2012 & 2013 Mini Wagon Reviews & Ratings

The Mini first appeared on the streets of the United Kingdom in 1959. Originally built by the British Motor Company (BMC - a company formed by the merger of Morris and Austin in 1952) the small 2 door Mini quickly spread in popularity around the world due to its handling, driving performance and excellent fuel economy. Today Mini is owned by BMW who continue the proud tradition, popularity and features of this classic small car.

The Mini of today is available as a sedan, coupe, conver... (full review continues below)

The Mini first appeared on the streets of the United Kingdom in 1959. Originally built by the British Motor Company (BMC - a company formed by the merger of Morris and Austin in 1952) the small 2 door Mini quickly spread in popularity around the world due to its handling, driving performance and excellent fuel economy. Today Mini is owned by BMW who continue the proud tradition, popularity and features of this classic small car.

The Mini of today is available as a sedan, coupe, convertible, Roadster and in a very popular throwback to earlier years the Mini wagon, known as the Clubman (similar in appearance to the 1960's Mini Traveller). Like all Mini cars the Clubman features excellent performance and fuel economy partnered with premium technology such as satellite High Definition radio, an optional navigation system andmultiple airbags but it also features additional passenger and rear cargo space over the standard Mini with cool split rear barn doors. The cargo space of the Mini wagon can be further increased by dropping the rear seats down. The good news is the additional length of the Mini wagon does not compromise the cars performance.

Small car competitors to the Mini wagon that feature an increased cargo space include the Fiat 500 and Volkswagen GTI. Despite appearances these cars actually have more standard cargo space than the Clubman, but the Mini wagon offers better driving performance than the Fiat and a better price point than the Volkswagen.

The Mini wagon Clubman is available in 3 variants the Cooper, Cooper S and John Cooper Works which is a street legal racing version that includes high performance parts and tuning. The base model Cooper model starts at $21,900 featuring a 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine with 121 horsepower at 6,000rpm and 118 foot pound of torque at 4,250rpm.The Cooper model of the Mini wagon offers excellent fuel economy at 35mpg on the highway and 27mpg in the city (with automatic transmission offering the same mpg). The 13.2 gallon fuel tank provides a range of 462 miles.

The Mini wagon Cooper S starts at $25,600 and features a 1.6 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder engine that boosts performance to 181 horsepower at 5,500rpm and 177 foot pound of torque at 1,600 - 5,000 rpm. The increased performance of this Mini wagon only slightly compromises fuel economy with the Cooper S achieving 35mpg on the highway and 27mpg in the city (with only a slight decrease if equipped with automatic transmission) anda range of 462 miles.

The John Cooper Works variant of the Mini wagon starts at $32,800with many additional extras included as standard such as alloy wheels, sports exhaust and an aero kit. The Clubman features a tuned 1.6 liter 4 cylinder turbocharged engine that provides a significant increase in performance to 208 horsepower at 6,000rpm and the over boost function provides 192 foot pound of torque at 1,850 - 5,600 rpm. This variant of the Mini wagon is only available with manual transmission and fuel economy is slightly compromised by the increased performance at 33 mpg on the highway and 25 mpg in the city with a range of 436 miles.