Does anyone else feel let down about their BMW i3 BEV

[PluviaPlumbum]

BMW totally mis-represents the car. (BTW my comments are so close to boatguy, I copied much of his text) They played cover up with a serious charging issue No they Identified an issue with early cars, put in a patch fix and had a programme to replace the component when we purchased the car. They only came clean with the issues (failed KLEs) as I have the technical skills to actually test charging Really? yet you did apparently no research into using the i3 for its intended purpose and see the car was not charging as advertised. When calling the 800 service I have seldom received accurate information. The mileage calculation on the car is useless, we only use the four bars as indicators. DUH Yeah
The software in the car is terrible at best. The I-drive is one of the worst user interfaces we have ever used. We stopped buying BMWs(we have had 11) after our X5, and the I-drive was a major reason. Perhaps you failed to notice the i3 had the same system then? Having to understand how to interface with the entertainment and nav system using the dash, I-drive knob and steering wheel is terrible Not very bright are you seeing as you claim to have owned eleven previous BMW's many of which will have had idrive. We purchased the car on a whim Really? I am guessing you have more money than sense then! admittedly, after buying a Tesla.
The lack of DC charging is a huge issue. We recently needed to take the car 85 miles over the mountain passes Knowing what you know why didn't you take your Tesla then? and it took us an entire day to get there. It's maddening to be sitting at a charging station charging for hours and hours while looking at the CHADEMO charger hanging on the other charging station. Its clear BMW has chosen the wrong charging standard with CCS. No you just don't have enough of that charging type in your locality yet ( see lack of research ) When talking to BMW 800 call center reps about the issue, they tell me deploying CCS stations are VERY expensive and complicated. The folks at Charge Now (the chosen BMW charging partner) tell me the same and also tell me they have no plans for CCS charging stations in Washington state. Again I can't tell what information is true.
- The range is really 50 -60 for normal driving in Seattle (i.e., a mix of around town and short freeway); It's probably a good thing you don't stray too far from home, have you tried any of the eco modes to enhance your range? - no wait you probably haven't got past page 1 of the manual yet.

- The owner's manual and other "official" communications are worthless at best and entirely mis-leading at worst. or maybe you are too stupid to understand the manual ?[/b]BMW constantly sends us marketing "gifts" in the mail, which angers us to no end. Save the money on trash and trinkets and just fix the dam car.

- The car has a variety of quality issues, windows opening, That's what the little buttons are for on the door, windshield spray covers falling off, the front items get wet, BMW can't do end user software, there are some many issues with the power and nav system software we ignore all that we can I agree you are Ignorant and just drive the car. We enjoy music in our cars, but only do the basics in the i3 as the system is terrible.

- My dealership,Seattle BMW is clueless then you were made for one another!¬ about the issues of electric on the sales side. On the service side they work very hard to figure things out and most importantly are honest with us. They seem to be careful to not bash BMW on issues we both know are cover ups, but are frank and honest about issues. We knew this was a version 1 car when they sold it and we bought it.

- BMW's insistence on routing everything through the dealer means there is a wide range of customer experiences. , you're essentially on your own, dependent on forums like this for real information.

- The car really is a city car; that was the design brief and they did a ok job on the transportation side. On the use and enjoyment side, it is terrible. But you contradict yourself in the next sentence ! It is good in the city and around town, easy to park, turns in small spaces, but it's awful on the freeway compared to any ICE car in it's price range. Buy it for the city and you'll love it, buy it to drive 40 miles each way on the freeway every day and you'll be rationalizing your EV purchase every day. Not when you could have bought a Rex

We bought the car on a whim and use it mostly in Seattle. Its ok for that. After looking at the use of our friends Leafs that would have been a better cost vs use option. But the looks of the leaf turned us off. If my wife needs to drive 30 miles away to visit our daughter she will drive the other car as she has no trust in the i3. Reading the four power bars is a no good for her.

Our car is a bridge to the smaller Tesla, the Model S is just too large for around town Finally something I can agree, but we are forced to use it as the BMW charge is so poor. Our experience with Tesla, both the car and the company is a polar opposite of BMW. Tesla is open and honest. So you got a confirmed delivery date for a Model 111 yet? I far prefer the Tesla mfg direct distribution model and Tesla is years ahead of BMW in software. If the model 3 Tesla is even close to what rumors claim, I'd order one sight unseen today, if given the chance. I did a bit of research on resale value of the BMW i3 and we are going to loose allot on money, Agreed your Teslas will leak a lot more $'s that your i3 even worse resale than our 7 series and X5 by far. It is truly our last BMW we will ever own.

You have obviously bought the wrong car for your needs, BTW a Leaf would have had all the range anxiety issues that you have outlined above- as they say fools rush in, you can remorse all you like I don't blame the car here I blame the purchaser :roll:

 

[MGS9500]

Do I feel let down... no, no , no , no

Wow, reading these posts all I can think is that no one ever researches the car and feels free to complain about what appears to be known limitations.

From someone who has driven a Leaf for two years, the i3 Rex is a breath of fresh air.

Great acceleration.

Works without a problem

No range anxiety.

Equal or better charge range

And, I love the looks.

So, I understand your issues, but cannot generalize the dissatisfaction noted with the vast improvement over the Leaf.

And, if you want 200 mile range, get the Tesla for $120,000. No two year lease, and a larger care with less utilitarian use.

My opinion.... I am a happy owner.

 

[noakey]

Do I feel let down... no, no , no , no

Wow, reading these posts all I can think is that no one ever researches the car and feels free to complain about what appears to be known limitations.

From someone who has driven a Leaf for two years, the i3 Rex is a breath of fresh air.

Great acceleration.

Works without a problem

No range anxiety.

Equal or better charge range

And, I love the looks.

So, I understand your issues, but cannot generalize the dissatisfaction noted with the vast improvement over the Leaf.

And, if you want 200 mile range, get the Tesla for $120,000. No two year lease, and a larger care with less utilitarian use.

My opinion.... I am a happy owner.

me too.. 17000 miles in year one and loving every minute behind the wheel... would i buy another? Yess..

 

[barrychan]

Our car IS NOT a all purpose vehicle, we all knew about the range on the battery, we should have more than one car or if not for long distance travel....rent a car. Yes the range is horrible on hiway but we should all now that, the range is also horrible if you have a heavy right foot. Other than all that....the car is great....no gas, no maintenance, no emission and it looks different.

The only issue i have was no fast charging station ( one of the feature that got me into buying it)for emergency and i paid for the option for nothing!!

 

[i3Alan]

Other than all that....the car is great....no gas, no maintenance, ...

Maybe yours has no maintenance, but mine is demanding that I take it in for a brake flush in June, 2016. I've heard that this extensive maintenance is REQUIRED EVERY TWO YEARS! Had I known the maintenance needs were so massive and frequent, I would have just kept my '86 Mercedes (the one I dumped in only two years after nearly monthly maintenance for things like replacing the transmission, engine gasket, and so much more!). :lol:

 

[spinball]

The brake fluid maintenance is a standard BMW service item every two years. I doubt this car truly needs it that often, but that's a safe/conservative interval.

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, the brake fluid used on most modern cars is so hygroscopic (water attracting) that it literally will pull moisture through the flexible brake lines and start to drop the boiling point of the fluid. If not replaced on a regular basis, two things can happen...the brake fluid can start to boil under long, hard braking (not as likely with the i3's regen), but, as big or bigger from a maintenance issue is the moisture can build up enough such that the brake fluid can no longer protect the steel bits from corroding. That can lead to really big costs, and parts failures. I think they also replace the cabin air filter during that maintenance. Other than checking the wear parts like brake pads, rotors, shocks, seals, etc., not much else needed anywhere unless you opted for the REx.

 

[PluviaPlumbum]

FWIW, the brake fluid used on most modern cars is so hygroscopic (water attracting) that it literally will pull moisture through the flexible brake lines and start to drop the boiling point of the fluid. If not replaced on a regular basis, two things can happen...the brake fluid can start to boil under long, hard braking (not as likely with the i3's regen), but, as big or bigger from a maintenance issue is the moisture can build up enough such that the brake fluid can no longer protect the steel bits from corroding. That can lead to really big costs, and parts failures. I think they also replace the cabin air filter during that maintenance. Other than checking the wear parts like brake pads, rotors, shocks, seals, etc., not much else needed anywhere unless you opted for the REx.

Correct, I believe that if you regularly skip the brake fluid change one of the components that suffers is the ABS unit which don't come cheap.

 

[psquare]

Why would you want to skip / complain about services if the car only needs a one every 2 years?

My REx only needs 2 services in 5 years. The service package to cover labour and fluids for those two services cost me only £375 ($580) upfront. No idea how much that would be for a BEV, but I guess slightly less. Servicing an i3 is pretty reasonable if you ask me.

By the way, apologies to those who feel offended by a REx owner replying on a BEV thread. Rest assured I shall do it again.

P

 

[noakey]

Our car IS NOT a all purpose vehicle, we all knew about the range on the battery, we should have more than one car or if not for long distance travel....rent a car. Yes the range is horrible on hiway but we should all now that, the range is also horrible if you have a heavy right foot. Other than all that....the car is great....no gas, no maintenance, no emission and it looks different.

The only issue i have was no fast charging station ( one of the feature that got me into buying it)for emergency and i paid for the option for nothing!!

Hey can I have your rapid charge equipment... I opted to leave out rapid charge as there was no rapid charge network at the time of ordering... but now, one year into my 3 year lease, rapid chargers are popping up all over the place... I wish I had. Guess its exactly the opposite issue to you barrychan..

 

[jadnashuanh]

Where you live and the CCS situation will vary radically! But, in the USA, for the 2015 model year, that option is standard on the i3. I opted for it, but so far, none of them are close enough to use. Hopefully, that will change over my time of ownership!

 

[stumbledotcom]

When I took delivery in May 2014, there were zero public CCS stations in the SF bay area. Today, PlugShare shows 44. No regrets about getting the option here. BMW NA made the right call in converting it to a standard feature as far as I'm concerned.

 

[spinball]

Dang, I'm jealous. It'll probably be 2019 before we have similar in my area!

 

[dutyfree]

Beside the range (miles) shown on the dash is a joke, I like my i3 so far.

I've never got over 60 miles range on a full charge since owning this i3, tried ECO PRO, ECO PRO+ but still the same, any idea how to increase the range?

I've another EV (Chevy Spark EV) and easily achieve over 90+ miles on a full charge with A/C and Radio on all the time.

 

[epirali]

Beside the range (miles) shown on the dash is a joke, I like my i3 so far.

I've never got over 60 miles range on a full charge since owning this i3, tried ECO PRO, ECO PRO+ but still the same, any idea how to increase the range?

I've another EV (Chevy Spark EV) and easily achieve over 90+ miles on a full charge with A/C and Radio on all the time.

I can easily get 70-75 mile range on full charge. Depends on so many factors. What miles/KWHr are you getting? What kind of speeds?

As others here pointed out the i3 seems to suffer more in highway speeds than other EVs. My leaf would do better at 65 mph, but below 60 they seem similar.

Do you precondition 3 hours before leaving via scheduled timer?

 

[barrychan]

There are so many factors on how range are all over the place ....hiway driving, heavy right foot, a/c on, drive at night, lots of uphill and bumper to bumper traffic. So far i notice if you use mostly one paddle driving and starts slow from standstill and all city driving you will get 160 km ( that is if charged full at 130 km) as advertised. It's like gasoline car.....no difference except one uses electricity.

 

[alohart]

I've never got over 60 miles range on a full charge since owning this i3, tried ECO PRO, ECO PRO+ but still the same, any idea how to increase the range?

If this is your actual driving range and not the range estimate, verify that your tire inflation pressure is at least that recommended by BMW. I inflate my tires to 43f/51r (the sidewall maximum inflation pressure) to try to minimize the potential of wheel damage in our pothole-infested roads. This should also reduce the tires' rolling resistance somewhat which would increase my range (my lifetime average is 5.6 mi/kWh, or ~105 mi/full charge).

Your i3's wheels could be out of alignment or a brake could be dragging which would increase drag and decrease range. Neither of these is particularly likely, but they could explain poor range if nothing else does.

Of course, spirited driving, which is fun and easy with the i3, or mainly high-speed driving would hurt range.

I almost always drive in Eco Pro+ because we never need heat and rarely need A/C. The highest speed limit here is 60 mph, and I don't usually drive on the highway, so my average speed is quite low which helps my range. I almost always drive with the ACC on and set to 5 mph over the speed limit which results in gentle accelerations (I frequently decelerate manually because ACC seems to brake too aggressively). In our traffic, I don't usually block following cars. Most i3 owners claim to be bored driving in this manner, so it's not for everyone, but it does result in great range.