Which years for which options

[gcvpi09]

Hi Everyone, looking to buy my first i3, very excited.

I'm looking for an i3 that has tech package, leather, and sunroof. Honestly, I'm surprised at how difficult it is to find one!

Ideally, I'm looking for a 2018 or later as I prefer the facelifted look, but the only i3's that I've been able to find with the options I list above are 2017 or older.

Is this to be expected? Was there a change in 2018 as to how options were distributed/packages put together?

any guidance on this is appreciated, thanks!

 

[SSi3]

What country are you in? Options and packages were different in every country.

 

[eNate]

I suspect there are at least two factors.

US i3 sales peaked in 2015 at 11,000 units.

They decreased to 7,500 in 2016, then 6,000 for two years, then 5,000 in 2019, and only 1,500 in their final year.

So there's some simple scarcity with later production.

But I think more importantly, '18 has higher desirability because of the facelift, and 2019+ because of the larger battery.

I expect owners of those cars are more likely to hold on to them, and when they hit the market, they're quicker to go.

I am one of those owners who owned a 2017 for two years and sought out a 2021 for the improvements to and which I intend to keep for a long time.

 

[alohart]

I'm looking for an i3 that has tech package, leather, and sunroof. Honestly, I'm surprised at how difficult it is to find one!

Ideally, I'm looking for a 2018 or later as I prefer the facelifted look, but the only i3's that I've been able to find with the options I list above are 2017 or older.

The sunroof requirement will really limit your choices. When I was looking for a 2019 or later i3, my requirements were Giga World (partial leather, 2nd-highest trim level), BEV, and tech package. Even without the sunroof requirement, it took me over a year to find what I was looking for. There were far more REx models sent to the U.S. compared with BEV models. Almost all later model i3's seem to be the lowest Deka World trim level which is missing some features included in Giga and Tera (full leather) Worlds. I was surprised by how many later i3's do not include the tech package.

I enlisted the help of IQAutos Buying Service which found the 2019 i3 that I bought. It was at an auction house far from my home which allowed me to save some money buying "as is" with no dealer prep and having only photos and a condition report to help with my purchase decision. I would have not discovered this i3 until it had been shipped across the country to IQAutos, and prepped. The shipping cost back to where I reside would have been much higher as well.

Good luck!

 

[eNate]

Art makes a good point.

My current i3 is fairly well equipped but I only found it because I jumped off my preferred app, Car Gurus, and ventured over to either Cars.com or Auto Trader (well... both, actually, but I don't remember which one got me the hit).

I assumed Car Gurus was a car sales aggregator, scraping data from other sites, but no, apparently not.

The sales person at the dealership I bought the car from said they stopped advertising on Car Gurus because they had jacked up their listing fees, plain and simple.

As a result (I assume), this particular mostly loaded i3 sat on their lot from February through August with 20 or so miles on it when I flew across the country to rescue it. They actual knocked the price down without me barely asking.

This while dealers with similarly equipped i3s were asking insane markups – height of the pandemic and recently announced end of the i3 in the US.

So yeah, search often, and make sure you're using all available resources. This may even include i3 groups on Facebook, where i3s are often listed first.

 

[frictioncircle]

Ideally, I'm looking for a 2018 or later as I prefer the facelifted look, but the only i3's that I've been able to find with the options I list above are 2017 or older.

Helllo gcvpi09 –

2017 models and earlier are fitted with LED low beam headlights + separate, circular, halogen high-beam lamps located below the LEDs. My first i3 was a 2014 and this is not a great lighting setup.

From the 2018 model year, all lighting is LED.

Not sure where you're located, but if you're in an urban environment the LED / halogen combo is tolerable considering there aren't many opportunities to use high beams in a city.

In 2018 BMW upgraded the i3 to all-LED lighting and its high-beam performance is a worthwhile upgrade if you drive in a normally-dark area.

 

[gcvpi09]

Hi everyone, very helpful. I live in a rural area, so the comments on the lighting upgrade are particularly important.

I'm also learning that anything before 2018 and i'll have to add apple carplay, correct me if i'm wrong there.