2014 MINI Cooper S Clubman

Minis have always intrigued me. From the first time I saw one on TV, during a recap of a World Rally Championship from back in the day, I was fascinated with how people could actually take such a tiny vehicle and turn it into a full-fledged race car. Add in the fact that it always looks like a toy car that even a child could drive only piqued my interest further.

Of course, the current iteration of the Mini is not the Mini of the past. Now a part of BMW's slowly growing brand portfolio, Mini has benefited from some of BMW's production, engineering, and marketing expertise, turning what used to be a small niche brand into a true global auto brand. BMW, in turn, has benefited from Mini's expertise to develop front wheel drive platforms that may underpin future BMW vehicles. The first of these that we have seen is the 2-series Active Tourer, a vehicle that looks like a Mazda5 dressed in fancy duds. However, this BMW involvement had many concerned that the very classically British character of the Mini brand would be stifled by the cold, austere demeanor of its German owners. Are the new variants, including some pseudo-SUV and pseudo-workman vehicles too devoid of real flavor to be an honest tribute to the Mini brand name?