When everyone started thinking that the Clubman should be the largest Mini ever, BMW shocked everyone by readying the Mini Crossman 4x4 Concept due to be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show come October.As if BMW was trying to shake off the very meaning of 'Mini', at 1830mm high, the Crossman is even higher than a Honda CRV (Albeit shorter), rendering the Crossman larger in all dimensions than the Clubman.
It also has weirder doors than the Clubman, with the rear hatch opening side ways hinged from both the doors and the side of the SUV's body, the rear hatch opens and slides to the passenger side of the car. The passenger door behind the driver, then opens like a van's sliding door, giving very easy access to passengers.
Whereas the roof, was a tile folding blinder-like retractable roof - which we'd reckon to be very impossible to be implemented in the production car as the loss on the structural rigidity would be too hard to compensate, especially considering the B pillar on the driver's side was already missing.
Coming to the interior, the Crossman is a 4 seater, with individual seating split by a stretched center console from the front, nothing special here, we're also wondering what's so special about the plate with fruits (Some kind of electromagnetic fruit magnet plate?) Well its actually a center rail that allows different utilities to be slotted in a slide frontwards or backwards. ("Mom! The fruit plate was blocked by the cupholders! I can't pass the fruits to you...")The most interesting part about the interior is the 'Center Globe' that was supposed to display (or relay?) information to the driver and passenger at the same time, both displaying different images and information using laser projection. Mini claims this was aimed to reduce clutter-ness and a better presentation of in-car infotainment, which we're figuring how substantial that claim is. Another gimmick from this conept, is that the 'unique' way of starting the car, the key fob, or key globe is to be slotted into the top of the Center Globe, and it will the roll down to a position where the driver pushes it in to start the car, to shut of the engine, the driver will then push it in again and the ball will be ejected and rolled down exiting the Center Globe. ("Mom, the ball got stuck in the bigger ball~") - duh.
