New to forum

[dmann]

I'm new to this forum, even though I had read a lot of posts before purchasing our 2015 BEV. We bought at the end of December and received delivery by flatbed truck in January. Have been driving for 3 months now and put on just under 3000 km (urban only). Can't get enough of driving it and it's hard going back to driving our other gas vehicle. We had a real concern about purchasing given our location (interior BC) with the nearest service centre about 350 km away in Vancouver. I think we could drive there given the spacing of charging stations along the way, but it might take a couple days (and some nervous times because of the elevation changes). Despite this, we wanted the BEV model. I'm sure we have the only i3 in our city, which is about 90,000 population. Maybe it's folly, but it feels so good driving it, that I'm prepared to take the risk. A flatbed is always an option and I understand that BMW Assist would probably come to the rescue if we ran out of charge. Only problem so far was a minor mishap in a parking lot when someone backed into us. Bumper scratches only, but we were upset to see our new car with damage. Look forward to being part of this forum.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Software updates may be one of the more frequent service issues, but most of the rest of the stuff isn't all that hard. I just had the 2-year service done on mine. It amounts to flushing the brake lines, changing the cabin air filter, and replacing the wiper blades. The rest of it is just check things over for problems. The BEV normally requires very little service. I really like mine, and my ICE only gets used occasionally.

Only time will tell, but it's probably not that big a deal being that far away. Some of the service could be done by a non-I selling dealership, but the rules might prevent that. Has Canada officially offered that car everywhere? Originally, they restricted sales to only a few places.

 

[dmann]

I'm not aware of restrictions on sales in Canada. Certainly the dealer in Vancouver knew where it is going since they paid for delivery by flatbed truck. There is a BMW dealership that is closer but don't have the "i" certification yet. Oddly, I was told by them that they would be getting it this year, but that turned out to be wrong. I found that out after purchase. I also remember seeing a post on this forum about an owner from Calgary having a dealership a 1000 km away. He was advised by BMW Canada that they would take of him. So far, we haven't been given the same assurances. We're not overly concerned since we have some time before out first service. I'm sure we'll figure something out.

 

[jadnashuanh]

BMW seems to restrict sales somewhat by who it allows to sell the vehicle to (the dealers)...whether a selling dealer cares about trying to support a long-distance relationship or not, is their prerogative. There are obviously some things that are not I-car unique that any dealership should be able to address. Whether BMW will reimburse them for warranty work if they're not certified, I do not know.

 

[Lithiumman]

Hi Dman,
Congratulations on your i3. We looked into all the potential risks in spending $$$ on such a new technology but with 12 months and > 19,000km travelled have not had one single regret. When deciding to buy we reasoned that if we would not purchase an EV, we could never expect anyone else to - "You have to be the change you want to see in the world" (Ghandi). Early adopters always take some risk and ofter pay a premium knowingly to crack the chicken and egg scenario thereby paying forward for the longer term betterment of all. Being an EV owner, you are a leader - Well done, I salute your decision.