SF Bay Area: purchasing 2017 i3 REX/Tech.Package/Parking Assist.

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fbt12

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 28, 2019
Messages
50
Hi ---

So, finally found one that is in my pricing range ($21k) along with the options that i want --- REX, Tech Package and Parking Assistance. Have a few questions:

1. Which Northern California BMW dealership is the best for warranty service and/or standard maintenance?
San Rafael (where i am purchasing), SF, Mountain View, Stevens Creek, Weatherford.....?

2. What have been your real life 110vac charging times? I am probably gonna put less than 50 miles a day and will be trying 110 charging for a bit.

3. Anyone have opinions about JulceBox Pro 40amp sold @ Costco? I am looking for a charger that will let me set the charging times separate from the car itself.

4. mobile phone holder and location? I typically use Waze. with i3, i want to use both when i am traveling from SFO to Pleasanton to deal with possible alternate routes.

Thanx for any opinions and advice.
 
Using the 120v AC @ 12A (the included Level 1 charger), on my 94 Ah i3 (2017, 33 kWh battery, like yours), I get a 25% charge over 8 hours, or just over 1 kW per hour.

Conservatively that's 1 mile of range per battery percentage point, or 25 miles of range for 8 hours of charging, but in reality that plays out to be closer to 35 miles (or 1.4 miles per percent of battery charge, driving somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.4 miles per kWh).

I ought to begin tracking my mileage / battery usage. I've become accustom to ballparking my three most common drives as needing about 10% of my battery, but this varies based on how much fast freeway driving is involved, vs. heavy traffic or driving on the streets.

Thankfully, public chargers are abundant in the bay area, and in 6 weeks of ownership I've used a Level 3 station on four occasions for a quick 30 minute top-off.

I'm curious about phone mounts, too. I have about a dozen in my Amazon cart hoping one is "the one." I'm looking for one that's unobtrusive and will stick to the flat vertical surface that faces the windshield, in front of the i3's LCD screen. That would be a good place to mount the phone in landscape orientation and not block the car's main display, AND be close enough to reach the screen. Currently I run Waze or Maps and stash the phone down low in the cup holder. The i3's navigation has been surprisingly usable for me, particularly with respect to traffic-dynamic ETAs and eco-routing (something missing from Maps and Waze).
 
FWIW, your range estimates will be more accurate if you use the internal nav system with a destination set. If you do set a destination, it takes into account the speed limits and terrain when calculating how far you can be expected to go and can suggest stops for recharging, if necessary. Otherwise, it uses previous history which may not be accurate for your anticipated route since you have not told it!

The internal maps don't show all available charging opportunities, but also keep in mind, you need to update the maps. The newest MY may now do OTA map updates (not sure), but the older ones definitely do not.
 
fbt12 said:
Hi ---

So, finally found one that is in my pricing range ($21k) along with the options that i want --- REX, Tech Package and Parking Assistance. Have a few questions:

1. Which Northern California BMW dealership is the best for warranty service and/or standard maintenance?
San Rafael (where i am purchasing), SF, Mountain View, Stevens Creek, Weatherford.....?

2. What have been your real life 110vac charging times? I am probably gonna put less than 50 miles a day and will be trying 110 charging for a bit.

3. Anyone have opinions about JulceBox Pro 40amp sold @ Costco? I am looking for a charger that will let me set the charging times separate from the car itself.

4. mobile phone holder and location? I typically use Waze. with i3, i want to use both when i am traveling from SFO to Pleasanton to deal with possible alternate routes.

Thanx for any opinions and advice.

Cool another future Bay Area owner.

1. The trick with BMW is that they don't necessarily share information. This applies to private sales or a non-BMW car dealer. AKA, getting a non CPO car. If you go to a BMW dealer for maintenance and not mention that you're the second owner and it's not a CPO car, chances are that they'll grant you the maintenance for free which would've gone to the original owner (up to 50k miles). The second time you go, they'll somehow know that you're the second owner and you didn't pay for the transfer of the maintenance which is $700 last time I checked. Then you move onto the the next dealer who you hope again doesn't know you're the second owner of a non-CPO car. Rinse and repeat until you hit 50k miles.

2. Don't buy the i3 if it's your primary vehicle and you plan on using Level 1 at home exclusively. You'll hate yourself for it. It took me 13-14 hours to fully charge. The pricing on yours seems like a 2016 which is the low range one. If you have the mid range, maybe you can get away with it.

3. I have the Juice Box Pro. No opinions on it. It does what it's supposed to do. It's easier to set the charging time with the car's app as opposed to the Juicebox app. I actually wish I didn't spend the money on the Wifi version. I never really use it. Kind of redundant.

4. I use the magnet ones. If you're a stickler for looks on the phone like I am and don't want that ugly thing on the back, know that you can hide it between the inside of hte phone case and the phone assuming your case isn't too thick. it works for me and it goes right on the right side vent. They go for about $7 or less on Aliexpress.
 
Appreciate all the feedback!


Bought the 2017 BMW i3 with REx, Technology Package and Parking Assist on Halloween. Played with the 110vac charging. Yup. LONG time! Popped for the Juice Box (Costco return policy was the decider). Also went for BimmerCode to enable use of more of the tank. So much to learn. I feel like i just bought a new computer with a new OS that i am trying to use.

For my iPhone mount, i used --- https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GHV33KY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used the magnet mounts on my Mini and it worked fine.I decided to change so the metal plates would not interfere with wireless changing.

So much to learn....but i am enjoying the experience of driving my first EV.
 
Sweet. The more you drive it, the more you'll love it. Reach out if you need help with anything. I'm local for you.
 
Congratulations!

I am also in the Bay Area and looking to get an i3 in the next couple of months. Which dealer did you end up buying from? And, how was your experience?

Thanks,

Ali
 
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