Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £13,290 to £17,530
Great fun to drive; looks good; fuel-saving tech; it's the latest must-have Mini.
Not particularly practical; expensive; poor rearward visibility; hard ride.
Form over function. Flawed - but immensely desirable.
Stretching the structure has done nothing to dull the Mini's handling, nor its performance. The longer wheelbase and reworked suspension give more of a rear-biased feel, due to the changes in weight distribution, but it's not quite a grown-up BMW yet - thankfully.
As scuttling souped-up tiddlers go, however, it's a sophisticated one, with stability control, cornering brake control and hill-start assist on all models and a limited-slip differential optional with the Cooper S, backing up the inherently excellent balance, grip and roadholding.
The Clubman incorporates the new fuel-saving technology now available in the hatch, including auto stop-start: slightly disquieting at first, this automatically shuts off the engine when idling and then restarts it when the clutch is used. It's very quick to react, and in no way detracts from the driving experience.
The rearward visibility is awful, and that's a real issue in busy city traffic. The rear side windows are tiny, and the rear windscreen obscured by the thick black door frames down the centre.
So far we've only driven the Cooper S, with the 173bhp/177lb-ft 1.6-litre turbo engine and six-speed manual gearbox. Performance is not too far off that of the hatch, with 0-62mph acceleration coming in 7.6 seconds and a top speed of 139mph. The turbo has an overboost function giving as much as 192lb-ft of pulling power temporarily, which is a boon throughout the rev range. While the 1.6-litre direct-injection engine is not the quietest, it's appealingly sporty sounding.
Other initial engine options are the Cooper (118bhp/118lb-ft, 125mph, 0-62mph in 9.8 seconds) and Cooper D diesel (109bhp/177lb-ft, 120mph and 0-62mph in 10.4 seconds).
