BMW's new Mini estate

Get ready to relive your childhood with the newly launched Mini Clubman

Ask people of a certain age about an estate version of the Mini and, unless they happen to be car anoraks, it's unlikely that they will be able to cite chapter and verse on the differences between the Austin Countryman, Mini Traveller and Mini Clubman Estate. But many of them will pipe up something about how their mum used to have one. In all its various forms, the Traveller/Countryman/Clubman Estate was the ideal combination of a small car that could carry lots of stuff—so you could get the kids in the back as well as the shopping.

Now the clever Germans at BMW, currently in control of the Mini brand, have decided to combine aspects of all three elongated Minis and launch a new Mini estate under the single banner of Mini Clubman. While the purists will mock and sneer about the use of the Clubman badge (technically this is a re-launch of the Clubman Estate), BMW is hoping that the same principles that served previous elongated models well—basically a small car with a (relatively) big capacity—will work again.

The new Mini Clubman is 24cm longer that the Hatch and its most striking feature is its doors, already causing some consternation on the Mini chatrooms.

There is an extra door on one side to make access to the rear easier and the boot is reached via two doors at the back. This is a feature originally found on some of the earlier Minis, although it was initially designed for the Minivan and later adapted for passenger vehicles.

The new Clubman is the realisation of a concept car—the Shooting Brake—first shown at the Frankfurt motor show in 2005. BMW is offering three versions of the Clubman; the Mini Cooper S Clubman (with a 1.6 litre, four cylinder petrol engine with direct injection and twin-scroll turbocharger), which has a top speed of 139mph; the normally aspirated Mini Cooper Clubman, with a top speed of 125mph; and the turbo-diesel, Mini Cooper D Clubman, with a top speed of 120mph.

While many fans of the old Minis continue to snipe at the revamped model, BMW continues to sell as many as it can make. Whether the stretch version achieves the same success remains to be seen. But with a boot capacity of 930 litres with the rear seats down (260 litres with the seats in place) a whole new generation of Mums could be lining up to relive their childhoods.

The new Mini Clubman goes on sale in November 2007.