Welcome to the BMW i3 Forum

[Vinnie50]

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. I have been working on BMW hybrids since the hybrid X6 came out. I will do my best to answer your questions. And hopefully if I run into something I don't know you guys can answer my questions.

 

[busaman]

hi this is my first post im picking up my i3 Rex next week and looking forward to driving it i manly do short journeys with the odd 200 mile trip thrown in im located in Suffolk in the UK.

 

[Jetski]

hi this is my first post im picking up my i3 Rex next week and looking forward to driving it i manly do short journeys with the odd 200 mile trip thrown in im located in Suffolk in the UK.

Welcome to the forum busaman,

I'm curious why you went for the Rex when most of your journeys are short?

 

[E46toi3]

Hey everyone,

Just picked up my i3 Rex yesterday and am pretty hooked. I even went to the grocery store as an excuse to take him out again. One thing I noticed is how cool the car is at night - something none of my test drives prepared me for. And the purple fringe on everything put out by the LED headlights is pretty sexy.

Looking forward to finding more excuses to drive, if even for short distances. Although - I can't feel that guilty about joy riding in it.

2014 i3 Rex
Laurel Grey Giga World
Technology + DAP
Heated seats
DC fast charge
HK

 

[surferdudetoku]

Hello everyone in the forum. I just picked up my i3 rex last week and I am already stoked.

This is my second EV since my another car Nissan Leaf. I still own both EVs so hopefully I will write some comparison and reviews here. I live in Bergen county NJ so if anyone close to me I would like to exchange info and tips! ;-)

I am still trying to get used to the i3 so this is not my final conclusion but so far I still like the Leaf better. Driving is much smoother, easier to get more ranges with heater or other functions turned on, more spaces inside, full 4 doors w/ 5 passengers, open rear windows and so on... But of course the i3 looks better, luxury, better features, and the best thing of all, it is BMW! :-D

Toku

 

[jadnashuanh]

The regeneration on the i3 is more aggressive. Learning how to feather the pedal to coast takes a little practice, but once you can do that reliably, it will be as smooth or smoother than your Leaf.

 

[bobrk]

Hi, just got a new Arravani Grey Giga World with DC charge option on 12/31/14. My local dealer was moving them fast and I jumped on it. Looking forward to chatting with y'all about them.

 

[paule23]

hi this is my first post im picking up my i3 Rex next week and looking forward to driving it i manly do short journeys with the odd 200 mile trip thrown in im located in Suffolk in the UK.

Welcome to the forum busaman,

I'm curious why you went for the Rex when most of your journeys are short?

Surely this is self explanatory "with be odd 200 mile trip thrown in". OK, you could buy the BEV and rent a car for the infrequent long trips, but who needs this hassle when a Rex covers it?

 

[user 1536]

Hi everyone,

Short time viewer (few months now), first time poster.

Started out on the Volt forums when I was first looking at EV's. Then Nissan had some incredible lease deals, so I joined the Leaf forums & eventually got a Leaf. Lease is about up, and I have an extended test drive with an i3 rex scheduled for this weekend. Very excited to give it a try. I've seen some ridiculous OC-flex lease offers for the BEV. I'm hoping those will still be available in a few months when I'm ready. No CCS units up here yet, so my test drive is going to be interrupted by multi-hour stops at area Blink/Chargepoint locations (so I'll be doing my part to fund the infrastructure).

I'd appreciate any pointers on things you think I should look for on the test drive. Maybe things that nag you now. Or a pointer to what you think is a great thread that collects all of these minor nits (or the major ones).

Thanks!

 

[mjk]

If you're test driving a REx, why are you planning on multi-hour stops to charge? How far are you planning to travel? On a full charge and with a full tank you should be able to go 120 miles or more easily...and then you can simply fill up with more gas and continue your journey.

I did the 3-day REx test before deciding to buy and fell in love with it. My acid test was taking the car 35 miles over the Santa Cruz mountains from Silicon Valley and back. The car performed super well, and the REx kicked in only for about the last 3 miles of the end of my round trip.

 

[user 1536]

My 3 day test drive has turned into 36hrs for some reason. I want to use the REx, but I'd prefer to do the bulk of travel in EV mode only. I really want to check the range.

 

[kabukiyu]

hello new here just got my i3 bev. hi everyone!

 

[czarmar]

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm very curious about the i3 after a test drive. Looks like heavy discounts are available right now, coupled with tax credits, make it perhaps the most affordable BMW along with the revolutionary technology the i3 offers. I'm interested in a BEV as we are a two car family, and can take the ICE for road trips. No need to haul around an extra 300 lbs for most of the driving I'd do.

I'm looking for a great deal - it looks like 10K off list price is doable, and ideally I'd find myself in a Tera BEV with both packages & heated seats. On my test drive, I got about 4.4 m/kWh in cold weather over 40 miles, which equates to about 80 miles of range.
I have lots of questions that I didn't get answered. I should have spent more time in the back seat - I want to know how the room is back there for little kids. I wish it came with 3 seats in back.

 

[Halsonli]

Welcome new members!

Please feel free to post any i3 questions you have here and I will do my best to answer them.

Hi Tom,
I have recently received my new bmw i3 in metallic orange. However, I accidentally reversed against the side wall of an underground car park and broke my left wing mirror. Initially I thought this would be an inexpensive fix, but after talking to the bmw office in battersea, they have given me a quote of £2100 just for repairing the wing mirror! About £350 for the parts and the rest for the labour cost! Is this normal? I am really surprised that the repair cost for some plastic resemblance and the install of the mirror could cost this much...
Really worried about my insurance going to shoot up next year...

 

[psquare]

Hi Tom,
I have recently received my new bmw i3 in metallic orange. However, I accidentally reversed against the side wall of an underground car park and broke my left wing mirror. Initially I thought this would be an inexpensive fix, but after talking to the bmw office in battersea, they have given me a quote of £2100 just for repairing the wing mirror! About £350 for the parts and the rest for the labour cost! Is this normal? I am really surprised that the repair cost for some plastic resemblance and the install of the mirror could cost this much...
Really worried about my insurance going to shoot up next year...

That sounds unusually high, but I don't know all the ins and outs of your damage. Why not get another quote from a different dealer? Surely in London there are several BMWi dealerships. As I understand, more dealers can perform repairs than there are BMWi dealers anyway.

If the overall damage is really that high then I'd use the insurance for it, but only you can decide that

 

[mark1]

I've had a similar experience recently. My driver side mirror was broken in an incident where the other driver failed to stop. I reported it to the police who are interested in speaking to the other driver in case they were uninsured and the local authority are checking CCTV (if it's you and you're reading, thanks).

Anyway, I initially didn't want to claim insurance for all the same reasons and got some prices from my local (non i) dealer as follows (all include vat but not labour):

Outer shell £48
Paint on above £72
Bottom bit with LED indicator repeater £52
Motor £172
Glass £322 :shock: :x
Whole assembly minus glass £700ish

I decided to go down the insurance route.

Problems I've had so far:
Non i dealer can't do it, as every i3 or i8 worked on has to have a PUMA case opened with BMW. Same with other new flagship cars, it enables BMW AG to collate all issues quickly and act accordingly rather than wait a year or two for warranty stats to shake out.

I didn't want a 140 mile round trip to i dealer to change a mirror so local BMW bodyshop had to seek permission from area manager to deal with car, no problem as it's not HV related, but PUMA case still opened and car still has to be isolated, and it still took a couple of days to get this done.

Extra expense incurred - bodyshop is replacing everything to avoid future issues, this involves removal and replacement of door skin, although they've told me this is a simple "pop off" job, with new clips when putting back on.

All in all, it's over a grand and insurance is covering it, but for you £2100 sounds quite high given that my local BMW bodyshop have indicated it's a "while you wait" job now the paint has been done, only a few hours of labour.

Car going in this week hopefully.

 

[bbmertz]

I'm picking up my new i3 REx on Saturday and wanted to thank other forum members for all the great information. After reading so many useful posts, I feel like I know more about this car than the dealer! We're becoming a very EV-friendly household, since we also own a Tesla Model S.

 

[bimmerc]

Had my REx for a week now and loving it.
It's my second BMW and my first EV.
Leased it for 30 months.
Just washed and waxed her this past weekend. She's got a lot of surface area to wax! Whew!

Thanks for all the great info on this site. You guys really helped a lot!

Chris

2014 REx
Capparis White
Giga
Pkg & Tech Packages
DC Fast Charger
HK Sound

 

[bocciaantonio]

Hi to everybody, i'm Antonio from italy.i had bought an bmw i3 a month ago.
I'm ve ry satifacted, the car is fantastic

 

[drb]

That's great news Antonio. Where do you live in Italy? Is your i3 a BEV or a REx? Continue to enjoy. Bona fortuna in all your driving experiences with the i3.