Quote:
Originally Posted by jmg
As far as the range, I agree, if you primarily want range, the i3 is not the car to be looking at. However, the Bolt is FWD, and the i3 is RWD, and it is a much better driving experience at least in my opinion. I also appreciate the slightly more upscale interior of the i3 (very slight).
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I also test drove the Leaf, eGolf, and Bolt, before settling on the TM3.
Both Leaf and Bolt interiors are a step down from i3. TM3 interior is in the world of its own.
One thing that bothered me about Bolt was the driver's seat. I never got physically comfortable sitting on it. Either the padding is too soft, or the metal frame is too close to the surface, but I could feel the frame around the perimeter of the bottom cushion. Like sitting on a well-padded toilet seat. Just weird.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmg
I commute 80 miles a day and I have a L2 charger at home. I don't really need 200 miles, so why pay for it?
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I am in the same camp, yet paid up for LR TM3 ;-)
Yeah, I could have picked up a cheaper SR TM3 with ~220 mile range, but it did not have all the other features I want, so ~310 miles it is.
My work commute is ~35 miles both ways, yet I had put 20.5K miles on the i3 during the 24 month lease. So figure 28 miles/day on average, including days when we don't drive that car, so maybe 2x that on the days when we do.
Thing is, I use the car for more than just work commute. Some days I drive kids to after school activities. Others, I need to go on Home Depot runs, movies, etc. The ~115 mile i3 range is plenty for everyday commuter use-case, but once winter comes here in NE, it drops to ~80 miles. And 3 or 4 times my remaining range was down to sub-10 miles when I pulled into the garage. One time it was 2 miles, and I hit limp mode.
I could have avoided the 2 mile range remaining event by doing a better job of projecting my daily driving requirements and not taking the i3 to work that day. Or I can have a car with much longer range, and not worry about any of this.
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