Someone school me on i3 shopping

[IamFODI]

Might be buying one in the coming months.

Must be 2016+ and BEV (no REX). Beyond that, I have no strong preferences.

Expecting battery to be a non-issue. This will be for very short trips only (20-40 miles per day), so even a first-gen battery with significant degradation will leave us with overhead most of the time.

Aside from looking for signs of accidents, flood damage, suspension wear, etc., is there anything to look out for? Seems like there's basically nothing to break, and no big-ticket items other than the battery. Can I just buy any car that passes a half-decent PPI?

[Obioban]

Might be buying one in the coming months.

Must be 2016+ and BEV (no REX). Beyond that, I have no strong preferences.

Expecting battery to be a non-issue. This will be for very short trips only (20-40 miles per day), so even a first-gen battery with significant degradation will leave us with overhead.

Aside from looking for signs of accidents, flood damage, suspension wear, etc., is there anything to look out for? Seems like there's basically nothing to break, and no big-ticket items other than the battery. Can I just buy any car that passes a half-decent PPI?

I wouldn't worry about crashes overly much-- the carbon monocoque generally means any sort of significant crash totals them out.

Similarly, there's like 3 controls arms on the car total... not too much possible repair needs there.

Early cars (2014-2015) seem to have unreliable AC compressors, that nuke the system when they fail-- $10,000+ repair. There's been several versions of the AC compressor, and the later cars (2016+) don't seem to suffer it nearly as much.

First gen batteries often suffer a lot of degradation. 20-40 miles on VERY cold days is going to be pushing it in a 2014-2016 car. 2017+, with the 2nd/3rd gen batteries, seem to have very little deg.

engine mounts snapped on 2014s under WOT/launch, but there was a recall for that, so should be addressed in all cars at this point.

DSC got significantly better in 2018.

headlights got better in 2018 (high beams suck on 2014-2017, stock).

Carplay (wireless) got added for 2018.

handling is significantly better in the i3s.

No summer tires sold in this country in 19", so get the dubs if you want to be able to run summers. Or, get the 19s, use them for snows, and buy a set of dubs someone is getting rid of for summers.

REx bad. BEV good.


... other countries have michelin summer (in 19") and winter options. I want. I have only failed to get them so far...

I'd only buy a 2017 or newer. I think the S is worth the extra money, and really I'd get a 2018 for the less annoying DSC and wireless carplay if possible. A sunroof or a REx would be a deal breaker for me.

I'd make sure there was no crash history, that the AC works, make sure it was never smoked in, and call it good.

[Obioban]

Originally wrote this in an email to you, but figured it'll be useful to other people possibly considering an i3...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIP_lThJYWE

Not official, but lets you know the current capacity of the battery. Insurance against buying an i3 with an already failed battery.

14-16 i3's had 22kwh total, of which 18.2 was usable (officially-- many people tested in the 19s when they took delivery. So, if your kappa max measures, say 13.5, the car is at 74% of official original capacity (and probably more like 70% of reality).

You could also use this to your advantage, though a bit of a roll of the dice.

Battery warranty is 8 years/100,000 miles-- if the battery has degraded below 70% of original capacity (not unheard of on 14-16s), you could get it replaced under warranty.

Roll of the dice because the official test is a 5 hour procedure that doesn't always line up 1:1 with the kappa max test, AND there's talk that if it's borderline BMW just software enables a bit of the protection buffer for use-- which means the pack will wear out even faster.

So yeah-- any car you drive, make sure the AC works and do a kappa max test. That should ensure you're not walking into a car with pre existing absurdly expensive repairs.

The battery in the later cars was a drastic upgrade over the 14-16s, outside of capacity. Per samsung, the 94aH battery should degrade to 80% of original capacity at 526,000 miles. The earlier cars do that in 50-100,000 miles. My 94aH car, with 80,000 miles, has degraded 3% from new :P

[IamFODI]

Thanks, Obioban. Great info.

[Da Jemster]

80K already Ian! You've made this the workhorse in your stable.

[Obioban]

80K already Ian! You've made this the workhorse in your stable.

Ha, well...

Anywhere we take the dog and/or toddler, we take the i3 because there's no dynamic driving to be had either way.

and

Gas skyrocketing in price makes it hard to justify taking anything other than the i3 if the drive isn't going to be fun in some way.

Combined means the i3 has been seeing a lot of use.

[elbert]

Reading this thread makes me want to kick myself -- BMW had killer i3 lease deals last year (something like $199/mo, $0 down), but I found out about two months too late.
Anyway, carry on...