About to pull the trigger...questions for owners before leas
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jasleinstein
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I have a BEV, If I drive it at no faster than 60, with no heat/air with no hills I have gotten over 80 miles on a couple of drives. I find if I add speed as little as 63 or 64, storage power goes down very quickly. I once drove the car over 70 and power seemed to be used up twice as fast and I barely made it home. Also with such a short wheel base, and large tires, the car can quickly oversteer. Also if there are winds the car slows and if they are crosswinds, it can be a little unnerving.
Around town, or to local suburbia its a great little car. We have the HCS-40 Clipper Creek charger so it charges in less than four hours.
Around town, or to local suburbia its a great little car. We have the HCS-40 Clipper Creek charger so it charges in less than four hours.
noakey
Well-known member
WoodlandHills said:
Guess in the UK only use the air con for un-steaming the windows after getting a soaking lol lol more lol
Electron15
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2015
- Messages
- 29
hdbrew said:
The car handles great. Mine has the 20's and it is amazing. Test drive one on the highway, and decide for yourself.
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noakey
Well-known member
hdbrew said:
hi hdbrew...
Another +1 for 20 inch wheels
hdbrew said:
I have 19 tires. Not at all hard to control, but see if you find the wheel too responsive at high speed. You may find the car tends to "track" grooves on the road, but over inflating the tires definitely helped that. And the 20" tires may not do that.
jadnashuanh
Well-known member
One thing to seriously consider if you live where it regularly gets below 40-degrees F and/or snows a lot in the winter time...the 20" tires are SUMMER high performance tires, and regular use where an all-season (the 19" are all-season) or a dedicated winter tire is called for, you probably will not be happy with the 20" wheels and tires. Some will buy them for the looks, but they also come at a price in ride quality as well.
barrychan
Well-known member
First concern on our BEV is range......if you can live with the lowest range which means driving with a/c on or heat on 70 plus miles an hour with hills to climb etc...then the range is not a issue.
Second, if no long trips then the Bev will work.
It really is designed/built to be used as a secondary vehicle (imho)...comfortable for two with lots of cargo space but will carry four with limited cargo space.
I use mine to run around town, grocery, airport/ferry pickup vistors/family, go out to dinner, shopping etc.
Second, if no long trips then the Bev will work.
It really is designed/built to be used as a secondary vehicle (imho)...comfortable for two with lots of cargo space but will carry four with limited cargo space.
I use mine to run around town, grocery, airport/ferry pickup vistors/family, go out to dinner, shopping etc.
JTM
Active member
hdbrew,
I understand some angst around this decision. Big outlay and new concept - we went through the same but after 5000km are feeling very pleased with our purchase. The following is an excerpt from my book "Supercharged Momentum: the century of the electric car" wherein I describe what we like and dislike about our i3BEV. It is available for free from iTunes if anyone is interest. https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/supercharged-momentum/id814894431?mt=11
So what would I/we like to see improved?. I can only think of six relatively minor matters;
1. Road noise. Without a noisy ICE and exhaust system to mask road noise these factors become more apparent. Talking with owners of other electric cars many make the same comment - road noise, particularly on rough surfaces, is suddenly more noticable which brings a desire to be able to dampen it. The ride overall is significantly quieter than with an ICE, but this fact unmasks the road noise that is just as present but overpowered by other sounds in a conventional car. Beyond different tyre design I don’t really know if this is easily rectified.
2. Internet connectivity. The internet connection in the i3 is so slow and unstable (at least in Brisbane, Australia) that it is almost useless and a matter of disappointment. Whether it’s the outdated 3G connection, the internet provider selected by BMW, or the browser itself, the experience is totally unacceptable. My smart phone is far superior and I can’t believe that a company like BMW would allow such an abysmal internet connection to be incorporated. Better to not build the expectation in the first place.
3. Seat memory. I understand how such a function brings more weight to the car but with my wife’s driving position being very different to mine, the repetitive adjustment of the seat is annoying. We anticipated this as it was a factor in our last car as well, nonetheless it would be nice if this was not the case.
4. Pedestrian warning sound. This comes on with each startup and has to be manually turned off via an inconvenient pathway through the settings menu. I would prefer to have an option to set the default for this, or have a simple one touch button to turn it off as is found in the Nissan Leaf.
5. The light in the luggage area needs a deflector as its glare means it is quite self defeating in its purpose.
6. Better lateral bolstering of the upright part of the front seats. With the excellent higher driving position, the lateral inertia while cornering is magnified, hence more support would be appreciated. The seats, including the back seats, are otherwise very comfortable.
Beyond those few issues, none of which are major, I can’t fault the BMW i3.
When it comes to the important aspects of a car, and an electric car at that, there is only praise from our point of view. The drivability, the practicality, the ease of use, the ease of charging, the cheap maintenance and fuel cost, the performance ....ah, yes the performance, the brilliant design and more, all add up to a landmark car and a far superior experience to any conventional car we have owned. We are enjoying the driving of the i3 more and more as time goes on, as opposed to becoming accustomed to it as would be expected: smooth and so absolutely effortless. We are also enjoying the discussions with others that the car prompts, and the process of opening minds that have, up until this point, been ignorant of electric cars. “What! No petrol?......None at all?” is a common incredulity. It is absolutely amazing how many people cannot get their head around that fact - you can have a car and not have to purchase any petrol. There is almost no discourse on these matters here in Australia, yet so many people could be saving themselves thousands of dollars a year if they were to have at least one all-electric car in the household.
On a scale of satisfaction I would rate the BMW i3 as 9.5/10 so far. The instant and smooth but strong acceleration in particular never ceases to impress. It is genius in so many ways. In the words of the TopGear team who reviewed the i3 “Overall, the i3 makes conventional cars suddenly feel like dinosaurs”[256] and indeed it does. There is no going back for us.
I know I have not answered your specific questions but I hope this may be of assistance.
JTM
I understand some angst around this decision. Big outlay and new concept - we went through the same but after 5000km are feeling very pleased with our purchase. The following is an excerpt from my book "Supercharged Momentum: the century of the electric car" wherein I describe what we like and dislike about our i3BEV. It is available for free from iTunes if anyone is interest. https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/supercharged-momentum/id814894431?mt=11
So what would I/we like to see improved?. I can only think of six relatively minor matters;
1. Road noise. Without a noisy ICE and exhaust system to mask road noise these factors become more apparent. Talking with owners of other electric cars many make the same comment - road noise, particularly on rough surfaces, is suddenly more noticable which brings a desire to be able to dampen it. The ride overall is significantly quieter than with an ICE, but this fact unmasks the road noise that is just as present but overpowered by other sounds in a conventional car. Beyond different tyre design I don’t really know if this is easily rectified.
2. Internet connectivity. The internet connection in the i3 is so slow and unstable (at least in Brisbane, Australia) that it is almost useless and a matter of disappointment. Whether it’s the outdated 3G connection, the internet provider selected by BMW, or the browser itself, the experience is totally unacceptable. My smart phone is far superior and I can’t believe that a company like BMW would allow such an abysmal internet connection to be incorporated. Better to not build the expectation in the first place.
3. Seat memory. I understand how such a function brings more weight to the car but with my wife’s driving position being very different to mine, the repetitive adjustment of the seat is annoying. We anticipated this as it was a factor in our last car as well, nonetheless it would be nice if this was not the case.
4. Pedestrian warning sound. This comes on with each startup and has to be manually turned off via an inconvenient pathway through the settings menu. I would prefer to have an option to set the default for this, or have a simple one touch button to turn it off as is found in the Nissan Leaf.
5. The light in the luggage area needs a deflector as its glare means it is quite self defeating in its purpose.
6. Better lateral bolstering of the upright part of the front seats. With the excellent higher driving position, the lateral inertia while cornering is magnified, hence more support would be appreciated. The seats, including the back seats, are otherwise very comfortable.
Beyond those few issues, none of which are major, I can’t fault the BMW i3.
When it comes to the important aspects of a car, and an electric car at that, there is only praise from our point of view. The drivability, the practicality, the ease of use, the ease of charging, the cheap maintenance and fuel cost, the performance ....ah, yes the performance, the brilliant design and more, all add up to a landmark car and a far superior experience to any conventional car we have owned. We are enjoying the driving of the i3 more and more as time goes on, as opposed to becoming accustomed to it as would be expected: smooth and so absolutely effortless. We are also enjoying the discussions with others that the car prompts, and the process of opening minds that have, up until this point, been ignorant of electric cars. “What! No petrol?......None at all?” is a common incredulity. It is absolutely amazing how many people cannot get their head around that fact - you can have a car and not have to purchase any petrol. There is almost no discourse on these matters here in Australia, yet so many people could be saving themselves thousands of dollars a year if they were to have at least one all-electric car in the household.
On a scale of satisfaction I would rate the BMW i3 as 9.5/10 so far. The instant and smooth but strong acceleration in particular never ceases to impress. It is genius in so many ways. In the words of the TopGear team who reviewed the i3 “Overall, the i3 makes conventional cars suddenly feel like dinosaurs”[256] and indeed it does. There is no going back for us.
I know I have not answered your specific questions but I hope this may be of assistance.
JTM
JTM, the pedestrian warning squawks at startup, or do you drive amount a lot of pedestrians?
Strangely, I've never heard it on mine. As far as I can tell, it's on. Will have to run down a pedestrian and ask them if they heard it
Can't you disable it via the hazard button in the centre of the dash with the green lit ring around it?
Also, never regularly used the internets on the car. I know it's there, but I find the phone much easier to use than the interface on the i3.
Strangely, I've never heard it on mine. As far as I can tell, it's on. Will have to run down a pedestrian and ask them if they heard it
Can't you disable it via the hazard button in the centre of the dash with the green lit ring around it?
Also, never regularly used the internets on the car. I know it's there, but I find the phone much easier to use than the interface on the i3.
JTM
Active member
Gidday 133t,
Always good to talk with another Australian EV owner. Trust you are enjoying your i3 as much as we are ours.
I often drive with windows down and so can hear the pedestrian warning at low speed, hence I will frequently turn it off - probably not a good habit to get into. I did find a short cut to turning it off however.
1. Press the voice control button and simply state "Pedestrian Warning". This brings up the pedestrian warning control panel on the central screen.
2. From there it is simply a click on the idrive to turn it off.
This is much better than having to scroll through the settings menus to find it but I only discovered this a week ago.
Like you I had not realised the Ped Warning sound was active as it sounds like an integral part of the cars active electronics but once you turn it off you realise what it was. If you want to hear what the Pedestrian Warning sounds like (maybe I should say doesn't sound like) - Keep the car stationary, keep the drivers window down, turn the car on and then turn off the pedestrian warning via the settings menu or via the voice control pathway I have just described.
I guess I don't like it because I think it is a largely needless sound and detracts from the overall silence of the vehicle.
I am still discovering new things about this car such as using Siri to read out text messages via the voice control button.
JTM
Always good to talk with another Australian EV owner. Trust you are enjoying your i3 as much as we are ours.
I often drive with windows down and so can hear the pedestrian warning at low speed, hence I will frequently turn it off - probably not a good habit to get into. I did find a short cut to turning it off however.
1. Press the voice control button and simply state "Pedestrian Warning". This brings up the pedestrian warning control panel on the central screen.
2. From there it is simply a click on the idrive to turn it off.
This is much better than having to scroll through the settings menus to find it but I only discovered this a week ago.
Like you I had not realised the Ped Warning sound was active as it sounds like an integral part of the cars active electronics but once you turn it off you realise what it was. If you want to hear what the Pedestrian Warning sounds like (maybe I should say doesn't sound like) - Keep the car stationary, keep the drivers window down, turn the car on and then turn off the pedestrian warning via the settings menu or via the voice control pathway I have just described.
I guess I don't like it because I think it is a largely needless sound and detracts from the overall silence of the vehicle.
I am still discovering new things about this car such as using Siri to read out text messages via the voice control button.
JTM
PluviaPlumbum
Well-known member
The pedestrian warning sound option was deleted from UK list before I ordered, but sounds like it was still mandatory for Oz, I think there are new US/EU construction Regulations that will make it mandatory in those markets in the near future but they are still refining what dB output is appropriate for a silent vehicle to alert visually impaired pedestrians etc. I believe one proposal was actually louder than a supercar passing by!
Is the feature not one that could be toggled on/off via the programmable buttons like you can if you have the Rex?
Is the feature not one that could be toggled on/off via the programmable buttons like you can if you have the Rex?
WoodlandHills
Well-known member
Would you be opening yourself up to a lawsuit if you bump a pedestrian in a parking lot and you have shut the warning beep off?
The pedestrian warning sound.
In the UK we have an audible sound at pedestrian crossings. My American colleague asked me what the sound was and I said it was for the blind people. She said that in the States they don't allow blind people to drive.
In the UK we have an audible sound at pedestrian crossings. My American colleague asked me what the sound was and I said it was for the blind people. She said that in the States they don't allow blind people to drive.
PluviaPlumbum
Well-known member
janner said:
They do, but they are Blind to logic and reason - you know whom I'm referring to
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