Dabz
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- James
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2022
- Threads
- 34
- Messages
- 894
- Reaction score
- 928
- Location
- UK
- Vehicles
- J1.1 4S
- Thread starter
- #1
So we collected our new Mini Cooper SE Sport last week, it's a 52kWh battery and about 220bhp. It's Chinese made, shouldn't be called "Mini" and is overpriced for a Chinese import but my wife's a die-hard Mini fan.
Straight away there's some useful tech on there that the Taycan is missing:
-There's a "precondition the battery for charging" option to press which takes 5 mins and warms the battery up ready. No need to be using the charging planner/route planner.
-You can unlock the car with a mobile phone which avoids carrying the key (which on the Mini is almost as big as the car)
-Searching through music on a memory stick is a dream - big folders with album art and the scrolling is "stickier" too so you don't whizz past what you're looking for
-Setting a precondition schedule or charging schedule on the app is everything the Porsche should be. It's so easy my 9yr old could do it immediately.
-You can set the car to precondition the cabin when charging completes which I thought was clever. I'm having to make up scenarios for when I'd need this, but it's clever.
-You can select to automatically unlock the charge port when charging is complete. I thought this was very polite, especially for public chargers where 2 bays share a single charger. Can't decide if I'd want people unplugging my car or not but it's a nice option to have at home rather than having to go find the keys.
-The wireless phone charging works perfectly every time.
-The app is brilliant, faster, does a lot more but doesn't seem to do precondition schedules - these seem to need to be done in the car.
The cockpit/dash is very minimal and it's all through the touch screen, apart from the air vents which are just normal and wonderful.
The negatives - it has a speed limit exceeded warning that you have to disable every time the car is turned on. I hope that's not some stupid new rule that comes to all cars. The steering has zero feel, to me it feels like Power Steering Plus on the Porsche which I hate (personal preference, I know some love it). Charging stops if you open the car...we were charging on the drive and went to sit in to have a fiddle with the settings and it kept warning us that charging was paused, would now complete much later etc. Probably a hidden setting somewhere. And the cost - admittedly we went for the top trim level and bigger battery but I remember when a Mini Cooper was £16k not £40k.
Straight away there's some useful tech on there that the Taycan is missing:
-There's a "precondition the battery for charging" option to press which takes 5 mins and warms the battery up ready. No need to be using the charging planner/route planner.
-You can unlock the car with a mobile phone which avoids carrying the key (which on the Mini is almost as big as the car)
-Searching through music on a memory stick is a dream - big folders with album art and the scrolling is "stickier" too so you don't whizz past what you're looking for
-Setting a precondition schedule or charging schedule on the app is everything the Porsche should be. It's so easy my 9yr old could do it immediately.
-You can set the car to precondition the cabin when charging completes which I thought was clever. I'm having to make up scenarios for when I'd need this, but it's clever.
-You can select to automatically unlock the charge port when charging is complete. I thought this was very polite, especially for public chargers where 2 bays share a single charger. Can't decide if I'd want people unplugging my car or not but it's a nice option to have at home rather than having to go find the keys.
-The wireless phone charging works perfectly every time.
-The app is brilliant, faster, does a lot more but doesn't seem to do precondition schedules - these seem to need to be done in the car.
The cockpit/dash is very minimal and it's all through the touch screen, apart from the air vents which are just normal and wonderful.
The negatives - it has a speed limit exceeded warning that you have to disable every time the car is turned on. I hope that's not some stupid new rule that comes to all cars. The steering has zero feel, to me it feels like Power Steering Plus on the Porsche which I hate (personal preference, I know some love it). Charging stops if you open the car...we were charging on the drive and went to sit in to have a fiddle with the settings and it kept warning us that charging was paused, would now complete much later etc. Probably a hidden setting somewhere. And the cost - admittedly we went for the top trim level and bigger battery but I remember when a Mini Cooper was £16k not £40k.
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