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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

Car And Driver Likes The MINI Clubman Without All The Options

Joseph Caparella writes about the real base MINI Clubman for Car and Driver:
. . . We’re not choosing the Golf as an arbitrary measuring stick. The new Clubman is sized almost identically to that iconic, 10Best Cars–winning German hatch, and, at least in this low-spec model, the Mini is priced in the same range as the Golf. But for all the overlap on paper, the character of the two cars couldn’t be more different.

The charming and cheeky Clubman offers a fun sort of foil for the slightly anodyne, no-nonsense nature of the Volkswagen. That pragmatic approach extends to packaging efficiency, at which the Golf excels; it has more back-seat and cargo space than the Clubman. But those who appreciate a bit of individuality may be charmed by the Mini’s details such as the center-stack toggle switches and color-changing ring around the infotainment screen. Others may simply find them gimmicky. The dual cargo doors that take the place of a conventional hatch might also come across as silly to some, but at least they spring to action quickly and provide a wide aperture when fully opened. Each door also has its own diminutive windshield wiper—if that doesn’t tickle your cute reflex, you’re not Mini material. . . .