Seat Mii Review (2012-2021)
Pros and cons
What we like
Impressively practical for such a small car
Low running costs for both petrol and electric versions
Excellent value for money
What to consider
Misses out on more powerful engine that VW Up sister car gets
More expensive than a Skoda Citigo
Interior a little utilitarian
The CarGurus verdict
The Seat Mii has been overshadowed by the Skoda Citigo and VW Up for most of its existence, with the Skoda the cheaper option, the VW the posher option and the Seat a bit lost somewhere in the middle. That doesn't prevent it from being a seriously impressive small car, though. In the case of the later Mii Electric, it's a thoroughly recommendable and fun little EV. It lacks the plush finish and style appeal of the Fiat 500e that we’d rate as our favourite small electric car, but it’s still one of the best options for anyone after a budget pure electric car.
A used petrol Seat Mii is equally recommendable. It’s perfectly suited to town driving yet feels stable enough for confident use on the open road, and it’s also practical, reliable and cute. As budget runabouts go, the Seat is one of the best.
out of 5 expert review
What is the Seat Mii?
The Seat Mii is a city car that's mechanically identical to the VW Up and Skoda Citigo, and like its relatives, it's one of the best small cars you can buy, regardless of what's powering it. To begin with, it was only ever offered with a 1.0-litre, naturally aspirated three-cylinder petrol engine, in either 59bhp or 74bhp guises. It missed out on the peppier 89bhp version that the Volkswagen Up got.
It did get various posh special editions – some in conjunction with major fashion houses – which make the Mii something of the stylish option next to the cheaper Skoda Citigo and the faster, slightly plusher-feeling VW Up.
Avoid the automatic petrol Seat Mii, though. It was a slow-shifting, clunky automatic gearbox that didn’t suit the otherwise nippy, light-footed little Seat.
From 2019, the petrol-powered Mii was discontinued, and the car was then only available as an 83bhp pure electric car – imaginatively named the Seat Mii Electric - with an official WLTP driving range of 161 miles. It was one of the cheapest electric cars you could buy - which made it very popular - so the fact that its 36.8kWh battery gives it a longer range than the entry-level Fiat 500e, and even the Honda e or Mini Electric, is rather impressive.
The Seat Mii was disacontinued in 2021 and there was no direct replacement.
Practicality
How practical is it?
The Mii offers excellent practicality by small car standards. The 251-litre boot is bigger than the boot you get in a Fiat 500, Toyota Aygo and most other rivals. You can sit four average-sized adults in the Mii without any fuss as well, especially if you go for the five-door model, which of course has much better access to the folding rear seats.
The interior feels solid and well put together, even if it doesn't quite have the poshness or sophistication that the Volkswagen Up's cabin has. The dashboard layout is simple and logical, and the comparatively large windows give you a good view out in all directions.
The Mii Electric gets the same battery and running parts as the VW e-Up and Skoda Citigo-e iV, which means an 80%, 50kW rapid charge time of some 50 minutes. Plug into a standard 7kW home charger and the little Seat will have a full battery in under six hours.
The Type 2 and CCS sockets on the Seat are the European standard socket types and are compatible with the vast majority of public chargers. You can also charge at a standard three-pin domestic plug socket, and the cable for doing so is provided as standard (as is the Type 2 cable) but it’ll take 18 hours for a full charge.
Expect to see around 130 to 140 miles of range in varied real-world driving and mild temperatures, while winter conditions will see that drop further to some 110 miles.
Driving
What's it like to drive?
Whether you go for the petrol or electric model, it’s peachy to drive, as well; there's plenty of gumption at town speeds, and while it can feel a bit gutless at motorway speeds it’s just fine for the odd long run.
The handling is very good as well; the Mii bowls into corners eagerly, even more so if you go for the petrol engine, which is a little bit lighter, and feels it. No matter which Mii you choose, though, you get a surprisingly comfortable ride that means this little car doesn’t feel out of its depth when you take it out of town.
Tech and equipment
Technology, equipment & infotainment
Basic S trim did without air-conditioning, so we’d suggest avoiding it, but that’s the only Mii that’s too basic to be recommendable. The rest all get the essentials including front electric windows, alloy wheels and remote central locking. The Mii Electric is only available in one trim, which has all the comforts you’d want including heated front seats, cruise control, air-con, auto wipers, rear parking sensors, LED daytime running lights and lane keep assist.
A facelift in 2016 saw a refreshed trim line-up and mildly tweaked styling, with sportier additions like the FR Line (which has a stiffer suspension setup but generous equipment levels for the money) added to the range.
Running costs
Seat Mii running costs
The Seat Mii will be a cheap car to run, whichever version you choose. The Mii Electric is a bit more expensive to buy compared with petrol alternatives of a similar vintage - cars like the Hyundai i10, Dacia Sandero and Kia Picanto - but compared to other EVs, it's as cheap as it gets.
A full charge will cost just over £5 on the average UK domestic electricity tariff, or less than half of that if you shop around for a cheap tariff and use off-peak discounted electricity. Assuming a real-world efficiency of some 3.2 miles/kWh (equivalent to a range of 118 miles between charges) that’s 4.4p per mile even if you don’t use cheap off-peak tariffs; roughly half what the petrol Mii would cost to run, since we’d expect the little 1.0-litre petrol engine to do around 45 to 50 mpg regardless of which power output you go for.
If it is a used petrol Mii that you’re interested in, that fuel economy is very competitive with rivals like the Hyundai i10 and Toyota Aygo. In fact, the Seat Mii, VW Up and Skoda Citigo are a little more frugal in reality than those alternatives.
Insurance is as cheap as it gets for the petrol, too, while Group 12 for the Mii Electric is quite a bit higher (if still comparable to a Ford Fiesta, for instance).
Seat offers affordable servicing costs, and you can also opt for fixed-price deals. Parts will be cheap and plentiful, so while there are other small cars that are similarly cheap to run, a used Seat Mii will be about as affordable as motoring gets.
Seat Mii reliability
The Seat Mii Electric promises to be reliable. Electric cars have far fewer mechanical parts to go wrong, so their powertrains tend to be far more reliable than any petrol or diesel car but you can, of course, still get issues with ancillary electrics, charging hardware and bodywork. The Seat Mii Electric is too new for there to be any data regarding its reliability, but it does come with a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty on the car (including roadside assistance) and an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the battery.
In terms of battery life, modern EVs have proven better than expected. It’d be realistic to expect the Mii to lose some 10-20% of its battery performance (and therefore the potential driving range) over 100,000 miles of use, but keeping it topped up between 20-80% of its battery charge in routine use - rather than juicing up to 100% every time - will help to maintain good battery condition. Ultimately, the battery will most likely outlive the car.
Reliability on the petrol Seat Mii will be very decent by used car standards. There have been a few recalls over the years, including one on the manual child locks for cars built in 2015 and 2016, and one for airbags in some cars built in 2013. Otherwise, there aren’t any notable faults that the Seat Mii is prone to.
The Seat Mii wasn’t included in the 2024 What Car? Used Car Reliabiilty Survey, but its (mechanically identical) siblings the VW Up and Skoda Citigo were rated very highly in previous versions. The Skoda was rated the most reliable small car you can buy in the 2020 survey, just ahead of the Toyota Aygo, and the VW Up came third in the class that year for dependability.
What owners say
Three things to know
- The Seat Mii has good safety standards. From launch, it was offered with autonomous emergency braking as an optional feature (one of the first city cars to be offered with this technology), and all cars also get traction control, six airbags and two pairs of Isofix child seat fittings. It received a five-star Euro NCAP crash rating back in 2011 at launch, but Euro NCAP has made its tests much more stringent since then and when the Seat Mii Electric was tested in 2019 it received only three stars. This isn’t unusual for older cars going under the latest crash tests, and the chief reasons the Seat lost those two stars is due to poor pedestrian protection and because autonomous emergency braking is optional rather than standard. We’d still rate it as a safe small car, and for some context, even the brand new Hyundai i10 received three stars in 2020, while the Honda e received four stars despite a bevvy of the latest semi-autonomous driver aids.
- When it was re-launched as the Mii Electric, Seat did away with any fitted sat-nav touchscreens and went with a simple dash-top phone holder with USB connection. This sounds cheap and nasty but, actually, it’s a perfectly decent solution given the increasingly advanced phone tech that most Mii buyers rely on anyway. The rest of the Mii’s interior feels durable and looks pleasant. It’s not posh, but it’s not an interior that reminds you of the Seat’s budget standing, either. That goes for the used petrol Seat Mii, too, although the really basic cars could feel a little but drab and underwhelming while, at the other end of the spectrum, flashy designer specials like the Mii by Mango got part-leather trim, a handbag-worthy colour palette and cute designer style details.
- There was no three-door option on the Mii Electric: it’s five-door only. This is fine with us, since the five-door still looks neat and appealing yet is usefully more practical. The boot space is barely affected by the addition of batteries in the Mii, so you get much the same luggage area whichever of the small Seats you’re considering. If shopping for a Mii Electric, it’s worth looking for a car with the ‘FlexPack’ option added since this features a variable height boot floor that creates useful hidden underfloor storage to keep your charging cables out of the way.
Which one to buy
- First car: The Seat Mii Toca is a great used car for first time or novice drivers, as it gets reversing sensors, a removable dash-top nav and media screen, air-con and alloy wheels. It’s only offered with the 59bhp engine, though, the benefit being that it falls into the lowest insurance group, that being Group 1. Most other petrol Mii models fall into Group 2. That’s still low, and it includes the more powerful 74bhp version, which is usefully sprightlier and some drivers – learner or otherwise – may find it more confidence-inspiring on country roads and motorways.
- Cheap school-run car: The Mii SE Technology is a good balance of equipment and cost when it comes to trims, and is widely available on second-hand forecourts. Just make sure you go for the five-door. With the three-door car, getting the kids into the back seats, and getting them strapped in, will be the bane of your daily existence, trust us.
- City commuter: The Mii Electric is a fantastic urban commuter. The long-ish range means that you’ll likely only need to charge up once or twice a week, so you could even get away with just charging at the office or on the street if you don’t have a driveway. Plus, you’ve got all the financial benefits of an EV including cheap fuel, zero road tax and no city-centre congestion charges.
- Most frugal: If electric isn’t for you and you’re after seriously cheap fuel costs, the Mii Ecomotive is for you. It had an official combined economy (under now defunct NEDC tests) of 67.2mpg, and emissions of 97g/km.
