[Joogle]

Straight up I think it is a poor design from the club door argument.

Yes its quirky, its different but its been pointed out before - do we want quirky? is it a selling point?do we want to be that different? I dont think thats the first thing that people will be looking at when they think about buying a clubman. Are MINI seriously pinning their hopes on people buying into the Clubman as a "Stylish", "trendy" or "Alternative Lifestyle" vehicle? I dont think the majority of car buyers are that fickle.

Why do you buy an estate - practicality, is this car as practical as some of the alternatives? thats the question most people will be asking when they look at the clubman.

I think MINI missed a trick with this, I agree with Tony that a design similar to the classic estate eg normal number of doors on each side would have been a better and more universally accepted choice. I also think that they missed out on the one option that would have covered the second most common complaint - the Barn doors. (Which I like as its a good tip of the hat to the classic....) Why not offer an option on the rear door arrangement? Barn doors, Upper/Lower split hatch, standard hatch or single door side hinging hatch?

If you start following that argument though you then get into the realms of "Why not offer the club door as an option....."

I think to most people thats the issue - a lot of people seem to have the opinion that MINI have made bad design decisions for them, assuming that its the right choice for the masses. I think what most people are really saying about this is:-

We buy MINI's because we can specify what we want, configure the car to OUR needs. MINI why have you restricted our choice so much with this design - if there was ever any doubt about what you were doing then why did you not leave that choice with the people to who it really matters - the customers.

MINI you have spoiled us by giving us the one thing that a lot of manufacturers dont - choice. Generally its a good thing, but now you have got peoples expectations up your not delivering to those expectations.

I dont think any of us would be having this discussion and we would all be happy if we had a real choice in the matter.