Trying out the i8
 

This never happens in NY and I've always been jealous that people in other states go to the dealer and they are given a car to test drive overnight ... well that has changed ... for the first time I have been offered a car to test drive not one night but the entire labor day weekend ... I picked this cool car up earlier today and have to return it tuesday afternoon ... I'll give more details on the car but so far wow pretty cool !!!

Wow, that is pretty cool.

Interested in your impressions--I found it pretty hard to even get out of!

So… Mudgeonfest is this weekend at AF's house, right?

I'm curious what you think about it. I don't think I'd ever be interested in one, but I'm intrigued by the approach BMW took...

Do you need anything special to plug it in?

Awesome! :thumbup:

I was curious so did some searching. Appears the car comes with a 120V charging cable that just plugs in to a regular household outlet. Considering the battery is only 7kWh, and that 120V outlets put out about 1kW continuous, that means the max charging time is 7 hours.

BMWs site also shows a really large (and quite ugly) wall charger is optional. But it's just a standard 240V J1772 connector. BMW says it charges the i8 in 2 hours max, so the i8 must have only a 3.6kW on board charger (1/3 of the Tesla stock charger)...

Sweet! Let's hear more.

Very cool! Was it some sort of special promotion?

Yea, the I8s aren't selling for shit and they have a BMW customer w/ an R8 and 911 promotion

Josh PA, is that a national program?

:lol:

+1... Haha

Not a program, just a smart salesman that knows when to take a shot

:lol:

No its regional. In Arlington they're running the I8s aren't selling for shit so if you used to be a BMW customer but now have a Tesla and a Boxster, we'll give you a bat shit crazy discount to take one out of our inventory.

Quick review ... This is not a 911 or R8 replacement, heck I wouldn't say it's an M4 replacement either ... With that said it is a really cool car and I am now definitely considering one but the problem would be I wouldn't want it to replace either of my sports cars ... Maybe I can get away with having it as a 4th car for myself :D. Totally kidding but it would be nice.


Coming off the line I feel a delay it can be the drive by wire, I'm not sure but it doesn't leap off the line. The power is very good and the car moves really well here comes the buts ... The gas engine is a 3 cylinder so I'm sure the exhaust and sound aren't there but BMW like you all know gives you fake engine noise which I have to say is really growelly (is that a word?) and mean sounding but it is not natural like my other 2 cars ... Guys like us can totally tell it's fake.

I am trying to explain this the best I can, this is a great car and it drives really well but it is kind of like a sporty coupe drive in a very sexy body.

Gull wing doors: I need to talk about this, when the bmw rep first let me sit in it and he closed the door I got an immediate claustrophobic feel ... I opened the window right away to make sure I could fit through it just in case the door gets stuck ... It is a very weird feeling and I remember feeling the same exact thing when my friend let me sit in his Lamborghini countach replica ...that scissor door and half window freaked me out.

The car is missing some things I am guessing to cut down on the usage of the battery like there is no power tilt/telescoping steering wheel, no memory seats, no blind side assistance, etc. strange for a $150k car plus the battery range is ridiculous, it shows like 20 miles or something like that.
Btw you get a lot of attention driving this car especially when opening the gull wing doors but when I see this car next to the R8 it looks like a futuristic car but not a mean looking bad ass like the R8.

The handling feels good but again this is not a sports car, I am not a crazy driver so I won't get to the limits but it doesn't have the same feel as the 911 or the R8.

Overall it is a car you can use every day and feel comfortable ... It has the cool looks of a super car with the drive of a good sports coupe ... It would be perfect for the older gentleman except getting in and out of it is a real bitch ... As the BMW rep told me ... Ass first getting in and you'll be fine.

Welcome back i8

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Keeper or weekend test drive?

This one i’m keeping for about 9-10 days, it’s my brothers car, he gave it to me to play around with it ... being the good brother I am I was like well you don’t need one of my sports cars do you ... lol I gave him the A6 :D

:lol:

After driving this car for the last almost week with a couple of those days going to the R8 for comparison reasons I have to say I REALLY am loving this car. It is such a livable car, besides for getting in and out of it which you could never look cool doing it is really cool. It is very comfortable, it is super fast, it looks pretty cool (though not as hot as the R8) and crazy enough i’m getting over 26 mpg which is just sooo weird.

I would definitely consider doing what my brother did which is he took over a short term lease, I think he has it for a total of 16 months and it costs him if I remember correctly around $1,100 and change a month. The resale sucks on this car so buying new is out of the question. I have looked into buying a used one and while the price isn’t bad at around $80k ish for a 2015 car the problem is I think the car is going to plummet a lot more pretty quickly because the technology is just going to get older and much better battery powered cars will come along. Plus I know nothing about batteries but how long do they last and aren’t they expensive as can be to replace ... also the ridiculous part is you get a total of a little over 20 Miles on a charge ... no one is buying this car for eco reasons.

Can’t bmw take a lesson from Tesla ?!?!

No comments on this post, come on I even mentioned Tesla :D

:lol:

leasing seems to make sense like you said since the tech gets dated so quickly:)

I think it's a very cool looking car.

Isn't that built into the lease price though? I would assume their predictions are better than my armchair forecasting

yeah I guess so but I not always fun trying to sell something depreciating rapidly

Hasn't that always been the reason to lease a new BMW. Their residuals are calculated in cracksmokinville, so you wind up with a great lease term and BMW winds up with a constant supply of CPO cars.

I have no i8 experience but two things stood out on my extended i3 test drive.
1) The electric experience (quiet, torquey, smooth and one-pedal, all good stuff).
2) Being in a carbon/non-metallic car just felt different and made me happy.
If you can get a lease transfer with no stories, I'd say do it. The tires look skinny but I'm guessing that's by design.

I’ve been looking into taking a lease over for one of these and I paid my $40 life time swapalease fee (yeah that was a strange fee), if you get one for $1200 to $1400 a month the depreciation is far steeper then that price could justify but heck they want out and they have to subsidize it so who am I to argue :)

Keep in mind these cars are around $150k, their lease prices I would think should be in the low to mid $2k range.

Yeah, exactly--or BMW figures out a way to apply incentives and move the metal (or carbon) without having to do something so crass as offer "cash back."

I can see a lease on a car like that being very attractive, assuming you're planning to get a car like that. You've also got the additional problem of what the secondary market is for a 150-200K car. You're probably not going to sell it on Craigslist to try and get a better price than the trade-in offer.

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Pretty sure this will be mine ... working out the details tomorrow, it’s a 2015 with 6k Miles ... next problem ... what to get rid of ... I’m so torn but one of them have to go eventually or like I told my wife they make lifts for the garage ... sheesh ... i’ll figure it out.

WHOA!

Huh

Enjoy!

Comgrats:cool: enjoy

Whoa

Congrats! There is something special about driving a car with a carbon frame.

Very slick!

Yes, there are solutions. :)

https://www.northerntool.com/images/...89_700x700.jpg

or maybe... If you want to get real creative.... :)

https://www.bendpak.com/BendPak-4-Po...ar-Storage.jpg

Thanks Kevin for the suggestions... I am totally considering it though i’d have to do some interior work to the garage have it fit.
I’ll post a picture of my current garage in a bit and you’ll see what I mean.