Mini One Clubman full 9 point review

  • Performance

    3 out of 5 stars

    Review-OnRoad The One's petrol engine is best at high revs, but it’s smooth and willing. The six-speed manual gearbox's short ratios make it nippy around town, but the tall top gear blunts pace a little on the motorway. A six-speed automatic gearbox is available as an option.

  • Ride & Handling

    4 out of 5 stars

    Review-OnRoad The Clubman has an 80mm-longer wheelbase than the three-door and revised suspension settings, and this slightly changes the handling balance. It's not quite as sharp into corners, but a little more compliant over bumps. It's lost little of the three-door's verve and fun-to-drive character, though.

  • Refinement

    4 out of 5 stars

    Review-OnRoad The One's engine is smooth and cultured, even when worked hard. Both road and wind noise are pretty well tamed, too. It all adds up to a small-ish car that feels surprisingly grown up.

  • Buying & Owning

    4 out of 5 stars

    Review-Ownership The Clubman isn’t particularly practical, but that’s hardly the point. It’s much more spacious than a three-door Mini, and that has sold by the bucket-load. Desirability will keep used values sky-high, so a Mini is a safe place to put your money, too.

  • Quality & Reliability

    4 out of 5 stars

    Review-Ownership Some of the plastics and switchgear don't quite live up to the 'premium’ small car image (and pricing) that BMW is trying to invest in the Mini range, but overall the Clubman seems pretty well put together. Reliability should be good, too: owners of the hatchback reported very few mechanical problems in the 2010 JD Power survey.

  • Safety & Security

    4 out of 5 stars

    Review-Ownership The Mini has a five-star Euro NCAP crash-test rating and all models have front, side and cabin-length head airbags. You also get ISOFIX child seat mountings, and importantly, stability control is standard throughout the range. The Mini has most of the security parts that make BMWs so hard to steal.

  • Behind The Wheel

    3 out of 5 stars

    Review-Cabin The seat is nicely padded and, like the steering wheel, fully adjustable, so making yourself comfortable is a straightforward operation. The trouble is, the designers have tried too hard to replicate the look of the 1959 Mini while packing in lots more features, and it all comes across as fussy, contrived and awkward to use.

  • Space & Practicality

    2 out of 5 stars

    Review-Cabin There's 80mm more rear kneeroom and a minimum of 100 litres more luggage capacity than in the three-door, so the Clubman can seat four adults (just) and carry their baggage for a weekend away. Space, then, is reasonable. Not so practicality. There are two doors at the back (a throwback to the original Mini estate) instead of a tailgate, and an odd, rear-hinged small door on the offside behind the driver’s door. This means rear passengers may well be exiting into the traffic flow.

  • Equipment

    3 out of 5 stars

    Review-Cabin The Mini One comes with a huge range of options. It's just as well, because you'll probably need quite a few of them. Electric front windows, remote central locking and a CD player come as standard, but alloy wheels cost extra. There are plenty of option packs available, but the Pepper Pack makes most sense, adding lots of desirable features in one go.

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