So, what do I think of the BMW i3 ReX

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rm0rgan
Posts: 287
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 4:33 pm

Post by rm0rgan »

Hi folks - after selling my beloved QQ last year, for the past 8 months I have been driving around in an i3 ReX and having covered 13,500 miles I thought some of you would be interested in how it's been...

It was always going to be difficult to change my QQ as in so many ways it ticked all the boxes and more, but after being taken for a ride in my bosses Tesla, it showed me just how smooth, silent and quick an electric car could be, so I went looking at options.

First to be discounted, was the Leaf sadly - not enough range and just a little too boring to drive. Add to that my local dealer's failure to ever get me a test drive in one meant that I actually got to drive one by accident when having some warranty work done on my QQ at another dealer! Others that got discounted included the Zoe and E-Golf - again, not enough range and just lacked excitement. The new Leaf and Golf GTW may have changed that but that was all that was about when I was looking...

In the end, I got to test drive the BMW i3 REX for a week, and if I can say Nissan could learn a lot from how they engage with customers - the dealership surpassed pretty much every car buying experience I had before and by the time I had reached the end of the road I knew the i3 was in a different league to anything I had driven up to then...ok, so it does look a little 'challenging' from some angles but inside it is streets ahead of the others, including the Tesla I had been in before (and this was also the opinion of my boss who owns it). The fit and finish won't be to everyone's taste but to me, it's a work of art and on a completely different level - the use of recycled materials makes it feel really different and the application of tech makes the whole experience very engaging.

It's quick too - really quick - from 0 to 40, pretty much it will beat everything off the line including BMW's M3 but that's not really the point - it's that with this instant burst of speed comes incredible agility - it's RWD so has a nimbleness that you only really get in RWD cars. Given how skinny the wheels are I'm amazed it handles so well.

So, what's it like to live with - well, I've covered just over 13,500 miles now, with about 1,000 of those using petrol via the Range Extender - the tank holds a gallon of unleaded and this gives you about 80-90 miles range, which means on average I'm returning somewhere around 1, 150mpg!

I've added about £20 a month to my electric bill which is less than I expected (I tend to charge at work for free or while I am out and about so rarely arrive home completely empty of charge) - it takes about £2.50 to charge it from flat and this gives me about 120 miles of EV range. My Chargemaster card costs me £7.50 a month and this gives me access to around 5,000 charge points across the UK (but I generally only stop at the rapid chargers where it takes a max of half an hour to take me from nearly flat to 90%).

Cost - it's not cheap. After all the options I added the car came in at just over £40k but from that BMW gave me a £3.5k deposit contribution and the government another £4.5k off the price - so now we were down to £32k and with a really low (2%) finance deal the car is costing me around £500 a month based on 18,000 miles pa. As I'm not putting in £300 a month in fuel into the tank this makes it in real terms £200 a month, but for me, the icing on the cake is I still get 45ppm from my employer for business mileage, so I have a net gain of £100 a month all told!

The Good:
The Performance
The Quality - everything feels so well thought through.
The Refinement - it's incredibly quiet
The Tech - it makes anything else seem antiquated.
ReX - you'll be glad of having an onboard generator should you not have time to stop and charge or you can't get a charge
Dealership Service Level

The Bad:
I used to feel car sick when in it - the lack of noise as a reference makes you feel a little weird at first!
Small boot - inside it's spacious but the boot is compromised.
It's a 2 + 2, so no middle seat in the rear.
The front seats lack lateral support - they are not uncomfortable but could be better
Suicide doors - look great but in practice, you need to think of the car like a 2 door with easier access to the rear.
Charging infrastructure - increasingly you find muppets in Plug-in Hybrids hogging chargers to gain just 20 miles of EV range.

Let me know if you had any questions and I'd be happy to try and answer them - all Nissan need to do now is make an EV or Serial EV QQ and I'd bite their arm off! :D

Ps. No idea why the photos are upside down!


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Hound
Posts: 1163
Joined: Tue May 19, 2015 12:37 am
Location: Deeside
Qashqai Model: Still looking for one....

Post by Hound »

I like it.

The suicide doors and rear window dip remind me of the Vauxhall/Opel Meriva - that had great access with wide-opening doors,
but had a B-pillar.

meriva.jpg

MerivaFlexDoors.jpg

Used to have 2015 1.6dCi 130 Xtronic N-tec+ in Gun Metallic
rm0rgan
Posts: 287
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 4:33 pm

Post by rm0rgan »

I had no idea that had suicide doors! Whats odd is the lack of B pillar - means you forget your seatbelt is attached to it so end up strapped in when someone opens the door to get in!

The dip is apparently to let kids see out more easily instead of being stuck in a cave...my grand kids love it!
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