2014 - should I even consider one?

[skeptic]

Almost right from the beginning of my search I ruled out 2014s. First year, motor mount issues, DC fast charging not standard... However, they are so much cheaper I'm starting to reconsider. I know there are kinda similar threads here, but they seem to focus on comparing specific cars or get into warranty/age issues and such and I want this to be strictly on actual technical/mechanical differences between 2014 and later years. The things I'm aware of are:

• Motor mounts. New design starting late 2015, earlier ones addressed under factory recall. Still plastic, but with stronger bolts and smarter controls to avoid wheels spinning up with little or no resistance (air, ice, whatever).
  
• DC charger was optional. It became standard on '15 models.
  
• 60Ah Battery. Yep, this goes to 94Ah in '17 (optional at first) then 120Ah in '19.

Other than those and stuff like new interior options or paint colors, as well as new idrive version starting in 2018 (???) I'm not aware of any other differences.

 

[KarlC]

Whats your budget and where do you live ?
Are there any special options you want ?

Thx Karl

 

[skeptic]

I probably chose a bad title, but I really want this thread to be limited to what is different about 2014 or possibly any year to year differences. Just in case it matters, my budget is whatever I feel like is the best deal but I want someone else to take the huge first couple years hit. Being able to buy a 2 year old i3 (2017) for less than half original MSRP makes me not want new. Non-negotiable options are tech package, parking assist package and upgraded HK stereo. When it comes to colors, mega/giga/tera world and tires/wheels, I do have some "all else being equal" preferences but they are largely irrelevant. I suppose location (country) matters, I'm in the US, OR specifically.

 

[jadnashuanh]

I have an early 2014, built in April of that year. The only maintenance issues I had were related to the charging door release. I had all of the service campaigns applied as they came out and the charging door release was sorted under warranty. I don't regret buying the car that early. Keep in mind, that they had been selling it elsewhere for about 8-months prior to delivering the first ones to the US, so they had a chance to see some of the early issues and fix them. THeir test period was pretty extensive, too, so the car was pretty reliable when first delivered. The motor mount issue comes up primarily, if your roads aren't well maintained, or you say drive over a curb while accelerating...that can put a wheel airborne, and with the electric motor, spin it up pretty fast, then it hits the ground...the shock then put a lot of torque on the motor mounts. Roads just are pretty well maintained in Germany, so that weakness didn't show up. FWIW, mine has all of the available options except the Terra interior and the 20" wheels, neither of which were of great interest (the leather is only available in one, to me, kind of funky color, and I prefer a lighter, more inviting interior. 20" wheels are a pain on the car unless you are blessed with really flat, well maintained roads plus, you don't get cold in the winter with snow and or ice. If then, you would want winter tires. I happened to buy them regardless, as I treat that as insurance, but kept my 'warmer' season tires their all-season versus the summer tire compound.

 

[KarlC]

Just within the past few days on FB a Fully loaded 2017 Terra with 20K+ miles on it was for sale for $18K, it sold for ?

Deals like that are hard not to pass up.

.

 

[skeptic]

Getting way off topic, but maybe we've already covered what's different about 2014 and there just isn't much?


Right now I'm holding off on buying anything big like a car until I finish remodeling my kitchen/family room and know how much cash I have left over. However, I'm not sure I could pass up a deal like that. I wonder if it was an early '17 with the 60Ah battery? That would still be a great deal from what I've seen around here.

 

[alohart]

When it comes to colors, mega/giga/tera world and tires/wheels, I do have some "all else being equal" preferences but they are largely irrelevant.

The 2014 Giga and Tera World features were identical with the only differences being the upholstery style and the standard 19" wheels (Giga: Type 429, #3 below; Tera: Type 428, #2 below). However, 2014 Mega World did not include Comfort Access (ability to unlock/lock doors by touching the exterior door handle), universal garage door opener, or some additional interior LED's and exterior door handle LED's, and included wheel type 427 (#1 below).

2014 models included rubber cargo straps on the floor of the cargo area, a wrist pad to the rear of the iDrive controller, and a mesh fabric container on the vertical surface between the front seats. Later i3's did not include these things plus possibly a couple of other minor things that I've forgotten.

Many i3 drivers would not want an i3 without Comfort Access so would avoid Mega World i3's.

 

[skeptic]

I'm not too bothered by the door handle unlock thing, but that is something I didn't know about. I'm not sure I follow though, are you saying 2014 mega doesn't have it or are you saying that no matter the year, mega doesn't have it? Unlike some other options this isn't a deal breaker, but certainly in the nice to have category.

However, what's that about the universal garage door opener? I thought that was part of the tech package. I have a gate + 2 garage doors (actually 4 garage doors, but I can get away with two openers). I don't want 3 separate garage door openers clipped to my sun visor... This IS a deal breaker.

Finally, my preference on wheels is basically any 19". If I end up with 20's it's easy enough to buy a set of 19's. I guess that's another 2014 difference. As I understand it, 2014 had left/right directional wheels for 19" giga/tera world but 2015+ both sides are the same.

 

[rtanov]

I have a 2014 Mega REX with all options and can confirm that the Mega version does not have Comfort access and Home link. I would now appreciate the Comfort access but not at the time I bought, so now live without it. The home link was an easy fix for me as I attached a small remote to the center roof panel. I looked at retrofitting but the rear view mirror that has the home link was around $600 so not worth it.

I've also leased a 2014 BEV for 2 years and between those two only problems I've had were related to the REX gasoline engine - they had to replace under warranty as it kept throwing errors - thy found some problems with the valvetrain.

If I were to buy used now I would try to afford a 94 Ah battery one - my wife's commute is 50 miles and she can barely make it in winter, and has to use the REX occasionally. (Battery is aging good - kappa at 17-17.4 after 5 years.)

You can get all options for all year models from the Bimmerfest forum. E.g. Here is 2014:
https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=781570

For the other years just open the "Ask a Dealer" thread and do a thread search for "complete XXXX ordering guide", where XXXX is the model year you are looking for:
https://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=20

 

[skeptic]

Good info, thanks. I would have been really unhappy had I found and ordered something from Carvana for example assuming it had the universal garage door opener, and when it showed up it didn't. I suppose I could always add a homelink setup later, either replace the rearview mirror or get one of those in-headliner kits, but that's hassle I'd rather not deal with.

Looking through the ordering docs it appears:

2014/2015:
comfort package is standard
Giga/Tera get "comfort access keyless entry" which I'm guessing is the door handle touch thing.
Giga/Tera get universal garage door opener

2016:
comfort package is standard
Giga/Tera get "comfort access keyless entry" which I'm guessing is the door handle touch thing.
Giga/Tera get universal garage door opener

Value package gets you universal garage door opener, upgraded nav (bigger screen????), and couple other things.
Value package plus gets you keyless entry, BMW online/online apps, real time traffic

2017:
keyless entry standard
universal garage door opener standard


In looking through the 2017 it seems to imply that the REX model only came with the 94Ah battery. I thought the 94Ah was an option, or mid year change, not standard with the REX. Can anyone confirm if a 2017 60Ah REX was ever an option?

 

[alohart]

In looking through the 2017 it seems to imply that the REX model only came with the 94Ah battery. I thought the 94Ah was an option, or mid year change, not standard with the REX. Can anyone confirm if a 2017 60Ah REX was ever an option?

For what it's worth, the EPA's Fuel Economy Website lists the only 2017 60 Ah i3 being the BEV model.

 

[skeptic]

Cool, thanks. I will take that as confirmation that every 2017 REX has the 94Ah battery. It kinda makes sense in that the larger battery came with a "larger" fuel tank, so making REX=94Ah means one less difference in ECU coding to worry about.


As much as I keep trying to settle on a 2014-2016 to save $5k-$10k, I keep coming back to 2017 being the easier "get what I want" option.

 

[jojomaby]

In looking through the 2017 it seems to imply that the REX model only came with the 94Ah battery. I thought the 94Ah was an option, or mid year change, not standard with the REX. Can anyone confirm if a 2017 60Ah REX was ever an option?

I just got a used 2017 BEV 94ah, no rex, they do exist. Does not have the comfort door handle entry, base model, cloth interior (perfect, I don't want leather in an EV), no wood dash (meh, would be nice but I don't plan on living in the car and have a nice solid wood kitchen island at home, lol), small infotainment screen (Got a 10.25" HD screen from china that's the same one in the i3 and will swap it out when the warranty runs out next year - it won't have all the extended NAV features but I haven't used NAV at all as this is for commuting and errands). Honestly I thought i had to have all the upgrades, especially the sound system, but the base features are fine and I'm glad I saved 4k not getting these - the car was 28k CAD with 37k km and the first battery only one I had seen so I snapped it up - I did not want the range extender. I've seen 2014 fully loaded battery only here for close to 26k CAD and will take range over features.
The one surprise I had on day one: the car shuts off when you open the driver door without the brake pedal depressed. I thought I bricked the thing when I got back in and it wouldn't move. :lol:

 

[skeptic]

Sorry, I may have worded that confusingly. I know the BEV model in 2017 came as both 60Ah and 94Ah, and thought the REX did as well. It appears that every 2017 REX comes with the 94Ah battery, NOT that every 2017 94Ah is a REX.

 

[sipabit]

No, you shouldn't consider at 2014 unless it's under $10k. Higher priced ones will in fact have better value. You really want to avoid the first year if possible. 2014's only had DC charging as an option. Chances are that anything you're looking at that's 2014 won't have the DC option at all. Unless your intention is to just get it as a toy, I really would recommend 2016 at the very least. REX versions are about $18-22k.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Pick the options you want, including battery size, and don't really worry about the MY. Mine was built in APril 2014 and has every option except leather and the REx. They exist. Most people 'want' a bigger battery, but it may not actually buy you much of anything if you aren't going to use it. Same idea with the REx...lots of people 'want' one, but then may literally never use it except to see if it actually works. IMHO, only relying on the automatic maintenance cycle is not the best choice. Fuel does get stale, but slower with the pressurization than it might otherwise. The bearings and things do work better if they get fresh oil from actually running the thing. 10-minutes every 6-weeks or so, may not be enough for best long-term life...don't really know, though. FWIW, the i3 was sold outside of the US for about 7-8-months before the first ones became available in the US...so, they did get a chance, including the years of prototypes, to try to weed out issues. Considering the clean sheet of paper, there have been surprisingly few issues with the car.

 

[sipabit]

@skeptic. I've done the research. Look no further. 2016 model year was the best value used car in 2018, not just for EV's but cars. With super low mileage and still under warranty, it couldn't be beat. However, as we approached the late 2019 and now 2020 the warranty is all gone for 2016, so the additional value you're getting from warranty pretty much disappeared.

Although the 2014 cars are priced low as are the 2015's, they're not the best value. Value to me means more for the money. The 2014 and 2015 cars are just cheaper b/c you're literally getting less. If you want the best deal now that you missed buying a 2016 in 2018, the next round will be 2017's in mid 2020. You'll have the 94ah range battery and whatever options you want available to you in a fleet of cars as buyers look at competitors and continue to not give a hoot about i3's.

Current pricing? 2016 i3 REX cars well equipped, meaning 2 out of the 3 packages are priced in the $20,000-21,000 range. Those are the best value ones. The better value again will be a couple thousand more for the 2017's available later this year as those leases come to an end. So it's a matter of the timing of your purchase and how much the 94ah battery means to you than the 2016. If you hoping to possibly sell the car later, then go for the 94ah. Right or wrong and regardless of their actual needs, there's still a misconception about needed range and that won't change anytime soon. More people will be looking for the 94ah battery and will be willing to pay for it. The gap between the 60ah and 94ah as far as pricing will increase over time.

If it's the dollar amount spent that matters to you more than the actual value, then yes, there are $14,000 i3's available for you to pick up. I even saw one in 2018 at a San Francisco dealer for $13,998 as a CPO car so they're definitely around. Again, it's cheaper but not the best value.

I can talk your head off about why the prices are low, but we'll stick to the topic. For more info, you can read my other threads about pricing.

 

[sipabit]

A few more details. If you don't care about the wide screen, you'll have a much easier time locating your car. Most won't have the wide screen. If that's a deal breaker, that should be the first thing you look for when you scroll through photos of i3's for sale. I have a thread on how to buy an i3 as far as the short cuts to looking through the listings from dealers who don't know much about the car and misname the packages. That may be helpful to you.

Another thing is that the wheels tend to give you a clue on what's on the inside. You won't see leather on the inside of a car that has the base pizza style wheels. A blue car is either custom wrapped or a 2017 or later. 2014's have color matching side mirrors. Later ones are all black. The driver's package is less common than the parking package. Sound upgrade is even more rare. I'd advise looking for 2 of the 3 packages available and narrowing it down that way.