Having had a BL Clubman Estate as my first car I'll always have a soft spot for the original Mini and having looked at the BMW version a couple of times to possibly buy one I can't warm to them in the same way. But having said that it is remarkable that BMW Mini is now passing 5million and even if there isn't the same labour intensive extensive industry Oxford and Swindon would surely be poorer places without them.
Whilst I might be in the 'it's not a proper Mini' camp and their fast and loose approach to the names they use they are not the only ones. In the 'BL' days it worked the other way round in that they would apply a different name to the same product the Austin 7 Mini, Morris Mini Minor, Riley Elf, Wolsey Hornet; and even within that they were nicking old names from the Austin 7 and the Morris Minor. And if we look at another BMC car the Morris Oxford the first car with that name was nothing like the last one. If only BMW had called their Estate version a Countryman not a Clubman I'd probably be able to find it in my heart to forgive them, and I wonder what a true Clubman styled BMW Mini would look like?
