Who thinks the Clubman should have been badged as what it is marketed as? Namely, well the "Clubman". Yet it is still badged as a Cooper or Cooper S respectively with no emphasis on Clubman. In my opinion it should have been badged as a Clubman as it is a big enough deviation in features and scale that it should have been badged as a different model. They market it as a Clubman but the general public (from my perspective) is completely confused as the what to call it.

So, for those that agree with me, I have a solution. Just change the badging to say CLUBMAN. Replace the Cooper badge on the back with our kit and be done with it. No more confusion. Should you really feel like it should still have the Cooper badge on, that's okay too. Maybe add our CLUBMAN badge to the left door of put it right above or below the existing badge.....

What are your thoughts? I am completely off my rocker? Can you help justify why MINI badged it the way they did?

To go deeper into the past of how MINI has badged their cars, consider that the Cooper and Cooper were never really the name of the base model Mini's. They were called Austin, Rover, etc (depending on who owned it that year) "Mini" with sub-models like "Cooper", "1000", etc.....of course this changed when BMW bought Rover Group and finished the redesign of the Mini. They had to drop the brand name and called it MINI and made the sub-model badge carry more of the brand identity, hence they are now called "Cooper"...



Or am I totally off track and is okay to call it the "Cooper Clubman" as one may call the BMW 325 Station Wagon the "325 Wagon"....

...and lets not even get into the fact that the Clubman name does not really fit with the concept of the extended style body (should have been Traveler but was trademarked by Honda ..I think)....I would have preferred that Rover never designed the original Clubman that had the horrible front end......

....let the comments fly....

 

Very cool idea.

 

sounds like a good idea to me.

 

Good. So far I have no negatives. Only positives. No hate mail.....yet.

 

I always thought it should just be the Clubman, Clubman S, and later Clubman S John Cooper Works. It makes a lot more sense than having a vehicle that could potentially be called the MINI Clubman Cooper S John Cooper Works. (MCCSJCW?)

 

I think that their reasoning is the same reasoning behind the Cabriolet.....those still have 'cooper' badges on the back. I think MINIusa just sees them as an 'alternate' form of the same car (a Cooper). It is just a few extra inches and a slightly different door situation afterall. It would probably make more sense to call them MINI clubmans....but MINI marketing is all about name recognition.

with all that being said....I'm removing the badges as I've done with my current MINI. No need to busy up the rear end On the clubman, the rear doors already have a lot going on between the new big handles, two wipers, contrasting c-pillars, reflectors right below the taillights, and a divide line in the glass...I think shaving the badges will be a very welcome method of cleaning up the image of the rear end on the clubman

 

Fantastic idea! Like it! Just placed my order...

 

Congrats, you are the VERY first owner of the new badging as they have only been active on the site for a few hours....

 

I like the idea. To me, the Clubman was always a standalone...it's odd they badged it cooper.

I'm sure it's been covered, but it seems like the contrasting trim is easily removed/replaced/covered so that brings lots of cool possibilities. We looked it over up close last week....Fred from MoS and I brought one over to a local shop to look at.

 

all you have to do is look at the car to tell if it's a cabrio, clubman or coupe. no reason to mark it. it's redundant.

 

right, but it's not a MINI Cooper S Clubman is it? What's the window sticker say? Clubman S?

 

nah, not buying it.

 

answer the Q....what does the window sticker say?

 

It says "MINI Cooper S Clubman" or "MINI Cooper Clubman".

 

there ya go....

 

I think Mini/BMW is just using the word clubman to describe the body style much like you have a Honda Accord or a Honda Accord coupe. You don't see the word coupe anywhere as badging on the car. Same as Mini Cooper and Mini Cooper cabrio, you don't see that badging anywhere on the car, it just describes the body style. You look at the car and you just know the body style, original Cooper, cabrio, or clubman.

 

Exactly. Thank you.

Whether the sticker says Clubman or not doesn't have anything to do with this discussion nor does it make it right or wrong.

PGT... You don't have to be so threatened by a difference of opinion.

 

I asked a Q....not right or wrong, but honestly wanted to know. Chill.

I've never looked at a Clubman window sticker and didn't know the answer (and instead of answering it, you thought I was arguing about it...not the case). Since it says 'Cooper' right on there it makes sense MINI would badge it as such.

 

Another example...

Audi A4 Coupe, Audi A4 Convertible, Audi A4 Avant (wagon).....all of which say 'A4' on the rear end.

It's obviously a fairly common method of naming body variants....it doesn't seem that the clubman would be any different.

 

You got it right Clubman is Mini-speak for wagon or estate. Essentially if you wanna go clubbin' with four mates you need three more inches of wheel base. Oh and the "club" door helps your passengers look fly steppin' out of your car.

Also the Cooper badge is less significant here in the US as they don't offer the non-Cooper "One" models.

I like my Cooper S badge.

 

I wouldn't have expected anything different from the cheif stir-potter.

 

 

a good start..

my plan...

it will say clubman under the turn signals on the sides..

and a "R55" logo of some sort will go where it says cooper..

 

How big are your letters??

 

The letters are an inch tall and the width varies with each letter.