I managed to snap these spy shots of the next Clubman the other day. Clearly a Clubman, evidence the barn doors.

It's very sad to see that it is indeed a six door.

I was really crossing my fingers that MINI would not butcher this awesome little Shooting Brake, but it looks like they have given in to the accountants and managed to ruin a very special, fun little car.

This means I will probably not buy another MINI for the foreseeable future because they are screwing up the brand in my opinion, but I'll be keeping my 2009 Clubman S as long as I can (95,000 happy miles and counting). It is the Goldilocks of MINIs for me... not too small, not too big, but just right. I love driving it and I don't want to let it go. So disappointing that they have gone in this direction.

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Pics?

 

I posted them to imgur and linked it... copied and pasted the imgur URLs. They are displaying just fine on my computer. Hmm. Anyone else not see them?

I'll try it again using imgur, and also the files I loaded into my user gallery:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

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I see them in first post no problem.

 

If I use the crappy iOS NAM app they don't show up. If I use mobile Safari then I can see the pictures.

 

Disagree about the 6 door configuration. MINI was always going to be limited in the amount of people who might be turned on by the first Clubman due to the lack of that 'other' door on the drivers side.
With Wagons/Estates/Shooting Brakes, 4 doors are a huge deciding factor for people who have kids, stuff, animals etc to haul around.
The Clubman worked for all of us willing to use its existing door set-up, but also limited MINI in sales since it wasn't a regular door config.
If you could build the in-coming Clubman replacement with both 3 and 4 door set-ups, I bet you a nice dinner that the 4 door/ regular body would outsell the 3 door by a wide margin. my 2 cents...

 

Looks too big to me....too Countrymanish.... I personally would also prefer the 3-door to a 4-door as well. Also, the rear taillights (rear fog lights...maybe?) on the bumper are just plain out hideous.

 

I agree it's bigger, but am waiting to have the existing Clubman parked next to it to get a real sense of scale.
As for the lighting, I can't get past the camo wrap, so that's all my eyes focus on..........
Anyone have a firm release date, like Fall of this year? for this model...

 

PureRed, I agree with you, MINI wants sales volume. That's why I say the accountants have prevailed. And I would never take that bet because your are sure to win.

MINI never marketed the R55 very well. I wish they'd taken a hint from the famous "Will THAT fit in a Clubman?" discussion.

Imagine a fun 30 second commercial, a photo montage of R55s chock full of cool people and their stuff, road trip footage, easy city parking, etc. Educate the potential customer and blow up their preconceived ideas about limitations.
As owners, we all know the well kept secret that Clubman is bigger on the inside! My wife, two kids and a respectable amount of stuff fit just fine.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...a-clubman.html

But back to your point. Fact is, two door wagons have never survived long. The Plymouth Suburban, Chevrolet Nomad, Ford Ranch Wagon, Ford Falcon, etc... all were really cool cars and none of them sold as well as their four-door brethren. But which are more collectible/desirable now?

Those taillights and reflectors are just for the test mule, I think. They aren't production. I think the production lights are concealed with dummy covers and wrap. Also the rear quarter window is camouflaged. Hard to tell if it's going to retain the wraparound glass look or if it will have a clumsy transition from rear door to rear quarter.

BTW I was in my R55 when I took the photos. This new one is pretty frumpy by comparison. Short and squat with big hips. Ugh. I can't look at this new one anymore. It's like the R55's husky sister. She's no fun, she just wants to be practical.

 

Very hard to judge the looks with that crazy yellow wrap so I'll just state what I can tell.

It looks larger than the outgoing clubman which sorta kills it for me right there. The four doors is practical but it has now lost that cool look factor of the outgoing clubby. If it's heavier and has less power then I'm totally out the game.

Mini could have kept the current generation clubman and just added an extra suicide door on the driver side like the passenger side and would have still kept it cool looking. Now it just looks like any other generic sub compact car with 4 doors.

BTW Is it just me that somehow all the new Mini's have little to no distinction between models?

 

totally agree with you. also forgot about the Nomads. Very cool even later in years.
Yeah, it's a bigger, bloated Clubman..

I also think the 'Will That Fit in a Clubman" ad camp. would have been great as well. I got introduced to the Clubman by way of some friends who've owned their 2011 that they bought used a few years ago.
I actually liked the 'Club' door arrangement and thought it was clever and 'Mini-esque'. The lightweight seats slide forward easily enough when you're trying to move them to gain a bit more room for someone or something in the back, so I was cool with it. And now I own my Clubman.
And it's an S to boot.
Since I'm thinking both the 3 and 4 cyl. Turbo engines will be offered on this new Clubman, it will be interesting to see how 4 people weigh down the freeway performance of a 3 cyl. equipped model considering it will probably weigh a good bit more than our current R55's...

 

That would have been another way to go. Keep the overall length down, but add that "Mini" l/r door.
As for the last part, I think MINI owners ensure their cars look to suit them, even if the curves tend to blend in between models. Could get worse though if there is a Countryman replacement that's too similar to this Clubman. Then you get the critics who used to complain about 80's and 90's BMWs all looking too similar. Chris Bangle took a shot at THOSE complaints.....

 

Looks a lot like an f55 but with barn doors, perhaps the rear window is a little steeper.

 

Spotted it the other day.

 

^That's what I was thinking. It looks like they've cut holes in the rear bumper cover to put road legal lights in there without giving away the shape of the actual tail lights.

 

f55 has really small rear doors, this seems larger, which I think makes it look better, but those wheels look too small....

 

The F54 Mule car in testing Cali. Should be going to Vegas for hot weather testing also.

 

I am glad they kept the double doors. I liked them much better than the standard hatch on my Countryman. They were great for the pups.

 

^Agreed^, despite the reduced visibility.

 

SOOPER S, nice catch. Where is that? Looks like the 118 near Rocky Peak. I caught it on the Conejo grade going into Camarillo.

 

Pluses
1) definitely more muscular.
2) improved drag co-efficient with that more tapered back end.
3) some more cargo space.

Minuses
1) if you are getting that big, you better put at least a turbo 2.5 liter I-4 in there to deal with that much extra weight.
2) at that size you are either replacing the Countryman, or wait for it....getting ready to put out an even BIGGER Countryman. (holy crap)
3) I don't care what they do if they don't FIX all the mother dog humping water leak issues in that damn car. My baby is now called the Titanic, because she takes on water like its her job.

 

1) Even heavily masked, i think the stretched profile of this looks so much better in conjunction with the F-series styling. I think the 5 door is hideously misproportioned, but this seems much better.

2) I really for the life of me can't figure out what market the 5-door was made for with the impending release of this "6-door". Considering both versions of the 2-seater are now discontinued due to lack of viable market, I find it hard to believe there's that much more of a market for people who need something in-between the Cooper and Clubman platform. At least with the R-series, the biggest differentiating factor would have been the number of traditional doors, but now that theyve added the 4th passenger door to the Clubman, this is no longer the case.

3) I've never understood how the barn door configuration is more convenient than a hatch. Even though I think the barn doors look cool, it seems to me like you're creating 2 extra barriers to entry that don't exist with a top opening hatch. In a similar fashion, I've always considered the scissor-style Lamborghini doors and some of the gullwing doors to be much better designed for entry and exit in close quarters.

4) It looks like the panoramic sunroof is now nearly the size of the classic cloth-top conversions from the old-days (almost the entire roof). I think that's pretty cool, though not everyone likes glass roofs.

5) Anyone else notice how much closer this is starting to look to the profile of a VW wagon?

 

The roof line definitely looks like a Clubman it the last set of photos.

 

In low ceiling height garages or parking areas, those barn doors are a welcome thing since you don't have to worry about your hatch hitting something above your head as you're opening it.
Second thing, and this is becoming a 'thing' among car manufs... People are falling in love with electric operated hatches and tailgates over a simple manually operated one. The only problem is that once it's sent on its way after you've opened it, it can be powered right up into something low-hung as mentioned above. Some designs allow the customer to 'set' the max opening height so the hatch or tailgate doesn't open up so far when in use.
3rd thing, the Clubman R55 had the barn doors, the much older Classic version had them too, at least in some photos I've seen, so I guess the styling/marketing people feel it's MINI feature keeping in with historical build of this particular MINI model

 

I'm currently on my 3rd MINI. First 2007 "S Coupe" that I simply loved. Then I adopted a big Golden Retriever, and it was apparent I needed a bigger MINI. I cheaped out and bought a non turbo Clubman. It worked well for my dog, but it just lost the fun element of driving. When I learned that that BMW wasn't going to build a 2015 Clubman, I tried to purchase a new 2014 Clubman S, but by that time there were very few in dealer showrooms, and they were asking a "scarcity" premium for them. Then in December 2014 I found Monty in a Mercedes Dealership 14 miles from my home. He's a 2013 Clubman S, that had 1,850 miles on the oddometer, with an original window sticker price of $30,860. I purchased him for $19,995, and traded in my 2011 Clubbie for $13,000.

This has been quite lengthy, but I wanted to share my fondness of MINI, especially S models. I test drove a Countryman when they first came out and said that wasn't for me. When BMW introduced the 4 door hard top, again I said it isn't for me. Now that it appears BMW will release a 6 door clubman, again I'll say it's not for me.

I'm kind of fortunate, I've always traded in my MINI before the warranty expired, but this time, based on the current offerings of BMW, I'm going to keep Monty forever.