2016 Mini Cooper Clubman review – Roadshow

The Good The 2015 Mini Clubman is the largest Mini yet, but is still quite compact. The larger footprint directly manifests as improved interior space. The more premium Mini offers amenities such as semiautonomous parking, remote-opening rear doors and a well-appointed cabin. Both the new 1.5- and 2.0-liter turbocharged engines offer excellent performance that is well matched for the sport-tuned suspension.

The Bad The infotainment system lacks support for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, and the destination and music search interfaces are needlessly tedious. This more premium Mini’s price easily crests $40,000. Some buyers may find that a big pill to swallow for such a small car.

The Bottom Line The 2016 Mini Clubman is the biggest and most premium Mini yet, but it’s still a Mini: quite small, playful and quirky. This odd balance of lilliputian luxury puts the Clubman in a class of its own.

Let’s start with a superlative. The 2016 Mini Cooper Clubman is the longest Mini model yet. Stretching to 168.3 inches from nose to tail, it’s just over a foot longer than the previous Clubman model. Heck, it’s more than 6 inches longer than the Countryman CUV.

But it almost had to be this way. The dimensions of the new Cooper four-door that joined the lineup this generation are so close to the first-generation Clubman that the new model had to grow significantly to justify its existence.

Grown-up style

But Mini didn’t just physically scale up the Clubman; the automaker is also taking the vehicle’s style, amenities and image upscale as well. This is a more grown-up Mini. One that is less “quirky and cutesy” and more “premium compact.” One Mini representative used the term “flagship” when describing the Clubman, which makes me think of it as the BMW 7er of the compact class.

The elongated profile preserves and exaggerates the Clubman’s characteristic low and wide proportions. Its track is about 2.5 inches wider than before (overall width is up by 4.6 inches) and the wheelbase is 4.8 inches longer, but the roof sits within a quarter inch of the older car’s. These proportions make the Clubman look hunkered down to the ground and still appear compact when viewed curbside.

The new Clubman is longer from nose to tail than even the Countryman small crossover.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

For comparison’s sake, the new Clubman is about an inch longer than the Mk7 Volkswagen Golf, but its roof sits about an inch lower.

The increased dimensions pay off in the cabin, where the Clubman has 2 more inches of knee space in the second row and more head and shoulder room all around. Of the current Mini lineup, this is the one that should be easiest to load a car seat into. There’s also significantly more cargo volume than before, both with the rear seats occupied and especially when they’re folded flat, when the Clubman’s 47.9 cubic feet of cargo volume bests the Countryman by 5.7 cubic feet.

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In growing up as a Mini, the Clubman loses the asymmetrical design that it debuted with. The first generation featured a small, rear-hinged coach door only on the passenger (right-hand) side. The new model uses a more traditional four-door configuration. Well, technically, a six-door configuration, since the Clubman retains its dual rear doors on the hatchback — only now, those doors can be opened remotely with the touch of the key fob, which is pretty sweet to see in action, or by kicking a foot beneath the rear bumper while the key fob is on your person.

Modular TwinPower engines

The Clubman is available with two turbocharged engine options, and it should come as no surprise that they’re largely identical to the ones in the hardtop two- and four-door models that debuted previously.

Base Cooper models feature a 1.5-liter TwinPower turbocharged three-cylinder engine that makes 134 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. Before you pooh-pooh the idea of a premium three-cylinder engine, I should say that BMW’s two-stage turbocharging does an excellent job of making this feel like a much larger engine and eliminating throttle-response lag. Everyone I’ve spoken to who’s driven the 1.5-liter agrees that it’s a good little motor.

Beneath the clamshell hood is Mini’s new modular 2.0-liter turbocharged engine. The 189 horsepower, 207 pound-foot mill is sourced from BMW.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

With the aid of either a six-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual, power reaches the front wheels. The manual gearbox is the more efficient of the two, with an estimated fuel economy of 25 mpg city, 35 mpg highway and 28 combined, but only just so. The automatic, which I was able to test, only loses 1 estimated mpg on the highway by comparison.

The TwinPower engines are of a modular design, so just slap an extra cylinder onto the end of the three-banger and you’ve got the more potent Cooper S with its 2.0-liter TwinPower turbocharged four-cylinder engine. (OK, it’s probably more complex than just slapping it on.)

The extra displacement nets the Cooper Clubman S extra output, which now sits at 189 horsepower and 207 pound-feet of torque. The S can be had with either a six-speed manual transmission or a new eight-speed automatic transmission with optional paddle shifters and launch control. With the eight-speed in place, the S is good for an estimated 24 city, 34 highway and 27 combined mpg. The six-speed loses 1 to 2 mpg across the board.

Mini has also announced that it will be making the Clubman S available with the All4 all-wheel drive system, which it borrows from the Countryman and Paceman crossovers, as a $1,800 option.

I first drove the manually shifted example and found it pleasing, yet a bit odd. For starters, the shifter throw feels ridiculously long — especially the 4-5 shift which I had to lock my elbow to reach. The clutch pedal is a much better built piece of the puzzle with a good weight that’s not too light and not too heavy, and really good engagement. The Mini will also auto rev-match when shifting (blipping the throttle on downshift and holding on ups) which allowed me to be a bit lazy getting it into gear. The upshot is that this is the sort of car you could shift all day and not get tired, which I think works well with the Clubman’s laid-back attitude.

The Clubman S is available with either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission. Both options are good with unique strengths and weaknesses.

Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

Later, I was able to add to my experiences with more extensive testing of the eight-speed automatic transmission. As slushboxes go, this one is a peach. Shifts were quick and well-defined when the system detected that I was driving aggressively, particularly when in the Sport mode. Paddle shifters proved to be useful and easily accessible when needed for more spirited driving or to preselect a lower gear in anticipation of a pass. When driving in a more relaxed manner around town, those same quick shifts translated into smooth acceleration.

Both the Cooper and Cooper S feature three drive modes, which are selected with a ring around the shift lever. The first mode is Green, which adjusts the throttle mapping, climate controls and other vehicle systems to save fuel. The instrument cluster displays a readout indicating how many additional miles you’re getting per gallon when in Green mode.

Mid is the odd name for the Mini’s normal, baseline drive-mode setting. Think of it as the default. Finally, there’s Sport, which livens up the performance, sharpens the throttle response, and on the Cooper S model, amps up and deepens the exhaust note. On Clubman models equipped with the optional adaptive suspension, the drive modes adjust the ride characteristics as well.