I complained to the dealer last summer that my a/c system didn't really cool the car - but they sort of blew me off telling me it was normal. Last week I took a 2,400 mile drive through parts of AZ, NM, CO and CA and saw lots of 100+ weather. With the temp dials each set at 72 I might have cooled the car down to 85F, at best, with cool air coming through the vents. Not terribly bad, but certainly not great either!

In other cars, I've felt what's obviously COLD air coming from the vents, and could make the interior so cool that I had to back off on the settings.

I know the MINI's refrigerant capacity is relatively small, but my question here is, do these cars blow cold or not?

 

Typically the standard for properly functioning AC is 20-25 degrees below "intake". In a closed recirculating system, that gets more complicated of course. But at 100, if you're getting 80 degree air out, generally it would be considered working properly. If you set it to fully recirculate and have the windows closed, you should be able to get the interior air temp down into the 70s, maybe not 72 if it's 105 out, but I'd expect close to it.

 

I'm getting enough condensation on my front window when I have the air blowing up there that I have to run wipers.

 

I live in Arizona and my '13 Justa works great. After things are cooled down I have to turn it down, even on triple digit days.

 

Doesn't sound right to me. Living in SW Florida, AC is pretty important to me. We have our dials set to 70 on my side and 66 on wife's. Car gets pretty comfortable with AC set to vent (not the closed recirculate setting). When in closed position, it's throwing "snowballs at us".

I think ours is set to dump the AC on feet and the dash vents. I also find that if I don't have a vent hitting me in the face, I start to feel warm, so maybe you only need to set the vent direction and the air flow output to get the desired comfort level.

 

Take it back again or go to a different dealer if you can (assuming you're still under warranty). They should be able to use a gauge and test it, making sure it's within spec. I just had this issue with my wife's Grand Cherokee. They found it was leaking freon.

 

i'm in socal. the loaner i had for last 2 weeks, the ac wasn't the cold as well. the f56 loaner had only less than 1k miles on odo. mini ac is just weak.

 

The A/C works like a champ on my '15 F56. Nothing weak about it. I hit the Max button when I first get in the car on especially hot humid days. That cools it down quickly and I return it to the auto setting. I was and am impressed with the improvement over the A/C in my old R56. No complaints here.

 

These cars purposely come low on A/C charge from the factory. I was at .72 lbs out of the 1.06? lbs that is capacity on my F54. A good chunk of the air flow comes out of the center vent on the top of the dash.