The split doors on the Mini Clubman have closed for the final time as the last wagon has rolled off the assembly line in England.
The bittersweet moment comes 55 years after the model’s original debut in 1969 and nearly two decades after the Clubman was “reborn” in 2007. In total, more than 1.1 million units have been built and that figure includes over 550,000 from the BMW-era.
However, times have changed and consumers have embraced crossovers. The world is also going electric and the Clubman will effectively be replaced by the Aceman and Countryman.
That being said, Mini took a trip down memory lane and noted the car’s rear doors were actually kind of a pain. As Guy Elliott explained, “We needed to ensure that both doors would always open fully without obscuring the rear lights, which was a legal requirement. Achieving this required fine tuning and developing the gas strut system to ensure the doors functioned correctly in all climatic conditions.”
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The split doors weren’t the only quirk as the first modern Clubman featured a “Clubdoor” to improve access to the rear seats. The suicide-style quarter door was exclusive to one side and featured a pillarless design as well as some odd aesthetics.
While a chapter is closing on the Mini history books, Dr. Markus Grüneisl remarked “We are incredibly proud to have built the Mini Clubman at Plants Oxford and Swindon over the last 18 years for customers all over the world. With its departure, we look ahead to welcoming members of the new Mini family to our Oxford and Swindon lines, including a new convertible model which we will start to produce at the end of this year.”
