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The MINI Clubman and its higher powered sibling the Clubman S is now available in the Malaysian market, priced at RM 225,000.00 and RM 259,000.00 respectively OTR without insurance. It’s a 5-door as opposed to the Cooper’s 3-door body, but the configuration of the 5-doors is not what you would expect.
Instead of having 4 doors on the sides and 1 rear hatch, the MINI Clubman has 2 doors on 1 side, 1 door on the other, and 2 doors for the rear hatch. The double-hinged rear hatch reinterprets the design of the old estate-body MINIs. The additional door on the right side of the car is called the “Clubdoor”, and does not have a handle on the outside. It can only be opened when the driver’s door is open.
It’s up to you to decide whether this door is actually useful or not but as for me I think having this Clubdoor on the passenger side makes more sense. It would also mean the Clubdoor would open to the curb instead of onto the road, facilitating safer loading of goods or passengers. Unfortunately BMW’s engineers designed the Clubman primarily for left hand drive markets where this Clubdoor would be on the passenger side of the car. They say it would be too costly to reengineer the Clubdoor’s position for right hand drive markets because of the position of the fuel filler and other components.
While the use of the MINI Cooper’s rear seats are at best acceptable, the Clubman adds an additional 80mm of legroom for the rear passengers, thanks to an overall increase of 240mm in length for the overall car. The bootspace is now also more usable at 260 liters, extendable to 930 liters with the rear seats down.
Engine options for the Clubman and Clubman S are the same as the Cooper and Cooper S. The Clubman gets a normally aspirated 1.6 liter Valvetronic engine producing 120 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 160Nm of torque at 4,250rpm. The real scorcher is the 1.6 liter direct injection twin-scroll turbocharged engine making 175 horsepower at 5,500rpm and a peak torque of 240Nm right down from 1,600rpm up to 5,000rpm. This increases to 260Nm momentarily during overboost, which the car activates automatically depending on your throttle behaviour.
10 body colours are available for the new Clubman - two solid colours which are Chili Red and Pepper White, and the rest are metallic: Astro Black, Sparkling Silver, British Racing Green, Pure Silver, Lightning Blue, Dark Silver, Laser Blue and Hot Chocolate. Interior trim can also be customised with four interior colours and five Colour Lines. The seats are offered in cloth, cloth/leather, full leather, and premium Leather Lounge upholstery. Some of these upholstery can be configured to match the exterior paint.
Safety features include ABS anti-lock brakes, Electronic Brakeforce Distribution, Cornering Brake Control, and Dynamic Stability Control including hill start-off assistance which automatically helps you apply the brakes so you can start off from inclines without the car rolling backwards.
There is also an optional MINI Tender Loving Care package which is similiar to BMW’s Service Inclusive. For RM888, you do not have to pay for your MINI’s maintenance for 3 years or 50,000km.
More photos of the MINI Clubman available after the jump.
Related Posts:
MINI Clubman Test Drive Review
Full Details On The New MINI Clubman
Click here to read the rest of R55 MINI Clubman now available in Malaysia!
In an interview with 
