Official BMW i3 thread

[Boomer23]

More pics from Santa Monica on Sept 20

 

[Boomer23]

More pics from the i3 at Santa Monica on Sept 20

 

[Boomer23]

More pics from the i3 at Santa Monica Sept 20

 

[Boomer23]

More pics from the i3 at Santa Monica Sept 20

 

[Boomer23]

More pics from the i3 at Santa Monica Sept 20

The top of the round control wheel in the center console doubles as a graphics tablet surface so that you can draw letters with your fingernail as a menu option if you wish.

 

[surfingslovak]

I think that all of the tires are going to be Bridgestone Ecopias (yes, Ecopias). The tire size on the 20 inch wheels are 155/60R 20. Standard wheels are 19 inchers, in one of three different styles.

Great photos, Phil! Thanks for sharing. And yes, you were indeed quite lucky to be able to survey the interior. In terms of the tires, it should be noted that it was a brand new development, which BMW has commissioned. Bridgestone likely decided to include them under the Ecopia umbrella, since efficiency apparently was one of the guiding motives of the design process. That said, I would not expect to see the same materials and approach Bridgestone uses in their other Ecopia tires. While I'm not thrilled that Bridgestone was selected as the tire vendor, I'm hopeful that they did a good job with the custom tires for the i3.

 

[Boomer23]

More pics from the i3 at Santa Monica Sept 20

Top picture is interior rear door panel

Middle pic shows carbon fiber visible on the door jambs. Very cool, actually

Bottom pic shows the center display that happens to be showing the index screen for the electronic owner's manual, also showing the letter "A" that I drew with my fingernail on the top of the circular center console iDrive selector as a menu selection.

 

[Boomer23]

Last group of pics of the i3 at Santa Monica on Sept 20

 

[Boomer23]

My impressions from sitting in the i3 in Santa Monica:

The interior materials seem high quality for the most part, especially the ones that you will touch the most, and the interior is comfortable. I was impressed and excited about the car. I didn't check out the grey fiber-looking material on the lower interior of the doors. The steering wheel is comfortable to hold and has both tilt and telescoping adjustment. The glove box lid opens upward and the box is good sized and deep. There is one cup holder in the center console and you can add a second cup holder that clips on to the front edge of the center console. There are two cup holders in the middle of the rear seat, and you could reach back there to stow a water bottle if you needed to. The parking brake is electronic with a switch in the center console, very similar to the original LEAF design.

The car is narrower inside than the LEAF, with room, and seat belts, for only two in the rear. The front seat area seems equally roomy to that in the LEAF.

The display screens were highly readable and the center display was really wide. The Nav display on that screen was quite impressively large. The car had an electronic owner's manual viewable on the center screen. The screens are not touch screens. The center display is controlled by the iDrive controller in the center console, using a rotary wheel and dedicated Menu, Back, Nav and other buttons, and a horizontal line of programmable buttons on the center dash.

The seat comfort was good. Front seat travel was long enough that I was able to get comfortable in the driver seat. I was able to find a comfortable seat back angle, even though the seats are manual adjust only. There is a small amount of seat height adjustment. I'm 6 feet tall with a 33 inch inseam. Head room was plenty for me in the front and the rear. A six footer in the rear could sit behind another six footer. Getting in and out of the rear seats was easy, despite the small rear doors, because there is no "B pillar".

I neglected to look at the rear visibility from the driver seat, and it is something that I'm very interested in checking out when I get my next chance to sit in the car. The front windshield pillars ("A pillars") are thick like the LEAF's, so I would imagine the same front visibility issues exist as for the LEAF and lots of other cars.

The rear storage floor is flat and flush with the top of the bumper and with the rear seats folded (a 50/50 split), the entire load floor is flat. With the seats up, the rear storage compartment seemed a bit smaller than the LEAF's when a cargo organizer is installed in the LEAF trunk.

The front trunk, or "frunk" is a smallish rectangle about 18 inches deep and the shape is about 18 inches by 14 inches (I didn't measure, these are just my approximate recollections).

There were two Level 1 EVSEs in the car's storage areas, a Leviton and a Delphi.

The blue stripe below the bottom door jamb is standard on all colors except the Solar Orange that was on the car that Tony saw today. That orange car has a grey stripe, I think.

That's about all I can recall right now. Happy to answer questions if you think of any.

 

[TonyWilliams]

Awesome! Thanks so much for sleuthing and sharing all this material. OK to cross-post to other forums? I would be particularly interested to have some German speakers sink their teeth into the paperwork you found in the car

That German paperwork doesn't help me any !!! Sure, share it wherever you like.

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[GRA]

That's about all I can recall right now. Happy to answer questions if you think of any.

Can you confirm that the rear windows are fixed, as was stated in one review I read? If so, I've got to wonder if they expect people with dogs to always have the dogs in the front seat. The Honda Element had this issue too, although the windows did at least pop out at the rear.

 

[Boomer23]

That's about all I can recall right now. Happy to answer questions if you think of any.

Can you confirm that the rear windows are fixed, as was stated in one review I read? If so, I've got to wonder if they expect people with dogs to always have the dogs in the front seat. The Honda Element had this issue too, although the windows did at least pop out at the rear.

Yes, I can confirm that. Scroll back a couple pages to the pic of the rear door interior. You'll see no window switches on the armrests. Also, the front doors need to be open in order to open the rear doors. So rear seat passengers are dependent on front seat occupants to open the front door so they can exit.

 

[pbennett]

Yes, I can confirm that. Scroll back a couple pages to the pic of the rear door interior. You'll see no window switches on the armrests. Also, the front doors need to be open in order to open the rear doors. So rear seat passengers are dependent on front seat occupants to open the front door so they can exit.

Isn't that why they call them suicide doors? :\

 

[Boomer23]

Yes, I can confirm that. Scroll back a couple pages to the pic of the rear door interior. You'll see no window switches on the armrests. Also, the front doors need to be open in order to open the rear doors. So rear seat passengers are dependent on front seat occupants to open the front door so they can exit.

Isn't that why they call them suicide doors? :\

:lol: You'd think so, right? Actually, (wikipedia says) it had to do with what happens if a car with those doors gets hit by another car from the rear while someone is getting out of the car. A rear hinged door will slam back into the car, possibly injuring the person who was trying to exit the car, while a front hinged door would break off. Of course, the opposite is true if the approaching car is coming from the front.

 

[TomMoloughney]

Isn't that why they call them suicide doors? :\

The real reason they were originally called suicide doors is because drivers and passengers would get injured or killed when a passing by car would hit the opened door of a car parked with the door open. A normal door will just break off away from the passengers but a rear suicide door will slam back into the vehicle and if anyone was in the process of getting out they would usually be killed.

Edit: Ahh, beat me to it Boomer

 

[Bicster]

And I thought they were called suicide doors because of the lack of side impact protection... TIL

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[TonyWilliams]