We didn’t go over the one sided suicide door in our own, exclusive review of the MINI Clubman recently too much as it’s a subject that, pretty much, has been done to death ahead of launch on MINI websites such as MINI2.

But the Irish Independent, who had previously accused BMW of “breathtaking arrogance” over the right hand sided rear door, and the Telegraph were among the first to heavily criticize and question the safety of the Club Door in their reports following the international launch of the new MINI Clubman.

In a report by the Irish Independent they managed to produce a statement from the head of road safety at the AA which, in our opinion, rather limply concluded “You will have to be very careful when you use it”.  Well, yes, you would with any door by a road, wouldn’t you?!

Peter Hall, writing in the Telegraph, devotes most of his report on the rather tiresome debate that was had by many about the virtues (or otherwise) of the Clubman’s asymmetric design.  It’s a debate that no side can win, and wont change anything, but as we did mention in our report and comments on return from Madrid, it was a hot topic of conversation among the British media.

The whole debate over the “wrong sided” suicide door overall though has surprised us by it’s lack of coverage.  Maybe most media outlets decided, as we did, it wasn’t going to reach any sort of conclusion, so maybe wasn’t worth debating at all?  Whatever the reason, we’re sure BMW are pleased with the lack of bad PR received so far from their undeniable design gamble.