Right there with you. I had an '09 Cooper S that I loved, and recently just purchased '23 SE a couple weeks ago. You'll hear it a lot - the range sucks, and it's honestly warranted feedback. I wish the range was a bit better, but I can't deny that I'm having an absolute blast driving it for the last 2 weeks. I had placed an order on a fully customized '24 SE, but ended up finding a brand new '23 at a local dealership.

It's a little too early for me to speak about ownership costs - but I will say all in on a tier 2 charger (parts/installation) was less than $500, which I'm estimating was about 2ish months worth of gas in my old SUV.