DRIVING IMPRESSIONS

 On the road, our Cooper S Clubman feels solid and surefooted. The steering seems to wander at times, so perhaps the wheel alignment needs checking, along with the tyres, although the low-profile non-runflat tyres fitted to our car are known to wander and tramline a little.

Editor Martyn Knowles found there was some juddering under braking at times, so further investigation is required. Maybe the front discs are warped or there are suspension and tracking issues.

The suspension feels firm, but positive. There are Macpherson struts at the front with lower arms, whose rearmost bushes can wear, just like on the earlier R50 MINIS. At the rear, the suspension is also similar to the R50 MINI, with strut-style coilovers, trailing arms and upper and lower control arms. Plus, there are anti-roll bars all-round.

The performance from the 1.6-litre turbocharged twincam engine is entertaining. Official figures claim there’s 260Nm of torque, which should result in a 0-60mph dash of 7.4 seconds – not bad for a medium-sized car that weighs a hefty 1205kg, making the power-to-weight ratio 143bhp per tonne. Unlike the 1.6 supercharged first-gen Cooper S (R53) that often struggled to return 30mpg (although official figures claim a combined 34mpg), this later derivative delares an average fuel consumption of 44mpg. Plus, the road tax is £165 per year, whereas the older supercharged Cooper S now costs £330 per year.

While the Cooper S Clubman may not be too expensive to run, it’s also very refined and feels very modern. There’s a six-speed manual gearbox, climate control, automatic exterior Xenon headlights and an assortment of toys including a double sunroof, although this doesn’t appear to be working at present – and the electric side windows are pretty slow to move up and down.

We spoke to Mintech Spares, who sell secondhand spares for the BMW MINI. They explained the bulky double sunroof can become too much for the electronic mechanism to move, especially if water gets into it. With a new mechanism costing around £1400 fitted, their solution is to disable the rear sunroof, which allows the mechanism to control the front sunroof. Total price is £250+VAT (£300).