Another Leaf owner takes a test drive & has questions

[user 1536]

Driving a 2014 Giga with Parking Assistant & Technology + Driving Assistant until tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, short drive, but this is all I could get for some reason.

Streaming audio via Bluetooth - Do I need to leave the media UI open on the console, or is there a way to close this so I can have the full nav screen up?

Does changing tracks via Bluetooth seem slow to anyone else?

Comfort Access is not mentioned on the standard features list or the options page for the 2015 buildout online. Is it no longer offered?

The “shield” button right under the emergency flashers – what’s the scenario where you’d want to turn this sort of thing off regularly? Seems like it would be a driver preference, and turning it off could be buried somewhere in the iDrive. The curiosity here is to see what the scenario is, so I’ll see if it really bugs me leaving it on Plus everyone knows that trouble always happens when the shields are down...

Thanks for your help.

 

[jadnashuanh]

You can either go split screen if you want to see what's going on, or leave that screen...it will continue to play. I think you'll find that the right-hand buttons on the steering wheel can control some things related to whatever audio source you have playing at the moment..

Can't remember if comfort access was part of Giga and Tera baselines...it is an option on the Mega in 2014 if I remember correctly. I'd be really surprised if it wasn't an option at all for 2015.

I enabled all of those functions, and haven't had reason to turn them off. Your driving situation might dictate otherwise, but I've not run into it.

 

[stumbledotcom]

Yes you can turn off the Intelligent Safety systems in the iDrive menu or by pressing/holding the button. Details are in the manual—also in the iDrive.

The manual also states that the system has functional limitations in tight curves, heavy fog, water spray, snow, or if the front camera area of the windshield is dirty or covered. I suppose if you were driving in heavy fog you might want to turn it off rather than be jerked to a stop.

 

[user 1536]

You can either go split screen if you want to see what's going on, or leave that screen...it will continue to play. I think you'll find that the right-hand buttons on the steering wheel can control some things related to whatever audio source you have playing at the moment..

I ask this because when I went to browse the owners manual, the audio shut off (so I thought the menu had to stay on the screen). As soon as I exited the owners manual, the audio resumed.

Can't remember if comfort access was part of Giga and Tera baselines...it is an option on the Mega in 2014 if I remember correctly. I'd be really surprised if it wasn't an option at all for 2015.

I was surprised too, but don't see it mentioned anywhere in the new list of options. They don't have the 2015 brochure available yet.

The manual also states that the system has functional limitations in tight curves, heavy fog, water spray, snow, or if the front camera area of the windshield is dirty or covered. I suppose if you were driving in heavy fog you might want to turn it off rather than be jerked to a stop.

Thanks for the clarification.


Anyone know where the owner's manual is? The links online just point at a bunch of videos, which really just give the high level & not details. I don't want to sit in the car & read it

 

[websterize]

Comfort Access is not mentioned on the standard features list or the options page for the 2015 buildout online. Is it no longer offered?

Oh, you're right. For 2015, Comfort Access might be standard, like the DC fast charge. That'd be great. I do miss the keyless entry in my Mega.

 

[jadnashuanh]

They may not have put the printed owner's manual in the car of a loaner. I find the one built into the car only covers highlights, not as many details. I did find a pdf copy online once, so you might search for that. I think it was for a UK vehicle, but many (not all) things are the same.

Some screens may mute the audio stream, but I'd expect the nav screen to not be one of them.

 

[i3atl]

There's no change for comfort access for 2015. It wasn't an option for Mega in 2014, but was included with Giga/Tera. Same for 2015.

 

[user 1536]

There's no change for comfort access for 2015. It wasn't an option for Mega in 2014, but was included with Giga/Tera. Same for 2015.

Thanks. Dealer confirmed this tonight too.

 

[Gonville]

Anyone know where the owner's manual is? The links online just point at a bunch of videos, which really just give the high level & not details. I don't want to sit in the car & read it

If you have an Apple iPad there is a BMWi Drivers Guide app that has the full owners manual as part of it. Fifth option on the menu.

 

[jadnashuanh]

THere's an electronic version for both iOS and Android in their respective stores (with, a link from the BMWUSA website as well), but you can find a .pdf if you search around. Last one I found was from England, I think.

 

[websterize]

Here's one of the owner's manuals posted on the closed Facebook group. I think it's the U.S. version, 11/14.

https://db.tt/dGVB1So9

I'm baffled why BMWNA doesn't post the PDF on its web site, as it does with other models.

 

[dkpurple]

ITestStuff. What do you think? How does the i3 compare to the Vote? Are you considering flipping the Volt for an i3?

 

[user 1536]

Thanks for the reminder dkpurple. Forgot to post my thoughts.

Will I be replacing my Leaf - Still TBD. The i3 has more to offer in safety/comfort, but that shouldn't be a surprise when comparing a $31k car with a $49k car But range is still a question.

Main factors for me will be the kind of deal I can get, what the software update brings/breaks. I'll have to figure out the exact amount, but if it's not too much more than what I'm paying for the Leaf today, I'll probably go for it.

Likes
iDrive controller/interface – Seemed pretty easy to navigate, especially after I figured out that I could also move it left and right to go back a level in the menus Wasn’t comfortable enough with it to try it while driving. Didn't try voice controls, except once for providing a phone #.

Lighting in/around car - This and all of the other "little things", the attention to detail. And TONS of configuration options if I want to tweak anything.

Interior - Amazing leg room, great visibility.

Issues
iDrive touch controller - Seems ridiculously over-sensitive. It was like playing Robotron or something when trying to move the cursor around. I thought I was going to have a seizure there was so much flashing. Don't really understand the point of the touch interface on the controller vs. the screen. In my experience, it seemed slower to print the letters vs. use the wheel.

Turn Signal - Since the dawn of time, there's been a "click" when you push it far enough. Not here. Is that standard behavior for a BMW?

Regen - Wow. I drove in Eco Pro mode for most of my trip. In my Leaf, I drive mostly in B mode + Eco. The regen here felt like someone was stepping on the brake (and I guess the brake light comes on too, which is a good thing for the sudden near-stops I was making. On a related note, I noticed that the car had no "crawl" when letting off the brake. I recall this being a common complaint in the first gen prius, and I think they had to change this behavior. Didn't matter if it was the most eco-friendly, the car just didn't behave the way most people expected. I would imagine the lack of crawl would be super annoying if you did a lot of stop & go travel.

Charging door placement - Of the dozens of public charging stations I've used/seen, only one has ever been on the street in a parallel parking spot. Many of the chargepoints have short cables, which means I'd be required to back in. And then I'm prevented from opening the trunk, because that's right up against the poles they install to make sure people don't ram the chargers.

Eco Pro + - Seems like an odd choice to include the mode. I’d consider it a safety issue as well, so I didn't even try it.

Engine Noise - I tried a REx just to see what it was like. The cabin was normally pretty quiet. No noise when it transitioned to the REx, but definitely noticeable whine from the tiny gas engine. I specifically turned the radio off so that I could hear the switch (still missed it), so maybe it's not that bad when I'm driving faster or turn the radio up louder (which is how I fixed problems back when I had a beater ).

Complete lack of CCS infrastructure - As posted in another thread, disappointed with what they announced (zero units in my area).

TBD
Range – Looks like it has the same sort of “guess” gauge that the Leaf has. I just started to dip into the second bar, and it’s showing me about 40mi of range left. That seems pretty awful. Browsed through the “disappointed with range” thread and don’t see a common element yet. People just have vastly different experiences. I appreciate that they are more conservative than the Leaf, and that the range doesn't vary wildly with every passing moment. But the conservative approach will make the car a really tough sell. Not enough time in my abbreviated test drive to get a good comparison of kwh/mi with my Leaf. My end result in the car (with a little more highway driving than I normally do) was 3.4 kwh/mi in the i3, compared to 4.0+ in the Leaf.

Back doors – Annoying in my parking situation (wall on the driver’s side), so I couldn't open rear door on that side. And while I like the way a flat floor looks in the back, that is NOT good for groceries. Which means I need to put stuff in the trunk, or get a storage container of some sort for the back seat (which defeats the whole purpose of having the wide open floor).

Window movement on door open/close - I've had to replace a power window motor in a previous car. Seems like with the movement at every door open/close, it will lead to premature failure of this part. But if I'm going to lease, I guess that's not my problem

Charging door weirdness - Probably just something I was doing wrong, but it seemed like there was a particular order in which I needed to do things. Like I had to go outside, leave the doors unlocked, open charging door, then I could lock the doors. Took me a couple of tries to get this right.

Gas tank - Seriously...I have to press a button to "depressurize the airlock" before I can open it? Odd extra step.

Charging problem - I only had 3 charging sessions. But 1 of the 3 failed (pretty sure it was my 2nd, not the first). It charged for maybe a minute and then stopped. I don't just mean the lights went off. I mean the CP showed it wasn't sending power, I got a text saying the same thing. Fortunately I was still there when it happened. I started another session, and that time it worked fine. I've used that same charger for dozens of charges of my Leaf, never had anything similar.

Lane departure warning - Didn't get to try this, because I didn't learn it had the feature until I was done with highway driving. Seems odd that it doesn't work at lower speeds.

API for Connected Drive and/or Windows Phone app - Want access to the remote charging/climate control capabilities. I work @ Microsoft, so having a WP app is important to me.

OC/OC Flex - Confusing program, can't get many details online. Only way to take full advantage of tax credit. The comment that they "may" buy the car back doesn't fill me with warm fuzzy thoughts.

GTFO
SOC meter for battery - (the dealer claims this is the expected behavior, but I'm not sure) Even when the battery is full, depending on the temp, your battery capacity bars may not show that you have a full charge. So a "full" charge showed me not even 3/4 full (temp in the 40's), with a range in the 40's. Both of those things make me think the car is broken. I understand the loss of range, but this reflects a loss of capacity. I would expect this small range value to scare away anyone without prior EV experience.

Steering wheel heat - Seriously, I don't know if I can go without this one So much attention to detail elsewhere, odd that they left this out (and didn't fix their mistake in 2015).

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, on frameless glass doors, it isn't uncommon to move the glass each time the door is opened/closed. Otherwise, the glass/door seal wears more, and it doesn't make a good seal, and it puts more of a shock on the glass as it is bent out to make the seal after bouncing off of the rubber when it would be just left in place - IOW, it takes some stress off of the glass and the mechanism that holds it in the door. Going on 4-years now on my other car, no issues.

While a heated steering wheel would be nice, I've owned lots of cars without it..I manage!

 

[stumbledotcom]

Turn Signal - Since the dawn of time, there's been a "click" when you push it far enough. Not here. Is that standard behavior for a BMW?

Yes. All modern BMW models behave this way. There is a detent or click but the stalk returns to the neutral position. Instead of having to overcome the detent to cancel the signal, just a tap in the opposite direction will do. You also can enable an automatic three blink sequence if you tap but don't hit the detent. A good CA should explain how the system works before you go on a test drive. Mine did.

Regen - Wow. I drove in Eco Pro mode for most of my trip. In my LEAF, I drive mostly in B mode + Eco. The regen here felt like someone was stepping on the brake (and I guess the brake light comes on too, which is a good thing for the sudden near-stops I was making. On a related note, I noticed that the car had no "crawl" when letting off the brake. I recall this being a common complaint in the first gen prius, and I think they had to change this behavior. Didn't matter if it was the most eco-friendly, the car just didn't behave the way most people expected. I would imagine the lack of crawl would be super annoying if you did a lot of stop & go travel.

I'll concede you have to get used to the lack of crawl but once you do it's completely natural and a superior behavior. I don't know, I might have adapted quickly because I learned to drive in a manual. Switching to cars with slush boxes was equally disconcerting. I'm so used to the i3 now that I'm thrown a bit when I get back into my E90. I feel as if I have to use the brakes too much. Most of my driving is the stop and go variety. I'll be very disappointed if this behavior is changed in future models.

Back doors – Annoying in my parking situation (wall on the driver’s side), so I couldn't open rear door on that side.

Purely a personal preference/situation. My underground spot is next to support columns that are spaced so that my E90's front and back doors can't be opened simultaneously. The i3 is no problem. The gap between the columns is exactly the width of the two door openings.

Window movement on door open/close - I've had to replace a power window motor in a previous car. Seems like with the movement at every door open/close, it will lead to premature failure of this part.

As jadnashuanh observed, this is standard-issue BMW. Every recent model with frameless windows works this way. The engineers have a lot more data on warranty repairs so I'm fine trusting them on this one. Also I remember my family had a mid-70s Oldsmobile with frameless windows when I was a kid. The glass didn't move with the door opening/closing so the pane would either adhere to the seals so tightly that the rubberized foam material would stick to the glass and tear after just a year or two. Or the seal wouldn't be tight enough and airflow at freeway speeds would cause the glass to pull outward, creating an gap for wind, rain, etc. to enter the passenger compartment. My father couldn't get rid of that car fast enough and still won't buy any car with frameless glass.

Charging door weirdness - Probably just something I was doing wrong, but it seemed like there was a particular order in which I needed to do things.

More standard BMW functionality. The central locking system locks/unlocks the doors, hatch/trunk, and fuel flap at the same time. The i3's charge door works very much like my E90's fuel filler door.

Lane departure warning - Didn't get to try this, because I didn't learn it had the feature until I was done with highway driving. Seems odd that it doesn't work at lower speeds.

I thought this feature was disabled on US-market vehicles. Again, this is an across the BMW range situation. The consensus on other message boards is that BMW NA won't offer the Driving Assistant features because US product liability lawsuits are so common and expensive.

Even when the battery is full, depending on the temp, your battery capacity bars may not show that you have a full charge.

I've never seen that behavior. Rather, I've found the bar display much more accurate than the range estimate. In my case, the estimated range has fallen slightly with cooler weather but the percentage of battery I'm using each day as stayed about the same. I've decided the computer is programmed to be much too conservative so I've taken to ignoring the guess o'meter on standard commute days.

Again, this isn't a situation unique to the i3. Last weekend we took the E90 for a day trip to wine country. It had been used for short trips only for a couple of weeks so the distance to empty meter showed 202 miles when we set off with about 3/4 of a tank. After driving on the highway for 30 minutes, the estimate had jumped to 297 miles. Then coming home, after hours of driving and using over a quarter of a tank, the range was 320 miles.

Most drivers would not be surprised by that scenario because we have decades of training to expect better fuel economy on the highway. The switch to EVs requires a readjustment regardless of brand/model.

 

[alohart]

Eco Pro + - Seems like an odd choice to include the mode. I’d consider it a safety issue as well, so I didn't even try it.

I've never driven in any other mode, but then in my climate, I don't need cabin heating and rarely need cooling.

Not sure why you consider Eco Pro+ to be unsafe. Maybe you feel that it doesn't offer the acceleration of Comfort mode, but it's really just a different accelerator sensitivity profile with full power still available when depressing the accelerator fully. I'm not certain, but I think that the accelerator sensitivity profile is identical to Eco Pro mode.

 

[jadnashuanh]

You can go as fast as you want, but you have to push the pedal much further (if I remember correctly) in Eco Pro+, and it will take longer to get there.

 

[stumbledotcom]

According to the manual, in EcoPro the speed limit can be set in the range of 50 to 80 mph (80 to 130 km/h) through iDrive. Meaning the i3 will accelerate to the limit but won't exceed it unless the driver presses and holds the accelerator pedal down.

In EcoPro+ the speed limit is preset at 55 mph (90 km/h). As others noted, climate control and seat heating are deactivated.

The car also lights up EcoPro tips a.k.a. warning lights on the instrument panel if you accelerate too quickly or exceed the speed limit in either mode.

Personally I find the Eco modes annoying but not dangerous. As I've stated in other posts (probably too many), my daily commute is about 10 miles roundtrip so I don't have to worry about range. I despise the dulled responses that EcoPro induces. I've used it less than half a dozen times when I've taken the i3 on an extended freeway trip; when the computer is driving under ACC it's less tedious. I've engaged EcoPro+ only once to see the plus symbol light up on the dash.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Eco Pro is good when the roads are icy or snow covered just for the reason that it diminishes the gain; it takes the edge off. But, I'm in a similar situation, I rarely tax the range of my i3, so generally leave it in comfort mode. Eco pro isn't bad if you've preconditioned the car, otherwise, it can be somewhat slow to become comfortable.