Mini Clubman John Cooper Works review

The Mini Clubman JCW is, weirdly, cheaper than the cars it competes with. By a little over £1,000 in the case of the Mercedes-AMG A35, and more for the VW Golf R and Audi S3. Usually Minis cost a bit more than their competitors, so this is most odd. 

You can still add thousands to the price by diving into the options list, but you probably don’t need to. As standard the JCW gets navigation, automatic air-con, heated seats, parking sensors/cameras and keyless entry. Choice options include the bigger infotainment system at £1,300, £200 for the stripes (nope, those aren’t standard), £700 for the adaptive suspension, £600 for a posh hi-fi, £500 for adaptive LED headlights and a further £500 for the excellent HUD. 

All Clubmans (Clubmen?) get autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning and crash mitigations systems. 

Fuel economy and emissions are commensurate with other cars of this size, type and performance. You’re looking at 169g/km of CO2 (and thus a 37 percent BIK rate) and 34.9mpg - both figures are fractionally worse than the 167g/km and 38.7mpg offered by the Mercedes A35.