potential wear and tear problems

[zsoltmag]

This summer I was at BMW Welt in Munich and there are few examples of i3 people can check out, including the first one which went on display there.
You can sit into it, slam the doors, open the trunk etc.
I noticed few problems on it due to this extensive usage. As per the girl working there, taking the number of visitors into account, she would estimate that the car is around 6 years old, from the usage perspective.
I took pictures of the things I found, you can see them here http://1drv.ms/1rUu3tB
- sealing rubber at the front lover part of the main door
- sealing rubber at the upper back corner of the main door
- upper back corner of the door itself (chipped off)
The problems were present on both sides of the car i.e. both doors

I asked if BMW is aware of this, and she said, yes, but was not very convincing
She said, that it is a "preproduction" car, but I'm not sure if in the "production" car they made any changes.
So just pay a bit of an attention to these parts, especially when you are entering the car, do not rub the rubber with your shoe sole. I'm not sure how could you avoid the two other problems though.

Enjoy your i3, if all well, mine should arrive in about 2 months.

 

[jackt]

I don't this much of any issue in the real world. A static example of a car always wears badly, the Model S in Westfield London has very similar wear (or it did have when I was last there, they may have swapped it out)

In general anything in a museum type setting that is touchable by the great unwashed masses will take an absolute pasting in terms of wear and tear.

 

[viking79]

The door corner might be legitimate issue if you have other people using the rear doors a lot. I wonder what will happen if you slam the back door the same time as the front door, or slam the back door after the front is already closed. This is a situation that could be avoided, but if you have kids you know these situations are difficult to avoid.

The weather sealing on the bottom could be worn from kids standing on it or picking at it in some way, so I wouldn't necessarily consider that an issue.

Eric

 

[jadnashuanh]

The front door's latch is on the back door, so there's nothing for the front door to latch onto if the rear isn't already closed. Essentially, it just bounces off the frame.