One of my favourite little pleasures in life is being given a hire car whilst one of mine is being repaired, and today I was grateful to have this opportunity once again. My Seat Toledo has had a strange build quality quirk over the last few months where the two rear USB ports (situated in the back of the driver's armrest) decided to fall through, thus rendering them useless. Needless to say, this is something covered under warranty, and so I booked myself in and asked for a loan vehicle.
I was expecting to receive a Seat Mii to run around in, and this is exactly what I was given. One of Seat's least popular models (along with the sadly recently discontinued Toledo), the Mii is the twin sister of the Volkswagen Up! and the Skoda Citigo, and was launched in 2012. The Up! was an absolutely revolutionary car when it was released, and its engine is now used (in both normally aspirated and turbocharged forms) for a wide range of Volkswagen Group models from the Skoda Fabia to the Audi A3. The 110 bhp turbo version of the engine is the one in my 2017 Seat Toledo, and is also employed in the very well received Volkswagen Up! GTI. Sadly, this little Mii has to make due with just 60 bhp from the basic version of the 1.0 litre three cylinder unit, and so progress is more modest than brisk.
I found out whilst doing some research that the three door Mii, like this one, has just been discontinued, so I have the dubious honour of driving two recently discontinued Seats on the same day. Mind you, it was difficult to tell this one apart from the original 2012 model, apart from the fact that the car has a better stereo and two electric window switches on the driver's door (the original had just one). It was very cheap of Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen to save money by just putting one switch on each door, but thankfully this practice has now finished!
The sporty styling, with the white alloy wheels and matching mirror caps, reminds me of the Mii's identical twin sisters, the Skoda Citigo's Monte Carlo Edition model, although this is not as highly specified as that one. Apparently, there are daytime LED running lights, but I couldn't quite spot them... The cabin also has a nice white piece of trim running down the middle to detract from numerous blank switches and the fact that there is a lot of exposed metal on show: this is clearly a car built to a price.
The 0-60 time of just short of 15 seconds explains why the car feels slow, and I very much missed the turbo in my Toledo whilst winding the car up to motorway speeds. It seems to have virtually no torque whatsoever without the turbo, and so planting one's food deep into the Axminster is the only way to make decent progress when being chased by lorries... That said, the engine is only turning over 2900 rpm at 70 mph when cruising, so up to reasonable speed, things are relatively comfortable and quiet, which is not the same for most city cars.
The boot is also relatively good for the class standards at around 250 litres, which is about 30 short of my lady wife's MG3 (a video review of which you can watch here), but much bigger than the popular Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108 triumvirate. The access is quite restricted, however, and again the exposed metal is very much in evidence, but it is not too bad. There are, however, only four seats rather than five and in five door models, the windows do not roll down, only pop out.
The ride and handling are perfectly reasonable, it would seem, although the steering is far too light at anything above 30 mph. This trait is common to most cars these days, so if one wants more feedback through the steering, then the revised MG3 beckons. In fact, the revised MG3 also beckons when looking at prices. The Design Mii specification (of which this apparently one, although I don't know why manufacturers keep choosing stupid names for trim levels) retails at £11,690 before discounts, and is currently the basic Mii model available. A mid-spec MG3 with more power, more equipment, rear windows that actually go all the way down, more boot space and more room in the back is £11,395. Granted, the MG3 may not have the highest technology engine, and the fuel consumption will pale in comparison, but there really is no contest in my mind.
With some trim alignments, the fitment of a turbo and lower pricing, the Seat Mii could be a superb little sister to a Seat Leon Cupra in much the same way that the Up! GTI is the little sister to the Golf GTI. However, being not really sporty enough for the Seat brand, not luxurious like the Up! and more expensive than the Skoda Citigo, it ends up being neither fish nor fowl, and therefore only if the car is offered with a very good deal would I recommend it over its Volkswagen Group stablemates. These have more personality (one more luxurious, the other more solid and good value) to differentiate them, where the Mii occupies an uneasy middle ground. Of course, I would also try an MG3 before you buy any of these, especially as it has been recently facelifted and comes with a seven year warranty, unless fuel economy is the top priority.
