MINI SE #1

It appears that most SE respondents filled out their JD Power survey much like I did. The only complaint I made was about the voice-recognition system that can't understand my mid-west accent. It tried to send me to Alaska when I asked for Higgins Lake, Michigan. Just now, Google couldn't find a Higgins Lake in Alaska.

JD included a crisp dollar bill with the survey, but I required no incentive to heap praise upon my favorite car ever.

 

Ditto. I'm always happy to sing praises about my Mini.

 

I too took the JD Power survey. My only complaint is the nav system tries real hard to not route me down my street.

 

To J.D. Power's chart listing the top 10 EVs as rated by owners, I added the EPA range estimate for each EV.

I'm going to post my enhanced chart on my MINI Cooper SE tomorrow at our local National Drive Electric Week event. I believe it will foster some conversations about the value of an EV that's fun to drive even if it doesn't go 250 miles on a charge (and how perhaps it's fun to drive because it doesn't pack the heavy battery required to go 250 miles on a charge).

I read that Tesla is not included in J.D. Power surveys because the company refuses to provide all the customer data J.D. Power requires.

 

I believe Tesla is in the premium (price) segment and not mass market vehicles for the survey. At any rate the Rivian R1T (794) topped the 2nd place Tesla Model 3 (759) at the premium (price) segment. The MINI SE was 782 in the mass market segment.

 

I've mentioned this before, but I wish efficiency were also included with range estimates. A friend just got an Ioniq 5 and I was surprised it only gets 3 mi/kWh (summer) when I easily get well over 4 and frequently over 6 mi/kWh with my SE.

 

I failed to finish the JD Power survey, but before I realized how long it was I was super excited to talk about what a great car the SE was!

 

I trumpeted MINI's J.D. Power win on the side of my SE at today's National Drive Electric Week event in Ann Arbor. As usual, I was the only attendee driving a MINI Electric.

 

Honestly, I don't complain about the range, or the voice recognition, or the mediocre ACC implementation, or the occasional mysterious bug, or even the lack of a simple "charge to XX%" limiter in the software or the app. The one thing that bugs me on the daily is that the brake lights come on the instant the car goes into regen, even if I'm picking up speed on a downhill, or cruise (or my right foot) is holding the speed steady.

 

Totolly agree with that, in fact driving behind some cars who appear to be braking every few seconds and it tends to be a ev giving the impression
of a bad driver

 

Chill. Most drivers are paying very little attention to your brake lights. (Most drivers should be banned from driving.) Everyone I've questioned tells me that my brake lights do not annoy them.

 

It's very important especially in Montreal when everyone is an ex-Formula 3 driver. One night I landed at Aéroport International Montréal-Trudeau and took the 747 shuttle. That bus driver just went pedal to the metal late braked to the Lionel-Groulux pit stop.

 

While the brake lights coming on all of the time is annoying, the AC controls are so much worse.
- It doesn't need dual climate control in such a small car.
- There isn't a way to lock the temperature left and right.
- You can't turn the AC to economy independently from the drive mode.
- Green+ seems to provide an even more direct fresh air source that isn't available in other drive mods so you can't be in sport and get the same amount of fresh air.
- If you turn the AC off and the temperature to the lowest setting, the fan speed picks up. Why? If I'm not in auto, then I should have total control over the fan speed.
- The Auto temperature still has fan speed which is so weird. It should 100% control the fan speed in auto mode.

BMW/Mini needs to take some notes from every Japanese car made when it comes to AC controls.

 

I agree with all those HVAC points, but they don't bother me as much as the brake lights.

 

Agreed, I've never been so conscious of this in any other car. Has me constantly looking at the power needle to avoid sending mixed signals. To make matters worse it feels like the battery drags you down hills making it harder to maintain speed with ICE vehicles without a bit of regen. Everyone else is just coasting, looks like I am riding the brakes.

 

Another complaint about the HVAC: why does it always start in the footwell for the first 10 seconds?? I constantly find myself roasting in the car waiting for the front vents to kick on but first it has to cycle the footwell vents

 

I did some downhill coasting testing with my SE by going into neutral at the top of the hill. My SE picked up a lot of speed what with the low rolling resistance, and it seems to be worse efficiency-wise than allowing regen on the downhill to maintain speed.