New Clubman - What do YOU think?

[euan]

When I saw it the other week, I was not at all convinced by it - the back just looked wrong.

I'll not be buying one, that's for sure. But then, I'm not going to buy an R56 either, I'd rather have a previous model S so I might be biased.

[illegalhunter]

I like the look of it, wont be buying 1 tho

[markyc]

Like the look of it but there are a couple of things that bother me;

. Like most others the wee 'suicide' door, not convinced it should be where it is for our market (would agree with what Craig says - wonder what MINI have to say for their reasoning)
. Not sure at all about the black plastic section that runs down the back pillars encasing the lights and then runs through underneath the back doors. Is it the same nice shiney plastic like the 'rain/wind deflectors' that are on the back on the R56 which IMHO will scuff/score way too easily on a load area or will it be some other material ??

[ELFMAN]

All good points guys. I reckon the door's on the 'wrong' side because they'll sell many more left-hookers. They can sort 'our' cars' dashboard for RHD because (as we saw at the factory) the dash is 'modular' and just slots in - easy - while building two separate bodies for L/H and R/H wee doors would be financially prohibitive. Purely a money-saving decision I reckon. After all, that's what the R56 re-design is (mostly) all about - the R53 was too footery and therefore expensive to build.

The black plastic bit? Time will tell. Looks MUCH better than the silver though, which has hints of a plastic 'Smart' about it....... The pics of the red one look pretty smart (in the proper sense) though.

[Ferengo]

Elfman is right. They don't flip a lot of the design over when bringing the models over to the UK as it cost too much. This was told to me when I picked my Cooper up.

When I first saw this I hated it, but one day my car was going in and they were meeting me at my work to give me my courtesy car. I pulled up into the car park and thought, "What Idiot has bought a clubman, let alone a diesel one!". they guy got out and said here's your car.

All morning I cursed it while at my desk. Took it out at lunchtime and... WOW!!! I want one, but the wife won't let me... ah well, one day maybe.

Also It didn't rattle. :-)