Snow

Even · Dec 18, 2013

A recent test of the i3 in snow in Norway http://e24.no/bil/biltester/bmw-gaar-medstroems/22669933 suggests that it is next to impossible to drive the car in loose snow. The tires are narrow and the winter tires seems to have poor traction. Also, the programming of the ABS seems to be primitive and there are no options to turn the ABS off, not allowing fun or professional driving in snow.

Anyone familiar with this matter? I have allready signed the contract, expecting the car in february..

Stevei3 · Dec 18, 2013

Hi,

Welcome. I would suggest you took some time to introduce yourself in the appropriate thread. That aside, what I can make of the text is:
- nothing is said about ABS
- traction in loose snow was not optimal because of production-realted silicone residue on the very new (winter-) tyres, according to BMW's reaction to the journalist. The article states they have to test drive the i3 again with run-in tyres to make it a 'fair trial'.
The tone of the article is quite reasonable, as far as I can see in the norsk-dutch translation.

Jeremy · Dec 18, 2013

I can't find the comment right now - but I'm sure someone on here, from the US or Canada, said they'd had a drive in snow (on standard tyres) and been very impressed.

I would expect that from the the narrow tyres and light weight.

Years ago my wife had a 2CV with similar weight and tyre width to the i3 and, when we were snowed up one winter, I got places in that little car that I couldn't get near in either of two big estate cars I was using at the time.

Bunter · Dec 18, 2013

Even said:
A recent test of the i3 in snow in Norway http://e24.no/bil/biltester/bmw-gaar-medstroems/22669933 suggests that it is next to impossible to drive the car in loose snow. The tires are narrow and the winter tires seems to have poor traction. Also, the programming of the ABS seems to be primitive and there are no options to turn the ABS off, not allowing fun or professional driving in snow.
Anyone familiar with this matter? I have allready signed the contract, expecting the car in february..

Not too worried about snow, I hunker down if it gets bad in the UK. But nice report for photos of the i3 in Arravani grey, which is the colour I've ordered.

Thanks for the link.

Bill

Plug · Dec 18, 2013

Thanks for the link. Google does a pretty good job translating it into English. It's a generally positive review but here's the section on driving on snow

The time we had with the car coincided with the first snowfall in Oslo Area , which first gave a somewhat surprising experience . It struggled on snow-covered ground, the tires found little stick and traction control systems put in serious overtime . With an unusually choppy progress as a result. This was just really weird .

We contacted BMW, it seemed odd to launch such an important car, which then turned out to be a bit helpless on snow. The explanation we got was that the studless winter tires were brand new and that it was still on silicone rubber , which makes the tires slippery.

So just snow performance to the i3 will be an open question until we get your hands on a copy with a few more mil under the tires.

On the age old subject of Arravani/Laurus, what colour do we think the car in the article is ?

The reason I ask is that my dealer was showing me some plastic panels in the different colours and I was surprised by just how dark Arravani was when compared to Laurus.

Plug · Dec 18, 2013

Ah I see Bill is thinking this is Arravani too.

It looks so much darker than the Arravani shown at Frankfurt but it does match the colour sample that I was recently shown. I like it too

This was Frankfurt, maybe so different due to fluorescent lighting ?

Bunter · Dec 18, 2013

Yes sorry that was a guess on my part, I don't know for sure.

Bill

roger997 · Dec 18, 2013

Plug said:
Ah I see Bill is thinking this is Arravani too.

It looks so much darker than the Arravani shown at Frankfurt but it does match the colour sample that I was recently shown. I like it too

This was Frankfurt, maybe so different due to fluorescent lighting ?

This is 100 % the non metallic grey
I ordered it myself
If ik new how i would post my car

I33t · Dec 18, 2013

roger997 said:
If ik new how i would post my car

If you have a digital camera picture, go here:

http://www.postimage.org

You should see this:

Click the "Browse..." button and select the photo on your computer.

If the photo is original size (probably too large to display here) then select the resize menu and choose "1024 x 768 (17 inch monitor)" otherwise, if it is reasonable size around 800-1000 pixels, select "Do not Resize"

Click "Family Safe"

Click "Upload"

Postimage will process your file and then show you this screen:

Probably the easiest way of linking the image is to use the link I have marked "3"

Just click the "copy to clipboard" button and paste it into the forum edit window. When the forum post is posted, it will look like this:

And, when someone clicks on the image they will see the full size version you selected.

In this post, I have used the link marked "2" above. To use that in the forum you need to copy the link and in the forum edit window click the Img button and paste the link in between the Img tags like this:

Hope that helps!

Plug · Dec 19, 2013

roger997 said:
This is 100 % the non metallic grey
I ordered it myself
If ik new how i would post my car

Thanks Roger, maybe you can post up some pics of your car once you've got it ? (how exciting

)

I don't think I've seen any Arravani demo/press cars yet ? All of the dark grey cars seem to be Laurus (which I now presume this review is as well). The only thing that was confusing me was just how dark the colour sample panel was at my dealer, it was definitely darker than the Laurus sample. This also ties in with the colours on the website configurator.

TomMoloughney · Dec 20, 2013

Plug said:
Ah I see Bill is thinking this is Arravani too.

It looks so much darker than the Arravani shown at Frankfurt but it does match the colour sample that I was recently shown. I like it too

This was Frankfurt, maybe so different due to fluorescent lighting ?

This is definitely Arravani. The Laurus is metallic and a bit darker:

Plug · Dec 20, 2013

I do like that pic, where was it from ?

Also.... have you actually seen an Arravani i3 anywhere since those Frankfurt Motorshow pics ? I've seen so many blogs, auto-reviews, test drive pics, videos, etc but I haven't seen an Arravani i3 yet ?

Muhv · Dec 20, 2013

I have a trach bin just like Arravani... This gray is just too much gray. May-be it can be adopted to military, navy?

As white have been a "new black" for at least five years for now, I would have prefered a yellowish plastic - likely to be a "new white".

Plug · Dec 20, 2013

Muhv said:
I have a trach bin just like Arravani... This gray is just too much gray. May-be it can be adopted to military, navy?

I know what you mean. I remember reading that when Abarth first started creating cars he used battleship paint from the local shipyard which is where their historic campolovo grey comes from.

This style of 'undercoat' grey is also starting to appear from other manufacturers as well. Like this Audi RS6.

Sorry to drag the thread off topic. I'd be grateful if someone could show me a recent pic/video of an arravani i3 'out in the wild' though

Bunter · Dec 20, 2013

I'm confused. Which out of Laurus and Arravani is the darker? The BMW site looks as though Arravani is darker?

Bill

TomMoloughney · Dec 20, 2013

Bunter said:
I'm confused. Which out of Laurus and Arravani is the darker? The BMW site looks as though Arravani is darker?

Bill

The website is deceiving. See the pictures above for the actual colors. Laurus is metallic and darker. Arravani is lighter and flat. Here are some more Arravani Gray pics:

Bunter · Dec 21, 2013

TomMoloughney said:
The website is deceiving. See the pictures above for the actual colors. Laurus is metallic and darker. Arravani is lighter and flat. Here are some more Arravani Gray pics:

Thanks Tom, so do you think the car in the snow review is Arravani or Laurus? I ordered my i3 in Arravani as I wanted the darkest colour so as to avoid as much as possible the two tone look. But it seems it might be that Laurus is the better option for that look. I would rather not upset the delivery date by shifting specification so think I am stuck with Arravani.

Do think the colour in this link is really Arravani grey?

http://www.bmwblog.com/2013/08/27/spotted-bmw-i3-in-arravani-grey/#jp-carousel-107586

Regards

Bill

Plug · Dec 21, 2013

That blog post made me smile at the time as it copied a thread from here (http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=211)

If you search this forum back to August/September time you'll see that there was confusion about which grey was which. What cleared it up for me was seeing pics from the Frankfurt motorshow taken by m11wlk where he'd also noted the paint colour on the stand alongside the cars.

What recently made me think though was seeing the paint samples at my dealer. His arravani plastic panel looked a lot darker than the Frankfurt pics so I'm still not 100% sure. The fact that there hasn't been any arravani cars shown in reviews/testdrives etc since Frankfurt is a bit curious. I've spent some time looking this morning but couldn't find anything.

Anyway, some of our Dutch members are having their arravani cars delivered soon so I'm sure we'll see pics.

TomMoloughney · Dec 21, 2013

Bunter said:
TomMoloughney said:

The website is deceiving. See the pictures above for the actual colors. Laurus is metallic and darker. Arravani is lighter and flat. Here are some more Arravani Gray pics:

Click to expand...

Thanks Tom, so do you think the car in the snow review is Arravani or Laurus? I ordered my i3 in Arravani as I wanted the darkest colour so as to avoid as much as possible the two tone look. But it seems it might be that Laurus is the better option for that look. I would rather not upset the delivery date by shifting specification so think I am stuck with Arravani.

Do think the colour in this link is really Arravani grey?

http://www.bmwblog.com/2013/08/27/spotted-bmw-i3-in-arravani-grey/#jp-carousel-107586

Regards

Bill

No BMWBLOG had is wrong, and unfortunately it was my fault! I have a good relationship with them and I even write for BMWBLOG but for that post they actually took those pictures from my blog where I called them Arravani Gray. As Plug notes in his post there was a lot of confusion at the time and it was because the online configurer shows the Arravani as a darker color - which it is not. Laurus (or Laurel in the US) is darker. The pictures on the blog post were taken at Pebble Beach and I even know the program manager that drove it there that day. I called him up when this happened to ask him for clarification on the color and he confirmed that car was indeed Laurel Gray.

Bunter · Dec 21, 2013

TomMoloughney said:
No BMWBLOG had is wrong, and unfortunately it was my fault! I have a good relationship with them and I even write for BMWBLOG but for that post they actually took those pictures from my blog where I called them Arravani Gray. As Plug notes in his post there was a lot of confusion at the time and it was because the online configurer shows the Arravani as a darker color - which it is not. Laurus (or Laurel in the US) is darker. The pictures on the blog post were taken at Pebble Beach and I even know the program manager that drove it there that day. I called him up when this happened to ask him for clarification on the color and he confirmed that car was indeed Laurel Gray.

Arh that clears it up then, I hope we can see some production Arravani photos soon.

Regards

Bill

Snow

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