Rear doors and older children (9 & 11 years old)?

BMW i3 Forum

Help Support BMW i3 Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

fritzner

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
24
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
So I have been obsessed with the i3 for 3 months now. I've test drove twice and read (and youtubed) as much as I can find about it.

I am just about convinced that I will love it and it will suit my needs ... but my biggest concern at the moment is the rear doors.
I'm not worried about the space, the back seat is quite comfortable for me 5'-10" 165#. But I am constantly carting the kids to and from activities.
Honestly I think they are pretty cool, but just worried about in and out access with 2 kids 9 and 11 years old. I have climbed in and out of the back seat dozens of times after my 2 test drives, and I can do it just fine. But that was in a wide open lot.

I can imagine in a tight garage or parking lot, that it can be pretty difficult to get in or out of the back.

Is it something you get used to or is there just no way to really do it?
 
IMHO, if you can get out of the front door, you can get out of the rear. You may need to do it one at a time, closing the door to pass by it, then open it again, but especially for a supple youth, it should not be an issue at all. Now, if you were trying to extract say a baby seat, that might be a bigger issue when there isn't enough clearance. Worst case, one could duck out the rear, but that would be a situation where you really couldn't get out of the door from either the front or rear!
 
My grandkids, ages 10 and 12, do just fine in the back seat. I like the suicide doors because it makes it easy for them to get in and out. They beg to ride in the i3. I used to think they just wanted to be with me, but maybe it's the car :)
 
My 9 year old boy likes the rear doors. It’s a step up from my wife’s previous 2 door MINI.
 
Also my daughter's schoolmates are keen on driving with our BMW i3 partially because of rear door arrangement.

As said by others it can be difficult when multiple persons will need to get in or out and there is another car next to i3. But it's a minor annoyance. More challenging can be the situation when you need to drop of somebody from back seat when there is no passenger next to you and you will need to stretch out to reach passenger door to enable possibility to open rear door.

For baby-seat there are situations where it's more difficult than with normal doors but in quite many cases it's also easier because of more room to maneuver as there is no b-pillar on the way.
 
fritzner said:
So I have been obsessed with the i3 for 3 months now. I've test drove twice and read (and youtubed) as much as I can find about it.

I am just about convinced that I will love it and it will suit my needs ... but my biggest concern at the moment is the rear doors.
I'm not worried about the space, the back seat is quite comfortable for me 5'-10" 165#. But I am constantly carting the kids to and from activities.
Honestly I think they are pretty cool, but just worried about in and out access with 2 kids 9 and 11 years old. I have climbed in and out of the back seat dozens of times after my 2 test drives, and I can do it just fine. But that was in a wide open lot.

I can imagine in a tight garage or parking lot, that it can be pretty difficult to get in or out of the back.

Is it something you get used to or is there just no way to really do it?

I cart a 3 & 6 year old to school in the morning. It can be a pain but for the most part is a non-issue. Getting the kids to stand in the right place is half the battle most of the time. Assuming once they get older it will be a non-issue.

Also I tend not to park by people just by habit. i like walking and so tend to park out a ways which obviously lessens the chance of issues getting in and out.
 
clutchy said:
fritzner said:
So I have been obsessed with the i3 for 3 months now. I've test drove twice and read (and youtubed) as much as I can find about it.

I am just about convinced that I will love it and it will suit my needs ... but my biggest concern at the moment is the rear doors.
I'm not worried about the space, the back seat is quite comfortable for me 5'-10" 165#. But I am constantly carting the kids to and from activities.
Honestly I think they are pretty cool, but just worried about in and out access with 2 kids 9 and 11 years old. I have climbed in and out of the back seat dozens of times after my 2 test drives, and I can do it just fine. But that was in a wide open lot.

I can imagine in a tight garage or parking lot, that it can be pretty difficult to get in or out of the back.

Is it something you get used to or is there just no way to really do it?

I cart a 3 & 6 year old to school in the morning. It can be a pain but for the most part is a non-issue. Getting the kids to stand in the right place is half the battle most of the time. Assuming once they get older it will be a non-issue.

Also I tend not to park by people just by habit. i like walking and so tend to park out a ways which obviously lessens the chance of issues getting in and out.


Good to know that you manage it without too much trouble!!
 
I like the way the driver or front passenger has to get out and open the rear doors as they can check if its safe for the children to get out before you open there doors.
 
Back
Top