Buying new i3 / not available to order

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nathan8

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Messages
7
Hi

I agreed a deal with my local BMW dealership to PX my old car and get a new i3.

They have now said that they cannot place the order as there are not able to order the new car. I have asked for detail and they sent a response from the BMW-i team in the UK that the "production allocated to us for the rest of the year for this model is currently full".

I thought I'd ask the BMW online chat team what the build lead was - they said that it was 12 weeks.

This is for a none REX version.

Anyone else having the same issue? It makes my dealer look bad. I have two contradictory answers. I rang the BMW complaints department, they spent time taking a load of personal information off me then said they could not help.

England
i3 none-S none-REX

Nathan
 
My guess is it's due to the model year change over. Production for the current model year, 2018, is "full", or they are in the middle of changing from 2018's to 2019's and they aren't making the 2018's anymore. Try again in a few weeks or maybe you can find a dealer that has a "leftover" 2018 on his lot.
 
theothertom's reply is likely the answer. Several months ago, BMW announced that it would be increasing the i3 production capacity in August, 2018, so it could be that no i3's are being built during this expansion and that only 2019 models will be built afterward. You might prefer the option of the increased battery capacity, ~44 kWh, available in the 2019 model.
 
Hi

Small update.

I rang another dealer and they said they could get me a car for November.

When I spoke to the guy I placed the order with he confirmed that there is no more availability this year.

And that there is a general rate increase every year for BMW in January and that if my car were delivered after that it would be subject to it. Last year it was around 1k.

Do you think the dealer should cover that?

I’ll have a read on the expected battery increase now. I didn’t not know they were changing it, I’d assumed the run would remain the same till either LCI or a replacement model.

I thought buying a new car would be easier than used! First time for me.

My options were

Bmw i3 bev
Imperial blue
Lodge
428 wheels
Sunroof
Hk stereo

They have a car in loft rather than lodge with 429 wheels and the aux heater option but I’m not sure about loft vs lodge.

Any opinions on that?

Thank you for your help anyway. Bmw should have visible boards for resolving problems. You really don’t know who is telling you the truth when you get two contradictory answers from Bmw dealerships. And of course car sales people have a reputation to begin with.

Nathan
 
I should clarify that the cars They have been offering are not built to a spec for a customer, I think BMW just order random spec cars to keep throughput going, which pop up on their system to sell.

Nathan
 
Depending on the market, at least in the USA, a dealer can order cars for spec. But, an interesting feature is that up until a few days before it is due to be built, they are allowed to alter the specifications should someone decide to order one. This means that if they already have an order in, but it is not sold, it can be customized specifically to your specifications. This could result in it showing up in weeks verses months, depending on the distance and ship schedule. I've heard, though, that say in the UK, cars are generally always made to spec. FWIW, the USA does seem to get a bigger allocation than some other markets.

The whole thing could get messed up royally if a big tariff gets applied.
 
I spoke to a dealer in the end of July (US), and was told if I wanted to special order I had to do it in a day or two before 2018s will be closed.
 
Hi Guys

I've not found anything on the changes between the 2018 and 2019 model.
Can someone link me to the battery etc?

alohart said:
d. You might prefer the option of the increased battery capacity, ~44 kWh, available in the 2019 model.

Presumably its going to be a cost option.
Any details?

A car that is close but no sunroof has popped up, might get that, however when ordering new its nice to spec what you want!

NB
 
nathan8 said:
I've not found anything on the changes between the 2018 and 2019 model.
Can someone link me to the battery etc?
I've not read anything official from BMW which makes sense. However, there have been several articles published by those with sources within BMW such as the BMW Blog.
 
I’ve got the car now. It was because of the factory switching to the 120ah cell that meant I couldn’t order.

I did well not to take the offers the dealer gave 8in the interrim. The discount increased a lot if I took one when the 120 became available.

I’m glad I got the car I wanted!



I intended to attach a photo but can’t see how.

Thanks for the help forum.
 
nathan8 said:
I intended to attach a photo but can’t see how.
You must post the photo to a Website with public access and surround by the "Img" tag the URL of the photo itself (frequently with a "jpg" or jpeg" file extension) rather than the Web page.
 
nathan8 said:
I’ve got the car now. It was because of the factory switching to the 120ah cell that meant I couldn’t order.

I did well not to take the offers the dealer gave 8in the interrim. The discount increased a lot if I took one when the 120 became available.
I’m glad I got the car I wanted!
Thanks for the help forum.
Congratulations!!
 
There's surplus inventory of i3's. I'd really recommend looking at a used one. The new ones are just too overpriced compared to what you could get otherwise. In the States, they're $60-70k USD when optioned. Until EV's become the "norm" which I don't think would ever happen despite how excited the public may be, the used market is your best friend. EV's are very misunderstood by the vast majority of the public and the price reflects that in the used market. The only reason people are excited about the i3 is the used price. When I say "only," I don't mean only. But you know what I mean. The price is what got a majority of us out to get one. It's not a diamond. It's a shiny rock that no one wants. But those who want it, love it.
 
sipabit said:
In the States, they're $60-70k USD when optioned.
I just built on the BMW USA Website the least expensive 2019 i3 BEV with no options and the most expensive 2019 i3S REx with every option available. The MSRP totals were $44.5k and $60.6k including destination charge. Only fools pay MSRP. So your new i3 price warning is quite exaggerated.
 
I can embed a pic somewhere at work and link it I suppose.

On new vs used. This is the first new car I’ve bought, and I’ve given it to my wife. I think it will be a good car for her long term, and with the question mark on older cells and decreasing ranges in wanted to be sure range depletion does not mean we are forced to upgrade.

She has her last car for 8 years and I don’t think we’ll change this one for a long time. It was strange to be in a dealer environment where they were totally expecting pcp or something and set to give gap insurance and all their other mechanisms that presume because I want a new car now I’ll want another one in 2 years.

We have kids and safety of a 12 year old car compared to a new i3 - there is probably an improvement there.

Quite fortunate financially and she likes small cars. There are not many that have the interior quality.

On to the screens. Now I appreciate they will keep getting better but the old square nav screens are absolute cack

Options I wanted sunroof / stereo and interior were hard to find.

I like blue so got the imperial blue - not available on the older cars apart from the mr. Porter.

Anyway you are partly right, financially messing about with new cars is never going to be a wise choice, but when you’ve earned it, you’ve got to spend it on something or there is no point trying. So you make your choice. I got something that will work for my family for a good few years hopefully and we can start enjoying its refinements right now. The kids can put stickers on their doors etc and no problem

I say we and I mean my wife. I’ve been very restrained in not driving it myself. I’ve mostly been fitting kid seats and polishing it for her. Ahhh the joys of giving
 
alohart said:
sipabit said:
In the States, they're $60-70k USD when optioned.
I just built on the BMW USA Website the least expensive 2019 i3 BEV with no options and the most expensive 2019 i3S REx with every option available. The MSRP totals were $44.5k and $60.6k including destination charge. Only fools pay MSRP. So your new i3 price warning is quite exaggerated.

I'm considering the out of pocket expense with tax, delivery fee, DMV fee, etc. But yeah, if you want to go with pre tax amounts, you're right. Still pricey though relative to what you can get elsewhere.
 
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