Minis SE: Test Drive + Impressions

Now I'm little worried that my Mini will have summer tires. We rarely get snow here (South Carolina) but the average temp in winter is 50F during the day and 32F at night. From what I have read, summer tires suffer below 40 - 45F. All cars I have owned here have all weather tires.
 
GvilleGuy said:
Now I'm little worried that my Mini will have summer tires. We rarely get snow here (South Carolina) but the average temp in winter is 50F during the day and 32F at night. From what I have read, summer tires suffer below 40 - 45F. All cars I have owned here have all weather tires.
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Maybe ask the dealer to put a request in for all season then but really I imagine where you live wouldn't suffer as much. Our winter has been very mild as a whole (don't think we dropped below 0 like usual) so I might suck it up this year. They ran fine at 15 on dry pavement.
 
GvilleGuy said:
From what I have read, summer tires suffer below 40 - 45F.
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I drove around on my summer tires well into winter, when temperatures were well below 40 ºF and even below freezing, until my winter wheels arrived the week before Christmas. As long as the roads were not snow or ice covered I had zero problems. Sure the rubber stiffens a bit and I probably lost some performance, but in terms of drivability I didn't notice any issues. I did venture out on icy roads once or twice and I could tell there was no traction, but the regenerative braking saved the handling.
 
Puppethead said:
I drove around on my summer tires well into winter, when temperatures were well below 40 ºF and even below freezing, until my winter wheels arrived the week before Christmas. As long as the roads were not snow or ice covered I had zero problems. Sure the rubber stiffens a bit and I probably lost some performance, but in terms of drivability I didn't notice any issues. I did venture out on icy roads once or twice and I could tell there was no traction, but the regenerative braking saved the handling.
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Good to know. I may just hope the next month isn't really snow filled. While we have 2 cars this is my personal driver and the one we try to use for errands but can hold off if need be.
 
Lainey said:
Good to know. I may just hope the next month isn't really snow filled. While we have 2 cars this is my personal driver and the one we try to use for errands but can hold off if need be.
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I’m in Portland OR and have been driving all winter on my Pirelli’s. No problems in the rain or cold. We’ve not had any snow yet and it hasn’t dropped below freezing but they handle the rain very well. I haven’t come close to getting anything over 100 miles for range though. I picked mine up in early November and the rains had already started. Looking forward to summer driving and much better range.


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Tommy Electric said:
I believe I read a short review of your car on another forum. The first SE to be delivered in Australia, if I'm not mistaken?
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Guilty. I already had the picture at hand :) 4 months in and I am still loving the little beast. It is the perfect city car, and none too shabby on the highway too. How are you finding yours? The BRG version was definitely the best of the bunch. We seem to get a lot more range in Oz than most other people are quoting. Probably the temperature.
 
vader said:
Guilty. I already had the picture at hand :) 4 months in and I am still loving the little beast. It is the perfect city car, and none too shabby on the highway too. How are you finding yours? The BRG version was definitely the best of the bunch. We seem to get a lot more range in Oz than most other people are quoting. Probably the temperature.
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Agree that the range is probably due to favourable temperatures. I've had mine for a couple of months so haven't had a chance to drive it in our winter yet. I know you're from up north so don't really get winters, as such. Even where I am the winters aren't that cold so I'm not expecting any huge change in range.

BRG is a classic and, with the white roof and mirrors, looks amazing. I wasn't a fan of the corona spoke (or power spoke, if you prefer) wheels so the two "future" colour choices weren't an option for me. I did, however, do a two-day test drive with the black version. You can see photos of that at the beginning of this thread. The Chilli Red would have been my second choice but I still much prefer BRG. I do wish we had more colour options and customisation in Oz. As usual, our little market at the a** end of the world gets a raw deal while those in Europe and the US get to pick and choose a whole range of options. At least they decided to actually offer the SE in Oz, I guess.

All my driving is urban driving so, as you noted, it's the perfect car for that. Quick and agile, I love the car. I still smile every time I get in and hit the button to start. This car makes driving fun again. Having a fun drive was probably the most important criteria for me and the SE delivers that in spades. I have a friend who has a Tesla Model 3 on order and, after he drove my SE, even he admitted that it was great fun to drive and felt more solidly made than the Tesla.
Another bonus with this car is I can charge for free at work which effectively eliminates approx. $1200 a year in petrol costs. Not bad at all. I also like the fact that at low speeds with the pedestrian tune humming away I turn a lot of heads. There are plenty of other points I could say in favour of the SE but I think you get the idea. :)
 
At 10:40 in this video you can hear the pedestrian warning sound. Is it really this loud? I don’t want to wake the neighbors.

 
GvilleGuy said:
Thank goodness! Maybe he had a mic mounted on the car rather than using the camera audio. I was a little worried.
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Note that only in that scene can you hear the sound. Actually, I'd like a switch that I could flip to make the pedestrian warning sound that loud when I actually want to warn pedestrians (or make an audible statement driving slowly down Main St.). Your neighbors won't lose a wink of sleep.
 
GvilleGuy said:
Thank goodness! Maybe he had a mic mounted on the car rather than using the camera audio. I was a little worried.
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I heard a squeak in the end that sounded unnaturally loud too. Maybe it was meant to show how it sounded clear as day.

Even in my garage backing up, it's not that noticeable even with the window down.

Sometimes I do think it needs to be louder. As an FYI my husband was waiting by the garage door for me to come in with take out last night. He could hear our super quiet garage door opening from the other side of the door, but not the car. He remarked with how quiet it was.
 
I have a long, uphill driveway to the house, and my dogs would always get excited when I reached the bottom of the driveway coming home. With the SE, being so quiet, they don't know I've come home until the garage door opens, unless they happen to see me out the window.
 
Puppethead said:
I have a long, uphill driveway to the house, and my dogs would always get excited when I reached the bottom of the driveway coming home. With the SE, being so quiet, they don't know I've come home until the garage door opens, unless they happen to see me out the window.
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Modern garage door opener transmitters can get their signal to the receiver from hundreds of yards away. Give the poor dogs a bone and push the button before you get to your driveway.
 
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