MINI Clubman ends production after 55 years. Or is it 64 years?

The MINI Clubman – the MINI ‘Estate’ – ends production ahead of the new ‘Countryman Light’ – the new MINI Aceman.

As car makers dive headlong into new ranges of EVs, nameplates which have been around for generations are biting the dust, although, in some instances, long-forgotten nameplates are making a bit of a comeback.

For our older readers, the resurrection of nameplates like the Ford Puma and Renault 5 are designed to make them familiar and appealing, although to younger readers they’re just another new car with a new name. So expect more nameplates to disappear and more old nameplates to be resurrected as the nameplate merry-go-round continues.

Now it’s the turn of MINI to bin a longstanding nameplate with production of the MINI Clubman ending today, 5 February 2024, after 55 years, although it could be argued that the MINI Clubman – a MINI Estate – really arrived in 1960 with the Morris Mini Traveller and Austin Seven Countryman.

But the Clubman badge arrived in 1969 with a new front end and was available as a saloon, Estate and the peppy-ish 1275GT and sold getting on for 600,000 units before production ended in 1982.

The MINI Clubman was reborn in 2007 with its odd rear door and even spawned a van version – the MINI Clubvan – and grew in size as the MINI ranged gained weight and size and has sold almost as many as the original Clubman. But now it’s no more.

With the new big Countryman getting a smaller sibling in the new MINI Aceman, it’s the closest you’ll get to a new Clubman. But who knows, the Clubman badge may yet return.