Special Car, auto, cars, vehicles

The MINI is growing. At more than 13 feet, the MINI Crossover Concept is the longest MINI ever. With its tall stance and soft rounded corners, at first glance it looks like a scaled-up and slightly cartoonish version of the standard MINI. But there’s much more to it than that: as well as length, it adds height, space, versatility and all-wheel drive to the MINI formula.

Like the Clubman with its single ‘club’ door, the Crossover Concept has an asymmetrical door arrangement. On the passenger side, a conventional two-door set up is provided, but on the driver’s side, the rear door swivels out and slides along the outside of the car, to reveal a pillarless side opening allowing unimpeded access to the cabin.

Other interior innovations include the floating center console rail system, which allows passengers to arrange storage boxes, entertainment devices, cup holders and other accessories in any position they desire along the rail. There are four individual bucket seats, while Crossover Concept’s fabric roof can be retracted toward the front or rear of the car. Interior finish includes the usual leather, polished aluminum and wood and, more unusually, ‘finest’ porcelain.

A further unique feature dominates the instrument panel. Control of devices such as navigation and entertainment is managed from a 3-D ‘globe’ device able to display separate views to driver and passenger. When not performing one of its other functions, the globe shows the car’s location on a map of the world. The laser projection technology used offers better legibility and image quality than an LCD display.

There are some even wackier concept car features, too, like the heartbeat light that pulses more rapidly as you increase speed, or the ‘keyball’ that replaces the conventional key with a ball that you drop into a slot at the top of the globe to start the engine. After the engine is stopped, the keyball is returned through a dispenser below the globe in the style of a vending machine.

Frothy features like these won’t make it into production, but something similar to this car will. MINI isn’t the only brand showing an ultra-compact SUV crossover at Paris, but it’s possibly the one with the most credibility from a maker of desirable near-premium small autos. The urban-cool design of the stand makes it clear that MINI sees its market as city-based young professionals.

There has been no mention of engine or performance yet, and with the MINI factory in Oxford, England, running at capacity, parent company BMW still has some big decisions to make before we know exactly how this car will shape up.