Mini Clubman

Global luxury car manufacturers are making a beeline for a share of the ever growing luxury car pie in the Indian Market and Mini is not to be left behind. Mini already has the Cooper, the Convertible and the Countryman on sale in India. And now we have the Clubman – an estate in size of a hatchback.

The Mini Clubman is supposedly the largest Mini that is being built. It measures 4275mm in length is 1801mm wide. To put things in perspective, the Countryman is 4097mm and almost as wide as the Clubman. The Clubman looks like every other Mini with its round headlamps flanking the large horizontally slatted oval grille which seems to be gaping too much in this case. It gets six doors and two each for the two comfortable seating rows and the barn doors for a substantial boot to stow away the baggage.

The inside is plush as the new generation Minis are premium cars. The infotainment screen, the dials, the switches, knobs and everything else is in circles except for the AC vents. It gets automatic climate control, rear AC vents, cruise control, steering mounted audio controls and other creature comforts befitting a premium car.

The Clubman is built on the UKL2 platform and gets the 2.0-litre four cylinder turbocharged engine from the Mini Cooper S. It packs 189bhp of power and 280Nm of torque which kicks in from as low as 1250rpm and is mated to an eight-speed automatic that powers the front wheels. We expect the run-of the-mill 2.0-litre 112bhp turbocharged diesel engine that develops 270Nm of torque from 1750rpm to be a part of the line-up soon. This engine is already available with the Mini Countryman and is mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox powering the front wheels.

The Clubman is the most expensive car in Mini’s scheme of things for India and competes with the Volvo V40 and the Mercedes B-Class in terms of size. The price tag though is much higher than the other two but that is also because of the sporty 2.0-litre engine.