MINI Cooper SE road tests

CuriousGeorge said:
SE named MotorWeek's car-of-the-month:

https://www.motorweek.org/reviews/car_of_the_month/2020-mini-cooper-se

Complete road test to follow in a few weeks.
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John Davis, MotorWeek's MC and the author of this article, mentioned that he owns a MINI Cooper (and showed a photo of it) in the MotorWeek Quick Spin piece on the MINI Cooper SE, so I'm surprised he wrote this:
"Mini engineers were left with fitting them wherever they could, mostly where the fuel tank and transmission would be."

He knows where the transmission is in his MINI Cooper and no part of the SE's battery occupies that space. He, of course, meant where the fuel tank and exhaust system would be.
 
CuriousGeorge said:
Finally, a review from someone who understands that there is more to an EV than just range.
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Many months ago I wrote to MotorWeek and suggested what you said. That was before they did their Quick Spin on the SE and host John Davis showed off his personal MINI Cooper, so I shouldn't have worried they wouldn't understand range is not all. As noted elsewhere, the MINI Cooper SE is MotorWeeks's October Car of the Month and they will be airing their full test (well, as fully as they test any car) later this month.
 
idrw said:
Car and Driver Instrumented test

0-60 in 6.1 secs!!
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Did Car and Driver really drive the MINI Cooper SE? Their few words about the SE in this article, 2021 10Best Contenders: Cars That Didn't Make the Cut, make me wonder if the 10Best judges got any seat-time in our favorite car. Nice illustration by Clint Ford, however.

minicooperse_notTop10.jpg
 
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In some regards, this review seems spot-on, i.e., the SE sort of straddles the line between an enthusiast's "hot hatch" that would perform well as a track car and the EV paradigm pioneered by Tesla. The only comment that doesn't seem to comport with previous reviews was the complaint about tire squeal. That seems quite common with, e.g., the Bolt and its eco-friendly tires, but I have not seen anyone mention it before with the SE.

https://www.motortrend.com/cars/mini/hardtop/2020/2020-mini-cooper-se-electric-test-review/
 
CuriousGeorge said:
In some regards, this review seems spot-on, i.e., the SE sort of straddles the line between an enthusiast's "hot hatch" that would perform well as a track car and the EV paradigm pioneered by Tesla. The only comment that doesn't seem to comport with previous reviews was the complaint about tire squeal. That seems quite common with, e.g., the Bolt and its eco-friendly tires, but I have not seen anyone mention it before with the SE.

https://www.motortrend.com/cars/mini/hardtop/2020/2020-mini-cooper-se-electric-test-review/
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I can confirm (at least with my configuration of my heavy right foot, Pirelli tires, and traction control set to it's as-off-as-BMW-allows setting) that I haven't experienced 'squealing', just a lot of 'moving like an alarmed hominid'
 
Indeed, I wondered if perhaps the SE that was tested had different tires, or if they were excessively worn. I tried zooming in on a couple of the pics, but couldn't tell what they were or what sort of shape they were in.

That said, Kyle of InsideEVs, OneLap, etc., was also of the opinion that the SE was too heavy and suffered from too much understeer to make a good track car. Yet, he said that he'd buy one in a heartbeat to drive on the street. So, I'm thinking that (aside from the squealing tires) this review may just be a case of unrealistic expectations running up against reality. After all, batteries add considerable heft; there is therefore no way that you can have reasonable range and yet have a car that is really light on its "feet".
 
This is one of the more negative reviews I've read, but I ended with this "Fans of the automaker who already have a reliable road-tripper in the driveway won't mind the limited range and will smile every time they walk up to this car or experience its quick, effortlessly smooth powertrain." So I think I'll be pleased.

I want to know what insanity he was doing to that car too. I somehow think he expected a real racing car, which BEVs have issues with sue to battery problems. I'm not going to race my car. Motortrend hasn't been as kind about certain things with BEVs as I would like.
 
CuriousGeorge said:
In some regards, this review seems spot-on, i.e., the SE sort of straddles the line between an enthusiast's "hot hatch" that would perform well as a track car and the EV paradigm pioneered by Tesla. The only comment that doesn't seem to comport with previous reviews was the complaint about tire squeal. That seems quite common with, e.g., the Bolt and its eco-friendly tires, but I have not seen anyone mention it before with the SE.

https://www.motortrend.com/cars/mini/hardtop/2020/2020-mini-cooper-se-electric-test-review/
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One good thing about this review is that they generated their own performance numbers rather than simply echoing MINI'sj spec sheet. Motor Trend's 6.0 second 0-60 mph time is the best I've seen for our car.

Unfortunately, while complaining about the SE's limited EV range, this review didn't make the connection between EV range and battery weight--they both go up together, but as they go up, quickness and cornering ability go down. It's not just MINI saving money on the battery, it's MINI making design decisions that preserve what makes a MINI Cooper special.

I believe MINI changed the name of the "Corona Spoke" wheels to "Power Spoke" even before the Miami press introduction in March, so when was this review written?

All the cars MINI loaned to the press at the Miami event (and for every review I've seen since then) were shod with the Goodyear F1 tires @Puppethead detected. Reviewers who understand what a MINI Cooper is all did their part to scrub off as much of those tires as possible, so perhaps the tires on Motor Trend's test car were well-worn, making them more prone to squealing. Still, you'd think Motor Trend would check the tread depth before complaining about the squealing tires. The new Hankooks on my 17" Power Spoke wheels don't squeal (yet) and even the used 2014 Hankooks that came with my used 16" Loop Spoke wheels don't squeal. However, after replacing those old, used 16" Hankooks with new Michelin X-Ice winter tires, did hear some squealing when I pushed them hard.

At the end, as they listed their reasons for not recommending the MINI Cooper SE, they were listing some of the reasons I do recommend the MINI Cooper SE.
 
So true, what they didn't recommend about a Mini is what I want! I want a relatively inexpensive EV that is fun for my city driving. This car has it in spades (or I hope based on all the reviews... mine isn't even painted yet lol - edit: it's now in the paint booth but still not assembled)
 
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