I was actually laughing out loud at at that one @max_g!
Honestly, at first I wasn’t all that fond of her having the 430 as a first car because it makes her look entitled. But rationally, for what that car costs (which is $135 a month and is a safe modern car with no worries), she could not be in a jalopy.
I had a 2018 i3s rex, 2017 i3 rex and pending to get another one. Living in a NYC condo my only options to charge were at work or public stations.
the bad:
-i3 come in 19" all season super skinny tires and the amount of nails/screws I’ve collected in this setup was overwhelming. I’d say once a month I had low air but that could be due to my work route through industrial zones. Car came with air pump. Do not use that goo stuff, it will ruin your balance. I plugged them myself. Did that trick.
-Insurance premium…Some say its due to the rear lid being all glass plus the body being all carbon fiber and fiberglass…
-Public Charging- if you plan on charging at EVGO or other level 3 chargers, get an app and see if the charger is available. No worse feeling then pulling up to a charger only to see someone plugged in already and no driver insight. Cost is also a factor. I paid about $10 for 100 miles, or 10 cent a mile. Prius gets you in the low 5 cents.
-i3s come with 20" summer tires.
These cars are cheap to run if you plug in at home. Also, bare in mind you need to hypermile a ton to get anywhere to EPA numbers. NO HVAC, speed set a 56mph and ECO PRO Plus engaged.
With all that said, I could only recommend the i3s. Bigger rubber, better suspension and looks aggressive. I moved furniture and bathroom vanities with it. Lots of space with rear seats folded. Dealer maintenance only requires an oil change once a year. If you try to run the car with no gas engine, the car on its own will kickstart the gas engine every 45 days to cycle for 10min.
Leased my '19 in December, have driven approximately 5K miles. REX, Tech pack, 20 in wheels, HK audio. Just under $54K sticker, my net effective is around $228/mo all in with tax and rebates included. I missed the crazy deals in October-November, but still quite happy with what I got overall.
Here are my observations so far:
)Overall, be mindful of your commute and location before considering an i3. That said, if you live in SoCal, this is one of the best cars you can buy. I’ve loved mine so far as a daily driver and would definitely get another.
Is it just me or is anyone else perplexed by a compact EV with 19” or 20” OEM wheels.
Me too, a rather bumpy ride. Also, if you need tires at turn in not likely you will be able to find cheap used tires, I believe these tires are pretty rare.
Good point. I’d be shocked if there were any other applications for skinny 20” tires.
As far as I know, there is only one choice of tire on the 20" rims, which is the Bridgestone Ecopias that come stock on the car. Aside from what I’ve heard about horrendous tread life, they’re actually not any more expensive than your average premium all season at ~$150/tire. And to their credit, they do grip amazingly well for how wide they are (have tailed a Z4M coupe hooning around on technical canyon roads).
Some people have mentioned that the bigger tires get worse range. I personally haven’t seen any issues in this regard with my car, but perhaps this is because I’ve only had it 5K miles.
Not to mention, turning radius is exceptional- far better than any other car I’ve ever experienced. You can get away with one U-Turn on most single lane streets.
How does the free level 3 charging work?
You don’t pay for it. Same as free level 2 charging.
It is unbelievable!
LADWP has free level 3 chargers in several locations across the city. You just show up and charge. You’re technically limited to charging for no more than 30 min at a time, but if no one is waiting behind you then you can usually keep going.
Within LA city limits, I’ve survived almost entirely off free public chargers during my entire ownership of my car thus far. Other than a few occasional bugs, no complaints thus far.
I found that getting the 19s rather than the 20s resulted in a less harsh ride. The 20s probably look a little bit better, but I definitely felt they were less compliant.
Also, even though these “pizza cutter” tires are rare, they are surprisingly inexpensive ($158 for fronts and $173 for rears in 19s…the 20s are almost exactly the same price).
I second this. Base wheels definitely help on the ride comfort. Also, HK upgrade is a must have, base stereo is hideous with only TWO speakers in the entire car.
I agree, for such a skinny tire the grip is shockingly high.
And although an i3 is not the fastest car in the universe, out of the hole until about 30 or 40 miles an hour it can keep up with most anything. I don’t really drag race (as I generally drive like a little old lady who is not from Pasadena), but a couple of weeks ago I was next to an X5M at a light, and until about 40mph it was not pulling on the puny i3 BEV. After that though, it started sucking the paint off my doors :-).
I’m having a hell of a time locating one, as they are basically non existent. Do any of the PHEV vehicles that BMW offers, provide the same incentives, rebates, and tax breaks in NJ as the i3?
*made the change…thanks @HersheySweet
They are non existent 
Get on the waiting list for one of the broker that advertised sub $150 for NJ, he said you might have to wait a few months.
just be sure as to whether the NJ state tax incentive is baked into the lease or if you get a check from the state after the fact. I understood it as BMW somehow was including the state incentive in the deal on the i3 (which is odd, as I now know that point of sale incentives are not yet live in NJ…).
That killed the option for me.
I’m in CA, big i3 fan, just taking someone’s i3 lease. Nothing to complain about for drive locally with traffic. So easy to park and good feeling while driving. We are family of 3. Perfect for us.
