Jeep to MINI...Maybe

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Sully151

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Well, here I am trying to figure my life out. Well, at least part of it. Thanks to my job (which I love) and the fact that I am now driving my son to Junior High every day, my daily commute is now 80 miles. 400 miles a week, just driving to school and work.

I drive a Jeep... a lifted Jeep on 37" tires and lots of steel bumpers, rock rails etc. I get 12.5 miles to the gallon, and thanks to Southern California gas prices, I am playing $150+ a week ($600 a month) on gas.

That is more than a car payment.

Now, I will preface this with I have a reservation on a Rivian R1T, but that could be a year away or more. The Rivian will be a great truck for camping and long road trips in the future, it will probably replace the Jeep, but I need to think about the here and now.

I started looking for a commuter car, perhaps a used Bolt, but then saw that a new MINI SE wouldn't be all that much more with incentives/tax credits, it comes with a warranty and it's a MINI. My wife sold her MINI when our son was born so we have always liked them.

One of my thoughts is to drive the MINI until the Rivian is delivered, or maybe hold off on the Rivian for a bit to let others be the guinea pigs and then let my wife have the MINI and save her Crosstrek for my son in a couple of years

So now I am in the early stages of shopping, but have some questions.

1. A good chunk of my commute is on the freeway, everything from stop and go to 75 mph. For those of you with similar drives, does the range hold up to this? I suppose, If I had to, I can charge a bit at home between taking my son to school and my drive to work, but I would love to not have to worry about it.

2. If anyone lives in SoCal, how does the MINI handle the freeways and the craziness that are other drivers? Do you feel safe and secure in such a small car? I am used to driving the Jeep, the size is nice, but faded soft top windows and 0-60 in 13 seconds does make things exciting.

3. How comfortable is the car for drives that could be over an hour each way? I am 6', my son is 5'10.

4. Are there deals to be had? Has anyone talked the asking price down below MSRP? I have not been able to find one on the lot, so I would have to order it. One dealer said I would have it by November. Not sure if that is true. It kind of freaks me out to order a car that I have never seen much less driven. Not having one to test drive freaks me out a bit. I think I would probably get the Signature Plus so I can get the moon roof, but if I can't find a good price, I might forgo the plus and just get the Signature.

5. I know the range is kind of small, but has anyone taken the car on weekend road trips? How did it do?

That's it for now. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks in advance!
 
1. I think you can expect 100 miles at 75 mph based on Bjorn Nyland's testing (Norwegian Youtuber who developed a gold standard range test, Google Drive link). Any slowdowns will benefit you range-wise. The full recharge time is 4 hours on L2, and a fast charger can do 10-80% in about 30-35 minutes.

2. The MINI gets up to speed plenty quick, and it has good power up until 80-85 mph. The car itself feels planted on the road. I am in Texas and sometimes the pickup trucks can be intimidating in the Mini. My other car is a nearly 3 ton EV, which would be safer in those situations, but I prefer to drive the Mini.

3. The front seats are great for taller people (I am 6' 1"). I wouldn't say they are exceptionally comfortable, but I have taken some day trips and they felt fine to me and my wife.

4. Sig or Sig+ are the sweet spots. You may be able to arrange a dealer trade. A deal would be more likely if you can find a suitable car on a lot. Many, if not most of us paid MSRP, but the TFL Car channel got a nice discount of $2k. Federal income tax liability of at least $7500, and state incentives bring the price down significantly.

5. My longest trip was 75 miles away. It was great! We had L2 charging at the other end so I was back up to 100% in maybe 2-2.5 hours.

I can't recommend the SE enough. It really shines as a fun city car, but if you have a L2 home charger you should be able to make it work just fine.
 
1) I commute 80-85 miles by freeway every day, with no charging until I get home (mid driving mode, a/c always on. I have no range issues, usually with nearly 50% SoC left (summer, which is relevant to SoCal conditions).

2) The MINI is a beautiful vehicle for handling complex driving. You can out-accelerate anyone and it's so nimble you can easily maneuver around others. As for safety, it's a very safe car. My personal experience with the safety of MINI cars came when I was rear-ended at 50 mph (I was stopped for traffic) in my previous generation Clubman and walked away with no injuries. I ricocheted off a wall and another car, but the cabin never deformed.

3) I'm 6'4" and drive over two hours a day, comfort is not an issue. There is plenty of shoulder and head room. I can even sit in the back seat with reasonable comfort if the front is moved forward part way.

4) Don't expect deals. MINI can't make enough SEs to meet demand, and the additional pressures of chip shortages is making availability even worse. Keep in mind the MINI SE is eligible for the full $7500 federal tax rebate, and I believe California has an additional $2000? As for test driving, you can test drive an ICE MINI Hardtop to know if the MINI is right for you. The SE is exactly the same in all regards, except for better performance. It is literally built out of the same parts except for the replacement of the engine with the electrical bits.

5) I drove my SE on a 100-mile road trip in the dead of winter last February with one charging stop mid-way, and had no problems. I could have probably made the trip with no charging stops in the summer. With an EV you just need to do a little bit of trip pre-planning and use an app like PlugShare to get a feel for chargers around your destinations.
 
I went from a jeep for my daily to the mini, have only drove the jeep once this summer. Not a lot of charging spots around here but the Harley dealer is only about a mile away so I fill up for free. My jeep must be getting lonely.

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This wasn’t mentioned, but the fuel savings will be immense. You can count on 4 miles per kWh most of the time. Not sure what your energy cost is, but for me that’s $12 per 400 miles.

Plus access to the HOV in California?
 
The cost of gas is certainly a big factor in my decision. $600 a month is killing me. Just put $80 in tonight.

We went and sat in an ICE mini over the weekend. It’s small, but seems doable for my son and I to commute to drop him off at school and me at work. I think all four of us will be ok for running around town on the weekends too.

I am a little worried about the range still, but it seems like it will be ok for my 80 mile round trip commute, as long as I don’t enjoy the drive too much.
 
My guess is it will handle the commute just fine with a nice buffer left over. Southern California has 300+ 50 kW DC fast charge stations in case you ever need a backup. You can see them all on Plugshare.
 
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