Looking for peer approval: BMW i3
- Thread starter Mike K
- Start date
I say go for it. And that's pretty dman good deal. The I3 with range extender out in Chicago land is 30 bucks more and they want like 3k down. Are you sure zero down?
Seems like plenty in a household with more than one car and a short commute.
We weren't driving the Infiniti because every time we'd leave the house it would be an instant cost proposition analysis. Do we take the car that costs us zero dollars and is super comfy or the one that chugs fuel and has a transmission that changes it's mind about what gear it wants to be in every 6 seconds.
With the i3 now I can take it during the day for my trips. I won't have to pile miles on the Tesla because now my other car is electric too. Basically the way I look at it is either way my wife needs to have a car and now she has something new, under warranty, that I can drive too and that is fully covered for the duration of our ownership. I'm down with that.
They legitimately only had the one. The guy said he had people calling him on it all morning. They had others for close though. $30 more a month for the other cars they had.
It's apparently all reclaimed/ recycled. It's supposed to be a truly green car. I give zero f's about that.
And it probably goes without saying now but I bought it. I drove 1.5 hours to the dealer, got there and they only wanted to give me $15,000 for the Infiniti. Knowing how good the deal was on the i3 I knew I really wasn't in a position to get them down any further on it and I knew with bald tires and some scrapes and scuffs from me smacking our recycling bins I was going to get taken to the cleaners on the Infiniti.
It took me politely walking out for him to raise the offer on the Infiniti. And I wasn't bluffing. I was totally fine with leaving in the Infiniti, throwing tires on it and going on with my life. They ended up getting up to $17,000 on it which I was totally fine with and we did the deal.
First impressions: It uses cheaper materials but the interior is noticeably better built than the Tesla. Not that the Tesla is bad but I forgot how solid BMW interiors are. There are some oddities. We have the top of the line trim package but no power seats or wheel. They aren't even an option on the car. It's not a big deal but it's a strange omission.
Power delivery is smooth. Quick from a stop, not so much from a highway roll. The generator kicks on at 7% battery life and just tries to maintain the battery at 7%. As I live on top of a hill, by the time I reached my house the electric range was zero and the generator was in panic mode trying to keep up. Panic mode is fucking loud. I'm talking so loud you'd be embarrassed. I know it's just a 2 cylinder motorcycle engine but it sounds like garbage at full tilt. Lucky for me, it's usually not running at that speed. Typically when it's running you can't tell it's on.
Here's a video of someone else's at full speed.
This is an advantage for a lease IMO. Having a lease is awesome because you'll always have a new car so there is never any maintenance. Never pay for an oil change or brakes or tires etc..... And let's say you like always having a new car as Mike K obviously does, buying it and only putting on 2K a year means you are losing far far more due to depreciation than the equivalent of paying for 10k lease and only driving 2.
I for one can't figure it out but some cars are literally just given away as a lease and some cars are more expensive to lease than to buy. Apparently it's just residual value but even cars with terrible residual sometimes have great lease deals so it'll forever be a mystery.
drove an i3 last year at the same event i was at again this weekend, although this time they also had some hybrid x5 and the i8. i was too lazy to hang around and make sure i got to drive the i8 but did go out as a passenger. pretty smooth car and quite sharp! i like the i3 too, didn't know the range extender was that balls out loud.
It really isn't that bad when it comes on. Usually you have no idea. I had kind of a perfect storm situation where I pulled into my neighborhood with 4% charge and then had to drive up hill for a mile. By the time I got to the top it just started running like that.
This morning I took it to a quick charger and the generator ran the entire way there without me having any clue it was on.
This morning I took it to a quick charger and the generator ran the entire way there without me having any clue it was on.
ah i see, so it's in zomg mode there. it did seem rather uncouth for bmw if that was what it sounded like when normally kicking on.
it's like the volt, although range extender is standard with those right? it is an option with bmw.
i was at autobahn south with these yesterday on a bmw track day. no i8 was out on track then but an i8 has been out on some other track days (quite skinny tires though.) a tesla was actually out running in the novice group, although it was late when i went to chat him up and i didn't catch him before i left.
Thread Info
-
Created
-
34Replies
-
1KViews
-
Participants list
