Seat Mii car review: ‘To drive this, you have to be a surfer dude’
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ometimes the car isn’t the problem, you’re the problem. No, wait, I’m the problem. First, I was wearing shoes. The three-door Seat Mii feels cheap because it is cheap, and the cabin doesn’t lack elegance but has a thin, clackety acoustic that goes with
not spending much.
And yet, with the sun out and the windows down, driving barefoot with the radio loud, via the six speakers and boot-mounted sub-woofer (optional, for an extra £185), you could be driving back from a beach in a hire car. Then you’d be thinking, I don’t mind this diddy car with its diddy engine, I like the nippy handling and neat gear changes and wipe-clean plastickyness. I don’t care if I get sand in it. I like the stable, if noisy, ride, it makes me feel like burning a few clicks for a kebab.
Ah. But that make-believe evaporates when you consider the three doors, the boot that has room for a bit more besides its sub-woofer, and a one-litre engine which is fine until you fill the car with extraneous stuff like other people. Now you can’t be a holidaymaker, you’d just get huffy. You have to be a person who lives on the beach and this means you have to be a surfer dude; otherwise you’re in highly seasonal employ which generally entails not being able to afford any car.
So now you have to be barefoot and bare-chested. You’ll be needing a six-pack, although you have tinted windows so could get away with a four-pack. You have to start driving like you’re a high-risk personality in no hurry to do anything, which in a faster car would be quite a complicated look to pull off.
Fortunately, with a top speed of 106 and a slight reluctance to accelerate in any gear, this is your motor; even the sports version has a no-worries attitude. At high speeds, it is sound as a pound, even if you gun it into a pothole to impress your imaginary girlfriend. Yet in the city, which you will never discover because cities are hideous for people who won’t wear shoes, it’s easy to park, lovely to nudge around, small enough to dart in front of things, modest enough not to annoy people, shiny and bumper-car-ish enough to make you feel your youth, red enough that you won’t lose it.
I have question marks over whether it would appeal to anyone other than a surfer dude, where the dude would keep his surfboard, and whether the demographic is populated enough to warrant its own car. Otherwise, great little motor.
Price £11,740
Combined fuel economy 61.4mpg
CO2 emissions 106g/km
Top speed 106mph
Acceleration 0-62mph in 13.2 seconds
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