Question for soft-top convertible owners

[JST]

Originally Posted by FC

OT: But that reminded me of the fact that I realized only after buy the M3 that it has a Li-Ion battery that costs >$1k. Not looking forward to that. Hopefully it lasts a lot longer than lead acid.

Wait, really? Hopefully that's a competition package exclusive?

[equ]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

The better question is whether or not there's anything that prevents you from just installing an AGM battery?

Or non-BMW branded LiIon... I've never heard of a $1000 battery, those German shareholders have gotta make bank one way or another.

[dan]

Originally Posted by JST

Wait, really? Hopefully that's a competition package exclusive?

doesn't look like it

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by equ

Or non-BMW branded LiIon... I've never heard of a $1000 battery, those German shareholders have gotta make bank one way or another.

Actually, the $1k price for a large capacity lithium ion battery is pretty reasonable. All the cheaper ones are much lower capacity.

Edit: Or there's this option: https://braillebattery.com/products/i48cs-1

[FC]

Originally Posted by JST

Wait, really? Hopefully that's a competition package exclusive?

I don't believe so. When I first found out, it was a guy in Europe being quote 1,000 Euros. But I think I also heard of someone in the US paying $1,200 which lines up pretty well. Maybe over the last few years there is a cheaper option now?

[FC]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

The better question is whether or not there's anything that prevents you from just installing an AGM battery?

Yeah, I don't know. When I found out, I had just bought the car and had a horrific ankle injury to worry about so I took the approach of "that's for 2022 FC to worry about."

[FC]

Originally Posted by Nick M3

Actually, the $1k price for a large capacity lithium ion battery is pretty reasonable. All the cheaper ones are much lower capacity.

Edit: Or there's this option: https://braillebattery.com/products/i48cs-1

[Alan]

Are having lines on the top *that* important to avoid ? To me there is something so cool about jumping into a convertible (or Targa/T tops) with the top down already. All convertible tops have wrinkles.

My only concern on the convertibles was not putting the top down while wet.

[JST]

Yikes.

Well fortunately my car is four years old, used only occasionally, and stored outside, so I am sure I won't have any battery issues in the near future.

[equ]

Originally Posted by JST

Yikes.

Well fortunately my car is four years old, used only occasionally, and stored outside, so I am sure I won't have any battery issues in the near future.

That doesn't hurt LiIon as much as it would hurt lead acid/AGM. I investigated LiIon for my larger bikes. They are stored indoors, but unheated, used infrequently in the cold and with no easy plug. The LiIon's - for motorcycles - are great for that, except they have trouble starting those big v-twin pistons in the cold. The battery itself doesn't degrade, with motorcycle size constraints, it just doesn't work as well as stock AGM so I stuck with that come replacement time. Perhaps that is why the bmw LiIon is so costly; that it has the CCA, the Ah and the LiIon technology. On the bikes, the LiIon is not as expensive (1.5 or 2x of AGM) but you give up some functionality.

For now, I try to run them at least every two weeks (really the KTM, as the 4-cyl kawasaki seems to be an easier starter). If we hit a long snowy spell, I'll pull the batteries and carry them into my basement to be plugged in.