; MINI Cooper S Clubman - $42,900
Engine/trans: Cooper Clubman: 1.5 litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol; 100kW/220Nm, 6-spd sports automatic
Cooper S Clubman: 2.0 litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol; 141kW/280Nm, 8-spd sports automatic
Fuel Economy claimed: Cooper Clubman: (claimed) 5.4 l/100km; (tested) 8.1 l/100km
Cooper S Clubman: (claimed) 5.9 l/100km; (tested) 8.4 l/100km
OVERVIEW
It is classified a ‘compact’ car which puts it at ‘smaller than small’, but it will shatter the illusion if you were to run a tape measure around it, or open the doors and look inside.
Because the new MINI Clubman, a six-door wagon, is 4.2 metres tip-to-tail, has a wheelbase of 2.67 metres, and is 1.8 metres wide. That, as we mentioned at the head, and you may be surprised to learn, is almost exactly the dimensions of an EH Holden (except the Clubman is 200kg heavier).