Trader Dreamer: MINI Clubman

Brown. It’s a pretty seventies colour. The 70’s are good, nylon shirts, big colours, disco music; it’s surprising to me that more aspects of this period of time haven’t made a resurgence. At present we seem to be in a micro eighties revival, and to petrolheads, that means white cars. The white paintwork that once proudly adorned Carlson Mercedes’, Lamborghini Countach’s and Escort XR3i’s is now prolific, not only on Audi’s 2011 Goodwood stand, but also on the driveways and motorways of the United Kingdom. Surely now its time for something new, and I think brown is the answer. As always there’s a trendsetter, and the first modern car that I can recall launching in brown (that’s not a fact, just my memory!) came back in 2007.

Yes the MINI Clubman. For those already shouting about weight, size, German registration plates, and ejecting their children into the path of traffic via a suicide door, please bear with me. After leaving just enough time to become accustomed to the rather beefier R56 hatch, MINI wheeled their modern Clubman. A car which seemed to offer little extra practicality over the hatch, while also featuring a single rear passenger door on the wrong side for us Brits. However ignoring that door for the moment, the Clubman is a rather decent looking car, at least to my eyes. The greater size of the R56 over it’s predecessor is disguised more effectively by the longer body. Also, three door estates are just plain cool! The original Mini Traveller (apparently BMW didn't have the rights to re-use the name), the mk3 Escort, even the Allegro estate have great appeal to those who appreciate their ‘retro’ cars.

Of course technically the Clubman has 5 doors, but even if I owned the car I think I’d continue to ignore that silly door. It must have cost a fair bit to engineer that in, and it’s hard to see the value of it, even if you live in a left hand drive market. Clearly customers are a tad confused, they’ve hardly sold in the volumes that MINI are accustomed to, then again perhaps they expected that. In any case what that means for us is a MINI that is rather more exclusive than it’s standard hatchback derivative. You also gain an extra 240mm in length along with a slightly increased height and a 20kg weight penalty. Those factors allow for a greater load capacity and seating for five, albeit with three of them being pretty cramped and faced with quite a mission to exit and enter.

This dash of extra practicality does not dull the MINI’s well-known talents however; it’s 90% as fun to drive, rapid in Cooper S guise and features suspension that’s just as crashy. However what makes this car especially worthy of note here, is the fact that it launched in brown back in 2007. Now 5 years later, more and more cars are launching in brown, like BMW’s new 3 series and Porsche’s Boxster. Thanks to the Clubman getting in there early, you can now acquire one for quite a lot less than new. Even if it doesn’t quite become the next white, it’s a fantastic colour, and something that will stick out on the street full of white cars.

Unfortunately 5 years doesn’t equate to a massive amount of depreciation, so you’ll still be forking out in the region of £9k to obtain this brown pseudo estate car. The cheapest being the petrol Cooper, which delivers a reasonable 51.4 mpg along with a 60 mph sprint in less than 10 seconds. For around £10k the whole range is easy to find, the Cooper D with its 68.9mpg will appeal to the frugal minded, while the swift Cooper S is surely the pick of the range. Being a MINI the options fitted to each car will vary a great deal, it might be worth finding out what was available, and then trying to find the one with all the kit you desire. It’s worth noting that the cheapest Clubman currently available is actually very well kitted out, so a strong suite of options won’t necessarily cost you on the used market like it would have buying new.

All in all you’re buying into a very decent, fairly rounded car, with all the options and more that you might find on a 3 series, yet with rather more exclusivity. So if you have £10k burning a hole in your pocket, and want to tell your friends you were a style leader (possibly) then this car might be just what you need.

Here’s some I found

Here’s the cheapest available. You won’t be feeling hard done by for your £8,980, this 40k Cooper has plenty of kit, full leather, climate control, panoramic glass roof, xenon’s and a full service history. The 1.6 petrol delivers pretty reasonable economy, and it’s only insurance group 8.

In the same price range is this Cooper, it's barely run in at 17k, it even has some of it's TLC pack remaining, meaning the next service will be free. The downside is that the original owner didn't venture much into to the options list, but it all depends what matters to you.

The MINI Cooper D offers the same low insurance as the petrol, but also offers cheap road tax and even greater economy. There's for several for sale just below £10k but again the cheapest offers the best spec, half leather USB/iPod, cruise control, full service history, and MINI XL cover, which again means a free service coming your way.

My choice would be the most powerful, the Cooper S. 175bhp to be precise, no JCW's are currently available in brown. While being the most powerful the car still claims to achieve 44.1 mpg on the combined cycle, win all round? This example comes in at just £10,250 and comes decently specified, although the advert is suspiciously bad.

Specifications

MINI Clubman Cooper / Cooper D / Cooper S

0-60 9.8 / 10.4 / 7.6 seconds
0-100 N/A / N/A / 17.7 seconds
Top Speed 125 /120 /  139 mph
Power 120 / 110  / 175 bhp
Torque 118 / 192 / 192 lb/ft
Weight 1145 / 1175 / 1205 kg
Insurance Group 8 / 8 / 15
MPG 51.4 / 68.9 / 44.1

Warranty Direct Reliability Index 70
How Many Left  817 (Orginal MINI Clumbans removed from figure, not all Clubmans may have been registered as such)