33 Years of BMW...

....between these two, picked up a 2014 REV last night to go along with the E21 and the E30 (not pictured)

Nice Congrats

Thank you!!

I need to start a REX thread because my wife is about to beat the crap out of this 2014. She commutes 100 miles a day, 50 in the morning and 50 again in the afternoon 5 hours later. The car has 26K miles on it, we just sold of a 2005 Mini Cooper S JCW that we racked 30K miles on in 18 months. To say we are about to rack some miles is an understatement.


The E30 and E21, the i3 has not met the E30 yet, I keep the older BMW's in a warehouse about 1 mile from my home.

Wow. 100 mies a day. The i3 should serve you well.

Tint mod achieved. Much improved look. If there is such a thing for this car. A must when you live in FloRida.

Looks good. Is your car iconic silver?

theothertom said:

Looks good. Is your car iconic silver?

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I believe it is Andesite Silver, it kind of reminds me of Bronzit from the E30 era.

Thanks

In 5 months we have racked up 8K miles she now has 34K miles on her. Not one problem either.

We love the fact we are rarely buying gas. We went from $250 a month in gas to about $40 a month in electricity, we are not 100% sure how much electricity changed it seems to be $40 - $50 which surprised us. We try to charge after midnight every night.

Our notifications are telling us we need to take it in for a brakes check and Vehicle Check. While it is in there I am going to kindly point out they sold us a used car with locking lugs and no key.

While not a BMW design milestone as far as curb appeal, it is truly a function over design car and it functions perfectly.

Looks nice. It surprises me that the i3 always looks more substantial (bigger) in photos and videos than in reality (the 2 times I have looked at one so far). The frunk also appears in photos to protrude more than in reality, to my eyes anyway. Planning to test drive one in a few days.

Anyone else have nitrogen in their tires? Mine does and it started warning us the tires were low. I am a real big DIY type so I invested in a tank of my own, initial investment with the nitrogen specific regulator and tank deposit was about $240. Now I never have to go to the dealership to top off and that time saved makes it more than worth it in my book.

Jims5543 said:

Anyone else have nitrogen in their tires?

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Yeah, those of us who don't want to waste money on 100% nitrogen have 78% nitrogen in our tires (i.e., air). Pure nitrogen has only one advantage over air: the nitrogen molecule is slightly larger than the oxygen molecule so it diffuses through the tire's rubber and porous alloy wheels a little bit more slowly. Because air is only 21% oxygen, this affect is usually unmeasurable.

The pressure of all gases changes with temperature to exactly the same degree, so inflation pressure in a tire filled with dry nitrogen changes by the same amount when the tire's temperature changes as does a tire filled with dry air. However, most, but not all, compressed air, can contain water vapor because it wasn't dried when it was compressed. Water vapor can condense when a tire cools which would cause the inflation pressure to drop more than a tire filled with any dry gas, including nitrogen or air, or any liquid water in a tire could vaporize when a tire warms which would cause its inflation pressure to increase more than a tire filled with any dry gas.

Nitrogen might make sense in tires used in competitive racing where inflation pressures might need to be carefully controlled and matched. But in a street vehicle, the small advantages of dry nitrogen don't justify its cost.

The only advantage I can see to 100% (or close to it) Nitrogen gas is it is not reactive like oxygen is. TPMS sensors probably prefer it for this reason, although they should be sealed to prevent corrosion.

Yes, I have been using N2 for years in my tires. I probably wouldn't though if I couldn't get it for free at work. We have a N2 generator.

We are now at 42K miles and have not owned it a year yet. IIRC we had 26K miles on it at purchase so we are close to putting 20K miles on it in a year. We have not had a single issue with it.

We recently drove it 130 miles one way for a long weekend. We left home with 1/2 tank of gas and 100% battery 90% of our drive would be highway. I activated the REX at 75% battery, and drove to empty, then stopped to fill at a rest area.

Once we pulled out of the rest area we were at 68% battery and I forgot to turn on the REX, I noticed at 48%, I turned it on and finished the drive in to our destination using the 2.3 gallons of gas. We used about 3 gallons of gas and 60% battery traveling 135 miles driving at 75 MPH the entire way.

Our destination hotel had a charger on site so we were able to charge it back up.

Trip home was a different route, we left hotel with no gas and 100% battery. We stopped 10 miles in and topped off gas tank, at this point we were nearing our 75% battery. We switched on the REX and drove a solid 100 miles at 70 MPH before stopping for gas.

We topped off and then were on back roads for the last 40 miles of our trip, we used 1/4 of a tank of gas and still had 60% battery upon arrival home.

Our conclusion is yes, you can drive on the highway, this car is much happier being on back roads traveling at 50 MPH or so. Once we got off the highway the REX kept up and used little gas.


My wife is still commuting 100 miles plus a day. She drives 25 miles back and forth in the morning then repeats in the afternoon. MWF it is put on a stage 2 charger between commutes, T - Th she uses the REX.

We are having random issues with the gas cap, like one out of every 5 tanks of gas gives us an issue. Otherwise, no issues.

We just had a brake service completed, the dealership left the dipstick slightly out of its seat causing about 1/2 quart of oil to puke out and make a mess. This triggered a check engine light as we appeared to be a quart low.

I pulled the engine cover, cleaned up as much as I could and added 1/2+ a quart back in. The check engine light shit back off, after a test drive and cycling the car off and back on.

I think I am going to sell the 1982 318i, I need to free up some room for another project. If anyone is interested PM me here or email me at my screen name @ gmail

I have not been on here in almost a year. I got poked by an email so I came to take a look. My how my life changed!!

Both the cars in the first post are gone now. I sold the E21 to a really nice guy from Uruguay, he was actually selling me some parts, he saw my E30 and my E21 and freaked out over the E21. We ended up negotiating a sale of the E21 for cash plus a bunch of E30 parts I was looking for. I was happy to see the E21 go to a BMW enthusiest.

I sold the i3 to Carmax for $9K. It had over 80K miles on it and the battery was starting to degrade. Still a great driver, perfect for in town commuting. We just did not need it anymore and wanted a really nice road trip car.

My wife is now daily driving a R53 Mini CooperS, since she only drives 5 miles a day this works great for her. Its a hoot to rip around town in, the supercharger whine is intoxicating.

When we sold the i3 to Carmax they had a 2014 M5 on the lot, I ended up replacing the i3 with what I consider the exact opposite car. LOL!!

I love this M5, it is a monster, yet, is so well behaved at the same time. It purrs along on the interstate at 80mph, the tach right at 2K rpm. It only get 24MPG, but man does it put a smile on my face. Talk about eating up tires, with 265 front 285 rear tires, I can expect 20K miles out of the rears. It will cost me close to 2K to replace all 4. We have had the M5 since Feb 2022, and have only put 4K miles on it so far, we only use it for road trip. We have not taken too many yet, I am hoping to do some more trips this winter and spring.

Will I own another EV? Not sure, right now I am not interested in anything out there. I have my eye on the new Toyota Land Cruiser with the Hybrid Turbo 4cyl setup. That is about as close as I might get to an EV for now.

My i3 ownership was a fun one, I greatly enjoyed the car, it was rock solid and served us well. I am sure in the future I will be forced into another EV when the options for ICE cars run out. For now? I am playing with this M5 some, in 2 years my plan is to sell it and get another used M5, the next one needs to be a Competition model.