Our Journey to Buy One of the Last JCW Clubman

DimON · November 30, 2023

You might have read, we’ve ordered one of the last MINI JCW Clubman. After having two longterm test JCW Clubman over the years (and calling it the best car MINI sells), we wanted to our money where our mouth was. But it wasn’t easy. In fact it almost didn’t happen. Here’s the story as it unfolded over the course of 10 hours last week.

Our Clubman JCW Build

The build of a MINI is a very personal thing. While MINI has eliminated the ability to create very one-off cars, there’s still enormous variability compared to most other brands.

After a lot of debate with the MotoringFile team I wanted to create something that played up the heritage of the brand and its English origins. That means forgoing things like JCW seats (which was hard) and leaning into a color-way that was a nod to the past. For us this mean something understated and British and there’s nothing better in the pallet to us than Rebel Green. And given it’s scheduled to end production this February it was a no-brainer.

We had originally wanted to do something rather bespoke so we inquired about unique interior parts from the Final Edition Clubman. However they had all ended production and the parts were no longer in Oxford. So we decided to go with the most classic combination possible – Malt Brown Chesterfield leather seats with white piping and the MINI Yours illuminated Fiber Alloy trim.

The Process of Buying our JCW Clubman

I’m lucky living in Chicago because we have a handful of great MINI dealers nearby; Bill Jacobs, Patrick MINI and International MINI in Milwaukee. But our closest dealer is MINI of Glencoe and it’s the one we’ve gotten to know over the years since the Knauz Auto Group left the MINI brand. Thankfully MINI of Glencoe can make magic happen. And specifically Evan Williams who we worked with to create a JCW Clubman out of thin air. As you’ll see in the video MINI of Glencoe didn’t have an allocation for an F54 JCW.

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As I quickly learned there were eight Clubman JCW allocations left for the US as of Wednesday November 22th. That meant that dealers had specced the cars (most already sold) and were expecting them to go into production within days. Yes days.

When we told you to order your Clubman asap we didn’t realize how right we were. As can happen, MINI moved up production end dates for certain models and one of those is the Clubman JCW.

As it happened our dealer did have a Countryman JCW allocation and were ready to make a trade. Luckily Dreyer Reinbold MINI did and they were in the same region. So MINI USA helped facilitate a quick trade and the order was confirmed that night and went into the books. Fast forward only five days and the car is now officially in the production queue!