MINI Countryman Coupe to be MINI Paceman

MINI has revealed that the MINI Paceman Concept which we thought was going to hit production as the MINI Countryman Coupe will be the Paceman after all.

There was always little chance that the MINI Paceman – a two door Countryman Coupe first seen at Detroit last year – was doing anything other than heading for production.

After all, making a coupe version of the Countryman is an obvious niche for MINI – that great seeker of niches – to extend the MINI franchise in to.

So when we learnt in March that MINI had decided to eschew the Paceman name for a more obvious moniker – MINI Countryman Coupe – we weren’t surprised; it made sense.

But it now seems MINI has had a change of heart and decided MINI Paceman is a much cooler name for it coupe Countryman and have confirmed it as such ahead of a production debut at the Paris Motor Show in September, and on sale in early 2013.

Whatever MINI are calling a two door version of the Countryman makes no difference to the fact that we’ll be seeing a coupe version of the Countryman with everything from the Paceman One to the Paceman JCW by way of a trio of Paceman diesels – and 4WD in the mix too.

And on balance we agree with MINI. Paceman is a cooler name the Countryman Coupe and it will stop buyers coming out of a MINI showroom with the much smaller MINI Coupe because they got confused with the now enormous range of MINI models on offer.

A bit like the average Porsche 911 buyer.