Expected discount on new i3 in UK?

[craig1410]

Hi,

I've just had an i3 on 48 hour test drive and it's looking like we may be about to buy a new i3 94Ah with around £4k worth of options. Since we are in the UK we will get the £4500 UK plug-in grant and BMW Finance are offering a £3200 contribution towards deposit which was offered out of the blue with no negotiation from us. We have no trade-in so this is a straight sale. We are also a first time customer at this dealer.

I'm wondering what else I might expect in terms of discount when I go in to negotiate a purchase?

I know the car is in quite high demand and we've been told already that delivery won't be until around the end of the year if ordered now. Normally when I buy a car I go through the whole dance of demanding the unreasonable and then walking away a couple of times and the having the salesman escalate to his manager etc etc. Then eventually we come to a deal. However, this time it feels a bit different and I'm not sure if there is any expectation of a discount or whether the UK grant plus finance contribution is basically it.

Advice very welcome.
Thanks,
Craig.

 

[MikeS]

For the original i3 there did not seem to be any discount available. I think this was because in UK the car is sold by BMW direct to you and not by the dealer who really only act as a delivery point. This meant that none of the other sources such as on line discounters were available.

 

[Buzby]

I wasn't offered any extended test drive, but the two discounts offered were the expected £4.5k Govt rebate, and unexpected 'Dealer Contribution' which I see is now £500 less than previously offered and reported here. Better than nothing I suppose, but these discounts appear centralised - what have the dealers 'thrown in' to clinch a sale....? charging cable? Free servicing?

What should I aim for?

 

[craig1410]

I got a free charging cable worth £165 on top of the normal mains charging cable. I paid £375 for a 5 year service plan which I strongly believe will be cheaper than paying for the individual services during those 5 years.

Generally I didn't get the impression that there was any other discounts available due to the supply/demand situation for these cars. If you don't want to buy it then basically there is someone else standing behind you who does...

Hope this helps,
Craig.

 

[Buzby]

Having just bought an i3 BEV, the only discount available - apart from the usual £4,500 grant, was a dealer contribution of £2,700. All other list prices held. The Service Plan wasn't cost effective for a non-Rex and low-ish mileage.

I'm glad I kept my wits about me on the order form - the salesman had snuck in the following:

Service Plan,
Fabric/Lether protection
Exterior paint protection

Which all in was another £1k - each had to be manually removed and the bill recalculated!

 

[craig1410]

Hi, congrats on your i3 BEV order, ours is due to be delivered next week so we're quite excited.

I'm surprised to hear that you think the service plan isn't cost effective for the BEV because I did a bit of research before buying mine and from what I've learned, I'll be very surprised if doesn't save me quite a bit of money during the first 5 years of ownership. I realise you don't get as much value as you do in a Rex but I still think it will be good value.

Just to be clear, the plan I bought is £375 inc vat for 5 years of servicing. Even on the BEV that will include two brake fluid changes, pollen filters, general maintenance and inspection and any software updates which are available over that period. One i3 owner who did a youtube review said he paid more then £375 just for a single service. Anyway, you might want to do a bit of research between now and picking your car in case it changes your mind.

As for the interior and exterior protection, I initially rejected this as well although in my case it was only £249. I basically used this as a last minute bargaining point and tried to get it thrown in for free. However, the best offer I got was for the dealer to use left over product from other vehicles to apply the scotch guard to the interior but without what they called the 'upkeep kit' which is a retail pack designed to allow you to regularly reapply the product both to the interior and exterior after purchase. I initially went with this but decide in the end to just pay for the protection package and get it done 'officially' so that there is no doubt as to whether it was done right or not. Don't get me wrong, I realise I can almost certainly buy the same generic products elsewhere at a lower price but at least the car will arrive with the process having been carried out once and should be looking great inside and out.

Edit: I see the new service prices came into effect on January 1st and they are indeed now just 3 years for £239. I'm still not sure you'll do any better than that on a pay as you go basis. I hope my dealer doesn't try and pull a fast one by trying to give me a 3 year service plan instead of the 5 year plan I paid for! Fortunately I kept a copy of the BMW webpage before it changed.

Cheers,
Craig.

 

[Buzby]

Thanks for your input - I did consider it, but not bundled in with the purchase price. When it dropped, I looked at it again, but my use as a city car means lots of short journeys and as the system is dynamic, In the 3 years I plan to keep the car, I'll only receive 1 service, so not a slam dunk bargain. I should be ready for my Tesla 3 then, but we'll see!

What I disliked about the 'extras' is that they were loaded on without comment or input from me, each at around £239. Not enough to ring alarm bells on their own but as I had my own spreadsheet, it was spotted easily. The fabric protection I can buy on eBay for £29.00. Sure, I need to apply it myself, but at a £200 saving it is a no brainier. As for the externals, I've been using 'Mer' for 25 years, and anjoy the therapy of applying it. Considering there's much more glass on the i3 than any other BMW, the fact the cost is the same irrespective of the model, it stands out as a swizz.

Who doesn't like polishing their new car? It's my way of a social introduction to it - and therapeutic!

 

[craig1410]

Yeah, I understand your thought process and can't argue with it really.

We're expecting to do 12k miles a year and quite honestly we'll do every one of those as it's just so much fun to drive. The i3 is actually for my wife and I have a 535d as our long distance car but the plan is for us both to use the i3 right up to the 12k miles point and then soak up any extra miles in the 5 series. So the 5 year, 60000 mile service plan should work out well for us I think.

I hear you on the therapeutic effects of polishing your new car and I expect I'll be doing the same! You can see a pic of my 535 in my blog here after just such a polishing session. http://www.meerkats.uk.com/log-book/2013/10/18/bmw-535d-replaces-toyota-aygo

With a bit of luck, this time next week we'll have our i3 and will probably be driving around for no good reason other than enjoyment!