[TrevS]

Hi all

I am in the fortunate position to be looking at a 2+2 sports coupe and am considering a BMW i8, Lotus Evora S or a Porsche 997.2 Carrera 2. I have a couple of viewings lined up so am trying to find out about rear space for kids and the battery warranty on i8's.

I have two young children (3 and 7) and really want a car that we can enjoy as a family and do the odd school run in etc. Is it possible to fit little ones in the rear seats of an i8 and how do they compare to 911's, Evora seats etc?

Finally the one area I'm a bit nervous about with the i8 is reliability and warranty. I'm realistically looking at a 2015 year car and I know they had a 8 year warranty on the batteries which will be due to expire this year. Do BMW offer any form of extended warranty/scheme on this age of car? I'd like as much peace of mind as possible in relation to drivetrain and batteries.

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Trev

[zorgzx]

Hi Trev.

I've had numerous 911's and currently own a 2014 i8 with 140K km on it. I used my 911's and i8 with kids a lot.

The 911 rear seats are slightly smaller in space around them, legroom is allso slightly less. The 911 boot in the front is a LOT bigger than i8, easily packs a stroller. allso food does not spoil as it does in the i8 boot as it gets VERY hot under long trips.
Both cars will do fine for your kids no problems at all. Getting kids in if your doing it is not great for your back, but I didnt care.

The i8 is a LOT quieter cruising, NVH is miles better as it was built to run in EV mode they had to remove noises. 911's get a LOT of tyre roar.

The boxer in the 911's sounds epic, i8 cant really compete, but the doors never grow old.

Reliability wise the i8 seems to me to be built really well, I drive mine every day, and apart from a issue years ago its dead reliable. So is 99% of all 911's. My battery is even at 90+% still. Same EV range as when i bought it.

I dont have time for all the breakdowns in any lotus product, owned one.. plenty.

I'd put it like this:
1: You sports dad like finer things in life get a 911.
2: You modern dad, like to save the planet without being bored, i8.
3: You trackday dad, dont mind faffing with broken stuff, Evora.

[stressdoc]

For me the i8 is much more of a Jack of all trades. It can be a very comfortable GT, highway is great. It is economical viz petrol; I have averaged 59 mpg. It can be a fun sports car, light and powerful, but AWD saps a bit of the fun. Useful for winter snow though.

[billy.gif]

Years ago I used to have a 911 (997.1) Carrera 4S and now I have the i8.

911

-Has much greater visibility, the best out of any sportscar. Targa-model is nice, the glass roof will kind of completely slide away and also the rear window can be opened. Truly unique. And this will help enormous to load the car, make it more "daily drivable" even with larger ... things.



-Much easier to get in and out.
-Bigger boot even while the 4S has much smaller F-trunk than 2WD-models.
-Because the visibility the cabin somehow feels more spacious even while its other way around. Rear cabin is small, real small.
-Practical than you can fold the rear back rests and have a large, flat "shelf" for things. Really useful, especially with Targa-model.
-Manual FTW ... I love to change gears with any sports car. DSG etc. just isn't as fun, as engaging.
-Too common. There's simply too much 911's for it to feel kind of special car. At least for me this is a must have when paying Finnish car taxation inflated prices, 80-90k euros ($100k) for 10 year old sports cars.
-Too ... well everyday / boring, if one wont get a special variant like Targa or GTS or Turbo or GT-product.
-Sound, much better than i8 and with aftermarket exhaust or so called "Gundo mod / hax" even greater.
-I drove mine mainly "no daily", not in the cities, did long journeys and used it on special occasions, but my average consumption was still more than 12L/100km (22-23 UK MPG).


i8

-Much much more unique.
-Much more of a "head turner". No one believes when I say my car is 8 years old.
-Doors, oh the scissor doors, one wont ever get old / bored to have them!
-More space in the back BUT at the same time really hard to "pack" boxes and such (vs. 911 Targa), there's no flat surface to have and the front seat wont slide that much forward. Easy for soft bags, rear space will kind of eat those, like 2 weeks road trip worth of for 2 person - easily!
-Really small boot, and will become really hot on longer journeys during summer.
-Have much less visibility, much harder to estimate the dimensions of the vehicle. Also i8 is much wider.
-Rather large turning circle, like more than my 4S (AWD) used to have.
-In Finland these are much cheaper to insure than 911. Also the yearly ... "road tax" is 1/6th of the 911.
-Kind of dull sound track, really synthesized compared to normal combustion engine sports car.
-Preheating / precooling of the cabin. This is REALLY nice feature with any "plugin hybrid".
-Really good MPG, really easy to get good MPG even without charging. I use i8 as my only car, daily drive it at the urban areas and I have charging stations both at home and at work. My average fuel consumption is less than 4L/100km (70-72 UK MPG).
-Driving with pure electric mode (in towns & urban areas) is actually fun, peoples are kind of "wtf" as practically everyone thinks that sports car = makes loud noise.



I think both are "really easy to live with" kind of more daily driven sports cars than most cars in this segment. They both have almost identical claimed acceleration performance albeit the 911 has top speed of around 285-290km/h (175-180mph) and i8 is limited to 250kmh / 155mph.

For me the i8 feels just much more special car, makes driving it more special, feels owning it more special, makes looking back at it more special. Peoples are more interested about it, peoples come to talk about it. And all this while having much, much cheaper yearly running costs than 911.

I used to have Ferrari 360 Modena and at least here in Finland i8 gets almost as much attention as that thing did.

[ericsi]

Originally Posted by billy.gif

Years ago I used to have a 911 (997.1) Carrera 4S and now I have the i8.

911

-Has much greater visibility, the best out of any sportscar. Targa-model is nice, the glass roof will kind of completely slide away and also the rear window can be opened. Truly unique. And this will help enormous to load the car, make it more "daily drivable" even with larger ... things.



-Much easier to get in and out.
-Bigger boot even while the 4S has much smaller F-trunk than 2WD-models.
-Because the visibility the cabin somehow feels more spacious even while its other way around. Rear cabin is small, real small.
-Practical than you can fold the rear back rests and have a large, flat "shelf" for things. Really useful, especially with Targa-model.
-Manual FTW ... I love to change gears with any sports car. DSG etc. just isn't as fun, as engaging.
-Too common. There's simply too much 911's for it to feel kind of special car. At least for me this is a must have when paying Finnish car taxation inflated prices, 80-90k euros ($100k) for 10 year old sports cars.
-Too ... well everyday / boring, if one wont get a special variant like Targa or GTS or Turbo or GT-product.
-Sound, much better than i8 and with aftermarket exhaust or so called "Gundo mod / hax" even greater.
-I drove mine mainly "no daily", not in the cities, did long journeys and used it on special occasions, but my average consumption was still more than 12L/100km (22-23 UK MPG).


i8

-Much much more unique.
-Much more of a "head turner". No one believes when I say my car is 8 years old.
-Doors, oh the scissor doors, one wont ever get old / bored to have them!
-More space in the back BUT at the same time really hard to "pack" boxes and such (vs. 911 Targa), there's no flat surface to have and the front seat wont slide that much forward. Easy for soft bags, rear space will kind of eat those, like 2 weeks road trip worth of for 2 person - easily!
-Really small boot, and will become really hot on longer journeys during summer.
-Have much less visibility, much harder to estimate the dimensions of the vehicle. Also i8 is much wider.
-Rather large turning circle, like more than my 4S (AWD) used to have.
-In Finland these are much cheaper to insure than 911. Also the yearly ... "road tax" is 1/6th of the 911.
-Kind of dull sound track, really synthesized compared to normal combustion engine sports car.
-Preheating / precooling of the cabin. This is REALLY nice feature with any "plugin hybrid".
-Really good MPG, really easy to get good MPG even without charging. I use i8 as my only car, daily drive it at the urban areas and I have charging stations both at home and at work. My average fuel consumption is less than 4L/100km (70-72 UK MPG).
-Driving with pure electric mode (in towns & urban areas) is actually fun, peoples are kind of "wtf" as practically everyone thinks that sports car = makes loud noise.



I think both are "really easy to live with" kind of more daily driven sports cars than most cars in this segment. They both have almost identical claimed acceleration performance albeit the 911 has top speed of around 285-290km/h (175-180mph) and i8 is limited to 250kmh / 155mph.

For me the i8 feels just much more special car, makes driving it more special, feels owning it more special, makes looking back at it more special. Peoples are more interested about it, peoples come to talk about it. And all this while having much, much cheaper yearly running costs than 911.

I used to have Ferrari 360 Modena and at least here in Finland i8 gets almost as much attention as that thing did.

Good review and thank you for taking the time to write and post pictures.

I too had many 911's of various flavours. The latest being a 992 gts.

Also had 3 i8's, current a late 2019 i8 roadster.

There are 2 other aspects where i think the i8 is superior:

1/ the ride and handling of an i8 is far more 'fluid' than any 911. Porsches are a lot harsher which is good if you run on perfectly smooth roads, much less so if you live in the UK or geographical areas with lots of lumps and bumps.
The i8 is a much nicer car to drive on most roads.

2/ The tire noise coming into the cabin is frankly ridiculous in any modern Porsche (996 onward). The strange thing is that this was never a big problem in older aircooled things. Again, this is far more noticeable on broken / granular tarmac. I do not understand why Porsche has engineered that trait into the cars, it brings nothing to the driving experience but NOISE.
The i8 with its skinny tires has no such problem and again makes up for a more 'serene' driving experience.

My current car of the moment that i enjoy driving a lot besides the i9 is the Alpine A110....

[tommyb13662]

Hello,

First I have to say I love my I8, now the bad. Since I bought it August 2021. 12 months of ownership it sat at the dealership awaiting parts and being repaired. It has a new battery pack, new transmission, and shortly a new suspension. It is a very economical car gas wise... It however is NOT a cheap car to own. Extended service contract is virtually useless as no matter what happens the claim is always declined. Its supposed to be a bumper to bumper comprehensive from assurant extended service corp. Now the battery warranty from bmw did replace the batteries for free. The car probably has over $40k in dealer repair bills I have thankfully not had to pay out of pocket. Otherwise I would have ditched the car long ago. I wanted this to be a daily driver... but its just to finicky and parts are rare. So repairs are slow and often backordered. This is all sub 40k miles 2016 i8.