Quote:
Originally Posted by Efthreeoh
But with that said, why does one need a car for true city life anyway? Most cities offer excellent public transportation, or city dwelling usually means most life essentials and entertainment is a short walk away; making a car pointless. Oh, one would like a car to get away on a trip for the weekend? Then where does the i3 help in that situation with its 80 mile limited electric range? And where can you securely plug in the i3 for its over-night charge cycle? Yes, the i3 will suit some people, but the ICE-powered vehicle suits MORE of the general population needs, which makes them plentiful, and thus inexpensive to manufacture and support with common infrastructure.
|
I work three miles from home, in a crowded downtown area with drivers that seem to enjoy tormenting bikes. I went a little over a year after selling my M Coupe with no car. I rode a bike either to my office or to the closest light rail station a little over a mile from my house. It works, but isn't exactly fun when it's 105 or 20 and/or raining. It's also hard to claim a lane in rush hour traffic and I've been riding bikes for 30+ years in urban areas.
My sister moved out of the country and I bought her beater, a Mazda 3. It's fine for my current commute, but barely gets up to coolant temp on my commute and never gets full oil temp, meaning I run full synthetic and change it and the plugs much more frequently than if I had a longer commute. I frequently never sit at one light on my commute and never get above 45 mph.
We also got a dog. The dog goes to day care twice a week. She really wouldn't like being in a basket on a bike, and it would make it pretty unsafe. So ideally, I need a car to get her there, which is about a four mile total commute.
I also ride bikes for fun, nearly all of the trails I mountain bike at are within forty miles and many already have charging at the trailhead. The i3 can easily hold two bikes inside and I can use the HOV lanes when two of us are going.
My wife's commute isn't much different than mine, and her last 135i had noticeable carbon buildup at 42k miles and we used it for longer weekend trips and road trips, so it at least got driven at full operating temps much more often. I'm sure the X1 won't be any better. Direct injection and short trips really aren't friends. Why add a second car to the mix when we could get a city car?
If I go troll a Ford F350 site about how I think driving in cities in duallies is absurd, will you go easy on Tesla and i3 threads? We get it, you don't understand, but many of us do.