Finally took delivery of our 2023 Mini Cooper SE Iconic

That’s a VW thing. My e-tron was really anxiety inducing at night because the 360 and backup cameras were all useless. Agree with your bottom conclusion. Enjoy them!

 

Congratulations! We took delivery of our SE iconic from Mini of Marin back in June, they were great to deal with. We also drove a bit further to deal with them over the closest dealership. The SE is really a fun little car to zip around in, you’re going to enjoy it. We also have a Rivian which is great and all but I still find myself driving the SE for short journeys around town. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a similar experience with your SE and Cross Turismo (beautiful car btw).

 

You can check the Rivian forums...

 

Here's a few recent ones. We’re in the mid peninsula...there's already a bunch of Rivians floating around…not many yellow ones though

 

My those are some beautiful shots! The car colors are a perfect match for their environment.

Can I live with you?

 

Thank you! We just happened to take delivery during the two weeks the trees have some color.

 

Gotta say, I’m in love.

 

Our house is older with a garage on the smaller side by today's standards but I'm pretty sure the Rivian would just barely fit if it wasn't full of gym equipment and bicycles. It looks huge next to the MINI but it's smaller than a typical full-size truck. I believe the overall dimensions are somewhere between a Tacoma and a F-150. Still a pain to park compared to the MINI

They're very different vehicles which makes for a good combo; there isn't a ton of overlap. The Rivian is very comfortable, has a massive amount of storage space, and is easy to drive smoothly. Everything feels very heavy and fluid...steering, pedals, doors, etc. I'm sure I could adjust the settings somewhere so it was more "responsive" but I find the slow and steady setup suits the truck. The MINI feels like a caffeinated rabbit in comparison. Everything feels much more responsive and direct. It feels faster even though the Rivian will technically hit 60 in half the time and has something stupid like 4x the horsepower along with weighing close to 2.5x and getting half the miles per kWh. Ultimately the Rivian has a lot of hype so people expect it to be fantastic, myself included...which it mostly lives up too. The MINI SE is largely ignored by the general public and doesn't have much hype...but it's a surprisingly good little car and quite underrated.

 

Rivian's Plymouth, MI, vehicle development, prototyping and testing facility isn't far from me so I've seen quite a few Rivian trucks, but never a yellow one. That's a beautiful yellow!

Why didn't MINI offer an Energetic Yellow SE? Were they afraid of making one that looked too electric?

 

MINI used to have Volcanic Orange, which I kind of like. But I've heard people refer to it as "school bus orange".



I can't believe MINI doesn't have Pepper White for the SE, that's such an iconic MINI color.

 

It's going to Be Mineral White...whoops I mean Nanuq White.

 

I loved my volcanic orange Mini Cooper D- he looked gorgeous in every weather/time of day. Had to sell him when I moved to the US . Can’t wait to be a Mini owner once again!

 

Volcanic Orange = best MINI color ever.

If the SE came in Volcanic Orange, I'd buy it even without the tax credit.

[My wife spouse says I should have bought it anyway, but I'm too cheap... better to pass the extra $7.5k along to the kids.]

 

No, no, no... the only possible logical name is "Lithium White".

 

"Fleet Car White"

 

That makes me think Taxi.

 

My buddy has a volcanic orange S, and his wife has a one of one orange Cayman S. The more I see his S the more I like it. But after the Dakar Yellow E36 M3 my wife is not keen on fun colors. I will probably sell the Cayman S, and possibly replace it with a 944 or a R56 S or JCW. If the right car comes up, and it is orange (assuming the JCW was made in orange), I may just have to do it.