I had such an exciting experience at the dealership the day my SE arrived--I'm so glad I didn't wait for the call to come take delivery! I knew the transporter was due that day, but I didn't know if it had come before I arrived in the early afternoon. I was driving our Honda Clarity slowly around the dealer's lot, looking at all the MINI Coopers, trying to spot one with yellow mirrors.
I crept around the side of the dealership and was passing about 40 feet in front of the service department's large garage door. Suddenly, the garage door opened and before it was fully open my car BURST out with two mechanics inside! It seemed like they were coming straight at me at high speed, but I'm sure the driver would have zipped around the rear end of my Clarity if I hadn't kept moving.
Luckily there was no person or car in front of me because I was afraid to jam on the brakes, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the spectacle of finally seeing the car I'd ordered a year earlier--and seeing it in rampant action! In a second they had passed by me so I put my Clarity in park and jumped out to see where they were going. They took a hard left towards the front of the dealership's lot, a hard right onto Jackson Road, and quickly disappeared from view.
Some might find it disturbing to see their new car being driven this hard before they even had a chance to touch it, but not me. For me it was an absolute thrill! I knew this mechanic had driven countless MINI Coopers quickly and wanted to find out how this newfangled electric MINI compared. I knew that, unlike an internal combustion engine, there was no break-in period for the electric motor powering my Cooper, so hard acceleration early in it's life was not a problem. Best of all, I knew that I wouldn't have to wait more than another few minutes to sit in my MINI Cooper SE for the first time.
I was hoping I could take my SE for a quick spin after the mechanics returned from "calibrating the TPMS," but it was not to be. After more than a month of sitting at the UK port, after the long ocean journey, after a mercifully short 2-day stay at the Baltimore port, after 2 days of transportation to Michigan, and after the mechanics' high-speed test-drive down Jackson Road, there were a scant 4 miles of range left in the battery. Not wanting to challenge the Guess-O-Meter, I decided I could wait to drive my beautiful new SE. Just sitting in those comfortable seats and playing with the infotainment system was enough to make me very happy.
It was the best new-car experience I've ever had. And the joy continues.
What about climate control while you charge? Heating, cooling, etc.
