I've been looking at i8's casually for about a year. They kept going down in price and finally I noticed a few punching close to $50,000. They were high on miles but $50,000 for a car like this seemed like a deal and a half. My interest was piqued. I started researching. And then I start obsessing. I watched the reviews, both good and bad. Chris Harris' drive stood out the most. In it he praised the car for it's comfort and ability to take on seemingly completely opposed personalities but stopped short of calling it a true sports car. And he was right. The car is a capable tourer and supremely comfortable.
And so I started looking. I would check every day for listings. And every day there would be nothing. And not even nothing in my price range. There'd literally be maybe one or two used i8s listed in the country every week and typically people were asking much more for them than the market would bare. So I put a wanted ad on Craigslist. About a week later a guy in San Diego contacted me and said he had a 2014 with 37,000 miles. More than that, it has a 2 year transferable warranty with it. I convinced him to drive it up to me and bought it on the spot.
While I don't think these are going to be super collectible very soon, there aren't a lot of them, there will never be another made, they are very unique looking and a lot of fun to drive which gives me a fair degree of confidence that I'm near the bottom end of the depreciation curve. I just don't see these dipping into the $30,000 - $40,000 range basically ever. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I bought it to enjoy; not to collect.
The experience:
It's like owning two different cars. Stick it in all electric mode and the car will give you 18 - 22 miles of silent and slow front wheel drive power. It almost feels absurd driving the car in this mode because it would be easily bested by a Chevy Volt in a race to 60. Comfort mode is where you'll spend most of your time. In this mode the car is quiet and uses the engine to assist the electric motor when needed. Power is transitioned seamlessly though the engine is a lot more powerful than the electric motor and sometimes gives you more of a boost than you need, resulting in letting off the gas. So maybe not as seamless as it could be on second thought. In comfort mode you'll easily average 37 - 45 miles per gallon on the expressway averaging 75mph. In a car like this, it feels like you're cheating.
And in this mode the car effortlessly swallows mile after mile of interstate while you're coddled in a roomy, well appointed interior. The interior is all leather, accented with ambient lighting strips, a color heads up display and a newer version of idrive. This isn't a comfortable car for an "exotic". It's a comfortable car for... a car. It's a good space to spend a lot of time.
But the real fun begins when you hit a twisty mountain road and engage sport mode. In this mode the tiny 1.5 liter 3 cylinder engine runs all the time and the electric motor is used to boost total power output. The three motors (one gas, two electric) combine for 357 horsepower which is good for a 0-60 sprint of 3.8 - 4.2 seconds (depending on who tested the car) and a 1/4 mile time of 12.4 seconds. The car isn't about raw power but it's also not slow. It is objectively fast but not oppressively fast. This is the kind of fast where you're never wanting for more power but you're also not wrestling a car that's too powerful for it's own good. Think Porsche Cayman S.
So far, other than the butterfly doors, my favorite feature is the back seats which are surprisingly usable. Both of my kids are in boosters and without having to move the front seats forward very much at all, there's a lot of room for them in the back. The kids ask to take the cool car when we go places now. This isn't something I would have been able to accomplish in the other cars I was looking at. It's the small things...
Anyhow, here she is...
And so I started looking. I would check every day for listings. And every day there would be nothing. And not even nothing in my price range. There'd literally be maybe one or two used i8s listed in the country every week and typically people were asking much more for them than the market would bare. So I put a wanted ad on Craigslist. About a week later a guy in San Diego contacted me and said he had a 2014 with 37,000 miles. More than that, it has a 2 year transferable warranty with it. I convinced him to drive it up to me and bought it on the spot.
While I don't think these are going to be super collectible very soon, there aren't a lot of them, there will never be another made, they are very unique looking and a lot of fun to drive which gives me a fair degree of confidence that I'm near the bottom end of the depreciation curve. I just don't see these dipping into the $30,000 - $40,000 range basically ever. And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I bought it to enjoy; not to collect.
The experience:
It's like owning two different cars. Stick it in all electric mode and the car will give you 18 - 22 miles of silent and slow front wheel drive power. It almost feels absurd driving the car in this mode because it would be easily bested by a Chevy Volt in a race to 60. Comfort mode is where you'll spend most of your time. In this mode the car is quiet and uses the engine to assist the electric motor when needed. Power is transitioned seamlessly though the engine is a lot more powerful than the electric motor and sometimes gives you more of a boost than you need, resulting in letting off the gas. So maybe not as seamless as it could be on second thought. In comfort mode you'll easily average 37 - 45 miles per gallon on the expressway averaging 75mph. In a car like this, it feels like you're cheating.
And in this mode the car effortlessly swallows mile after mile of interstate while you're coddled in a roomy, well appointed interior. The interior is all leather, accented with ambient lighting strips, a color heads up display and a newer version of idrive. This isn't a comfortable car for an "exotic". It's a comfortable car for... a car. It's a good space to spend a lot of time.
But the real fun begins when you hit a twisty mountain road and engage sport mode. In this mode the tiny 1.5 liter 3 cylinder engine runs all the time and the electric motor is used to boost total power output. The three motors (one gas, two electric) combine for 357 horsepower which is good for a 0-60 sprint of 3.8 - 4.2 seconds (depending on who tested the car) and a 1/4 mile time of 12.4 seconds. The car isn't about raw power but it's also not slow. It is objectively fast but not oppressively fast. This is the kind of fast where you're never wanting for more power but you're also not wrestling a car that's too powerful for it's own good. Think Porsche Cayman S.
So far, other than the butterfly doors, my favorite feature is the back seats which are surprisingly usable. Both of my kids are in boosters and without having to move the front seats forward very much at all, there's a lot of room for them in the back. The kids ask to take the cool car when we go places now. This isn't something I would have been able to accomplish in the other cars I was looking at. It's the small things...
Anyhow, here she is...
