Mini will stop making the Paceman this year

If your most fervent yearning is – unusually – a brand-new Mini Paceman, you'd better get a wiggle on. The Paceman dies at the end of this year.

The Paceman will join the two-seat Coupe and Roadster on the list of deceased ultra-niche Mini body styles.

We know this because the Paceman, alongside the Countryman, isn't actually built at a Mini or BMW plant. Instead the job is done by contractor Steyr in, er, Steyr, Austria. And Steyr has announced it's about to start sharing the build of the next-generation 2017 BMW 5-series. To do that, it'll stop making Minis.

There's a new Mini Countryman on the way. We'll see it before the end of the year. But there's no sign of a replacement of its oddball semi-coupe three-door sibling.

Mini bosses have long said they want to cut away the bodies that don't get much buyer interest. That's why we now have a big-selling five-door hatch, plus the Clubman, which – despite having six doors – is more mainstream than the previous Clubman.

The Mini nameplate wants to be distinctive. But it doesn't want to be perverse.