F56 MINI Hatch to Feature Optional Suicide Doors

Adding to what Gabe says at the get go, do not read much into this image. It’s classic AutoExpress Photoshop work. As for suicide doors, that gets us to what I think the Clubman should have been from the get go. 

Suicide doors aside, the F56 image is very displeasing. Just as MINI has done since the R53, the design has become progressively coarser and less refined and more bloated. The once beautifully defined front fender and hood contours, curvilinear glass C-pillars, and properly scaled head and tail light designs are history. The canted and over-sized headlights detract from the simpler and much cleaner lines of previous iterations. The same is true for the tail lights — too big and awkward looking. The previous designs blended with the bodywork without noticeably projecting beyond the surface of the sheet metal. Yes, I am in favor of “evolutionary” progressive design when deftly executed.

We’ve all seen the horrors of excessive and/or misguided cosmetic surgery. Such gross negligence is inexcusable and only succeeds to distort rather than improve our visual experience and diminish aesthetic integrity. Please MIN “entwurfmeisters” catch yourselves before it’s too late!

If I mentally photoshop the side crease out it’s not bad, I just wonder if another evolutionary update of this 10 year old design is the way to go. It just looks like a warmed over R56. I guess that’s the problem with retro designs like this and the Beetle-what does the new, new, new model look like. I was hoping for a more revolutionary model like the Rocketman.

Not pleased with any of the Autoexpress sketchs so I’ll stay determined to ignore it as a PeeChee doodling. The suicide door idea seems a bit grasping, but has real utility and might tip the one reluctant family member to OK the deal. I lived with 2 VW bugs with only occasional thoughts of “It’d be great if only…” and that was the only access to behind the seats. Of course in those days there was no catch for the seat back or shoulder seat belts to fumble with. What would be great is if the rear side windows would ‘wing’ out a few inches for ventilation like the later bugs. Yet another toggle switch and indicator light to play with.

Those Paceman wheels they used in the sketch better make it to production as well.

The R56 already has an option for a suicide door, it is called the R55.  I can’t see making all the changes and adding the weight for this option on the hatch when you will open a tiny door to what?  The rear seat space in the R56 is TINY, why put a door there?  It seems to me that a new seat slider that would allow the seat to slide further forward would be a better option than to have this as an option.  I see this flooding the used MINI market with cars that people would not want to buy.

At this point, perhaps the only saving grace that many of us can anticipate will be the upcoming Coupe and Roadster variants — barring a worthy GP hatchback successor. Add a few horses and tuning tweeks and MINI traditionalists may find the excitement they crave in two very “non-traditional” packages. The roadster could become the 21st century’s Austin Healy Sprite minus the “bug-eyes,” of course!

I like the idea of suicide doors for their utility, but I don’t think I will like what they do to the design.  I think that the Paceman concept looks great as is–I don’t think I would like it as much with its anticipated suicide doors.  But I tend to like cars with fewer cut lines, and uncomplicated but elegant surfaces.  Although I have grown to appreciate the Clubman, I could never bring myself to own one.  Too busy.  I have always longed for a very derivative, but extremely functional extended wheelbase MINI, based on the R50/53 or R56 platform–basically a MINI wagon.  But if this proposed variant is no longer in its dimensions, I would not opt for the suicide doors.  I’m just trying to ignore these Autoexpress illustrations.  It’s a bit futile to opine on their guesses.  I have been pleasantly surprised with almost everything that has made it to production–so I’ll continue to reserve judgment, as usual.

As long as the suicide door is a buyer option, I don’t have any issues with that. Could we please make the crease an option so I can opt out?