2023 Mini Cooper SE Live Journal & Review

I love stuff like that. I've done a few motor swaps, my favorite being a '89 Honda crx hf with a built turbo b-series motor pushing a little over 560hp in a roughly 1800lb chassis. 1-3rd gear was pretty useless without drag radials, but once it hooked it would run away on just about any car at the time, it was all top end power. It was a visceral experience to say the least.

 

1 year update!!

So now that I've officially owned the SE for 1 full year, driven over 28k miles, in all weather conditions, and a few medium range road trips, it's time to do a short update, highlighting pros and cons.

My average daily mileage for a full year is 76 miles, but I barely drive this car on the weekends, so based on a 5 day week my average is 107miles/day. I'm in this car a lot. Besides a random few weird glitches, the car has had absolutely no issues.

Overall, I'm happy with the SE despite it's shortcomings. It's a fun car to be in. Value wise, in sub-$30k base trim, it's hard to beat the fun value in an EV. Did I have more fun in my past ICE cars, sure. But as an EV this is in a different category, and compared to other EVs out there, the SE doesn't take itself too seriously which is what makes it fun. Something it seems the EV market currently lacks overall, but will come with time as more manufacturers produce more EV models and prices come down from the stratosphere. Now in regards to capabilities, range, size, etc... Value could be better.

The SE is perfect for those that don't need to commute too far from home (~100miles round trip), can charge at home, and don't generally need to use the back seats for people (mine are pretty much folded down 99% of the time). It's usually just me, me/wife, or me/wife/dog (70lb Malinois), but have had 1-2 adults in the back a couple times and it's not too bad and wasn't any complaints. It works for us most of the time. It did get a bit tight when we went on a short vacation trying to pack everything and the dog in the back. Dog still had her bed and enough room, but the space left over for luggage was tight. Made it work, but a longer trip would definitely have been difficult with the dog. The space available for just 2 people and luggage is adequate.

On the topic of range. I really wish this had an "officially rated" range of at least 150 miles. It needs it. While yes, I have actually gotten 150-160 miles out of a charge in the summer despite the "officially rated" 114 miles, the winter time really sucks the life out of the range despite parking in a heated garage and pre-conditioning. I've had days when it's in the teens (°f) and struggled to get 70-80 miles. When that is on the lower side of my daily mileage needs, you can see the struggle despite even taking lunch at home and charging for an hour or so. There was some winter days in particular I had to hit up to local L3 charger mid-day. An official 150+ mile range would be perfect, and would probably get you 200 miles in the summer and 120 miles in the winter. Yes I know the new gen model is going to be hitting these numbers, but that doesn't fix this gen model. Even short road trips have to be planned out carefully to know where you can charge.

On charging. I charge 95% of the time at home, overnight, with the included L2 flex charger. Have had no issues with it. Charge rate seems to be about 20-25% per hour, but I haven't really paid attention because it's good enough. Full charge is 4-5 hours from single digit %. L3 fast charging is ok, I wish it was faster of course, but a charge from teens to 80-90% is 30-40 minutes or so depending on charger capacity. Fast enough to eat lunch and chill for a few before setting off again. Not bad when if you only need to use it once in a day. Road trips that require multiple charging sessions adds up real quick. On one occasion this last winter, a combo vacation/dog surgery trip went awry. Long story short, the 3 shorter charging sessions planned, turned into 5 different charging sessions... Yea it major sucked. An additional 50 mile range would have negated this to only 2 sessions for the whole day despite the hiccups. Also forget about L1 charging, it's obviously ridiculously slow, but I found out how bad on vacation where I plugged in to the rental. I did manage to get 1 full charge out of the stay lol. But expect over 24 hours for a full charge. Really only good for emergencies or some free vacation charging, but don't rely on it.

Seats. I have the base trim leatherette seats. They are comfortable, but wish they had adjustable lumbar support. Other than that they are comfortable enough for all day. That said, I've never had my back sweat so much with these seats. They do not breath. Even with the A/C set at 68°f is not enough to keep my back from sweating a bit, and I'm not a sweater. They just don't breath at all. I've had plenty of cars with leather and have not had this issue before. It's not enough to where my shirt is soaked or noticable, but it is slightly damp. Maybe it's just me, but I'm blaming the material.

Handling. Despite only being fwd (I favor awd) and low in power above 50, the car is plenty of fun. Darty is the word I would use. The instant torque from 10-15mph is tons of fun up to about 60 where it starts to really taper down. The car in stock form is biased towards understeering when you don't don't setup your corner entry right, but it's predictable and easy to correct. With the nannies turned off, you can easily incite some lift off oversteer which is fun. But what impressed me the most is the brakes. Being that you can 1 pedal drive this car most of the time, you can kind of overlook the brakes, but my goodness can they bring you down to speed in a hurry. The stock Hankooks had no problem being loaded down with firm braking and some turn-in corner entry. Be aggressive enough and you can get the rear to rotate into the corner as well. Getting the front loaded-up/set before corner entry is crucial with this car and responds very well to firm braking without upset. I can only imagine a stiffer rear sway bar and some extra camber would only improve these characteristics.

The nanny/stability control system actually impressed me during winter time. Didn't get much snow this winter thankfully, only a couple days where it got pretty bad but I stayed home anyways. Now I absolutely do not recommend this, but I ran the stock Hankooks all winter. They didnt do too bad on just cold pavement, but rain or snow and they are essentially slicks. Welp, I got caught out with some pretty heavy snowfall. Like I said the Hankooks are about as useless as they could be with any snow, getting going from a stop was painful, traction control on or off doesn't matter. But what I've found was that with the system ON, the car actually assists in getting around corners, and that's where the fun begins. The car seems to sense that the front is not turning as tight as it should according to steering angle, and if you keep on the accelerator while turning, the rear of the car will rotate in an attempt to point you in the direction your turning, I'm assuming by activating the inside rear brakes. The car felt like it was essentially power sliding (which is a weird experience in a fwd lol). While it couldn't compensate for my terrible tire choice when stopping or accelerating, it could do something about turning. For those that drive in the snow, even with good winter tires, give it a shot, it's a lot of fun.

In summary, despite it's shortcomings, those of which will end up making me trade-in this car when a suitable EV option becomes available in the coming year(s), I would absolutely purchase this vehicle again and would recommend to anyone who's circumstances can play along with this cars capabilities. I have no regrets with this purchase and knew of the potential downsides going in (mainly range). The gas savings alone is amazing. I estimate I've saved nearly $3.5k in fuel costs (previous avg 30mpg) in 1 year alone, let alone any maintenance cost savings. Between just purchasing new tires a few days ago (replaced with Continental Purecontact LS for $561 installed after rebates), and charging costs, this car has cost me roughly $1200 for 1 year. I will never go back to an ICE for a daily driver.

Oh yea, BRGreen has literally gotten the most compliments of ANY other car and/or color I've ever owned. Easily 1 or 2 people every month say something, and many more on the road give thumbs up.

If the SE in BRGreen does anything right, it puts a smile on everyone's face.