Waiting on you SE? Have the rest of the day free? Here’s an overly long 1 month review!

• I recently sat down and recorded some impressions of my SE. Figured this is as good a place as any for it to live..!

Be warned it’s quite long!

Where I’m coming from:

• Took delivery one month ago.
• Driven approximately 2000 miles.
• Other car is a 2017 F57 Cooper S Convertible w/ JCW pro tuning kit which is useful for comparisons to standard MINIs.

My 2024 SE Specs:

• Iconic
• Enigmatic black, white roof, yellow mirror caps, white stripes.
• White leather interior w/ anthracite headliner.
• Power spoke wheels w/ Hankook summer tires.

Driving the car

• Ride quality is very good compared to convertible. Even at soft setting, the Cooper S is a little harsh imo…especially now that I’m comparing to the SE. Bumps are absorbed much better by the SE as the convertible will send impacts and vibrations through the cabin with even small imperfections. On a smooth road, with no engine vibrations the SE feels like it’s floating along like a luxury sedan. It might be the most surprising quality of the car I’ve observed.

• Cabin Noise. Keep in mind I have a 5 year old convertible w/ JCW exhaust in comparison so it’s a louder, more rattle-ly car than a standard MINI cooper. But obviously a BEV is quiet. I was skeptical of the Hankook tires upon delivery but they’ve been a pleasant surprise in terms of tire noise…and I think they’re contributing to the afore mentioned nice ride quality. They are not run flats, which helps as well. I will say that I’ve notice a rattle in the passenger side B pillar on rougher roads at speed. I can stop it by applying pressure to the upper area where the seatbelt comes out…it’s very annoying and if someone has a fix please let me know!!!
• Adaptive Cruise. Much better than expected after hearing some complaints about it. It’s very smooth when maintaining distance and handles various little scenarios very impressively. Like when a car cuts into my lane, the system doesn’t hard brake or regen to make space again super quickly…it’ll actually coast to back off slowly and comfortably. Reports of sunlight interfering with the system are grossly exaggerated. I’ve only had the system cut out because I was literally driving into a sunset on the horizon…like driving directly at the sun. All other situations have been fine (though I haven’t encountered heavy fog). ACC has been a very welcome feature in medium-heavy traffic!
• Performance/fun factor. The SE is very fun to drive for sure. It feels a little quicker than the convertible S overall which according to research is about 100 lbs lighter and has that tuning kit which brings it up to about 210 horsepower. I truly believe BMW/MINI are underreporting the power figures for the SE (181hp, 199 lb-ft).
• Acceleration. The claimed 0-60 of 6.9 is definitely underreported…feels much more like in the 6 second range (C&D got 6.1 seconds). Note that it is not very fast off the line…it takes a good second and a half for it to fully deliver what it has, even in sport mode. The acceleration from 30 mph to about 85 mph is very satisfying though - which to me is the more useful application anyway.
• The handling in the SE is very good as well. Compared to other cars and especially BEVs at this price range it’s stellar like all MINIs. Compared to the F57 it feels as planted and changes direction almost as sharply. I say almost only because there is no sport setting for the suspension so it’s just a little less responsive with a bit of body movement when really tossing it around. Again I’m not sure about this but the softer sidewalls of the tires might be contributing to this as well. Overall though I think you’d have to really be driving like a lunatic for this to be a significant issue. I guess if you’re going to a track or auto cross events it’ll come up but that’s not at all what I’m doing with it. The trade off in ride quality for this tiny bit of handling performance is 100% worth it to me.
• Back road/canyon driving with regen is very fun for me to figure out and get used to. I love one pedal driving overall, and spirited one pedal driving is proving to be very fun. One thing to relearn is the sequence when coming into a corner…instead of lift off > brake > coast/maintain while turning > accelerate after apex…it’s more like regen > back on accelerator to coast and turn > accelerate out. Finding that coasting spot on the accelerator can be tricky but satisfying to learn and execute.

Range/Charging/Cost of operation

• I live in SoCal so the weather is kind of perfect for BEV range. When driving normally I’m consistently seeing 4.4 mi/kWh. In any case, MINI SE is actually one of the most efficient BEVs you can buy!! My normal driving habits equate to about 27 mpg in the F57 for comparison. The SE’s 4.4 mi/kWh extrapolates to 127 mi total range from the 28.9 kWh useable capacity of the battery. The F57s 10.6 gallon tank would get 286 miles of total range.
• I live in an apartment that has chargers in the parking structure - they are ChargePoint level 2 chargers that deliver about 6 kW @ $.29 per. If charging at home in a garage most would pay way less.
• I’ve never charged from 0-100% but I did do a pretty big charge from 12% to full (6 kW charger). It took almost five hours and cost $8.25 with the charger dispensing 28.45 kWh. Keep in mind there is loss between what the charger is sending and what is actually going into the battery (about 10%). Also the battery charges more slowly at the top so that last 5% at the top took quite a while.
• After doing the math the MINI SE costs about 7-8 cents per mile. The F57 would be at 18-19 cents per mile with $5/gal gasoline (it’s actually $6 here).
• I was worried about fast charging but it’s been pretty good actually. Electrify America with its plus pass ($4/mo) seems to be worth it, especially for me. I pay $.29/kWh at home and just 2 cents more at $.31/kWh for DC fast charging at EA stations. My last EA session was from 50% SOC to 83% - it took 14 minutes and cost $3.10. These EA stations tend to have retail around them so it’s very easy to kill time even for longer sessions of 30-40 minutes. The positive experience with DC charging has made me feel ok with taking the SE on longer drives. Keep in mind I’m in SoCal and there are chargers everywhere here. I was surprised how much more expensive non EA DC chargers are (up to 2x the price) so I only look for EA when public charging by away from home. Even so, I’ve had an easy time finding a charger wherever/whenever needed.
• Side note: I discovered a FREE DC fast charging station not far from me…and surprisingly it’s almost always available. The sessions are limited to 30 minutes and speed is only 50 kW but 30 minutes is plenty and 50 kW is the max charging rate for the SE anyway! I’ve been using the free charger a lot needless to say. In fact over the 2000 miles I’ve driven I’ve only spent about $110 in charging fees TOTAL because of this! This could easily be $450+ in gas for the F57.

Tech/interface

• This is my first car with wireless CarPlay and it’s working flawlessly for me. Connects and starts within 10–15 of starting the car and has o to once disconnected randomly in 2000+ miles of driving (it reconnected itself seconds after that).
• The instrument cluster is fine, mostly the same as ICE MINIs. But the range indicator (GOM as many call it) is garbage. VERY pessimistic, I basically ignore it now or use it as a very minimum amount of range I have left. For context, I said earlier I can easily get ~130 on a single charge but when the battery is full it often reads < 100 mi. I haven’t tested it much but it seems to continue this gross underestimation until the bottom 50% of the battery when it starts to slowly even out. Sort of reverse of a gas gauge that seems to stay full forever but then the bottom half tank seems to disappear. The bad part is that this inaccurate range indicator stays on the upper right of the instrument cluster permanently so I can’t get rid of it!
• This is the same as ICE MINIs but I have to say that I dislike the new flush/piano black steering wheel and center display buttons. They pick up fingerprints like crazy, I have no confidence when pressing them, often press the steering wheel buttons by accident when turning hand over hand, they feel mushy/cheap when pressing and clicking. End of rant.

Misc

• White leather seats are nice, no stains noticeable so far…and I wear dark jeans for work.
• Enigmatic black is a beautiful paint color, the color and metallic flake really pop in sunlight! Downside is that’s it’s really dark and out here in SoCal the car gets dusty so fast. I’m washing it weekly at least.
• HK sound system is very good - but maybe not quite as good as my F57s?? Supply chain thing? Who knows.
• I’m 6’1” and there is room behind me for an average-ish adult. More room than I expected and more than the F57 of course.
• I tried to get used to the head up display but it’s just not for me…if CarPlay navigation displayed on it maybe I’d use it? As it is, it’s not very useful and kind of distracting.
• Overall I don’t feel range anxiety but I’m finding myself constantly charging it even when I don’t need to. I think I’m just overdoing it and will calm down with that…if you have a garage and home charging just plug it in every time and enjoy your full battery everyday! I don’t use them but the cables and flex charger that came with the car seem great.

TLDR: Love the car. Pleasantly surprised by ride quality, ACC, charging. Very fun to drive, quite practical (for a couple w/o kids). A few minor complaints (buttons, piano black, HUD) that are easily forgotten. You all will love it!!!

 

Darn...all those words and a typo right off the bat. OR maybe I'm from the fuuuuture.

 

I'm around South OC (Irvine Spectrum). SE's are around but they're hard to spot because they blend in so well...mine's pretty noticeable with yellow mirror caps!

 

Sorry you're not having the same experience! So many variables so who knows what's up with it. All I know is I use it every time on the highway and it's cut out once in 2000 miles.

 

Well I didn't use a stopwatch but that's what it feels like yes. I haven't tried a launch after disabling traction control...maybe that will eliminate som of the delay.