I am happy to report that I will be taking delivery of perhaps the only new 2021 Mini SE Iconic trim in dealer inventory in my entire state later today or tomorrow and have updated the spreadsheet with my car's info this morning. I have almost 3 years of previous experience in the EV world (and with the forums on this web site) along with my ownership of a Honda Clarity PHEV, but with help and advice from @insightman on this forum (who also regularly posts very useful information to the Clarity forum) I now am becoming a full member of the BEV and the MINI SE communities and look forward to learning more about our MINI's from all of you!
Congrats and be sure to share pictures of your Mini SE when you can! Just totally curious, will you be only PHEV and BEV in your house or will you have regular ICE still in your house?
Thanks for your congrats. I'll try to remember to take & post some pics of the new Mini too. My wife's small SUV (GLA-250) is an ICE vehicle, and since I traded the PHEV it will be the 'go to' vehicle for any needed longer distance driving here in Texas. In fact, we have a planned driving trip to west Texas just before Christmas and will be driving that vehicle, given the paucity of any charging facility (except L1) in that part of the world.
Very good! We have a Civic and my F55S currently. We will be trading my Mini in for the SE. Eventually the Civic will be replaced by an EV, but not sure when. In 2.5 my kid gets to learn to drive. We'll see if we make him learn to drive stick or not. Likely yes as the Civic is no where near as sporty lol. We had already decided my current Mini was too much torque off the line for a kid though I do prefer the Mini gearbox over the more slushy Civic. Long of it I guess I curious if any homes go all EV or not.
The SE is my first BEV and I don't see myself ever buying another ICE car again. When I drive my MINI Clubman now all I can think is how sluggish it is compared to the SE. I'm already looking at options on replacing that, and my pickup truck will definitely be replaced with a BEV truck, possibly even a Tesla Cybertruck.
Delivery of my Mini was just delayed for four days because they needed to do a software update. New pickup is on the 30th...
Oh no! But what software update? Is it something everyone needs? I'm so curious. Or is it the same update for the stop sale that happened to me back in August? (That was an update for third-party OBD support I believe.)
I did ask the dealer but can't remember exactly. I think he mentioned the satnav maps and something to do with Apple Carplay as well. An extra four days is no big deal but I was looking forward to this Thursday.
Apple CarPlay update is the thing I want most in my car. Do you mind reporting your software version number after the update?
And tell us if your MINI's satnav voice has an Australian accent or an English accent (I can't tell the difference, but I'm sure you can).
I know from my test drive that we get the English accent. AFAIK, no Australian accent satnav voice is available.
That stinks. I hope it will fly by for you. Wonder why so many days for an update though. Usually they are done for me in a few hours. My only update is my assembly began today! Doubtful I'll get it home by the new year but that's okay.
Pickup now confirmed for Monday afternoon. I'm definitely going to seek dealer help with setting up the Mini Connected app on my phone. Based on your experiences, can owners suggest any other procedures/information I should be requesting when I finally pick the car up? Dealer is supposedly going to walk me through setting up the car but, having had the extended test drive experience, I'm pretty confident that most of the essentials I can figure out for myself.
Exciting! In addition to setting up MINI Connected, they should also help you set up the wireless Apple CarPlay if you have an iPhone. My salesperson has done it so many times they sped through all the steps, including expected error/warning messages to ignore (which would have definitely tripped me up if I tried it on my own). I recommend politely letting them walk through their normal walk-around/set up routine, as they may actually show you something you didn't know already. They may not be totally up to speed on SE-specific details, but a significant portion of that experience is common across models. Think back through your extended test drive and see if you have any questions, or if there was something you couldn't figure out or was disappointed that the car didn't seem to have or do (that we haven't already answered for you here). Those will be great topics to discuss with your salesperson. And make sure the finance people account for your deposit!
If you want to test the dealer's expert, see if they can explain the decal on the inside of the charging port door (officially "the charging socket flap"). Here's a sort-of cheat sheet I made from a table on page 223 in the Owners Manual and a photo of the decal (my poor photo doesn't show much difference between orange and yellow, unfortunately):
Good advice. I'll definitely have him take a look at Apple CarPlay. I settled the account today and already factored in the deposit but thanks for the reminder anyway!
Forgot to mention that the dealer is throwing in a Type 2 charging cable which is different to the regular cable which comes with the car. I thought that was a nice gesture. I asked for one of these as some public charging stations are BYOC (ie. bring your own cable).