2014 BMW i3 consumer reviews

2014 BMW i3 Rex.. I have driven it 3800 miles since Nov 2014. A typically only electric range is around 75 miles on ECO Pro.. I live in Princeton NJ and drive to the NYC pretty often. Its easy to find charging stations in NYC but if ur not able to charge it the gen kicks in and I have never experienced any loss of power as a result. NJ charging station networks sucks and makes life not fun for a EV's. The drive is surprisingly BMW once u get past the quietness. I personally love the 1 pedal drive. It does take a lil time to get use to. I got mine with all the opts in a Tera world Orange/Black combo. Loads of looks and questions. Important advice. This is an EV and remember that. I leased mine cuz I don't want to own something that is still a work in progress. I looked at the tesla and leaf. I prefer this one mainly cuz with the rex u can go anywhere plus I prefer the drive. My other cars 2011 BMW M3 DCT and my wife drives 2013 Audi S5. I stillhave not installed a level 2 charger at home. It takes time to charge but I can live with it for now. There are huge gov credits on EV's so if ur planing on buying/leasing do look into it. Overall I am satisfied with the car and would recommend it over Tesla and Leaf. Leaf is very boring and a BAD drive. Tesla is great but its a small company so the availability of parts is BAD.

Whizzing around silently with two dashboard pods without burning any gas is right out of science fiction. Yet, I drive the i3 today and it is a blast. It's quick, nimble and delivers a firm controlled ride. Great visibility and a fairly spacious interior for a tiny car. I'm 6 feet 220lbs and I have plenty of room up front. The electric range is about 80 miles but is highly dependent on how you drive. I've mastered a light foot on the accelerator and have kept energy as close to neutral as possible, using the dash gauge for feedback. The range extender is fairly quiet. You don't hear it with the stereo on and when off, it sounds like a quiet gas generator. The extender eliminates any range anxiety and propels the car with its electricity very well. I did put it to the test on a mile and a half steep freeway grade and was able to force the car to a max speed of 50 mph when the electrical demand exceeded the 2 cylinder generators output. Once crested, the performance was back to normal. The i3 excels in freeway traffic and in urban areas, with the regressive braking eliminating the need to use the brake. Range seems to be better in these conditions as well. The freeway ride is a bit stiff but controlled and the steering sensitive. Power consumption is greater at freeway speed, but I still get close to 80 miles on a charge. Have had the i3 2 months now and have used less than 2 gallons of gas. Its a great second car and really fun to drive.

I've owned a pure battery I3 for 3 months now. I didn't go for the range extended model since I'm good with the range. I've found that the lowest range I'll get is around 70 miles on a charge. It can be worse if your running max AC all the time, it would probably cut you down to 50-60 miles on a charge. Driving with good anticipation and using the eco drive easily gives you 80 miles plus. So what do I love and hate about this car. After you own it for a while, you'll find plenty of both. I'll point out some of the things I dislike first. Keep in mind I bought basically a base model and wish I would have spent a bit more to get the driver assist.. check into that if your serious. My dislikes. 1)No AM Radio. I guess its too old school for the latest greatest, but a lot of sports are broadcast on AM. If you end up with satellite radio and subscribe that's a non issue, but its also an upgrade in the car to get satalite and comes "prewired" I thought all new cars came wiith it standard... BMW got that one wrong. 2)Some of the default settings in the car are really annoying. When you start the car the Climate control will always be on low and the entertainment will be at no volume. Its seems like it should just remember where it was when you turned it off. 3) When you stop and park your driver door automatically unlocks but not the passenger side. When I drop my son off at school, He sits passenger side back seat and I always have to pull out the FOB and unlock the car just after I stopped to get him out. 4)The way it displays info, so much of it takes up the car charge status and there is one space that scrolls thru a bunch of things like time, odometer, and temperature yet the trip meter has a static place. They could have done a better job on what is shown or allow some customization. What DO I LOVE about the car. 1) The acceleration! Its twice as good as any other electric excluding the Tesla which is twice the price. The money spent above and beyond the leaf or other electrics are well spent just for the performance. The 0-30 MPH is simply amazing. It feels like driving a roller coaster. 2) There are a lot of up front costs but some huge back end savings for me. Check out your electic provider, I have SCE and they have a special rates for EV owners. We did the best one which gives us a .$09 per KW/hr You have to play for a second electrical panel to be installed and have a dedicated 220v circuit run to your charger. We just bought and financed the BMW charger. Total cost for everything is like 4k (I actually upgraded my homes panel and used the old one for the charger which was more expensive, you could get it done for cheaper I'm sure.) So why bother with all of this.... $.09 per kw/hr translates into this. Roughly 4.5miles per kw/hr do the math and to drive 100 miles cost about 2 bucks. The price of 1 gallon of gas gets me about 200 miles. So the up front cost of 3-4k can get you this amazing electrical rate and ridiculously cheap MPGe. Again check with your local utilities to see whats available. For us the first 2 months were very expensive for electrical usage because we didn't add a second panel to get the special rate, paying Tier 4 usage rates. 5) The looks are really polarizing and its something I love. I no some ppl hate it but that's ok, not everyone will buy one. The car gets a lot of looks. 6) There is almost no maintenance. To sum things up, While there are some annoying things about the car, its still an awesome car. I wholeheartedly recommend it with the few caveats. You probably have to be a homeowner and ready to modify your home to some extent. This car is really fun to drive. My prior car was a VW GTI and this one has better performance.

When I saw the first pictures of the i3 floating around the internet I just knew it was going to be awesome! I have owned 2- 3 series and an X5. I loved my X5 and swore that I would never have any other car, but apparently the oil companies found a way to make my beautiful X5 lose some of it's luster. As gas prices continued to creep up I considered a Nissan Leaf, yes, I said it but it was for less than an hour and I quickly came to my senses. I left the nissan dealership a little confused and disheartened because while I loved the idea of never pumping gas again, I just could not bring myself to pay almost $40k for a leaf. I work with numbers for a living and it just didn't add up for me. Don't get me wrong, it is a very nice but the price is inflated for the tax credit and I would have to pay for my own maintenance. My despair quickly turned to excitement when I saw an article about the i3, really, could it really be possible? I waited patiently and the first day one hit the Atlanta market I was there to test drive it. That was that, people if you are on the fence, DRIVE IT! This baby is all BMW, fun to drive and loaded with sass. Like I said, I never thought anything would top my X5, but it looks like I greatly underestimate BMW because this little baby just cruised right passed it, guess it was stopping for gas. LOVE IT!