Hello, new member

I thought I would just introduce myself as I became a member today.

I have not got my i3 yet, but should be taking delivery of it in the next few weeks. It has been built though so I am very excited!

My i3 Rex will be in Fluid Black, with double spoke 430 wheels, sport package, LED, Harmon Kardon Hi-fi, sunroof, DC ready and Neutronic cloth upholstery.

I had one for a few days while trying to decide if it would be for me...really didn't take long to decide! I will be having the BMW Pure wallbox fitted which thankfully was greatly reduced recently making it much easier to afford.

I have a Touring 320i at the moment so it will be a step down in size but as a family we still have a 5 series (oh and my future classic tucked away in my garage which I refuse to sell, a M reg. Volvo 480T) so I think the i3 will fit it just lovely with my daily needs.

BMW Oxford have been fantastic so far with everything.

So that's me in a nut shell......I look forward to spending some quality time here finding out more about my i3, and hopefully meet some you guys too!

Hi FluidBlack

Congratulations on your order. I guess you will be one of the first Fluid Black owners which will make your car very distinctive. I hope that the wait will be too much of an anguish. 6 weeks lead time seems to be about the norm so I hope you car gets built before Christmas.

Have you joined the BMW i3 Facebook group? It is a great forum for friendly helpful advice. Around 30 of us met up last month at Milton Keynes where the guys from BMW Oxford brought along a Fluid Black i3 and an i8. There was also a very interesting engineer from BMW UK who chatted about the technology and future developments.

Not everyone is enamoured with the BMW Wallbox. There are some very good (free - OLEV funded) alternatives which are more compact and (strangely) seem more reliable that the BMW/Bosch box.

You will find quite a few i3 owners on the Facebook group who have migrated from 320d's and several who also still have 5 series as a second (ICE) car. Even with the REx most of us still like the safety of a ICE car for longer runs when we are in more of a hurry or have more people/things to carry. I am absolutely sure you will love your new car and it looks as though you have all the nice goodies. The larger 430 wheels have come in for some criticism for their harder and noisier ride. Although I have a sunroof I am a bit disappointed with its size (split by the roof brace) but love the Drive Assist Plus. Prof Sat Nav also very popular.

Best wishes

Richard

FluidBlack said:

I thought I would just introduce myself as I became a member today.

I have not got my i3 yet, but should be taking delivery of it in the next few weeks. It has been built though so I am very excited!

My i3 Rex will be in Fluid Black, with double spoke 430 wheels, sport package, LED, Harmon Kardon Hi-fi, sunroof, DC ready and Neutronic cloth upholstery.

I had one for a few days while trying to decide if it would be for me...really didn't take long to decide! I will be having the BMW Pure wallbox fitted which thankfully was greatly reduced recently making it much easier to afford.

I have a Touring 320i at the moment so it will be a step down in size but as a family we still have a 5 series (oh and my future classic tucked away in my garage which I refuse to sell, a M reg. Volvo 480T) so I think the i3 will fit it just lovely with my daily needs.

BMW Oxford have been fantastic so far with everything.

So that's me in a nut shell......I look forward to spending some quality time here finding out more about my i3, and hopefully meet some you guys too!

Click to expand...

S3RDP said:

Hi FluidBlack

Congratulations on your order. I guess you will be one of the first Fluid Black owners which will make your car very distinctive. I hope that the wait will be too much of an anguish. 6 weeks lead time seems to be about the norm so I hope you car gets built before Christmas.

Have you joined the BMW i3 Facebook group? It is a great forum for friendly helpful advice. Around 30 of us met up last month at Milton Keynes where the guys from BMW Oxford brought along a Fluid Black i3 and an i8. There was also a very interesting engineer from BMW UK who chatted about the technology and future developments.

Not everyone is enamoured with the BMW Wallbox. There are some very good (free - OLEV funded) alternatives which are more compact and (strangely) seem more reliable that the BMW/Bosch box.

You will find quite a few i3 owners on the Facebook group who have migrated from 320d's and several who also still have 5 series as a second (ICE) car. Even with the REx most of us still like the safety of a ICE car for longer runs when we are in more of a hurry or have more people/things to carry. I am absolutely sure you will love your new car and it looks as though you have all the nice goodies. The larger 430 wheels have come in for some criticism for their harder and noisier ride. Although I have a sunroof I am a bit disappointed with its size (split by the roof brace) but love the Drive Assist Plus. Prof Sat Nav also very popular.

Best wishes

Richard

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Hello Richard

Thank you for your rely. I actually changed my mind at the very last minute on the colour, I was going for the dark grey at first. I'm glad I did although not looking forward to having to keep it clean quite so much! It has been built so just waiting on delivery now. Should be around week starting 12th Dec.

I haven't joined the FB page yet, but I will. I'm very close to MK so that's perfect. That's great that BMW Oxford get involved too.

Interesting about the Wallbox. In what way do people find them unreliable? I hope I haven't made a mistake :? I was going for one of the much cheaper options until I was told be BMW that their box was the same price....I guessed it would be a better choice as it was designed for the car. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

Thanks again, take care

Rachel

[/quote] - not looking forward to having to keep it clean quite so much! -Rachel[/quote]

Good luck with that. The exterior is fine to clean but the interior is a real pain…. I bet the designers don’t clean these cars as there are far too many nooks and crannies that are almost impossible to reach :lol:

- not looking forward to having to keep it clean quite so much! -Rachel[/quote]

Good luck with that. The exterior is fine to clean but the interior is a real pain…. I bet the designers don’t clean these cars as there are far too many nooks and crannies that are almost impossible to reach :lol:[/quote]


I bet they don't!!!!! :lol: Having never had a brand new car before I can certainly feel an 'ocd' type of episode coming on, my only regret really is having it during the winter months...virtually impossible to keep clean especially as I live out of town in a small village!

Thanks MikeS

The only thing that I can tell is 'special' about the BMW wallbox is the case...the guts are very close to being identical in all of them except for their rated components - i.e., how much maximum power they can provide. They do have a model that will display the power used, but that again, is not unique to their box. Most all of them are waterproof for use outside when installed per the instructions, too. While Bosch is a good company, what you're paying for is more for the style and the BMW name on the case than something special.

jadnashuanh said:

The only thing that I can tell is 'special' about the BMW wallbox is the case...the guts are very close to being identical in all of them except for their rated components - i.e., how much maximum power they can provide. They do have a model that will display the power used, but that again, is not unique to their box. Most all of them are waterproof for use outside when installed per the instructions, too. While Bosch is a good company, what you're paying for is more for the style and the BMW name on the case than something special.

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Thanks jadnashuahh - just as well I'm not paying very much for it then! I'm more than aware that anything with the BMW logo is silly money - I just hope it proves reliable.

All the best

Rachel

The BMW wall box is overly large for what it needs to do, you may like the designer look, but essentially it's 3-4 x bigger than say a Polar unit. Also the cable management is poor, in that there is no way to coil up the cable neatly. You could just cancel the install and have a look at what else is out there. Rolec Polar etc. Enjoy your new i3

PluviaPlumbum said:

The BMW wall box is overly large for what it needs to do, you may like the designer look, but essentially it's 3-4 x bigger than say a Polar unit. Also the cable management is poor, in that there is no way to coil up the cable neatly. You could just cancel the install and have a look at what else is out there. Rolec Polar etc. Enjoy your new i3

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Thanks for the info. It's being installed tomorrow so looks like I'll have to live with it! I'm ok for space - it will be fairly neat where it needs to go..... Anyway, I'm not going to let this distract from my excitement about my new i3!!! It's now at the port, waiting to cross, I can hardly contain myself!! :shock:

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks barrychan.

Wallbox in. I see what you mean about no where to put the cable. It seems crazy to me that it wasn't designed so the cable was neatly on a reel inside the box! Anyway, install was very quick and neat. Just need the car now.

At least I have a shelf to put my gloves on!

One thing to keep in mind with any EVSE...while in use, you don't want any of the unneeded cable tightly wound around a holder, especially when the thing is providing maximum amperage. The coil acts like an inductor and will heat up. At best, you unfurl the whole thing, at worst, you have the cable loosely wound in as large of loops as possible. Ideally, any excess would be wound in a figure-8, but that's probably overkill.

Thanks for that. I'm thinking for storage I will use a large hook at the side to hang the cable up. When plugged in I can easily unhook it to avoid loops.

Exciting news today....my i3 is at BMW and I will be able to pick it up end of next week hopefully! I hope to go and have a look very soon and take some photos.

Can't wait!! :shock: