Here's Why the Mini Clubvan Is One of the Rarest, Weirdest Modern Cars
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Date: 2019-10-25
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Comments and reviews: 10
largol33t1
Doug, some other weird or interesting things about the car: I used to own a Clubman and the rear door pillars are no big deal. I could still see even a Mazda Miata behind me in rush hour traffic. When opening the rear doors, the tail lights flash and stay on. i guess it's so you can walk to your front door with your arms full of cargoI think they left the third Club door in because it was cheaper than redoing the bodyWhile on the subject of doors, the MINI is the only car I've ever owned where the doors can be opened 90 degrees My current car only swings them out to about 80 or so. It's cool looking at the MINI from the front with both doors wide open. If you push the door lock button on your key fob and HOLD it down, the doors lock and your windows roll up if they weren't fully raised. One thing that makes no sense is why the tail lights have ONE reverse light and not two. I can't find a single reason for that. Also it makes no sense that the driver side door has a manual keyhole as a backup if your battery died but the passenger side doesn'tThe windshield wipers were the worst part of the car. There were only three modes: one sweep every 4 seconds, one sweep every second and fast (about twice the speed. Is the rain not that strong? Sorry, you can't adjust the wiper speed. A lot of owners had to install an aftermarket brace in the engine bay. It connected to the top of the fenders to keep the body more rigid since it flexed so badly. This made the steering lose alignment very quickly. I was forced to get an alignment subscription because of this issue Seriously, I paid a one time fee (which was huge but I guess they knew I'd be making a lot of trips) and I got an alignment every month no matter what the mileage was or even if it was my fault (such as sideswiping a curb. In the long run, it was cheaper that way. This was originally intended as a woody wagon for surfers, hence the surfboard roof if viewed from the side. Sadly the woody wagon never made it past the drawing board. I'd LOVE to own one, especially with a surfboard rack which was to come with the car if it was approved for production. I wish you had shown the a/c vents. When you turn the knob, they spin closed like a ship propeller Very weird. What makes me sad is MINI got rid of these and went to the boring old rectangular window shutter design found on 99% of all cars. If you had the S model Clubman (I've driven both versions) it suffered from the turbo creeping the car to the right If you stomped on the gas pedal, you had to hold the wheel with both hands or the car would veer off right I nearly crashed into a curb doing that And even the Clubman with a turbo 4 cylinder was very fast. As if that wasn't enough, the cars suffered from a different kind of turbo meltdown. They actually melted the hood The hood is piping hot after pushing the S model hard even during short trips. Many owners sued MINI because of this and demanded a new hood. I have no idea about the outcome of that. And the weirdest thing about the car: the MINI had a wireless key fob that we all take for granted now. They now work like this: if your key fob is in the car, the door locks will not work. On the MINI, I learned the hard way that the very first generation (which I had) didn't work exactly like that. If you had a Clubman and locked your keys in by accident, the horn sounded, the lights flashed and the REAR door popped open. It was difficult and awkward trying to climb over the seats to get into the cockpit but I was able to get in and grab the key fob. I can't buy a VW Amarok because of the chicken tax? And the news whines about tariffs AFTER Obama left office. It's sad that this cool Minivan has an auto. My car had a 6 speed manual and it changes the driving experience. It is always makes cars like the MINI more fun to drive.
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Doug, some other weird or interesting things about the car: I used to own a Clubman and the rear door pillars are no big deal. I could still see even a Mazda Miata behind me in rush hour traffic. When opening the rear doors, the tail lights flash and stay on. i guess it's so you can walk to your front door with your arms full of cargoI think they left the third Club door in because it was cheaper than redoing the bodyWhile on the subject of doors, the MINI is the only car I've ever owned where the doors can be opened 90 degrees My current car only swings them out to about 80 or so. It's cool looking at the MINI from the front with both doors wide open. If you push the door lock button on your key fob and HOLD it down, the doors lock and your windows roll up if they weren't fully raised. One thing that makes no sense is why the tail lights have ONE reverse light and not two. I can't find a single reason for that. Also it makes no sense that the driver side door has a manual keyhole as a backup if your battery died but the passenger side doesn'tThe windshield wipers were the worst part of the car. There were only three modes: one sweep every 4 seconds, one sweep every second and fast (about twice the speed. Is the rain not that strong? Sorry, you can't adjust the wiper speed. A lot of owners had to install an aftermarket brace in the engine bay. It connected to the top of the fenders to keep the body more rigid since it flexed so badly. This made the steering lose alignment very quickly. I was forced to get an alignment subscription because of this issue Seriously, I paid a one time fee (which was huge but I guess they knew I'd be making a lot of trips) and I got an alignment every month no matter what the mileage was or even if it was my fault (such as sideswiping a curb. In the long run, it was cheaper that way. This was originally intended as a woody wagon for surfers, hence the surfboard roof if viewed from the side. Sadly the woody wagon never made it past the drawing board. I'd LOVE to own one, especially with a surfboard rack which was to come with the car if it was approved for production. I wish you had shown the a/c vents. When you turn the knob, they spin closed like a ship propeller Very weird. What makes me sad is MINI got rid of these and went to the boring old rectangular window shutter design found on 99% of all cars. If you had the S model Clubman (I've driven both versions) it suffered from the turbo creeping the car to the right If you stomped on the gas pedal, you had to hold the wheel with both hands or the car would veer off right I nearly crashed into a curb doing that And even the Clubman with a turbo 4 cylinder was very fast. As if that wasn't enough, the cars suffered from a different kind of turbo meltdown. They actually melted the hood The hood is piping hot after pushing the S model hard even during short trips. Many owners sued MINI because of this and demanded a new hood. I have no idea about the outcome of that. And the weirdest thing about the car: the MINI had a wireless key fob that we all take for granted now. They now work like this: if your key fob is in the car, the door locks will not work. On the MINI, I learned the hard way that the very first generation (which I had) didn't work exactly like that. If you had a Clubman and locked your keys in by accident, the horn sounded, the lights flashed and the REAR door popped open. It was difficult and awkward trying to climb over the seats to get into the cockpit but I was able to get in and grab the key fob. I can't buy a VW Amarok because of the chicken tax? And the news whines about tariffs AFTER Obama left office. It's sad that this cool Minivan has an auto. My car had a 6 speed manual and it changes the driving experience. It is always makes cars like the MINI more fun to drive.
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Will Hobbs
2013 Cooper owner here, there's a couple more quirks with this era Mini: - if you hold the ambient light switch for a few seconds, the colors change perpetually- the gear selector knob is made to look like a racing helmet- the Mini community calls the fuel gauge lights candy corns- not a quirk, but acceleration is virtually non-existent unless you're in sport mode, especially if the A/C's on- also not a quirk, but if Doug took the car on a curvy road he would at least bump the Fun Factor score up to a 4(and yes, I knew there was a secret compartment on the passenger side dash, its where I hide my microfiber cloth, shhh)
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2013 Cooper owner here, there's a couple more quirks with this era Mini: - if you hold the ambient light switch for a few seconds, the colors change perpetually- the gear selector knob is made to look like a racing helmet- the Mini community calls the fuel gauge lights candy corns- not a quirk, but acceleration is virtually non-existent unless you're in sport mode, especially if the A/C's on- also not a quirk, but if Doug took the car on a curvy road he would at least bump the Fun Factor score up to a 4(and yes, I knew there was a secret compartment on the passenger side dash, its where I hide my microfiber cloth, shhh)
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Aiden Studios
Fun fact about the central speedometer: if your head unit breaks (like mine, it's quoted at around 1, 600 to fix because of how it's made and integrated into the dial. In order to replace it you need to take the whole dash apart and rewire everything and the original stereos are apparently pretty expensive and there's several different radio options and change depending on the cd changer (which is built even farther down into the center console) and a bunch of other shit.
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Fun fact about the central speedometer: if your head unit breaks (like mine, it's quoted at around 1, 600 to fix because of how it's made and integrated into the dial. In order to replace it you need to take the whole dash apart and rewire everything and the original stereos are apparently pretty expensive and there's several different radio options and change depending on the cd changer (which is built even farther down into the center console) and a bunch of other shit.
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tom clee
I work for a Mini dealership in the UK and only ever seen 2 of these. With regards to the Cooper S version, It was only available with the 1. 6 (N16, Nuturoisly unreliable) petrol or the N47 Diesel (Also very unreliable. One of our customers has converted his to JCW Bumpers, Trims and alloys and has all the spec on it and it would make for a very cool little work van
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I work for a Mini dealership in the UK and only ever seen 2 of these. With regards to the Cooper S version, It was only available with the 1. 6 (N16, Nuturoisly unreliable) petrol or the N47 Diesel (Also very unreliable. One of our customers has converted his to JCW Bumpers, Trims and alloys and has all the spec on it and it would make for a very cool little work van
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martin martin
6: 40 no cargo bin instead of rear seat like the panel HHR? What a waste of space. The ultimate poor man van; a second gen Scion Xb with rear seat delete. It's will be more spacious ( over 75 cu feet ) and far more reliable. and wrap the rear windows with vinyl from home depot. Perfect sleeper for slip-in.
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6: 40 no cargo bin instead of rear seat like the panel HHR? What a waste of space. The ultimate poor man van; a second gen Scion Xb with rear seat delete. It's will be more spacious ( over 75 cu feet ) and far more reliable. and wrap the rear windows with vinyl from home depot. Perfect sleeper for slip-in.
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Ryan sells Cars
I believe the actual official total in the US is 57 of these. We had one at our dealer, and you could actually get them with a manual transmission but I believe most, if not all were ordered as automatics. We put 18 JCW wheels, some custom graphics, and a surf board rack and sold it soon after.
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I believe the actual official total in the US is 57 of these. We had one at our dealer, and you could actually get them with a manual transmission but I believe most, if not all were ordered as automatics. We put 18 JCW wheels, some custom graphics, and a surf board rack and sold it soon after.
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Chris Wade
I've just checked. There was no Cooper S version in the UK, but we did get manuals and diesels, and a diesel auto with a 2, 0 engine. It was on sale here until 2016. There are under 1000 in total on the road here. I've only ever seen one
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I've just checked. There was no Cooper S version in the UK, but we did get manuals and diesels, and a diesel auto with a 2, 0 engine. It was on sale here until 2016. There are under 1000 in total on the road here. I've only ever seen one
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Gari Deb
This car has a niche - if your company has to make deliveries and you want to make a statement this could make business sense. Your clients would remember the vehicle, which they would not do if you were in a regular commercial small van.
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This car has a niche - if your company has to make deliveries and you want to make a statement this could make business sense. Your clients would remember the vehicle, which they would not do if you were in a regular commercial small van.
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PrimiusLovin
It's a cute little van, not sure if someone would spend 25000+ on a little van for personal or commercial use though, there are bigger vans at cheaper prices, that's probably why it's rare even here in Europe
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It's a cute little van, not sure if someone would spend 25000+ on a little van for personal or commercial use though, there are bigger vans at cheaper prices, that's probably why it's rare even here in Europe
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Nick Weiss
I like the 2 minis Ive driven, theyve both been manuals though. I saw this video come up, and Im thinking. Why wouldnt they make and sell more of these? And it turns out its simply because they suck ass.
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I like the 2 minis Ive driven, theyve both been manuals though. I saw this video come up, and Im thinking. Why wouldnt they make and sell more of these? And it turns out its simply because they suck ass.
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