[ericsi]

I borrowed the bmw i8 from Parklane over the weekend. So got to spend more time with it and see how I would get on in real life.

Still have 5 months before I get mine. I had only had one test drive before that.

I loved it the first time I drove it and got to know the car a bit better.

The first thing i would say is how relaxing it is as an ownership proposition: it is quiet when you want it too, it is relatively practical, it is economical to use (no congestion charge, no road tax, very low petrol consumption, free parking on electric car spaces around London), it is comfortable. Drive it in eco-pro around town and it is utterly silent and you can hardly notice the shuffle between electric and petrol engine.

The second thing I would say is that the attention it attracts is totally ridiculous. Turn up somewhere and everyone wants a picture of it. Forget lamborghinis and fezzas, this is a whole new level. I am not sure I like that so much. It is totally positive, people know it is a new-age product and recognise it but they are very surprised to see one on the road. It will certainly wear-off over time. It has presence without having to be massive and noisy.

It is very comfortable (the seats are very, very good), silent, it is extremely well screwed together and even driving on super broken roads and cobbled streets, nothing comes loose or rattles. My aston v12v would have been a symphony of creaks and cracks.
The only thing you can hear around town is the aircon blowing air.

The suspension is firm but flows better that the aston v12v for example. It is a million miles away from Porsches with sport-suspensions. You can feel how rigid the whole carbon fiber structure is and how well the suspension works around it. In sport more, the suspension firms up but is never harsh or bone breaking.

What is amazing around London is the stop-start at traffic lights. The immediate acceleration is errrr... electrifying. Really totally instant and so accessible. You can feel both front (electric engine) and rear wheels (petrol engine) biting into the tarmac. All that without burning much fuel and with an astonishing ease of access. Many cars can accelerate hard, but they are often cumbersome, big in size, noisy or shouty. In this car, you feel like you are being propelled at light speed like in the millenium falcon. My wife is used to being a passenger with me in fast cars and she knows that i like to mess around sometimes. I could hear her head hitting the headrest at times with a little shout accompanying the whole process (sounds sexual this last sentence doesn't it?).

Spent a bit of time on the open road, in sport mode. This is like having another car. It really does sound like you have a 5 litre v8 behind you. A lot has been said about the 'amplified' sound but it pretty good. Excellent even I would say. As you drive like this, you obviously burn more fuel but you recharge the batteries to 80-90% in about 20-25 minutes.

The one thing i thought could have been better was the gearbox in manual mode. In auto mode, it shuffles cogs effortlessly without any apparent power loss. It is all very fluid. In manual mode, the changes are pretty fast but you may have to ask for a change up or down a couple of times. It is not at all times, but it can make the driving experience feel a bit detached.

The steering is extremely light, direct and precise. As all journos described, it lacks feedback and if you like feeling the texture of the road through the steering wheel, you be a touch disappointed. It did not annoy me so much in this particular car. I think it suits its personality nicely.

I did not drive the car to extremes in corners or tried to get the backside out. The max I drove it was probably 8/10th or 9/10th for very short period of times. I can see how it cannot match a 991 carrera there as there are way too many components at play (front engine / rear engine coordination). Having said that, this is not what I am after this car for. I may take mine on a track for a day to see what it can do but I certainly don't intend to do it on a regular basis.
I love how it flows with the road and how composed it is when you want to drive it fast (as opposed to flat out) on any give-and-take road for hours.

Finally, the interior is superbly put together and has a real sense of occasion to it. The stereo is great (the bluetooth jumped at times though). I would not order one with the black headlining like my car had as it makes it a bit claustrophobic inside. The rear seats are 991 type, so can be used on an occasional basis by small people. The headsup display works really well. The surround camera thing is a great feature to know what's happening around the car at all times.
The doors do look great and make this car a special thing. The sills are wide though and getting in and out will never be a piece of cake. If i was fat and not particularly athletic, I don't know if i would get on with the car so much..

In conclusion, it is pretty easy to live with and I can't wait to get mine and to travel long distances with it. First i may do would be to either take it to Wales for an evo triangle weekend, or to the south of france via route napoleon. I can see this car as being an amazing travelling companion.

Retained value is an unknown and certainly a concern, but i think it is a very special product for £100k. Way more exclusive than a fully optioned 991 carrera. It will probably retain its value for the first few years (all 2015 allocations are sold) and may eventually drop. I can easily see the battery technology catching up quickly. 20 miles fully electric around town is just about ok i think.

I find it very ballsy from bmw to have come out and designed a product totally from scratch with a view to take on the established manufacturers. I would love to see porsche building up a competitor to the i8. I am sure they will and it will be great. I hear Audi may be releasing a diesel r8 soon in relation to their wins at Le Mans. Can't wait to see that too..

If I had to define the car in one sentence, I would probably say: 'there probably is not a car on the road with such a wide range of abilities'.

Will post pics later on...

[Tilum]

Great write-up @ericsi. And is also very similar to my experiences of the car (so far). I'll be borrowing my delaer's demo i8 for several days next week, and I'll be taking it to Wales as well as driving it to Birmingham and London, and also local drives to experience how the car performs on different driving roads / journeys.

I also have similar thoughts about the residuals - will probably do quite well to begin with (whilst demand is high), but then may start to suffer as battery tech/life improves and other maunfacturer's bring out rival cars e.g. an electric/hybrid Audi R8, Nonda NSX, and a Porsche 911 hybrid. It would be really good for owners of i8s (who have invested in the tech early on) if BMW offer upgrades to newer tech as it becomes available (e.g. swapping old batteries for newer batteries with longer life and lower weight).

T

[JasH]

Originally Posted by Tilum

It would be really good for owners of i8s (who have invested in the tech early on) if BMW offer upgrades to newer tech as it becomes available (e.g. swapping old batteries for newer batteries with longer life and lower weight).

T

They probably will, but it will be many years down the line. And to be honest, this will impact the i8 far less than the i3.

The i8 is not really reliant on electric range, so the biggest benefit I can see is reducing the weight of the batteries whilst retaining their capacity. Anyone know how much the actual battery chemical components weigh? I have my doubts that enough weight can be saved to make a retrofit replacement worthwhile.

The i3 is another matter, and doubling its range would be very significant.

[JustChris]

Awesome thanks Eric. Great to see it based in the UK too. I saw and sat in my first i8 today, wow what a car. Its utterly different, stylish slightly crazy but II really liked it. The doors are pure drama. I only had 10 minutes or so to look around but is there just the rather small rear hatch for storage or is there room up front too?

Congrats though sir if you have one on order as I think I read, what a treat!!

[StuM]

Great, real life feedback. Thanks! My dealer says BMW has designed the i8 (and i3) to be upgrade'able in the future. ie. updated batteries, electronics/control features and programming, etc. Haven't read that elsewhere, but it makes sense.
Still eagerly waiting on mine for another ~3 months.

Re the i3, he said they are not selling as well as they had hoped, thus the recently announced incentives and BMW's supposed shift of a few build slots to i8's over i3's. No such problems with the i8 sales.

Another So. California reseller told me today that he has brokered two recent sales of i8's, each with 1-2k miles on the odo, for +$65k over msrp paid.