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      04-17-2014, 09:48 PM   #3
Tilum
Private First Class
United Kingdom
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Drives: i8 (on order)
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: UK

iTrader: (0)

Yep, they let us do what we liked with it really (except start it up or drive it LOL). I'll add loads more pics in the next day or so. The next set of pics will be external close-ups of the Sophisto Grey car, then I'll upload the internal pics.

I have to say that, overall, I was impressed with the car.
Apart from the use of ridiculously cheap plastic in a few areas (e.g. rear passenger cup holders), the trim felt more luxurious than I thought it was going to be. It's still not at Aston, Ferrari, Maserati levels of plushness, but I was bracing myself for it to be far worse than it actually was.

Similar story with the rear seats; I was expecting them to be all but useless (based on some people's comments), but I was pleasantly surprised.
With the driver's seat set in my driving position, I got in the back (to see how much leg room there would be for a passenger if they were sat behind me whilst I was driving).
Admittedly I'm only about 5ft 2" tall, but nevertheless I had quite a bit of leg room, especially considering it is only a 2+2 seater. There certainly isn't room to spread your legs, but there was a good few inches between the back of the seat and my knees. (Hopefully you'll be able to see that in one of the pics I took.)
As for head room, I could sit upright in the back, just about! And although I could feel the lining of the roof on the top of my hair, my head wasn't pressing into the lining or anything.

I then asked one of the other guys who came with us (who was 6ft tall) to climb in the back and see what he thought.
Sat behind 'my' seat (the driver's seat set in my position), he also had sufficient space between the back of the front seat and his knees.
Unsurprisingly, he did struggle with headroom. So he had to tilt his head to one side; but it would be bearable for short distances (e.g. a drive to a local restaurant).

The door sills are cheap plastic, but having said that, it means that when you get in the car you can just 'slide' over the sill to ease entry.

The rear boot (sorry, 'trunk' LOL) is really small, but then we knew that anyway. However there is definitely sufficient room to put a few (possibly up to 4) bags of grocery shopping in there.
The way I looked at it was, I was either looking for a 2 seater sports coupé with a generous boot, or a 2+2 with a moderately sized boot (and thus using the rear seats on the odd occasion I would need to take more luggage).
For example, although the Jaguar F-Type coupé is only a straight 2 seater, it has a decent sized boot (especially when compared to the convertible version!). The i8 only has a small boot, but at least I can use the rear seats for additional storage. Plus it obviously has the added benefit of being able to hold 4 people, whereas a straight 2 seater doesn't (unless someone gets in the boot! LOL).

The dash display really does looks stunning - resolution is fine (detailed but not pixelated), colours are bold, and viewing from an angle if fine.

There were a few disappointing things though:-
1) Steering wheel column adjustment had to manually performed (as opposed to electronically controlled).
2) The sun visors were of shockingly bad quality and the vanity mirrors in them didn't have any lights (for a girl to check out her make-up in the dark, without having to resort to switching on the reading light in the overhead console). N.B. I've asked them to confirm if the visors are just pre-production standard.
3) As mentioned before, the rear passengers' cup holder is made of ridiculously cheap plastic and isn't aesthetically pleasing either!
4) The backs of the rear seats are quite upright (near vertical), meaning it wouldn't be the most relaxing of journeys if you were sat in the back.
5) Anthracite headlining (which was in both of BMW UK's show cars) is a really cheap 'rough-to-the-touch' fabric. (Hence why I'm not opting to spend extra spec'ing Anthracite headlining!)
6) The steering wheel mounted paddles, as on all BMWs, are to far 'in-board', and are too short. They could do with veing longer and extended closer to the wheel rim for ease of access on spirited drives!
7) No 'Display Key' being another one of course.

T

Last edited by Tilum; 04-18-2014 at 11:09 AM..
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