How many miles do you have on your i3?

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rabenoja

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
6
Hello all! New member here and I'm interested in either buying or leasing an i3 Rex. I have an extended test drive setup for this Thursday to see if the car will fit my driving needs and I'm pretty excited! :D In the meantime, I'm curious to see how many miles have been driven and how your ownership experience has been. I know the car is fairly new so I'm not expecting high mileage numbers but please do tell.

Your feedback is appreciated! Thanks!
 
rabenoja said:
Hello all! New member here and I'm interested in either buying or leasing an i3 Rex. I have an extended test drive setup for this Thursday to see if the car will fit my driving needs and I'm pretty excited! :D In the meantime, I'm curious to see how many miles have been driven and how your ownership experience has been. I know the car is fairly new so I'm not expecting high mileage numbers but please do tell.

Your feedback is appreciated! Thanks!
Hi.. I hope you enjoyed your test drive. We have 12500 on ours.. only gripe is real world range is 60-100 miles, not the 80-120 claimed.. has had a negative effect on my ownership exprrience buuuut. .. its an awesome car... go buy one.. or more.
 
And I've just passed the 18k mark in my BEV, so am on second set of tyres (the rears go first - can't think why).

As the previous post mentions, the range can be an issue if you plan to go on longer trips. When I first got my car last April, there were no DC chargers but now Ecotricity has rolled out a lot in the motorway services, it has opened up the possibilities so I regularly go beyond half of its range, i.e. have to charge away from home.

The main issue is that the reliability of the fast public charging network is not good enough yet. It is free, so far at least, but you can't rely on it the way you can a petrol station, yet.

The range is affected by weather - I think I'd say about 25% less in winter and until last week I still had the de-tuned on board charger so a medium AC charge was only at 5Kw so charging took too long. That's now sorted. Bizarrely, since it had that fitted and the associated software changes, the indicated range has shot up so for example where on a freezing January morning the car would kick off showing a sub-60 mile range (on comfort) in a coolish March morning it's now showing 80 plus. I'd say that the estimated range is now closer to what I can actually achieve whereas before it was pessimistic. On EcoPro+ in central London it doesn't seem to use any range at all.

Having said all that, it's a truly excellent bit of kit - I enjoy driving it now just as much as on day one. The brutal acceleration from slow speeds is addictive as is the silent progress, the app (heating/cooling the car remotely, checking you locked the doors), the blue glow when you unlock the doors at night, oh and the c 3p per mile cost to run.

I have a business so I contract hired mine, then I know how much it's going to cost and am not concerned with battery life or residuals. Personally I don't get the point of the Rex - but I have access to other ICE cars so if I go on a long trip I use one of them. I wouldn't yet have a BEV as a sole means of transport.

Go ahead and enjoy! :D
 
5,800 miles. No regrets. I typically drive across the Los Angeles basin twice a week--about 120 miles round trip. With the REx, no problem. I make most of the trip on battery. Occasionally, I have time to "plug in" while I am at a meeting, thus giving me almost complete travel time on battery. The car so far as I am concerned is a marvel. It has put the fun back into driving for me. I particularly like the comfortable, open airy feeling of the cabin. Good luck with your test drive.
 
DerfSdrawd said:
And I've just passed the 18k mark in my BEV, so am on second set of tyres (the rears go first - can't think why).

As the previous post mentions, the range can be an issue if you plan to go on longer trips. When I first got my car last April, there were no DC chargers but now Ecotricity has rolled out a lot in the motorway services, it has opened up the possibilities so I regularly go beyond half of its range, i.e. have to charge away from home.

The main issue is that the reliability of the fast public charging network is not good enough yet. It is free, so far at least, but you can't rely on it the way you can a petrol station, yet.

The range is affected by weather - I think I'd say about 25% less in winter and until last week I still had the de-tuned on board charger so a medium AC charge was only at 5Kw so charging took too long. That's now sorted. Bizarrely, since it had that fitted and the associated software changes, the indicated range has shot up so for example where on a freezing January morning the car would kick off showing a sub-60 mile range (on comfort) in a coolish March morning it's now showing 80 plus. I'd say that the estimated range is now closer to what I can actually achieve whereas before it was pessimistic. On EcoPro+ in central London it doesn't seem to use any range at all.

Having said all that, it's a truly excellent bit of kit - I enjoy driving it now just as much as on day one. The brutal acceleration from slow speeds is addictive as is the silent progress, the app (heating/cooling the car remotely, checking you locked the doors), the blue glow when you unlock the doors at night, oh and the c 3p per mile cost to run.

I have a business so I contract hired mine, then I know how much it's going to cost and am not concerned with battery life or residuals. Personally I don't get the point of the Rex - but I have access to other ICE cars so if I go on a long trip I use one of them. I wouldn't yet have a BEV as a sole means of transport.

Go ahead and enjoy! :D
Because of the Regen, the rear tires do much more work than the fronts which only steer a lightly loaded front end. The rear tires accellerate the car and do most if not all the braking if you are driving correctly.
 
I currently have only 600 miles on my rex though I am already a huge advocate. Two days after delivery I downloaded the dvdinmotion software (basically I waited until this was available before getting my i3). I tried hold mode out initially and after finding it worked well I concluded the rex 'could' be used for a moderate longer weekend use without charging if circumstances dictated. This week I drove a bit without charging ( < 15 miles ) and then the next day needed to drive east about forty miles and back. With this in mind I decided to maximize use of the rex. At 75% SOC I turned it on and continued my drive. With the rex (unheard) in the background I drove until the gas ran out at 94 miles. I filled up the tank (1.98 gallons) and drove home. Today I set out without charging and drove until the charge dropped to 6% and the rex kicked in again at 140 miles.

Bottom line is that using the rex and dvdinmotion one can travel a material distance with regular fill ups (60 mile intervals). I doubt I will use it more than a handful of times a year though it is great to know that one can drive as needed within reasonable limitations. The i3 is the Ultimate (city) Driving Machine and an ok car for for occasional travels beyond the burbs. Cheers -
 
194 (well I have only had the car a week). Not big mileage but at this rate I'll burn through my lease allowance very quickly.

What is the motion software download mentioned above? What does it do and how so you get it?
 
Hi,
we've covered over 25000 miles now, since feb '14 (see signature for current milage). We've had our share of teehthing problems, but we're still enjoying it. Try to make your testdrive an extended one to see if you like te cars character. The suspension is a bit bumpy, it's okay but not great. Road holding is fine in our opinion, no worries there. The steering can feel a bit oversensitive in the beginning, as can the accellerator, especially when regen kicks in. You absolutely get used to both after a while. The car will remain sensitive to crosswinds though, mainly (IMHO) because it is too easy to overcompensate due to the light and direct steering.
The other bits like styling, interior space, practicality etc. are largely subjective, so, that's over to you :)

Regards, Steven

PS: remain realistic about the electric range. 60-70 miles is about right. You can run out a little sooner, or the battery can last a lot longer (>120 miles in our case, driving absoltely relaxed on counrty roads @~40 mph in mild spring weather, no heater, EcoPro+). If you like to drive it foremost as an electric car (we've covered 84% of our miles on electricity), you'll have to put in some extra effort to get the car charged occasionally.
 
paule23 said:
194 (well I have only had the car a week). Not big mileage but at this rate I'll burn through my lease allowance very quickly.

What is the motion software download mentioned above? What does it do and how so you get it?


No connection, just a customer.

http://www.dvdinmotion.com/bmw-i3-special
 
GeorgeJ said:
paule23 said:
194 (well I have only had the car a week). Not big mileage but at this rate I'll burn through my lease allowance very quickly.

What is the motion software download mentioned above? What does it do and how so you get it?


No connection, just a customer.

http://www.dvdinmotion.com/bmw-i3-special

Hmm .. claims to be US only..
 
noakey said:
GeorgeJ said:
paule23 said:
194 (well I have only had the car a week). Not big mileage but at this rate I'll burn through my lease allowance very quickly.

What is the motion software download mentioned above? What does it do and how so you get it?


No connection, just a customer.

http://www.dvdinmotion.com/bmw-i3-special

Hmm .. claims to be US only..
This reverses a software change that is already in all cars delivered outside of North America...IOW, living in England, you'd have no need of it.
 
Thanks for the replies! It's cool to see some members logging some miles with no real worries.

I'm curious, how has the light interior held up? Does it get dirty quickly? I will use this car as a semi work vehicle and will be visiting job sites where I may get a little dirty. I've always had black or dark color interiors so it hasn't been an issue thus far but it looks like most of the cars I've seen online have the lighter interior.
 
15,000 miles here after one year ownership in my Rex. Unfortunately, I have to hand it back next week, which I will be quite sad about.

I have no issues at all (although my partner reports that she has seen a couple of warnings appear when using Rex - I've not been able to replicate the behaviour).
 
2014 BEV with just over 60k miles. Interior still looks brand new and I'm the third owner. Mine is Certified Pre-Owned (CPO). My battery is showing some signs of wear, but still get good range when I drive it correctly (not driving it like I stole it!). Love the car and for what it's intended for.
 
33,000 miles on my 2014 REX, it had around 16k when I bought it as a CPO last year. The only repair was an new climate control panel under warranty, the A/C LED was failing.
 
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