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Just had BMW on the phone to book my car in for a non-safety recall - inspect the REx spline[1] and do a s/w update. It'll take 3 days! So some fairly major dismantling, I imagine. Asked her about the KLE but she knew nothing about it. Anyone else had this recall? [1] I know nothing about how...

Car just stopped dead. Plenty of battery - but now nothing. Can't get anything to light up - not even hazards. BMW are sending truck. But, i'm blocking road. Parking brake seems to be on : HOW DO I MANUALLY OVERRIDE so I can push car?

OK, I'm gathering more data now. The question I'm trying answer is whether the i3 has any vampiric tendencies as per the Tesla. What I have noticed is that SOC and predicted range *do* change while parked, turned off and not plugged in - and I've not noticed that change to ever be an increase...

I've now got ConnectedDrive up and running and can amuse myself by watching the car's status as it charges. I've also started recording a whole load of metrics at the start and end of journeys. And these combined observations are raising some questions/oddities. For example, it'll charge up to...

I've noticed that the nav system seems to understand car ferries. I live within 20 miles of the Pompey ferry port and I've noticed that sometimes my range extends the length of the Cherbourg peninsula. I say "sometimes" as the option is not always there (although the Isle of Wight is) - as this...

Everyone asks "so, how far can you go?" Before I got the car I had to shrug and say "the brochure says 83 miles - but who knows?" Now I've had the car a week, I can say "I still have no idea!". Promised range is subject to such a huge number of variables it seems. Not just comfort/eco/eco+...

To charge, you have to (i) push to open the flap, (ii) remove plastic protective caps from socket, and (iii) plug in. Finishing charging is the reverse - except that (ii) can be a bit fiddly. I'm wondering just how necessary stage (ii) actually is. Could I remove the caps and turn the operation...

I've been experimenting with setting a departure time and allowing the car to pre-heat in the morning. A couple of things I've noticed: The car seems to need to be charging the battery in order to pre-heat. I had a peek at progress 30 minutes before departure time and nothing had started yet...

When I give the car a departure time and set the preconditioning option, what actually happens? Does it just turn the climate control on 30 minutes before you leave? I'd like it to "over-heat" to really warm the car up and I'd like it to fire up the windscreen de-mister/de-froster if it's icy...

Digging around the menus, I found an option to increase charging to "max" while charging on the 3-pin socket. So what have I actually changed? Have I increased the current draw (and therefore reduced charging time)? Is this OK? There were no warnings when I set this option - but I'm wondering...

Is it deliberate?

A question for those who've got your cars: is plugging in the charger simple or fiddly? In an ideal world, you'd approach the "filler" cap with a charger in hand and the cap would slickly, automatically open science-fiction style. While I realise we're probably not quite at that stage yet, I...

I'll admit to not having searched very hard but I'm not seeing the i3 listed on the insurance comparator sites yet. Anyone seen it anywhere - or am I going to have to start actually phoning people up like we did back in the dark ages of the 20th Century?

My car-buying modus operandi is to pay cash for a new car and own it for donkey's years. However, I'm wondering if I ought to be more cautious with this new tech machine. If it really doesn't cut the mustard then the ability to hand it back at known cost after 2 or 3 years might be attractive...

http://www.bmwblog.com/2013/10/12/bmw-i3-first-drive-review-avant-garde-voltage/ Another positive write-up. Hope they're cranking them out over in Germany - really want to get hold of mine.

Having leaped in and ordered an i3 entirely sight unseen, I was a little apprehensive when I went along to the "sneak preview" this evening. Fortunately, I came away very happy - it's exactly what I'd hoped it would be. More importantly, Mrs SS also liked it! The slight worries I had were...

I was curious as to what would happen should I try and plug an i3 into an Ecotricity (clean electricity company in the UK who have free charge points across the country) charge point. So I emailed BMW and Ecotricity. BMW have utterly failed to respond (very disappointing) but Ecotricity's...

The i3 will be my first BMW so I'm not totally familiar with which phones integrate best with the info-system of BMW cars. Reading around the web, the simple answer seems to be iPhones. However, I'm really not a fan of getting locked into Jobs' proprietary closed garden world - however good the...

Just had a thought; presumably the REx model has an exhaust pipe that'll ruin the purity of the shape of my EV. Unless, being such a small powerplant, BMW have managed to hide it away under the body or something. Anyone seen a REx model and noticed?

I've been researching the availability of public charge points in the UK and it looks like a nightmare of competing subscription based companies and incompatible infrastructure. As far as I can tell, the most common systems offer the 3 hour charge with an EU standard connector - although the...