Most liked posts in thread: MINI E review....

Yes. Getting cars in has been a problem for the dealerships. The "chip shortage" has meant an extreme short supply of inventory for all car makes and models. I don't understand why MINI has gotten away from the factory order customer configurations, since people buying cars are willing to wait for them now.

The local dealerships in my area have only 10 cars in inventory, across all MINI models, and they are all used as courtesy cars, or test drive vehicles. If you buy a new car, you will have to wait for it. I think the local dealerships here are managing that pretty well. However, MINI Canada has a promotion, than if you buy a MINI SE, you get a free home charging station. One person that recently received his new SE tells me there is a 2 month wait for the charging station to arrive. So they have generated demand in spite of the short inventory supply.

 

The current generation is an expensive city car. A couple of new members in the local MINI club have SE's. One of them came with us on a drive last summer and made it most of the way on a single charge. A 20 minute top up while we were having lunch got him the rest of the way.

I took one out for a test drive. To me, it felt noticeably heavier, but it remained fun to drive. Since I have a F60 Countryman to handle the long drives, I think maybe a Cooper SE might be a viable replacement for my R53 to be used as strictly a commuter car for day to day driving. I am considering replacing the R53 because it will cross the 300,000 kilometer mark next week and it has done it without any major repairs outside of routine maintenance,1 alternator (also wear and tear considering the mileage on the car) and 1 fuel pump that was not covered by the recall.

The cost of some needed maintenance repairs at this mileage would be higher than what the car is worth. I was hoping the next gen hatch would be out by now, but they keep delaying it. I am still leery of the longevity of the batteries for cars and the cost of replacing them.

 

Interesting….you wait months for the car to arrive and then you wait two more months for the charging station. That’s got to be frustrating for the new owner.

 

Chuck, it needs solar panels on the roof!

 

You know MINI...they never think that far ahead. They would much rather bilk the public now and then, later offer the solar panels as an option.

 

Only you know the needed maintenance cost but the MSRP of new cars is high and getting deals are almost unheard of at this time. With the attention that ev batteries getting now I would imagine in the near future the real world drive time using the heater or ac will improve to a point where a great number of folks will have no problem using one for most of their daily driving needs.

 

That dealership must be swimming in money not to call someone back.