Used Seat Mii 2012-2019 review

When it first hit the streets in 2012, you wouldn't have blamed the Seat Mii for suffering a little from middle child syndrome. Sandwiched as it was between the high-achieving Volkswagen Up and the hard-working Skoda Citigo on shared underpinnings, it was always in danger of feeling a little left out.

Fortunately, Seat gave the Mii an identity all of its own by offering it in a number of trim levels and special editions, some of which were created as part of collaborations with major fashion brands such as Cosmopolitan and Mango. The Mii, therefore, is the stylish one of the trio.

Engines: The Mii also manages to be really good fun to drive, if a bit slow. That’s because it's available only with 59bhp or 74bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engines, missing out on the Up’s 89bhp turbocharged unit, unfortunately. However, at least this means that the Mii is cheaper to buy than the Up and, in Ecomotive form, more economical. From 2019 onwards, the Mii could be had only as an nipply little electric car with 83bhp and an official range of 161 miles.

Trims & equipment: Entry-level S trim is likely to be a bit too basic for most people, so we'd suggest you go for an SE to get air conditioning, 15in alloy wheels, electric front windows and mirror adjustment, 50/50-split folding rear seats and driver's seat height adjustment. From around 2016, the trims were altered to Design (essentially the same as SE but with added rear privacy glass) and FR-Line, which adds larger 16in alloy wheels, a flat-bottomed sports steering wheel, front foglights and firmer sports suspension.

We wouldn’t blame you for being tempted by one of the many special editions, either. The Toca version is particularly noteworthy, because it has rear parking sensors and a Garmin sat-nav system. Another popular model is the Mii by Mango, which has rather nice part-leather, part-Alcantara seats and some interesting paint colours.

Ride & handling: While you’re waiting for the petrol Mii to get up to cruising speed, you’ll notice the ride is remarkably smooth. This is helped by the smaller wheels fitted to the majority of the range; as long as you stick to 15in or 16in wheels, ride quality shouldn’t be an issue.

What’s more, all the controls are a pleasure to use. The gearlever and clutch actions are smooth – ideal for low-speed manoeuvring. The steering manages to be precise and weights up nicely in corners when you get out of town onto faster roads, but it's still light for parking in tight spaces. In other words, the Mii always feels safe and surefooted, so you feel like it’s on your side at all times.

Interior & practicality: It would help if you still had substance and practicality in a small car, though, and it’s good news for the Mii on this front, too. You can fit four adults inside quite comfortably. The only problem is that in order to make passengers feel less squished, Seat had to limit the car to carry only two across the rear bench, whereas rivals such as the Hyundai i10 and Suzuki Celerio can take three.

All versions of the Mii come with six airbags and two Isofix child seat mounting points on the rear bench. When the car was launched, it got a full five-star rating from EuroNCAP, making this a very safe city car at the time. However, this was dropped down to just three stars in 2019 when the testing criteria was altered to include more autonomous safety technology that wasn't available on the Mii, penalising its overall score.

If you're interested in finding a used Mii, or any of the other value cars mentioned here, head over to the Used Car Buying pages to find lots of cars listed for sale at great prices.

You can find an early three-door Mii for around £3000. If you want a more practical five-door model, expect to pay a few hundred pounds extra. Increase your budget to between £4000 and £5000 for a Sport with the more powerful engine or a tidy 2015 car with below-average mileage from a dealer. A Design Mii from 2017 will be about £5000, while a 2019 top-spec FR-Line with minimal miles starts at around £7500.

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MPG

Ecomotive variants are fitted with low-rolling-resistance tyres, along with an engine stop-start system, and get the best official fuel economy (in the older, less realistic NEDC tests) of 68.9mpg. The regular 59bhp model returns 62.8mpg and the more potent 74bhp engine promises 60.1mpg. Both of the latter versions received further improvements later on and are rated to return 65.7mpg.

CO2 emissions and Road Tax

Road tax will be free for Ecomotive models registered before 1 April 2017, because their CO2 emissions are below 100g/km. The rest of the range will cost you a tiny amount, because the 59bhp engine emits 105g/km, while the 74bhp model chucks out 108g/km.

Any Mii registered after 1 April 2017 will be charged the current flat-rate fee for road tax. This is currently £190 a year. Choosing an automatic gearbox doesn’t penalise you as it does in rival offerings, with lower CO2 figures than the manual. You can read more about road tax costs here.

Servicing

There are both fixed prices for servicing and monthly payment plans, depending on how old your car is. For cars over a year old, the next two services will be covered for 18 monthly payments of £26.49 per month. Alternatively, Miis aged between one and three years old will cost £179 for a minor service and £299 for a major one. Examples aged between three and 15 years will cost you £189 for a minor check-up and £319 for a major service. Maintenance is required every 12 months or 10,000 miles.

Engine

You'll need the more powerful 74bhp Seat Mii if you do plenty of motorway driving. Otherwise, you should find the 59bhp version perfectly adequate.

The Mii's automatic gearbox can be jerky, erratic and not as smooth as those of rivals such as the Hyundai i10. We'd therefore suggest you stick with a manual version.

Specification

If you're looking at an early Mii, go for an SE version, because it comes with a bit more kit, or a Sport for the more powerful engine. Cars from 2016 onwards are best bought in Design form, because the sports suspension fitted to FR-Line cars will be a bit too firm for some people at lower speeds.

Our favourite Seat Mii 1.0 MPI 60 Design

The contemporary Hyundai i10 is the city car to go for if you need more interior space, because it's one of the roomiest in its class. However, it isn’t as much fun to drive and doesn’t have a five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP.

At the other end of the scale is the bargain-priced Suzuki Celerio, which is more practical than the Mii, because it has three seats in the rear, rather than two. Its interior isn’t quite as nice, though, and its safety rating isn’t as good.

The most direct competition for the Mii comes from its stablemates. If you want the best value, the Skoda Citigo is essentially the same car with a different badge. You can find more of them for sale, for a start, and can often get a top-spec Elegance model for similar money to a mid-range Mii. And then there's the Volkswagen Up, which is even more plentiful and doesn’t cost that much more to buy.

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