buying used 2014 i3 tomorrow - need guidance

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ociopia

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Messages
6
I'm going to test drive a used 2014 i3 with 28,000 miles tomorrow that was first driven in December 2014, COP until 12-2019. BEV. It's a Tera world, Technology and driving assist, 20" wheels, parking assistance, heated seats, fast charging and Harmon/Kardon pkg. $18,264. What should I know/look for?

I drive 4500 miles a year. If I buy it, I'll finance for 5 years probably, so I'll put another 22,500 miles on it in that time. 25,000 max.

I'm thinking of charging it from my 110 volt house outlet. How many feet long is the charging line? If it isn't long enough, can I use a heavy duty extension cord? I drive about 15 miles a day so maybe charge twice a week?

I assume there is no way to see if the battery is good? Would love to know how much charge it is holding - does that show anywhere?

I know to look at the tires but unless really bald, I won't know squat as I'm a woman who doesn't know much about tires. Can I ask for new tires?

How about brakes? 28,000 miles - should they be ok?

The tech pkg - does it really stop you from hitting pedestrians? That would be such a lovely thing as I drive entirely in a very congested city filled with pedestrians. Mind you I've never come close to hitting one but I'd love to be confident that I won't.

Thank you for your help.
 
The brakes should be your last concern, IMO. They should still be fine on a regular car, but on the I3, you use "one pedal" driving so much, that after you are used to doing it, you don't touch the brake pedal much. I will be surprised if I EVER change the pads. I expect my car will be in a junkyard someday with the original brake pads on it.

I wouldn't , and you won't, be able to trust the emergency stop to keep from hitting pedestrians. There's only one way to really know, and you won't want to do that test. My car has scared me a few times, where I "chickened out" and hit the brakes for the car, not knowing if it was going to abruptly stop or not. You would be really embarrassed to say "well, I WAS going to hit y brakes, but i was waiting for the car to do it for me, and that's why I ran into you."

That said, the car is awesome, and I would just get in the habit of plugging it in each night, like a cell phone. If you can, spring for the 220V fixed charger, or maybe even a 110V fixed unit. 5 years of unraveling and then packing up that cord each time you charge will get real old.
 
Also, that price, I'd say, is just "fair." Depends on where you live. I think that'd be a good price for a REX, but for the BEV, I'd think there is a lot of bargaining room left. Maybe more expensive since its a CPO.

Mine was the same equipment, but a year newer, and a REX , and only 13,000 miles. I paid $21k at a BMW dealer last October, should have been $23K, but had been in a minor accident and had the bumper repainted, so a couple grand discount for that.
 
For a CA car, I'd say that price is maybe a tad high. [edit] scratch that, looking at what's available locally now, this is a decent price.[/edit] Hopefully you can talk them down a good bit.

I paid about the same for a '15 Rex (in service date 12/15) with 23k miles. Tera World with all the goodies on the car you are looking at except the 20" wheels and HK audio.

You can charge from the 110v, but it's pretty slow. The charger has an icon indicating not to use an extension cable, but I use a nice heavy duty one and have not noticed any difference. I zapped the cable with my IR temp sensor and it was the same temp as ambient.

I bought an aftermarket 110v charger with a 30' cable. Much more convenient.

Brakes should last a while since it's fun to drive with just the throttle. Even when you need a brake job, they are standard BMW fare. Simple DIY and tons of YouTube University help out there if you have never done it :)

You can get an indication of the state of the battery by accessing "hidden" options. Details here:
https://bmwi3owner.com/2016/01/secrets/
The one of interest to you will be 13.08 Batt. Kapa. Max. (maximum battery capacity). BMW states the capacity of a new 2014 i3 to be 18.8kWh. BMW guarantee at least 70% capacity for 8 years or 100,000 miles, so that would have to drop below 13.2kWh for it to be considered "bad" by BMW. Assuming linear degradation (it is probably more like an inverted hockey stick, but the math is simpler with linear degradation ;) ), a 28k mile car's battery would read about 17.2kWh.
The Batt.Kapa.Max # is only an estimate, but it should give you some idea of how the battery is holding up.

Good Luck!!!!
 
Some have posted (assuming I remember correctly) accumulating over 50K-miles with only a few percentage points reported battery degradation. IOW, while I'm certain under some circumstances it may occur, it's mostly not an issue. Cold weather (temporary) decreases are more of a concern, but the only way to fix that is to move somewhere more temperate (Hawaii anyone?). One of my nieces has an ancient Prius with over 200K miles on it, and its NiCad battery is still viable. LiON ones are generally much more reliable long-term, and we've learned a lot on battery management (well, maybe not Nissan on the Leaf) over time.
 
ociopia said:
I'm going to test drive a used 2014 i3 with 28,000 miles tomorrow that was first driven in December 2014, COP until 12-2019. BEV. It's a Tera world, Technology and driving assist, 20" wheels, parking assistance, heated seats, fast charging and Harmon/Kardon pkg. $18,264. What should I know/look for?
We bought our 2014 BEV new in November, 2014, and have been happy with it. Make sure that all of the recalls and service campaigns have been performed:

• replacement of the KLE (one of two on-board chargers),
• replacement of a weak motor mount bolt,
• reprogramming of the driver airbag.

ociopia said:
I'm thinking of charging it from my 110 volt house outlet.

How many feet long is the charging line? If it isn't long enough, can I use a heavy duty extension cord? I drive about 15 miles a day so maybe charge twice a week?
The charging cable included with a 2014 i3 requests up to 12 amps from the circuit into which it is plugged. A typical household circuit and its outlets are rated at 15 amps for brief periods or 12 amps for a continuous load like the charging cable. To avoid tripping a circuit breaker, no other electrical loads should be on the circuit used for charging.

Older outlets can have corroded contacts or wiring connections or contacts that will no longer grasp a plug with the pressure required to make good contact. This can result in enough heat being generated to damage or melt the outlet or the charging cable or extension cord plug. So be sure to monitor check the outlet and all plugs to ensure that they are not overheating.

An alternative is to reduce the maximum Level 1 (120 V) charging current in iDrive. "Maximum" will charge at up to 12 amps for the fastest Level 1 charging which is ~5 miles of added range per hour depending on your driving conditions. If 12 amps is too much for your charging circuit, you could set the Level 1 charging current to "Reduced" (9 amps) or "Low" (6 amps), but this would increase your charging time accordingly.

Using only the included charging cable would work when driving only 15 miles/day, but it might be insufficient when you need to take unscheduled trips. If public charging stations (AC Level 2, 208 - 240 V, or DC Level 1 or 2 fast charger) are nearby and available when you might need them, you could use one of them when your Level 1 home charging is insufficient. But if this isn't convenient, you might find yourself doing as we did after using only public charging stations for 2 years: installing a Level 2 EVSE where you park at home.

ociopia said:
I assume there is no way to see if the battery is good? Would love to know how much charge it is holding - does that show anywhere?
As was mentioned, the service menu displays a battery pack capacity estimate, but it can vary by 2 kWh out of the 18.8 kWh nominal new capacity, so a single measurement could vary by 20%. The 8 year, 100k mile battery pack warranty guarantees a capacity loss of less than 30%. The i3's battery pack is proving to be quite robust, so the battery pack should not be a major concern. I worry far more about the replacement of costly electronics modules due to the high cost of BMW parts and service.

ociopia said:
I know to look at the tires but unless really bald, I won't know squat as I'm a woman who doesn't know much about tires. Can I ask for new tires?
A CPO i3 has tires that exceed a certain minimum tread depth. On CPO i3's, BMW has replaced tires that don't meet this requirement. You could ask the dealer to provide tread depth measurements for each tire, but I doubt that they would replace tires that they feel are sufficient.

ociopia said:
The tech pkg - does it really stop you from hitting pedestrians? That would be such a lovely thing as I drive entirely in a very congested city filled with pedestrians. Mind you I've never come close to hitting one but I'd love to be confident that I won't.
Our i3 has automatically applied its brakes on 2 occasions at low speeds when a collision with a car in front seemed likely. The Tech package front camera is programmed to recognize pedestrians as well and to automatically brake to avoid colliding with a pedestrian or to at least reduce the collision speed, but it is designed to be a backup to the driver, not something that could be guaranteed to avoid a collision.
 
Thanks to much of your great input, I got the dealer down $2,000. I test drove and absolutely loved the car. I have a navigation system question. In my current navigation system, once I enter a destination and start driving, displayed at the bottom of the screen is the name of the street I'm driving on and displayed across the top is the name of the next street I turn on. On the BMW navigation screen, no street names appear except on the map part itself. Can this be changed? I find it somewhat distracting to have to look so closely at the map to see what the name of the street is that I'm supposed to turn on.

The lcd screen is scrumptious. Wow.

I tried finding the current kw on the battery, I just succeeded in getting stuck on a screen and not knowing how to get out of it. Lol. The salespersosn, a young girl, really knew nothing. I asked where the glove box was and she looked around and said, "oh, there isn't one." When I found it, I told her it was best to just admit you don't know rather than pretend you know something you don't. Silly.

I loved most things. Navigation is beautiful but a bit lacking.

No blind spot monitor - kind of shocking to have front collision with cars and pedestrian braking, sensors around the front and back, back up camera and the car will parallel park itself and yet no blind spot monitor. But I've found some little oval mirrors on Amazon that I can attach to the side mirrors. I hadn't realized those mirrors are powered. Wow.

I found seats comfortable. The leather in the Tera is gorgeous. I adore the entire interior.

I wondered if I'd be able to adjusts to the "regenerative braking" when you take your foot off of the gas but that was easy and clean.

I have a good deal, now I've just got to turn in my current leased car and go back and sign paperwork.

Thank you in advance.
 
The thing with the regen is, unless you want to stop as fast as possible DO NOT fully release the accelerator pedal! At some point, you'll be coasting, and as you continue to release, the regeneration will build until you're fully off of it, and it will be at maximum. There's a little graph on the display that shows the current state: coasting, accelerating, or regeneration and the relative level. Once you play with it a bit, it will become natural and easy. As a result, you can modulate it quite easily. FWIW, the regeneration on the original release was a lot heavier, and those that did not know this or failed to learn complained about it making them literally sick! Personally, I liked the heavier regeneration, but the current state of affairs is okay. That was changed via a software update back in late 2014 or so.
 
ociopia said:
On the BMW navigation screen, no street names appear except on the map part itself. Can this be changed?
Yes. With the Tech package, you have the wider navigation screen which allows the driver to specify a split screen in iDrive. You can choose to display details of the next turn in the half of the screen next to the map screen. I believe this display is called the arrow display because it displays arrows showing where to proceed.

This is explained in the Driver's Guide which is an inexcusably poor translation from German. You can install on your smart phone or touch pad a Driver's Guide customized for the options on your car which makes searching for something possible. However, the translation is no better.

ociopia said:
I tried finding the current kw on the battery, I just succeeded in getting stuck on a screen and not knowing how to get out of it.
I find iDrive to be about as bad as the user interfaces on pre-smartphone cell phones, so navigating can be challenging. You can always press the "Menu" button near the iDrive controller to return to the top-level menu.

The current battery charge level (kWh which is energy rather than kW which is power) can be estimated from the linear bars along the bottom of the instrument panel. 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% are marked with interpolation between these marks usually sufficient. For a charge level percentage estimated to 0.5%, press the button at the end of the turn signal stack repeatedly to cycle through the options until charge level percentage is displayed.

To calculate remaining capacity in kWh, multiply the charge level percent by 18.8 kWh which is the nominal usable capacity of a new battery pack. As the battery packs age, this usable capacity will slowly decrease unless BMW unlocks additional usable capacity when a software update is installed.

Keep in mind that the Level 1 charging efficiency is in the low 80% range whereas the Level 2 charging efficiency is in the low 90% range, so the electricity energy necessary to charge an i3 will be more than the energy available from the battery pack. For example, to add 10 kWh of energy to the battery pack while Level 1 charging, 10 kWh/80% = ~12.5 kWh of electrical energy would be consumed from your home electrical circuit.

ociopia said:
Navigation is beautiful but a bit lacking.
Very lacking here in Honolulu. The route guidance doesn't seem to know about the main west-bound freeway exit for the Honolulu International Airport instead routing past the exit to a circuitous route ~5 miles out of the way. It also does not route the most direct route to our apartment instead suggesting routes that are longer and slower than the direct route. This is true for all the route alternatives.

With the Tech package, real-time traffic information (RTTI) is available. A 3-year subscription was included with a new i3. After 3 years, the annual subscription fee is $50 although there was a $30 Black Friday special in 2017! Subscription to optional services can be purchased in your BMW Connected Drive account. In Honolulu which could be different from other areas, RTTI is almost always outdated. I have never encountered an accident, items on the road, etc., when RTTI has warned about them. I frequently encounter heavy stop-and-go traffic congestion which isn't indicated by RTTI or free-flowing traffic when heavy congestion is indicated. It's almost worthless, but I thought that updating the map version to 2018-1 might help. Nope, just as bad. I probably won't renew my subscription when it expires.

ociopia said:
No blind spot monitor - kind of shocking to have front collision with cars and pedestrian braking, sensors around the front and back, back up camera and the car will parallel park itself and yet no blind spot monitor. But I've found some little oval mirrors on Amazon that I can attach to the side mirrors. I hadn't realized those mirrors are powered. Wow.
Visibility from an i3 is quite good. It is easy to adjust the side mirrors so that no blind spots exist, so I don't miss a blind spot monitor.

Another fun feature is that if the electric side mirror selection switch is in the driver side mirror position, the passenger side mirror will dip down to view the curb in the passenger side mirror while reversing or will move out to view cyclists, pedestrians, etc., on the sidewalk when turning right. These won't happen if the side mirror selection switch is in the passenger side mirror position.
 
Hi Folk,
I just joined the forum and am in the process of purchased a used i3 - test drove one the other car absolutely love it :D

Any pitful in terms of previous ownership and maintenance, I should look out for?

I'm currently looking at two cars, one car 3 years old, 29k mileage but no service record at £15k, and another similar age, spec mileage with full service records and two years remaining on a service pack at £16.75k - is the latter worth the difference?

In terms of home charging, which permanent wall based unit have people installed.

Thanks in advance
 
Hi, and welcome!

Are you looking at BEV or Rex?

The required service on these vehicles is minimal. Oil every year on a Rex, brake fluid every 2 years on both the Rex and BEV. 1.7GPB seems steep for maybe 2 oil changes and 1 brake flush, especially are these are both very simple for an indy shop (or DIY). No need to pay the inflated BMW service center rates.

If they really are equivalent and the only deciding factor is price and service history/maintenance package, I'd go with the lower prices and squirrel away the difference for when your service is due.

Good Luck!
 
graememwl said:
Hi, and welcome!

Are you looking at BEV or Rex?

The required service on these vehicles is minimal. Oil every year on a Rex, brake fluid every 2 years on both the Rex and BEV. 1.7GPB seems steep for maybe 2 oil changes and 1 brake flush, especially are these are both very simple for an indy shop (or DIY). No need to pay the inflated BMW service center rates.

If they really are equivalent and the only deciding factor is price and service history/maintenance package, I'd go with the lower prices and squirrel away the difference for when your service is due.

Good Luck!

Thank for the reply.

It's just a BEV, thus as such I think I'll go fir the lower priced one, cheers
 
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