KEY POINTS:
At first, the rumour mill said it would be called the Traveller, after the original Morris Minor station wagon from the 1950s.
That was a couple of years ago, before the first spy pictures of the new Mini station wagon appeared. Then the name Countryman - after the Mini estate of the late 1960s - was thrown into the mix.
Next up was the Clubman, the 1970 replacement for the original Mini. Why the Clubman name, asked analysts.
Probably because the Clubman estate was regarded as the most efficient of the Clubman variants, thanks to its longer wheelbase.
Why not Traveller? Aparently, Mini makers BMW wanted to use it but found the name mired in legal protection.
Countryman? Didn't suit the marketing profile. Who drives a Countryman in the city, where most Minis dwell?
So BMW settled on the moniker Clubman for the new Mini station wagon. It goes into production in Britain in July/August and is expected to go on sale here early next year, powered by a 1.6-litre engine.
This is the first undisguised photo of the car. It is not a spy picture as such, more the result of a deliberate set-up, a controlled media leak using the "Stop Staring at Me" message as a promotion.
It was taken near BMW headquarters in Munich. The new model looks pretty much as expected, with barn-style rear doors that split down the middle. The doors have been cut wide to incorporate the brake lights and allow easier loading. There is also a suicide-hinged side-door on the passenger side, designed to open wide to ease entry to the back seat.
The original Clubman of 37 years ago was designed not by Mini creator Alex Issigonis but by stylists poached in 1967 from Ford by legendary British Motor Corporation chief Joe Edwards.
Mini had been losing money on every car it had built since 1959 and Edwards wanted to turn things around with new faces, a new model and a new company.
The British Leyland Motor Corporation, a merger of British Motor Holdings (BMH) and Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), set up shop in 1968. But despite strong vehicle sales the company continued to bleed money throughout the industrial turmoil that plagued Britain in the 1970s.
The Clubman stayed in production until 1980, when it replaced by the Metro. The Clubman station wagon continued until 1982.
In 1986, BLMC was renamed as the Rover Group, later to become MG Rover Group, which went bankrupt in 2005. Out of the ashes BMW took the Mini name and rival Chinese carmakers got MG and Rover.
