Considering a Clubman S

[MarkyD]

Well, the time has come to replace my trusty '95 Volvo 850.
Our other car is a 2006 Scion xA, which we bought after selling our 300HP Subaru due to the price of fuel. 18mpg was not fun.

I hate driving the Scion. It's so lifeless, so dull. I am looking for a car that is not slow but also gets near 30MPG on the highway. I've always been drawn to the Mini Cooper S, but we have a 2 year old. On occasion I'll have need to get his car seat in and out of the back. It would have been a huge PITA. The Clubman, however, has that little 3rd door and the extended wheelbase...with all the fun of the original. I want it. Bad.

That being said, I have not been to see one yet. Anything I should know? I know it'll require 91 oct or better, and I can accept that.
The others I'm considering:

Volvo C30
Civic Si 4 Door
Mazdaspeed 3
Toyota Matrix (160hp version)

Anyone here have any experience with the clubman? Are they readily available at dealers, or hard to find?

[MarkyD]

something else:
With my Subaru, incredible power gains could be had with simply changing out the exhaust and using engine management (piggyback) such as the Accessport. Do tuners like this exist for the turbo Minis?

[tenfifteen]

Personally, I don't care for the Clubman at all. Compromises the essence of the car for the sake of not a big gain in practicality. Longer wheel base means it's also going to compromise a fair bit of the Mini's handling, but you do pick up some ride comfort.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=122520

Lots of tuning options exist (check northamericanmotoring.com and Alta's site), but I'd be careful. The BMW/Peugeot TDI is still a new motor, and nobody can say for certain what long term repercussions are from raising boost, piggybacking the ECU, etc. I'd say you'll find it's plenty quick as it stands, and any gains are going to come at the expense of your MPG. That said, I'd probably get the Mazdaspeed 3 or a previous-gen WRX wagon if a wagon-rod people mover was what I wanted.

I'd drive one first. My wife loves her '08 MCSa, but I find it a little twitchy relative to our two previous R53s. Torque steer in abundance.