Returning my i3 for a refund

[Gonville]

Either they have a really laid back personality where nothing bothers them no matter how much something disrupts their life, money to burn

....not that laid back....just really looking forward to my three day test drive tomorrow. Just wish I didn't have to wait 6 months to share the experiences.

....or it's secretly people from BMW trying to do damage control to this post. For those of you think BMW wouldn't secretly contribute to this post posing as an i3 owner, please don't be naive. Companies do this all the time to put out fires.

....don't think so. I believe they are an engineering company who build innovative cars. They have no need to employ that sort of subterfuge.

I am sad that the dealer hasn't been more helpful.

As for the comment on warranty I'll ask my dealer tomorrow. Maybe we can get an email from BMW?

 

[TomMoloughney]

I bought my i3 with range extender on May 28th and love it so far. I have seen the engine light come on and didn't know what that meant until now. The dealer had no idea! Glad to hear it is no big deal. Have not had any other problems as described here. So far i have been charging on public level 2 chargers or the 110 plug until I get my i3 charger installed.

I don't think you should assume it's "no big deal" and keep driving!
If it is a big deal and you keep driving, you will void your warranty!!

The dealers are telling us "It's no big deal" so that's why we are saying it. The CEL is coming on for just about every i3 REx owner in the US. I've had mine to the dealer and they read and clear the fault codes and just send you along. They cannot do anything about it because there is nothing to "fix" because the car is working fine. The light is illuminating without issue, and it's some kind of software bug that must in some way be related to the the fact that they decreased the gas tank just before they released the cars here. I'm sure we'll get a "software update needed" call from our dealers soon. BMW just needs to isolate the cause, fix it and send the update to the dealers. Mine comes on and then goes away just about every day. It certainly isn't ideal but knowing that it isn't an actual problem is enough to pacify me for now, just fix the damn thing soon and we'll be happy!

 

[electricvirgin]

Whilst i am sympathetic with the original posters genuine issues i think the statement that his post would be the most important on the board alongside the extensive use of capitals made me think twice about his messages content. Subsequent posts relating to dirty fingernails and elitism only served to heighten my concerns.

I guess its only natural for most of us on this forum to be both broadly positive about the i3 and perhaps a little defensive too. So its only right and proper that we all feel comfortable about negative as well as positive impressions of the car.

Whilst i would be inclined to give the car a bit more time to prove itself i can understand RoboBMR's disappointment and once lost confidence can be hard to regain.

Its just a shame that he prefaced his remarks with how important they were when similar experiences had been shared previously with less fanfare. Incidentally the remarks about BMW creating fake posts as damage control/PR is possible of course, equally likely is that some posts are from BMW's competition. For what its worth i suspect neither is the case, but nothing can be ruled out!

 

[I33t]

It's just the age we live in.

Sure, the i3 should be perfect at delivery. This is the real world however, and it's not so easy for a car to be designed from scratch, built in a factory that was also designed from scratch and come out with perfect results in the first iteration of that car. While the faults, especially those on the US Rex look to be annoying it is early days and a lot of us would trust BMW to put these things right. Regardless of our personal situations, they have to do this if the model is to have a long term future.

Try looking at the camera forums. You'll find people who buy high end cameras to take photos of their pets and complain about the most irrelevant and minor faults with the camera as if it is the end of the world. The internet has bred a species of human that complains loudly. I'm fine with people complaining loudly, the rest of us just need to keep the complaints in context.

I would expect BMW is totally across this issue and is ready to take an i3 back if the owner is unable to bear any teething problems that occur. It sounds like this might be the case in this instance but it remains to be seen how costly that might be for the OP. Sounds like we will be finding out!

 

[buickanddeere]

A few responses have been surprising. The people out there who have a "it's not a big deal" attitude really shocked me. Either they have a really laid back personality where nothing bothers them no matter how much something disrupts their life, money to burn or it's secretly people from BMW trying to do damage control to this post. For those of you think BMW wouldn't secretly contribute to this post posing as an i3 owner, please don't be naive. Companies do this all the time to put out fires.
I don't have money to burn or an unlimited amount of time to keep taking the car back to the dealer for service. If people out there like that exist, I'll trade lives with you.
For the people who think these issues are "no big deal", we'll have to agree to disagree.

I am raising three teenagers, been married to the same woman for 25years, have livestock, grow crops,work in the nuclear industry, have other stuff besides grease under my nails and let the government take more than half my wages in taxes. A vehicle flashing some dash lamps isn't going to raise my blood pressure.

 

[buickanddeere]

Not to be too thick but where is the 12v battery located?

It's up front, on the right side:

Thanks for the battery image. What a swine to access.
As previously stated, pulling fuse(s) that power the processor(s) is going to be the "get home" solution.

 

[woof]

Any new car model, or even a major refresh of an older model, has issues. Some way worse than this. "Never buy the first year of a car model" is a standard refrain, as it takes time to work out the bugs.

On previous cars I've had it they fixed it on the next years model, but never "back-ported" the fix to the car I owned. The only way to get the fix was to trade up. Manny issues are now fixable in software so its likely you'll actually get a fix applied to your car.

I like being on the bleeding edge, as it makes the stories that much more interesting. But it's certainly not for everyone. So wait two years and try again when the 2016 i3 comes out. It'll be rock solid "old tech" by then.

--Woof!

 

[CompuMagic]

I bought my i3 with range extender on May 28th and love it so far. I have seen the engine light come on and didn't know what that meant until now. The dealer had no idea! Glad to hear it is no big deal. Have not had any other problems as described here. So far i have been charging on public level 2 chargers or the 110 plug until I get my i3 charger installed.

I don't think you should assume it's "no big deal" and keep driving!
If it is a big deal and you keep driving, you will void your warranty!!

The dealers are telling us "It's no big deal" so that's why we are saying it. The CEL is coming on for just about every i3 REx owner in the US. I've had mine to the dealer and they read and clear the fault codes and just send you along. They cannot do anything about it because there is nothing to "fix" because the car is working fine. The light is illuminating without issue, and it's some kind of software bug that must in some way be related to the the fact that they decreased the gas tank just before they released the cars here. I'm sure we'll get a "software update needed" call from our dealers soon. BMW just needs to isolate the cause, fix it and send the update to the dealers. Mine comes on and then goes away just about every day. It certainly isn't ideal but knowing that it isn't an actual problem is enough to pacify me for now, just fix the damn thing soon and we'll be happy!

Tom I have yet to see this light come on in my REx I got on May 28th, but I have not used the gas generator yet, so I wonder if that has to be used for this light to start flaking out.
How many of you have seen it come on and have not used the REx gas engine yet? I did not read every single post here so maybe someone already answered.
Thanks

 

[MikeS]

[/quote]

I am raising teenagers, been married to the same woman for 25years, have livestock, grow crops,work in the nuclear industry and let the government take more than half my wages in taxes. A vehicle flashing some dash lamps isn't going to raise my blood pressure.[/quote]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Gonville]

I am raising teenagers, been married to the same woman for 25years, have livestock, grow crops,work in the nuclear industry and let the government take more than half my wages in taxes. A vehicle flashing some dash lamps isn't going to raise my blood pressure.

loving that.

 

[bxb40]

I was under the impression that the Rex in EU needs to start once in a while to keep itself in check, even if you have enough SOC remaining. But in US the software restricts it above 6% SOC so maybe it is this conflicting scenario that causes the CEL. Would be interesting to know what the code actually is and how BMW will fix it. If they simply remove the self_check I am not sure it is fine, was there for a reason in the first place...

 

[jadnashuanh]

There are at least three functional differences in control of the REx in the USA verses the rest of the world as I understand it:
- USA can't turn the REx on at will, regardless of the battery status
- USA's REx fuel tank is smaller to meet the 'electric range must be equal or greater than the REx range'
- USA's REx automatically turns on at (maybe?) a different level than those elsewhere.

I'd heard, in some of the original posts (prior to actual USA release) that the user could turn the REx on when the battery level got below about 18-20%, but do not know if that changed in the final release. How much that affects the vehicle's programming, I do not know, but it would affect the remaining range calculations and the display (if you have the Professional Nav option).

IOW, the software cannot be the same based on our country specific requirements, and some of those changed at the last moment. Changing s/w is sometimes quick and easy, but then validating it takes some time before it can be released. You wouldn't want it to be like a Windows release, and have to stop and reboot the vehicle for it to move or be safe. An idiot light, to me, doesn't seem all that bad!

 

[znino]

We've had our i3 REx for 4 days. Check engine light came on on day 2. Dealer had it overnight and reported that there is a software issue resulting in error codes. According to the dealer, relayed they said from BMW North America, the software is being revised and will be installed sometime in the next month. I was told that in the meantime we were likely to see the check engine light come on, but that the car should continue to work fine and it was OK to continue to drive it with the check engine light on. So far, after just a few hours of operation, that prediction seems accurate.

My experience to the letter. Glad to know I am not the only one!

 

[bxb40]

Well, what would be good to confirm is if any Rex owner in US had the engine self-check take place while they had an almost full battery, because in EU they have the engine come on for short period of time once in awhile (I guess the software decide when and under what conditions).

 

[ocblueone]

After just 6 days of ownership my new I3 also experienced drivetrain issues and stopped me dead in the middle of a one lane high speed road for an hour and a half waiting for BMW roadside assistance. Apparently a part is needed that is backordered from BMW, which will take 15 days to get and another day or two to install. Very disappointed as it seems this technology was not ready for prime time.

 

[fdl1409]

Had my REx 4 weeks and 1.000 miles today and so far have not noticed a self check. Still have to burn my first drip of fuel.

Frank

 

[drb]

I purchased the i3 knowing that there would be more than a few "niggles" (a lovely term used by one of our British friends on this web site) along the way. The i3 is not just a new product; it is not even just a new electric vehicle. It is state of the art technology and just perhaps a fresh start to the world of automobile transportation. I am excited by the "newness" of the i3 and what it represents for the future. I can handle the niggles so long as I know that BMW is working to find their source and correct them. This web site is a great place to identify the niggles and make them known to the company. I have to believe that a company that has invested so much money in the technology and engineering of this product will want it in daily use plagued by issues that in so many cases of technological innovation only appear after the product is tested in the real world. The laboratory is one thing; the streets of Los Angeles are another. For those of us who frequent this web site let me say, we have not just purchased or leased another new car; rather, we are engaged in something of an adventure that if we are not prepared to enjoy it and meet the challenges, then we should buy something more conventional. For those who are dissatisfied with the car, by all means get rid of it. But for the rest of us, let us sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[RoboBMR]

Nice speech drb,

The great thing about the internet is something called FREEDOM OF SPEECH. If you don't like the information you're reading, change the channel. This post was not intended to make you feel warm and fuzzy. You'll have to seek your joy elsewhere. Perhaps Disneyland.

UPDATE: The check engine light came on again for the 4th time. Still pushing forward with the "buy back".

 

[I33t]

RoboBMR, you have expressed your free speech. No need to then tell others than can't express their own.

drb does seem to reflect the majority of users here though. This is not your father's BMW In fact there was an article I read the other day that suggested the i3 is pulling buyers from other brands more than any other car.

What is the offer for your buyback?

 

[MikeS]

Nice speech drb,

The great thing about the internet is something called FREEDOM OF SPEECH. If you don't like the information you're reading, change the channel. This post was not intended to make you feel warm and fuzzy. You'll have to seek your joy elsewhere. Perhaps Disneyland.

UPDATE: The check engine light came on again for the 4th time. Still pushing forward with the "buy back".

Why bother mention the check engine light given all of the info you have seen about that indicator? It sounds to me more like you have just changed your mind about owning the car and are trying to wriggle out of the deal.