[2sak2furious]

Just picked up my i8 yesterday and really enjoying it so far. Had an i3 for a couple of years and enjoyed that. This is sort of having a cool i3 that can be a cool ice sports car when you want. I have a few noob questions (apologies if this has already been asked before).

1. Does i8 have regen braking only when you use brake pedal or does it also regen say coasting to a stop or coasting down hill?

2. Anyway to get park sensor, 360 view and rear cam on one screen. So far I can do all rear cam, rear cam and sensors split or sensors and 360 split.

3. Any issues I need to be careful when tinting windows (side and back, no front)? Eg is it hard for them to tint because of the way doors go up when open.

4. Curiosity ? Is the roadster and coupe same dimensions? There was a i8 roadster in the showroom, looked a lot bigger than my grey coupe- maybe just a color artifact

Thanks for any help

[LukasPukas]

Welcome!

I can help on the first 2.

1. When you let go of the accelerator, the regen braking automatically kicks on (I.e. the car slows unless you accelerate). When you get used to it, you use this slowing down while coasting to spare the brakes much more the you would in most cars.

2. Just click the idrive rotary dial to switch to the 360 surround cam (I would prefer the 360 as the default, but can't see a way of setting it). It will also go to the 360 view by default if you manually turn on the parking sensors with the dedicated button, rather then ehen you switch to reverse gear.

[evanevery]

As for Tinting... I had the sides and back done. Nothing special to worry about. (Personally, I would NEVER do the front window on ANY car).

[Louv]

Rear sides and back are easy. Though, in the back at night, you'll see minor diffraction of light where the tint goes over the heating elements. Just like on any rear window.

Front side windows are harder for the installer. Certainly can be done, but my installer declined to mess with it.

Front windshield... I've only ever seen that done in Arizona (and Texas?).

California doesn't even like you doing it to the front side windows, they'd have a fit if you tinted the windshield.

[evanevery]

Originally Posted by Louv

...Front side windows are harder for the installer. Certainly can be done, but my installer declined to mess with it....

You need to find another "installer"... I don't know why they would be a problem for any competent professional! My guys never even blinked...

[BigT]

1. You can see the regen effect in the right display (CHARGE) like in the i3.



I also have the i3 and I find its gripping one pedal drive very convenient.
But like LukasPukas mentioned, I also had to find the right feeling to use the different operation in the i8. To bad there is no such graphical information about regen and current flow in Sport Mode.

[2sak2furious]

Thanks for all the replies.

The i3 regen is so strong its easy to feel but Ill watch the display on the i8 a little more to get a better feel of the car, thanks for pointing that out.

Waiting on a quote from my tint guy, but anyone have recs for a tint person in Southern California/South bay area? - preferable that they know i8s.

I don't know why but I don't see any i8s in my area - maybe 1 in the past few months - but I like that!

[Louv]

Originally Posted by evanevery

You need to find another "installer"... I don't know why they would be a problem for any competent professional! My guys never even blinked...

I think the key word you used is "competent". But at least he knew his (or his employee's) limitations. :-) I'd rather that they did not attempt it instead of attempting and damaging the car. Also, this was in 2015. He'd never seen an i8 before.

The simple stuff they did fine. (rear side windows, and rear glass)
The harder stuff (clear bra on the front) they didn't do perfectly. Acceptable. But far from perfect.

Would I return to them, or recommend them? Nope.

[drlonline]

I used Window Tints Glendale for my i8. They did tints on all glass except the windshield and also a clear protective wrap on the front of the car. They did an excellent job on all of it. Would highly recommend them.

[tpanda]

I don't think anyone has answered this yet: Both coupe and roadster are 185" long, 76.5" wide and 51" tall. In either body style, the i8 is a big car. It's basically the same length as, and slightly wider than, a BMW X3, but over a foot shorter.

The coupe has back seats and rear windows where the roadster keeps the top, and the back of the roof has a very different shape. These probably contribute to a different visual appearance.

[evanevery]

Originally Posted by Louv

I think the key word you used is "competent". But at least he knew his (or his employee's) limitations. :-) I'd rather that they did not attempt it instead of attempting and damaging the car. Also, this was in 2015. He'd never seen an i8 before.

The simple stuff they did fine. (rear side windows, and rear glass)
The harder stuff (clear bra on the front) they didn't do perfectly. Acceptable. But far from perfect.

Would I return to them, or recommend them? Nope.

There is NOTHING special about tinting the front side windows on the i8...

[Louv]

Originally Posted by evanevery

There is NOTHING special about tinting the front side windows on the i8...

OK. I'm not arguing with a guy who says: "I don't know how, so I don't want to take the job." Fine. Good. OK. Front window tint (of anything darker than 75% light transmission) is illegal in California anyway.

I believe (this was back in 2015, so my memory is fuzzy) his statement was "My normal process is to take off the door panel, to better cover the window down into the door. I don't know how to take that door panel off. And it's at an awkward angle to work on when open. So, no."

It's not like I'm ever going back to him... I moved to the opposite coast. (not because of him, just saying) And I've never cared that the front windows weren't tinted.

[evanevery]

Originally Posted by Louv

OK. I'm not arguing with a guy who says: "I don't know how, so I don't want to take the job." Fine. Good. OK. Front window tint (of anything darker than 75% light transmission) is illegal in California anyway.

I believe (this was back in 2015, so my memory is fuzzy) his statement was "My normal process is to take off the door panel, to better cover the window down into the door. I don't know how to take that door panel off. And it's at an awkward angle to work on when open. So, no."

It's not like I'm ever going back to him... I moved to the opposite coast. (not because of him, just saying) And I've never cared that the front windows weren't tinted.

TAKING OFF THE DOOR PANEL!

Its no wonder he says "I don't know how...". And you should believe him!