MINI Clubvan arrives

The MINI Clubvan – a MINI Clubman with blocked out windows and no back seats – arrives as a production model and debuts at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The MINI Clubvan arrived as a concept at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, but there was no chance MINI were going to pass up the chance of filling yet another MINI niche, which makes it no surprise this morning sees the arrival of the production version of the Clubvan.

Looking exactly like what it is – a MINI Clubman with polycarbonate panels over the back windows and no back seats – the MINI Clubvan aims to do for trendy delivery businesses what the MINI did for trendy Estate Agents – make their ubiquitous presence a real annoyance.

Unlike the original Morris Mini Van, which came without much in the way of choice, the Clubvan can be had as a MINI One, MINI Cooper or MINI Cooper D. The One gets the 97bhp petrol, the Cooper the 120bhp version of the same engine and the Cooper D the 1.6 diesel with 110bhp, all with a manual ‘box as standard but with auto as an option.

Standard stuff – apart from the flat load area that’s 114cm long and 102cm wide and holds 860 litres of ‘stuff’ – includes AirCon, 15″ alloys, DAB radio, Stop-Start and cloth interior. But you can always up the price by splashing out on bigger wheels, Sports seats, Leather, Xenons, Climate, SatNav… MINI knows how to extract a few bob more for toys.

Why, those who don’t run a small business may ask, would you buy a MINI Clubvan when you could just have a set of clip-on side panels for your Clubman and use it as the family car at the weekend? VAT is the reason; as a commercial vehicle – which losing the seats and the back windows makes the Clubvan – you can claim back the VAT when you buy.

That means the new MINI Clubvan will cost your business £11,175 for the MINI One Clubvan, £12,475 for the MINI Cooper Clubvan and £13,600 for the MINI Cooper D Clubvan – or it least it will if you can resist bothering the options list.

The MINI Clubvan, in its various guises, will be everywhere by this time next year and give MINI the bonus of using the current MINI platform for years after the new MINI arrives next year.