The 2025 Mini Countryman SE: Whimsy doesn’t make up for annoying

It has style, but it's also slow to charge, and the infotainment is laggy.

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[ferdnyc]

The physcial controls don't really look as cheap and plasticky as they appear in this photo, do they? I'm assuming/hoping that's just a trick of the light. Because, in the photo that looks like a game "controller" you'd find packaged with some drugstore knockoff Taito LCD game, if such things had controllers.

 

[Deleted member 28951]

Mini was taken over by BMW to give them a lower end sub-brand without eating into the brand image
Smart is now being used by Mercedes as its lower end sub-brand, with the largest Smart being similar in size to the B series. I suspect Mercedes will eventually drop the smaller part of its range.
Yet both of them began as sub-3m cars (well OK the original Mini was just over 3m over bumpers.)

Mercedes does not design or manufacture any of the new Smart models. Geely does all of that in China. The only Mercedes contribution is a (small) part of the interior, and selling it in Europe. Smart is simply yet another Geely brand used to amortize their BEV platforms, with partial success.

 

[omarsidd]

Bleh, that cluttered circular display would irritate me even without the bugs Gitlin mentions.

I actually liked the toggle switches on the older models- they were sort of charming and quirky, which was the point of Mini for me (besides the handling). They had a learning curve to be sure, but I suspect the "too slow to load" infotainment system would similarly take time to get used to. Especially if I'm trying to use it while driving, which just sounds like a recipe for "incidents".

 

[Flipper35]

You bring up an interesting point: how do suspensions of (generally heavier) EVs hold up on our potholed roads? I see your Indiana pothole and raise you a Michigan one - a state where even our Jeep (!) injured its suspension...

Michigan doesn't have potholes. They had kiddie pools randomly installed in the roads.