Caveat is I have them on the blue multitone roof. A white roof would be a different story. But yeah I see that perspective too. Stealth Hitch is really the way to go for bikes. I opted for the rails because I liked the rugged look (again, not very noticeable IRL), and at $250 it was the cheap easy option.
But why? It requires a significant amount of disassembly and labor isn't cheap. At the factory it's easy since there's nothing in the way.
To get the headliner out, seats and most of the interior trim needs to be removed. It's a LOT of work.
eBay $125 F54 Aero roof bars. I looked and looked, but could only find Thule aero roofbars on F56 fitment. $Owww, I could buy a set of wheels at that price! I didn't want non-aero bars on an SE. Those, I could find at a decent price. Hunting on eBay, the nearest I found were F54 cheapies: US Stock For 2016-2021 Mini JCW Cooper Clubman F54 Cross Bars Roof Rack Rails F54 is bigger, probably not too hard to cut down. Good chance rail design is very similar so brackets should work. Step 1, assemble the SHORT F54 bar at minimum length, test fit. Notice that the clamps don't work, they clash with my roof, take them off for now, I'll deal with those later. Remove rubber boots, test fit. Measure how much too long the assembled bar is: 1 7/8". I used a tape measure. With the rubber padding and built-in bar adjustment then chopping 2" off the short one should work fine. I have a mitre saw with fine aluminium blade for cutting up 8020 at work, a hacksaw and file would also work fine. Step 2. Cut both roof bars down to 2” shorter than the short one. The F54 ones are different lengths. Step 3. Drill 2+1 holes in shortened bars so they can clamp up the end brackets. The short bar had one of the existing slots line up. Don't need to slot the holes if you get the bar length close. There is quite a bit of adjustment even with holes, plus the slotted other end. Step 4, shorten clamps. I cut 8mm/5/16" off mine. They do make the rubber a minor PITA to slide up in place, but look at the three wheels that inconvenience bought! Again, power tools at work could have been substituted with a hacksaw and file. I painted the clamps yellow, though this has the downside that the rack can now ONLY be used on SEs. Step 5: reassemble, trim rubber strip down with a CNC water jet or an axe, then just follow the mounting instructions. Maybe, I'd lost them by that point. 4mm and 5mm Allen keys needed for mount/dismount. I ought to add those to the toolkit. Wasn't too hard. Took me forever as I decided to 'save time' but doing it at work, where I am perpetually swamped by real work... There is some wind noise, but not too bad. I think there is a small drop in range. It's down at the hard to measure range, though, maybe 5%. Well, right up until I put a ladder on it. That WAS noisy and gave a noticeable drop in mile/kWh. The locking caps on the bars are cosmetic, they aren't stopping anyone remotely determined from getting a free ladder and custom roofbars! Don't forget kids, stay away from electricity!
Not to mention the potential mishaps in reassembling of all the parts. The precision achieved by the robotics at the factory is unlikely be matched by human though possible. Potential misaligned trim pieces, rattles and such. I personally love the utilitarian and sporty appearance with the roof rails not to mention their actual function, and I have had roof rails on all my cars.
I may seem petty, but I see any functional additions that don't make the car faster--even rear seats (the front passenger seat, I'll concede)--as degrading a car's sporty appearance. As everyone here probably knows, I also see one glaring non-functional addition that doesn't make the car faster--a fake hood scoop on an electric car--as degrading the car's sporty appearance, but most people disagree with me because they're accustomed to associating hood scoops with sporty ICE cars.
That depends on the definition of "sportiness". Some refer "sportiness" as low riding aerodynamic beast with big wheels wrapped with low profile tires. Some refer "sportiness" as rugged agile adaptable on-road off-road high performance driving machine. WRC (world rally championship) would be an example of that. Wide body fenders, roof rack, etc are functional/stylistic characteristics in that case. In Europe, the most sought after and well regarded high performance "sport" cars are "estate", "touring" and "avant". They are "wagon" with roof rails. Mercedes E63 AMG Estate, Audi RS6 avant would be some of the examples.
Ha! An excuse to post a story about the Porsche 911 Dakar (even though it's not an EV). Is it more or less sporty than a stock 911?
Probably has a bit to do with the 70,000 miles of dirt forest roads around me but I'm really drawn to those Dakar/safari builds... I'd put these on my SE in an instant if I didn't have to consider the cost: Flatout Suspension GR40
One of my brothers had a ghetto WRX estate. It attracted a lot of attention, much more than a regular WRX. It could move stuff, quickly, in any weather. He lives in the Alps. I had a 4x4 fiat panda with my own 6' long safari roof rack on it. That was definitely the ultimate Panda.
You could go cheapskate with vanilla F54 shocks. You would need spacers for the rear springs. The SE already has F54 all4 rear springs, but shorter shocks.
They also sell a GR lite with regular non-inverted shocks for only $1700 lol but I just can't justify getting rid of the perfectly good suspension it already has. I might make myself a 1" or 2" lift block so I don't have to worry as much about the battery but realistically careful driving is enough for most of the forest roads I've been on.
I wanted the Audi A3 sportback but I want it with factory roof rails. Most of the A3 sportback in Europe came with the factory roof rails but for some reason, the dealerships in the U.S. would not add the roof rails to all the A3 that they ordered. So I ended up special order my A3 so I could have the aluminum roof rails which in my opinion compliment/complete the design/aesthetic of the sportback. But when it came time to get cross bars, it was a challenge because there were none for the north American market. So I ended up ordering cross bars from Europe and had them shipped to me. All the efforts and waiting was well worth it as they were beautiful and useful on many levels.
