[kindofblue]

My dealer got his first demo i4 in late last week and I got a chance to take it out for a ~90 min drive today. A friend and I drove my Tesla Model Y AWD down to Santa Maria to pick it up. I’ve owned 2 prior Beemers a 228i ragtop and an X5 45e and have always been impressed with the handling characteristics of Beemers as well as their build quality.


First impressions:

This car is a lot of fun to drive!
Fit and finish are fabulous, and the cockpit is inviting.
Seats are very comfortable and there’s plenty of room for my 6’4” frame.
The acceleration is more than adequate and equal to that of our MY.
At freeway speeds it’s quiet and soaks up the irregularities in the pavement.
When you open the moonroof at 70 mph you can hold a conversation with the passenger without having to raise your voice.
The road handling is “lively” and the car feels much lighter than the MY even though it’s not.
The RWD combined with the power of the single motor provides opportunities for “drifting” around corners even w/o turning traction control off. You have to do this on purpose though because at the same time it handled the twisties with aplomb and nary so much as a squeak from the tires.

The regen even in B mode is not as strong as in the MY and that will take some getting used to.