New member - current EV driver looking for i3 for teen driver/project car

[turns2stone]

And another2021 i3S BEV is in my basement heated garage here in Maine. I started my search about this time last year. I bought mine at the end of July and I was searching via the various online systems several times a week. |
Mine is equipped the same as art’s except I thav the rather strange sun roof on mine which I do enjoy. I love the wool fabric of the seats with the leather patches in the high wear areas that you slide in and out on.
I did not find one in a bright (gold, red, or grey)as I did not want the white color.Art beat me to the ‘BUY’ button on his gold i3 but my i3S in ‘fluid black looks very nice when clean. it is tough on our heavily salted roads avoiding a two tone black over grey look for much of the week after car wash day. Today was -3f with winds gusting to over 45 mph…i will use the drive-through touch less please but at $17 a trip my Ghillie is treated to just one a week in the winter.

Mine arrived the first week of August after it was shipped by the broker in Washington DC. It came off a 3 year lease the first of June and with just over 13,000 miles it looked and even smelt new. My factory 4 year warranty expires at the end of April for some odd reason but the only squawk I have had was the windshield washer fluid was not of the needed specification for our winters as an outpost of “The Great White North” my first application in -17f froze in a rather fascinating pattern the instant it hit the glass.
I missed that it was not up what we need here when I was preforming my pre winter check as it was the same blue color as what I use here. I think it had been to much diluted with just water before I bought it.

Every time I drive it I love it more and more. The i3 is very rare here in Maine and I get even BWW SUV drivers asking me it is ‘a new BMW model
Go with a BEV and it will be a perfect fit for your teenager.

Listen to Art, he one of our i3 gurus that I go to for expert help he has had his i3 cars since the first year of us availability.

i3 is rare here in Texas, too! Looking forward to people's reactions, as well. Art = @alohart I presume?

The heat pump uses half the power, 2.5 kW, of the electric auxiliary flow heater (5.0 kW at its highest heat level). The heat pump heat exchanger and electric auxiliary flow heater are plumbed in series to heat the cabin coolant. What we don't know is how much each heater contributes in various situations. Especially with the 81 mile E.P.A. range of early i3's, minimizing the effect of cabin heating on this low range must have been a top priority for BMW, so the heat pump must reduce the range loss noticeably in cold weather compared with the auxiliary flow heater-only REx model. I doubt that BMW USA would have included the heat pump on all early BEV's otherwise. It became an extra-cost option in later larger battery pack i3's.

The wider screen isn't included with the Harman Kardon entertainment system option which isn't important to me; it's included with the Technology & Driving Assist package which I wouldn't want to be without.

Two 2021 BEV's being sold by BMW dealers in the Boston and Houston areas that I considered had moonroofs which I was initially willing to consider. The only 2021 i3 BEV's I inspected personally had the moonroof option, so it must not be that rare. Owners of i3's with moonroofs seem to love them.

After experiencing how much heat the moonroof allowed into the cabin in our tropical climate, I decided that I would not consider an i3 with a moonroof. A couple of reports of rainwater leaks into the cabin due to cracked moonroof rainwater drain pans that could not be replaced without replacing the entire moonroof ($$$) cemented my decision. Attempts were made to seal the cracks with sealant or epoxy cement.

I also learned that the roof included with the moonroof isn't the lightweight CFRP of other i3's but is heavier aluminum which adds weight in addition to the moonroof itself high up on an i3, not an ideal location. However, a significant advantage of the aluminum roof is that it isn't degraded by solar UV radiation like the CFRP roof.

The CFRP tub doesn't extend forward past the firewall so only a severe front-end collision is likely damage it. It's more exposed in the rear, but it's high up above the bumper. The doors don't include any CFRP, and the side sills are pretty low, below most bumpers.

View attachment 2090
As @EvanstonI3 wrote, no damaged CFRP tub has likely been repaired in the U.S. even though BMW designed it to be repairable in some cases. Any used i3's for sale in the U.S. without a salvage title won't have damaged or repaired CFRP tubs, so you may rest easy.

While I'm happy to have the heat pump, it moved down on my list of must-haves, after watching this video:

Similar with the moonroof, more of a 'nice to have'... AFAIK, you can completely close the roof shades which should minimize extra heat getting into the cabin. Worst case scenario, they have some pretty good tint these days that wouldn't be too expensive.

Yes, I'm familiar that Nav Pro and H/K are distinct options. I was lumping them together because they are each popular enough for people to seek out retrofit options, but (based on what I could gather), retrofits aren't financially or functionally feasible. So I really narrowed down my list of car choices to prefer ones with both of those.

Why not buy a cheaper one instead, such as my 2014 Mega World Rex, runs great with under 60k on it for $9500?

No doubt it's fine car and the delta in price is certainly more favorable. Transparently, a REx is a non-starter for me. The vehicle's purpose is to be an around-town car - no road trips. I'd prefer to charge over the weekend where I have $0.05 kWh electricity, running pure EV, vs. every 2-3 days and/or using the REx functionality.

I narrowed my search to 2019+ because no CarPlay is a deal-killer. I realize there are aftermarket solutions, but the hassles of a retrofit kind of scare me

And since this is still technically an introduction thread, I forgot to mention the i3 won't be my first experience with BMW electrification. In early 2013, I ordered/bought an ActiveHybrid3, seen here below when I picked it up via PDC. That was a great car! Only sold it to get an F80 M3.

 

[ronbot]

OK guys, you aren't going to believe this. After posting this thread, I've spent 3+ hours a day after work just searching the entire country for used i3's. I started to really get particular about what features I was looking for, and as a former owner of 4 BMWs, I knew how crazy the packages and options are.

After looking at literally every 2019+ (because hey get the big battery, right?) I came across a super unicorn at Carmax listed as 'coming soon' (was not purchasable). I was refreshing the page several times a day, and unexpectedly it finally gave me an option to reserve just a few minutes ago!

It is fully loaded, literally.

• 2019 i3s
• Melbourne Red
• Tera World
• Dark Truffle full leather
• Navigation Professional/ZTD
• CarPlay
• Heat Pump
• Harmon Kardon
• Sunroof
• No accidents
• 3,900 miles (yes!)
• $23,998

It's getting shipped to my local Carmax.

Pragmatically, this car is way too nice for a new/teen driver haha. Maybe I'll just drive it for a year or so and see if I love it and if not, I think I can resell it without too much effort/loss.

View attachment 2087

With the $4k tax credit?

 

[turns2stone]

With the $4k tax credit?

$23,998 is the selling price, without the tax credit. I don't qualify.

 

[alohart]

Art beat me to the ‘BUY’ button on his gold i3 but my i3S in ‘fluid black looks very nice when clean.

Really?! Did you see our 2021 i3 when it was offered for sale by BMW of San Diego? It seemed like such an ideal situation for me that I didn't press the "BUY" button but immediately called the dealership. I was fortunate to get a salesperson who would work with a remote purchaser (many don't seem to want to bother). She even ran the A/C on max for 8 hours during one of her shifts to discharge the battery pack to below 30% which was a shipper's requirement.

it is tough on our heavily salted roads avoiding a two tone black over grey look for much of the week after car wash day. Today was -3f with winds gusting to over 45 mph…i will use the drive-through touch less please but at $17 a trip my Ghillie is treated to just one a week in the winter.

I don't know whether corrosion from salted roads can be avoided. I was interested in a 2021 i3 being sold by a Boston-area BMW dealer until a Carfax report indicated that brake parts had been replaced due to corrosion. I decided to avoid buying any i3 that had been in an area that salted its roads. Take good care of yours!

 

[turns2stone]

I don't know whether corrosion from salted roads can be avoided. I was interested in a 2021 i3 being sold by a Boston-area BMW dealer until a Carfax report indicated that brake parts had been replaced due to corrosion. I decided to avoid buying any i3 that had been in an area that salted its roads. Take good care of yours!

Don't make me panic about buying a car from a northern-US area

The one I have on the way has lived its whole life in Illinois, but with literally 3,600 miles in 4 years, how much salted roads could it have realistically seen??

 

[Mondomensch]

Don't make me panic about buying a car from a northern-US area

The one I have on the way has lived its whole life in Illinois, but with literally 3,600 miles in 4 years, how much salted roads could it have realistically seen??

Whatever inspection you do on arrival should easily identify any such issues. Don’t forget to check for Chicago style deep dish pizza damage.

 

[turns2stone]

Hopefully I'll get to drive, and inspect the car later this week!

One thing that I really appreciate about the i3 is the interior design. My current cars are as follows:

• 2018 BMW X3 M40i - my spouse currently drives this, I bought/special-ordered new in late 2017
• 2023 Tesla Model 3 Performance
• 2024 Tesla Model S Plaid

I have a feeling the quirky, minimalistic style of the i3 takes the best elements of the G01 X3 with some of the minimalism of the Teslas to combine for a modern yet familiar cabin.

 

[turns2stone]

Can anyone confirm that for a 2019 US model, featuring 6CP includes wireless CarPlay?

My 2018 G01 definitely has wireless CarPlay, but I recall that somewhere between 2018-19, BMW tried to charge an annual service, then went back to a one-time purchase. So it's unclear to me when they enabled the one-time purchase, and if that also includes wireless functionality for the i3.

For reference, I have a family member with a 2017 F32 and his CarPlay is not wireless (and I think is iDrive 5.0?). So this era of BMW's CarPlay support is always a bit confusing for me

Looks like all 2017+ i3 use iDrive 6.0? But I'm still not sure if that means wireless CarPlay ha.