Returning my i3 for a refund

[RoboBMR]

This will probably be the most important post on here so please take a moment to read if you're considering buying an i3 or you're having problems with yours. I have no desire to scare anyone but felt it necessary for THE TRUTH to be out there so people can make an educated decision if the i3 is the car for them or not. I won't embellish and will only give the facts about my situation.

After having my i3 for just a week it has broken down on me TWICE. I live in San Diego, Ca but purchased my car in Los Angeles. GPS told me that the dealership was exactly 155 miles away. After calling the dealership, making a deal over the phone, I picked it up in person and drove it home without issue. When I got home I parked it for the night to charge. I drove the car the very next morning for less than a mile to run an errand. When I came back to the car, it wouldn't start and I got this message... DRIVETRAIN: STOP CAREFULLY. The "check engine" light was on as well. I waited for a tow truck for over an hour and after I got sick of waiting I tried to start the car again. It started but the warning indicators were still on. I called BMW and asked if I was allowed to drive the car in it's current condition straight to the dealership (closest one to my house in San Diego) because I got sick of waiting for the tow truck. They said that would be fine. I made it to the dealership where it spent the next two days. Upon getting the car back, the dealership said it was a "software glitch" and they reset everything. 3 days later the "check engine" light came on again but this time the car was still running.

(At this point I'd like to mention that during this entire experience, I never got the same mileage I got driving it from Los Angeles to San Diego. My mileage dropped drastically and I wasn't getting anywhere near what I supposed to be)

Another 2 days later, I got a call from BMW that my car is ready to be picked up again. BMW said that the only "fault" it could find is that I used a charging station the car didn't like and made it "sick" for lack of a better word. Being that this is my first EV, I had no idea such a thing could exist. That this car is so temperamental, it will malfunction if it doesn't like a charger I use. How in the world am I supposed to regulate that a charging station(s) I use is delivering the proper electrical current to the car??? That's impossible. I have other friends who are EV owners (non i3) and they have no such issues.

I emailed the dealership I purchased it from and said "I'm done and want a refund". I explained the entire situation and how I wasn't willing to be a Guinea Pig on technology that obviously wasn't ready to be brought to market.

So far I have a received an email from the dealership that they will do a "buy back" but no other information on how to proceed with that. I'll keep everyone posted if the "buy back" goes smoothly or if they're just telling me what I want to hear so they can keep stalling.

 

[jelloslug]

OK.

 

[vmSeattle]

Sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience.

I think this message is a cautionary tale of what we should be expecting from the i3 experience during it's first year of production. Unfortunately, since this is a new car for BMW in many senses of the word, we should expect less reliability than from a more mature platform, like the 3-Series, or a Toyota Camry. For those of us who will be using the i3 as a second vehicle, it won't be too bad. I really feel for those customers who are purchasing the i3 as their only vehicle. They are going to have a bumpy road, indeed.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Since you drove about 155-miles, I'm assuming you have the REx version. There are other people posting that there's a software glitch with them causing the check engine light to come on. I fully expect them to figure that out, and if I read their posts correctly, they can drive the vehicle without issues while that is happening.

When you say 'start' the vehicle, it's basically an on/off switch. The REx cannot be manually turned on until the charge gets fairly low in the USA implementation (unlike how it is programmed elsewhere, which may be some of the source of the software issue(s)). What doesn't turn on?

Not all chargers abide by the full SAE J1772 design rules, especially some that are a few years old and they've not updated their design to the latest (I think the rules essentially stabilized somewhere in 2013), so it is entirely possible some chargers may not be recognized properly by the vehicle and charge it at all, or if they do, at a lower rate than possible. While much slower, the supplied, 120-vac charge cable should work, but be prepared to wait awhile, and if you regularly discharge the battery significantly, you may not be able to achieve a full charge overnight, either.

There are specific "Lemmon" laws, that differ per state. Going that route, you probably have a few more waits at the dealer before you'd qualify for that. Other than that, other than good-will, the dealer has no other legal reason to buy your vehicle back, nor does BMWUSA.

 

[Stevei3]

Hi RoboBMR,

sorry to hear your car appears to be 'sick'. But, really, the truth in capitals ? I could write our truth in caps about our experience so far: yes, we're early adopters, happy about being one of them, unhappy about some niggles. In the meantime, we've covered quite some miles since february, driving 85-90% electrically...

Regards & good luck, Steven

 

[kentheteaman]

This will probably be the most important post on here so please take a moment to read if you're considering buying an i3 or you're having problems with yours. I have no desire to scare anyone but felt it necessary for THE TRUTH to be out there so people can make an educated decision if the i3 is the car for them or not. I won't embellish and will only give the facts about my situation.

After having my i3 for just a week it has broken down on me TWICE.

Hi RoboBMR,

I have done 10,500km in 2 months.
Never has such a trouble as you have experienced.

There are minor niggles such as the Active curise control suddenly stopping to work. But having said so i3 has been a wonderful car. The quality of driving is amazing.

May be you should swap for another i3 and see if that turns out to be ok.
Just a thought.

Good luck

regards,
ken

 

[CompuMagic]

Another 2 days later, I got a call from BMW that my car is ready to be picked up again. BMW said that the only "fault" it could find is that I used a charging station the car didn't like and made it "sick" for lack of a better word. Being that this is my first EV, I had no idea such a thing could exist.

I would like to know which charging station you have and who installed it for you?

I have the i3 REx as of May 28th and no issues yet except for a few very minor glitches which I know will be worked out, like the Satellite radio losing all stations but one for sampling, and the Active Cruise Control suddenly not working, which seems to happen if the radar system sees an object like a car in your lane coming towards you, or the appearance of such, but I am still figuring that out. I had to stop and start the car again to get ACC to work again but I think I may have found a way around that but am still testing it. As for the radio, a simple call to my dealer and a woman on the other end went to a web site and reset some codes to my radio and in 5 minutes it was working again.

The charger I have is the Leviton 9.6kW (via Amazon) charger even though the i3 will only draw 7.2 or 7.4kW from it. I installed it myself and wired it directly to my 200AMP panel. Also tested charging a Leaf momentarily on it.

 

[RoboBMR]

(To CompuMagic)

I have the Rex version as well and it's fully loaded. At home I have a brand new Bosch EL-51253 Power Max rated at 30 Amps and I hired a professional electrician. It got rave reviews on Amazon where I bought it. However, that's not the charger that was making my car malfunction. The dealer believes it was a Super Charger located at a mall I shop at. The company is NRG Evgo. It has the ability to charge 80% in 30 minutes. However, I disagree with that as well because the plug on that charger is specifically made for my car. Why design something that won't work, isn't compatible or will ruin your car? That makes no sense at all. Once again, my other friends who own EV's don't have this issue and have never heard of such a thing happening to anyone but me.

Update: Today after getting my car back from service for a 2nd time on the same issue, the check engine light came on again for a 3rd time. It happened with less than 50 miles put on the car and I did NOT charge it. I drove it with a 100% battery charge that BMW gave me when I came to pick it up. Therefore, I'm definitely throwing the "Super Charger theory" out the window. The car is clearly defective. 3 check engine light readings in one week! Come on, that's totally unreasonable to deal with. I'm more determined than ever to return my car for a refund. This is BS and I'm furious.

 

[TomMoloughney]

Sorry to hear about the troubles you've had. Both of the issues you have had are not uncommon and have been reported by quite a few people so far. The drivetrain malfunction is more worrisome then the CEL (check engine light) but both luckily are not indicative of any actual real hardware problem, just software bugs. The Drivetain malfunction is a problem because if the car throws this fault, you need to let it sit for a few minutes before it will restart and allow you to drive it again, as what happened in your case. Most of the time once you let it sit and the fault clears, it clears all the warnings that you see, but in your case it didn't. That is not what I have been hearing from others that have experienced it so far. Either way once it clears the car drives without a problem and most people don't even take the it to the dealer for a check.

The second issue, the CEL is really no issue at all. I've experienced it also and so had just about every other REx owner I've talked to in the US. The European i3 owners have not seen this and I believe it has something to do with BMW making some last minute changes to the software when they changed the size of the gas tank only about five weeks ago. The light means nothing, there is nothing wrong. The dealers can clear it but it may come back on until BMW does a software update to eliminate it. Mine came on and went away twice and now it's been off for about a week. If the CEL blinks, then there is a problem, but if it just illuminates, like we have been seeing, then it really is nothing but a false warning related to some software bug.

We had drivetrain malfunction warnings in our ActiveE all the time so we learned that they would clear themselves 99% of the time by just letting it sit for a few minutes. If we really didn't want to wait we would pull the positive lead off the 12V battery and it would instantly reset everything. I would imagine this would work on the i3 if you were really in need of resetting it and continuing on but nobody should have to do that with a new car. BMW is on this already so hopefully they will have an update for this also and the false malfunction readings won't continue.

 

[Gonville]

...... and the Active Cruise Control suddenly not working, which seems to happen if the radar system sees an object like a car in your lane coming towards you, or the appearance of such, but I am still figuring that out. I had to stop and start the car again to get ACC to work again but I think I may have found a way around that but am still testing it.

There is another thread on this, however as far as I know there is no radar. It works from the camera mounted behind the rear view mirror. In the UK low sun has resulted in glare and the camera being dazzled and switching off the ACC.

Should just resume once you have acknowledged the error message and then turned on again.

Could it be low sun?

There is radar in the 3 and 5 series coupled with the camera in some models.

 

[TomMoloughney]

...... and the Active Cruise Control suddenly not working, which seems to happen if the radar system sees an object like a car in your lane coming towards you, or the appearance of such, but I am still figuring that out. I had to stop and start the car again to get ACC to work again but I think I may have found a way around that but am still testing it.

There is another thread on this, however as far as I know there is no radar. It works from the camera mounted behind the rear view mirror. In the UK low sun has resulted in glare and the camera being dazzled and switching off the ACC.

Should just resume once you have acknowledged the error message and then turned on again.

Could it be low sun?

There is radar in the 3 and 5 series coupled with the camera in some models.

I've also noticed it will sometimes disengage when approaching an overpass. Just as I am about to go under it the system disengages. The overpass and possibly the shadow it throws must confuse the camera system.

 

[pastyboy]

I borrowed a REX to ensure it would handle the 260 mile round trip I regularly do in the south west of the UK. I got home and parked it on the drive on a very small slope and when I came back to it said I had a drivetrain fault. I called the dealer and he said that if I put it in P before putting on the parking brake it might roll back on the transmission and cause it to lock, resulting in the error message. He had come across the problem when a load of BMW engineers were looking into it. He told me to switch it off and back on again and the fault cleared. After that it performed magnificently all the way, although the fuel economy on Rex is very poor (but better than my 330Ci).

 

[jadnashuanh]

I know many people never use their parking brake on an automatic transmission vehicle, but I feel that is a mistake. Get the vehicle knocked while parked and you can shear off that locking pin...much safer to also have the brakes on.

 

[Gonville]

This will probably be the most important post on here ...... I have no desire to scare anyone but felt it necessary for THE TRUTH ...

I not sure I agree that either of those statements are true having read Tom's response.

Is it really the case that you can hook up an i3 to a Tesla supercharger? Boy that would be a rapid charge! Or a fried DC system? Maybe a type 2 on AC?

 

[tallrussian]

RoboBMR,

I'm sorry to hear about the challenges with your car. Can you please clarify which model you have - is it a REx? or BEV?

 

[RoboBMR]

It's a REx made for the USA. It's the GIGA package with every option possible.

Update: Today I turned in the car for the 3rd time because of the check engine light and I finally got a call from the dealership I bought it from. The BMW dealer I bought it from and the one servicing it are two different places because they're 155 miles apart. When I got the call from the dealer (where I bought it), he said he was more than willing to cooperate with me and BMW corporate to expedite the "buy back". Glad to know that the dealer and BMW corporate are taking this very seriously. I expect a refund by the end of next week at the latest.

On a personal note, I do believe the car has many redeeming traits and features but as of now it's just too "buggy". To many things need to be addressed from all the posts I've read including my own personal horror story. For those of you willing to tolerate the "glitches", my hat is off to you. I just don't have the time nor the patience. A new car with new technology should enhance your life and exceed your expectations. It shouldn't be full of problems and drive you crazy. Especially not at a $60,000 price tag.

 

[stumbledotcom]

Is it really the case that you can hook up an i3 to a Tesla supercharger? Boy that would be a rapid charge! Or a fried DC system? Maybe a type 2 on AC?

No, Tesla superchargers are proprietary. Even then only top-spec Teslas with the supercharger option can make use of them. I believe when the OP said supercharger it was a reference to the first SAE CCS station in California.

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/03/first-sae-combo-fast-charging-station-now-open-in-san-diego/

 

[jelloslug]

Is it really the case that you can hook up an i3 to a Tesla supercharger? Boy that would be a rapid charge! Or a fried DC system? Maybe a type 2 on AC?

No, Tesla superchargers are proprietary. Even then only top-spec Teslas with the supercharger option can make use of them. I believe when the OP said supercharger it was a reference to the first SAE CCS station in California.

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/03/first-sae-combo-fast-charging-station-now-open-in-san-diego/

Supercharging is an available option on all models of the Model S.

 

[I33t]

So when the i3 throws a 'Check Engine' light, it's talking about the Rex engine, not the electric motor?

Agree, Tesla offers Supercharger on all model S models, but it comes standard on the higher spec versions.

 

[noakey]

...... and the Active Cruise Control suddenly not working, which seems to happen if the radar system sees an object like a car in your lane coming towards you, or the appearance of such, but I am still figuring that out. I had to stop and start the car again to get ACC to work again but I think I may have found a way around that but am still testing it.

There is another thread on this, however as far as I know there is no radar. It works from the camera mounted behind the rear view mirror. In the UK low sun has resulted in glare and the camera being dazzled and switching off the ACC.

Should just resume once you have acknowledged the error message and then turned on again.

Could it be low sun?

There is radar in the 3 and 5 series coupled with the camera in some models.

I've also noticed it will sometimes disengage when approaching an overpass. Just as I am about to go under it the system disengages. The overpass and possibly the shadow it throws must confuse the camera system.

I had a similar experience. A bright sunny day I passed a large lorry which was casting a dark shadow onto my lane.. just as I was level with the back of the lorry ACC disengaged.