I was intrigued by the Clubvan when it was first introduced, and then even more so when it was discontinued in the U.S. after "sales of less than 50" but I wasn't in a position to buy one at the time

A few weeks ago, my wife bought a 2011 Clubman S. She liked it so much, she bought it even though it was a stick and she'd never driving a stick in her life. She did learn quickly though.

Well, a few days after we purchased her car I was wandering around the Internet looking at MINIs, basically seeing how the one we purchased stood up to other similar ones that were currently for sale, that and I just like to look at MINIs. I was just looking at every Ice Blue Clubman that was listed when I stumbled across one that was actually a Clubvan that was well below sticker price and listed as new. This happened around 12:30a and lead to a not so restful night.

I am in the process of opening a coffee roaster and we will need a delivery vehicle, but I honestly never thought I'd be able to find a Clubvan that would be within our budget

Anyway, the next morning, after getting the okay from the wife, I called the dealer, they verified that the still had it, it was in fact a "new" car and that the warranty had never been punched therefore I'd get the full new car warranty. The came down another $1k, so I jumped on it.

After having the car shipped 1000mi, I finally picked it up today, and couldn't be happier with it.

In the next couple of weeks we will be adding some company graphics that should really make it pop.

So, does anyone else on here have a Clubvan?

I was also wondering if anyone had a firm number on the total in the U.S., as I would assume he "less than 50" number didn't account for ones like mine that were still on dealer lots (of which I know there are at least 2 more).

Thanks.

 

I didn't even know they made these, me like.... Of course I would..... lol.

 

Congrats, great find. Can't wait to see it wrapped ����.

 

We got one off the truck. Sat around on the lot for some time. Then someone came in (Samll business owner), and traded in his Nissan Panel truck on it. He like the Clubvan because it got better gas mileage.

Not sure what information you've found out about it, but they were only base Coopers, and came in 2 or 3 colors. If I remember correctly, they only had a couple options to specify.

I hope you're able to get one. Drove it once, not really any different than a Clubman.

 

I want one! Price (through no fault of MINI's) killed them. More pics, please.

edit: What I would really like is a Countryman van. bodyshops, make this happen.

 

Clubvan are very rare and were not produced long for the US , great find.

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/07/17/m...just-50-sales/

 

If anyone is interested, a dealer in the Philadelphia area has had this one on their lot for quite some time. Technically it's new, but too old to sell as new.

MINI of the Main Line

 

What a great find! Especially with it being new! It looks like 50 is the rolling number that any article online is stating. According to Car and Driver and Great Car Reports, 50 is the number too. Who knows, maybe there are a rare few like yours still sitting around. Enjoy!

 

Thanks for all the replies and the kind words.

We called on the one in the Philadelphia about a year ago but at that time they were sticking pretty close to sticker, and a friend who has now decided he would like one called on either that one or the one in FL and they were still a fair bit more than what I paid. I do like that the above listed one has Navigation, but we can just use our phones if we get into a bind.

The color of this one is pretty close to one of the colors of our business, so we won't need to wrap the whole car, ans then we can just do vinyl graphics with the logo and a racing stripe in Orange (the other color). I also picked up a set of R90 wheels (from that killer sale price from ECS Tuning) which I will powder coat Orange as well.

I've got a black grille and surround that I'm going to swap in, as well as black covers for the door handles. I did manage to get one thing swapped today which was the black headlight surrounds.

I'll get some better pics soon, but here's a couple more from today.

 

Thanks for the orders.

Very nice, we will need pics of these painted R90 when done.

The Clubvans are very rare.

 

As I recall it wasn't the price per se or a limited demand that killed the import of Clubvans to the USA, but some weird tax that drove the price too high.

 

^this^

 

Crowfoot Mini in Calgary had 2 for sale last year. In the low 30's I recall. Great eye catcher for a beer or coffee company.

 

We'r still finalizing the design of the graphics to go on our Clubvan, but we did get the new wheels on it today. I'm totally loving the look of it, and can't wait until we get the graphics done.

 

The visibility must be terrible on those. Is the boot any different than on a regular Clubman?

 

Yeah the visibility does suffer. In most cases as long as you remember that there is a massive blind spot and are a little more cautious it's not too big of a deal. The biggest issue I've had this far is backing out of an angled parking space onto a busy street with a large SUV parked next to me. I'll try to avoid that situation in the future. I'm also somewhat used to driving a panel as my coffee shop has a 1958 Ford panel with blind spots way worse than the clubvan.

It doesn't have any rear seats so the boot is flat and extends all the way to the front seats. The interior panels are also flatter in the back which gives it a tiny bit more clearance width wise for cargo.

 

Wow with R90's painted orange in the center, this is a rare MINI to see.

 

Congratulations, you beat me to it. We were on the fence for months about buying that exact car since we weren't really in the financial position yet to afford adding yet another MINI to the fold, let alone the Clubvan for our side business in real estate.
Good to see it won't suffer Chicago Winters then.......
We were going to leave the wheels alone but do a wrap once we finalized our Company/ LLC graphics with a friend that's a graphic artist.
The only interior MOD that I was planning was to make a door in the wire mesh barrier so I could carry longer items instead of always using a roof rail system.

 

I sure am glad that you held off on it, cause it's perfect for our needs. There are two more sitting on lots, so if you decide that you do want one they're still out there to be had, although they are still a lot closer to the sticker price at the moment.

I like the idea about the whole in the barrier, might have to consider that, although I am putting a roof rack on it as my company sponsors a cycling team and they are doing custom frames, so we'll tote some custom bikes to some of the races. I'm also going to have a skybox wrapped to match the car in case we want to haul more things on the top.

I just took it to one of the dealers down here earlier in the week to get a couple of small things sorted and the two people that I dealt with down there, hadn't ever seen one and had no idea that the clubvan even existed. That there just says how rare they are.

If you ever get down to TX, get at me and we'll swap MINI stories

 

This is great as it fits exactly what they wanted people to do with them.
Before they came out I had dreams of turning my clubman into a van and wanted to build a flat floor in it, but make the floor slide out the rear to get things out, but also have legs to make a table when it was out.

 

dang thats a cool car

 

Here are some more detailed pictures of the interior from the internet. I was cirious to see more. The cargo depth goes all the way to the back of the front seats, and at least in some cases there is a cargo grate to keep items from coming forward. Enjoy

 

Bitchin! Where are the pics with the graphics completed?

 

Yes I would love to see them too, pics!

 

Cool, love those R90's the clubvan is so rare now, i still remember the display car in MTTS 2012.