What Car? BMW i3 long-termer

[Paul1886]

Hi John,

Any chance you could share you experience of Driving Assistant Plus?...... I have it ordered on mine, seems a little scary though!

Paul

 

[johnmcilroy]

Paul,

I will certainly be reporting on Driver Assistance Plus. I've already experienced the emergency city braking system a couple of times; it seems a more intelligent system than the one that was on my previous long-termer, the Audi A3 Sportback.

In the meantime, the second weekly report is now live at http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/march/1284421

This Friday, on the same page and in glorious detail, the dramas of trying to charge the thing in London - in a car park with six 13/32A charging points, only one of which is in any sort of working order…

Regards to all,

John

 

[kentheteaman]

Hi John,

Any chance you could share you experience of Driving Assistant Plus?...... I have it ordered on mine, seems a little scary though!

Paul

Hi Paul.

I have driven about 1,800KM so far.
I love the Driving with cruise control which self adjusts for the speed in the car in front. It comes a to stop if the car in front stops as well.

Nowadays I hardly use my foot for accelerating. I simply flick the buttons to stop or start the cruise control button when I come to a corner or to a traffic light.

It is a bliss, indeed.

However, I am not so sure about Driving assistant plus. I have not learnt how to use it yet.

regards,
ken

 

[johnmcilroy]

One of my colleagues tried the i3 last night and came in this morning raving about the Traffic Jam Assistant; we'll post a full update on it next week.

In the meantime, I've posted a (lengthy) update this morning on the perils of charging the car up in London recently.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/march/1284421

 

[Paul1886]

Great read John, Thanks

It is a worry however that if they can't get charging sorted in London then what hope is there anywhere else.

Should have mine a week from now, so I can face these challenges for myself.

Paul

 

[Plug]

One of my colleagues tried the i3 last night and came in this morning raving about the Traffic Jam Assistant

I used the Traffic Jam thingy for the 3rd time today. The first couple of times was only for a few mins at a time and I wasn't sure about how useful it is but having now used it for longer I'm convinced, it's well programmed and controls all of the variables smoothly and intelligently.

For anyone still spec'ing their i3, my recommendation is see if you can get the DAP in there somehow. So glad I made the decision to change my order to drop the metallic paint/big wheels and go for the DAP instead.

 

[MikeS]

Fine if you could get the Drive Assistant Plus (DAP) without also paying £1000 or more for the ‘upgraded’ interiors!!

 

[johnmcilroy]

This week's update on the What Car? long-term i3 REX has now gone live - I've been playing around with the smartphone app.

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/april/1288838

Regards to all,

John

 

[electricvirgin]

The Smartphone App is clearly a very useful tool for i3, and something i have not seen in a car before.

I had a 'conventional' BMW a couple of years ago which had 'Connected Drive' which was far from intuitive to set up (dealer tried but no help really!) but when done was useful. Sending addresses to sat nav was the most helpful feature i think.

My i3 is not due until the end of august, can anyone offer any advice on how to get ready for whole connected drive/app side of things please?

 

[Paul1886]

Hi John,

Had mine for 10 days now and loving it but have a few problems, most annoying is the active cruise control won't even activate in low early morning sunshine or heavy rain and drops out quite regularly when it is operating.

Have had 3 "Drivetrain" error messages but the car works OK and the faults go away eventually.

Does traffic jam assist only work on motorways?.... I get a message to this effect when I press the button

Be interested to know if you had any similar experiences?

Paul

 

[Paul1886]

BTW I had a few problems with getting the Connected drive thing working. I signed up a few days early (you have to have the VIN from your dealer) but I was not sent a text message with my login.

When I picked the car up (Saturday) I still had not received it, dealer made a call and promised it would be OK in a couple of hours, it wasn't.... had to call BMW HQ on the Monday who eventually gave me my login over the phone (something they don't like doing).... working a treat since then.

 

[johnmcilroy]

Hello all,

More thoughts on the i3 and the BMW wall box in this week's update:

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/april/1288838

Regards to all,

John

 

[fenlander]

There are some advantages to the BMW wall box:

1. It has a shelf where you can stow your driving gloves while you plug in.
2. It has a built in cupboard. No really, it does. The central part opens up with enough space to store something that you don't mind getting nicked because it doesn't have a lock.
3. Those of us early Leaf adopters remember the pain of software revisions while the standards worked themselves out. Taking a BMW wallbox in theory gives a ready-tested solution and someone to blame when it does go wrong rather than starting an enjoying game of pass-the-buck.
4. The cable is actually really nice. It's slinky in a way that other EVSEs cables are not.

The downsides though:

1. Size. It's huge, but does perhaps have less depth than some of the alternatives, so in confined spaces it actually wins.
2. Nowhere obvious to store the cable when not in use. Most people seem to just wrap it around and hope it doesn't fall off.
3. Shorter cable than some of the alternative EVSEs.

 

[johnmcilroy]

Hi all,

We're still racking up miles in our i3 REX at What Car?. This week, I've been wondering why the Eco Pro mode can't cut in automatically - or stay activated once I've pressed the button…

http://t.co/wevEAGTaeh

Regards to all,

John

 

[Paul1886]

Hi John,

Yes me too, wish I could either make the car remember where I last set the Eco mode or just let me choose a default in the iDrive.

Just been reading your take on the ride quality...... interesting, I find the car very jittery and nervous on the potholes, especially hitting one (or more) while corning but overall it's not the back breaking ride I get from my 335d M Sport Coupe when traversing the same potholes..... although the 335d is not nearly as nervous.

 

[johnmcilroy]

I'm wondering, would any owners be interested in a meet-up that we could then feature editorially in What Car? If there's enough interest then we could have it here at our offices (which have three or four 32A chargers, so people could juice up while they're here).

We're based in Teddington, south-west London - would anyone be interested in a summer evening get-together? Couple of restaurants right next door etc…?

Kind regards,

John

 

[evdriver123]

I'm wondering, would any owners be interested in a meet-up that we could then feature editorially in What Car? If there's enough interest then we could have it here at our offices (which have three or four 32A chargers, so people could juice up while they're here).

We're based in Teddington, south-west London - would anyone be interested in a summer evening get-together? Couple of restaurants right next door etc…?

Kind regards,

John

Hi John,

I work for a BMW dealer and have been driving the i3 both at work and personally since the launch mid-November last year. I'd certainly be interested in coming along in one of our cars and sharing some information/views which may be beneficial to others too?

All the best,
Ricky

 

[johnmcilroy]

Ricky,

Thanks for that. It'll be interesting to see if non-BMW-affiliated owners are keen to meet up too. Depending on timings and how many are going to come along, we could look at getting a BMW rep from Bracknell to pop along and meet customers too.

Perhaps I should stick this in a new thread?

Regards to all,

John

 

[MikeS]

May need to wait a while before there are enough in public hands before you get a large response. The 7 month plus waiting in the UK is significantly slowing down the ownership.

 

[Bunter]

I'm wondering, would any owners be interested in a meet-up that we could then feature editorially in What Car? If there's enough interest then we could have it here at our offices (which have three or four 32A chargers, so people could juice up while they're here).

We're based in Teddington, south-west London - would anyone be interested in a summer evening get-together? Couple of restaurants right next door etc…?

Kind regards,

John

I'd definitely be interested but would need some level 3 chargers en route to make it feasible (BEV).

Cheers

Bill