After the previous Audi TT was officially discontinued, another classic car is bidding us farewell. On February 5th, the last MINI Clubman rolled off the production line at the Oxford plant in England, and the model that was born in 1969 and was discontinued and "resurrected" was officially ended. There will be no sequel to it in the future, nor will it reappear as a tram.
In the '60s, the British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC), which owned MINI at the time, invited Roy Haynes, a designer who had worked at Ford, to bring a new solution that combined the characteristics of several MINI models at the time to highlight the benefits of the product and simplify the MINI product line, and the result was the MINI Clubman.
From 1969 until 1982, when production first ended, nearly 600,000 units of the MINI Clubman were produced before the model was withdrawn from the market.
Twenty-five years later, in 2007, the MINI brought back this model in a new era, with a split trunk door and an asymmetrical "Clubdoor" to make it easier for rear passengers to get in and out of the car (although many students with pets also open this door to make it easier for puppies to get in and out of the car, hence the name "puppy door").
All five doors are open
These designs make the MINI Clubman unique in the market and very eye-catching, but behind it are even greater technical challenges.
Comparison of the three generations of the MINI Clubman
From 2007 to the present, MINI has designed two generations of models for the MINI Clubman, and now the third generation is on sale in 2015, which has a six-door design and a trunk capacity of 1250 liters.
It retains its elegance while also bringing better usability with the largest size in the MINI lineup at the time.
Two generations of models for the new era
The same split split trunk door has been implemented throughout the series
2015 年款 MINI Clubman
However, in 2010, MINI introduced the larger MINI Countryman, which retains the characteristics of the MINI, while the SUV positioning also fills a gap in the MINI lineup, and the practicality is even better.
If the MINI Countryman was a little uncomfortable at the beginning of its debut, the real sales figures quickly gave the answer, it greatly squeezed the market space of the MINI Clubman, which became the direct reason for the latter's discontinuation, BMW has said that the sales of the MINI Clubman are only half of the MINI Countryman, and the sales of the MINI Clubman in China are also the lowest in the whole series.
In MINI's view, the market space after the discontinuation of the MINI Clubman is all left to the MINI Countryman - and the MINI Countryman has already begun to launch an electric version, and even the entire MINI brand is turning to electrification, from this point of view, the discontinuation of the MINI Clubman has also become a milestone.
Many owners of the MINI Clubman still talk about its ability to "pull goods".
In the end, the MINI Clubman, which spans 55 years since its debut, has been sold in more than 50 countries and regions around the world, and eventually produced more than 1.1 million units (so the time after the "rebirth" is longer than in the early days, and the sales are not as large as in the early days).
And to commemorate it, in 2023 the MINI Clubman also launched a commemorative edition of "FINAL EDITION", which has a unique livery, limited to 1969 units worldwide (with the "1 OF 1969" nameplate on the car), and can also be purchased in China. If you want to keep the last memory, in addition to the last current car, you can also consider this special model. It is priced at $336,100.