2008 Mini Cooper Clubman Road Test

Unlike the fashion world, cars aren't like hats and scarves - they aren't one-size

The Mini grows! It may be bigger, but it's still a true Mini. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

fits all. People most certainly do not come in one particular shape or size and neither do their lifestyles, so what on earth would possess someone to believe that the analogy could apply to cars?

The Mini, I have long believed, is a one type fits all kind of car. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, how famous you are or how much money you've got in the bank - blue collar, white collar, young or old, this little car is all things to all men and women. It stretches across cultural boundaries with its cheeky good looks and spirited driving dynamics, and is appreciated for the individualism it allows through the sheer number of options available. Still, while the little Mini has enjoyed amazing levels of popularity with sales having increased year over year since inception, its one size fits all philosophy doesn't work for everybody. Sure it can seat four and carry a bit of luggage, but for most peoples' lifestyles it's a wee bit too small. What to do? Up-size, of course, which is exactly what Mini has done by introducing the first new model configuration since the Cabriolet.

The Clubdoor makes accessing the back seat a little easier, but it has its flaws. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

Conceptually, "The Other Mini" was a part of the second-generation car right from the blueprint stage, designed as a way of expanding the brand's appeal for the second generation car. Remember the themed concept cars that were launched at the major international auto exhibitions around the globe in 2006? They were teasers, not only for the new Mini, but for what would become this car, the Clubman. An alternate perspective is that the Clubman is a revival of the classic Mini Countryman of the late '60s .

There's a lot to talk about with regards to the Clubman's detailing, as one glance makes it obvious this was no last-minute stretch job. Just by looking at it, you can tell its designers had a lot of fun with this project. Minis have long had contrasting roofs, but the Clubman takes it one step further by boxing its backside in color. When the roof's black, as with this Pepper White example, the Clubman retains the floating roof look of the standard Mini, but when the roof is ordered in silver, as a contrast to say, the Clubman exclusive color, Hot Chocolate, the backside really

The detailing is extraordinary; check out the cut-outs for the tail lights. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

pops with brightness. Instead of a lift-up hatchback, the Clubman gets a pair of small Dutch oven style doors that are hinged from the side. Grab onto the chunky chromed handle and give it a light tug - the doors push themselves open on gas struts, each with its own internal cubby. On the outside, each has its own windscreen wiper, both coming together in a "clap hands" motion. Anyone familiar with the classic Mini Traveler is bound to feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

From the corner of your eye, you're bound to catch another one of the signature details - the tail lamps. They're fixed to the body rather than to the door which gives the Clubman an eye-catching look when the tailgate's doors are open, but also helps it abide legal requirements. Imagine trying to carry items longer than the car with the doors open if this weren't the case; a disaster waiting to happen. In any result, the attention to detail is highly worthy of praise, as you wouldn't find these fine touches on just any subcompact car.

More legroom is handy, but look at the Phantom-style lounge arrangement. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

Once inside, the regular-length Cooper and longer Cooper Clubman are essentially the same in appearance up front, with the metamorphosis occurring in back, just like on the outside. The glossy finished oval trim rings found on the front doors continue into the rear portion of the cabin, and while these look great my favorite bit of detailing has to be the trim that wraps all the way around the cabin, flowing into the rear bench seat just as on the Rolls Royce Phantom. Apparently, the man responsible for the Phantom's interior jumped ship to Mini, and with him came that idea. It may not lend any more room to the rear quarters, but it adds a sense of occasion which is desperately lacking in the back of most small cars. I do wish, however, that the big cupholders mounted in the door weren't there as they cut into the armrests.

Getting access to that extra space can be done through the rear-hinged "suicide" door, a first for the Mini. Conceptually, it's right down the same aisle as what you can find on an Element or most pick-up trucks, but because it's a Mini it sports a fashionably cool name: Clubdoor.

Up here, it's the same as any other Mk.II Mini. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

I feel particularly terrible about playing off that name, but can't help to add that you don't get a bouncer as standard equipment, despite the nightclub-grade premium sound system and the colorful ambient interior lighting. Because the Clubdoor is nothing out of the ordinary, it has the same flaws as any other door of this type in that it can't be opened without first opening the front door. The seatbelt is attached to the pillar, which means if you've got a passenger riding shotgun, they'll need to unbuckle too. But the worst flaw is that your front passenger will still need to scoot the seat forward in order to create a big enough gap to let anyone in. Once everyone's in, things are much better.

The 9.4 inches in overall length that the Clubman gains over the standard Mini actually makes it as big as most subcompact hatchbacks, like the Fit or the Yaris. Knowing Mini's philosophy of maximizing interior space, you might think that the bulk of it went straight between the wheels. It turns out that there's only 3.1 inches added in between, which makes for a

1.6L I-4 is perfectly suited to moving the Clubman. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

nice improvement in rear legroom, sufficient enough to carry four six-foot tall passengers in a surprising amount of comfort, but where did the rest of it go? Park a Clubman next to a standard Mini and there's quite a bit of rear overhang (3.5 inches), which makes the trunk deeper and more voluminous by a useful 3.5 cubic feet to 9.2 cubic feet. If you fold down the 50:50 split rear seats, the Clubman makes a giant gain in cargo space to 32.8 cubic feet, further aided by a hidden compartment under the trunk's floor. The Clubman also includes a set of latches on the floor, right by the base of the rear seats, and another set on the roof even includes nets. This will allow you to transport bigger and bulkier items securely without risking any unwanted shifting upon hard braking.

But that leaves 0.6 inches unaccounted for, which, it turns out, has been added to the front of the vehicle of all places. The Clubman doesn't have any additional hardware up front that would justify the

More cargo space - seats up or down. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

extra length, so the best reason for its presence that I can think of is for proportionality purposes.

The 176.4 pounds that the Clubman carries over the regular Cooper has on a mild effect on performance; most people will never really notice it. The 118 horsepower 1.6-liter inline-four revs freely and excitedly, so even when working up the engine I didn't feel like I was losing in a struggle against the added structure. A sixth gear in both manual and automatic variants helps keep the engine calm when cruising. Shift up early and it's possible to extract some remarkably good fuel economy figures, though the eagerness of the Clubman will try and encourage you to have a bit more fun. On occasion I managed to resist the temptation, and managed to average 46 mpg. Hybrid? What hybrid? For reasons beyond my knowledge, the Clubman consumes the same amount of fuel in the city and on the highway than the smaller Mini. The EPA says it'll slurp 28 mpg in the city and 37 on the highway versus the exact same for the hatch. Go figure.

Corners like a true Mini. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

Priority for Clubman engineers was to make the car drive as closely as possible to the standard Mini, and in that light I think they've succeeded. I never really felt much of a difference between the two cars unless I was purposely looking for anomalies, although the longer wheelbase of the Clubman model does help to smooth the ride out a bit and the car does feel fractionally more stable at high speed. The turning circle is a touch larger than standard, mind you, but it's still small enough to do a U-turn on most city streets without the need to resort to a three-point turn. It is truly very easy to forget that you're driving anything but a Mini; the chunkiness of the steering, the crispness and precision of it all. Only when looking in the rear view mirror and seeing the thick vertical pillar of the back doors does its uniqueness become apparent. At certain distances, cars can magically vanish behind the pillar, but it's not like you'd need to start using your side view mirrors to compensate.

Not a small family car, but a bigger Mini. (Photo: Justin Couture, American Auto Press)

If you need a regular family car, the Mini Clubman is not the perfect substitute. An average hatchback, like a Mazda3 or Saturn Astra, will better suit your needs; both have more rear legroom and trunk space, not to mention that these alternatives are cheaper. No, the Clubman and Minis in general fall more into the realm of compact premium, and therefore are priced higher. And on that note, ordering a Clubman instead of a Cooper adds about 10-percent to the entry-level sticker. Although, if you're viewing the Clubman in this light, you may have completely missed the point of it. At its core, the Clubman is still a Mini, which is why, syntactically, it's a Cooper Clubman, and not a Clubman Cooper. Mini isn't trying to make a mass-market hatchback or turn the Mini into a small family car. Think of it this way - the Clubman is Mini's way of spreading the brand's dynamic goodness and cheeky character into a marginally larger and fractionally more practical format. So, if you've always wanted a Mini, but needed just a bit more space, you no longer have an excuse!