Hacker News Reader

Comment by evo_9 | Hacker News Reader

My abomination i3 is the best car I’ve ever owned. To each there own, I personally think it looks like it came out of Blade Runner and the only real complaint I have is I wish it were AWD and had wider, less bicycle-like tires.

View on HN

Just to be clear, I do think the i3 and cars like them have a place in the market, and kudos to BMW for getting outside of its comfort zone and shipping something new that has found an audience.

However, if I were running BMW (and it's surely best for everyone that I'm not), I wouldn't want the i3 to be the core of my EV business. The day-to-day bread-and-butter EVs should target the same demographic sweet spots as BMW's gas guzzlers: expensive but not too expensive, comfortable, attractive, high-performance vehicles with (at least perceived) consistently high quality for components, engineering, innovation, and some combination of classy design and sporty sexiness.

People can argue whether or not they've ever consistently nailed all or any of those marks, but at the very least, that is the niche that BMW aspires to be in in the auto industry, and the niche it has had the most success in occupying. BMW has had great success making a certain type of motorcycle and certain types of cars, and I've got to think they'd have great success making a certain type of EV if they fearlessly applied themselves to doing it. Maybe they've realized their mistakes and are doing that now, who knows, but they're years behind where I wish they were. :( I still think they can catch up as long as they've at least gotten their vision together by now.

I’m sure it’s a great car but man it looks terrible, and I’m willing to bet a lot of consumers are just as vain as I am. It is of course just my opinion, and as you say: to each their own. I’m glad you like your car, but if I was to buy an EV I want it to look like a regular car – not like something out of blade runner.

Personally, it looks great if you think man-made stuff should look man-made.

Since we're playing this game, the BMW i3 looks bad to me.

Of course not everything "interesting and/or unusual" is good design, but in this case I think it holds.

> I wish it (had) less bicycle-like tires.

Agree completely. I absolutely love the i3 (especially the futuristic design, and the rex engineering), and was going to try to get one at some point -- until I discovered the bicycle tires.

I'm not sure it's even safe to drive on US roads with tires like that. Did BMW forget that potholes are a thing?

My bro-in-law had one and liked it, then moved to Nebraska. First snowfall they had to get rid of it - it was terrible on anything slippery.

Then he had the wrong tires, guaranteed.

Exactly - bicycle tires.

Perhaps the parent meant to suggest https://www.bmwblog.com/2015/04/04/bmw-i3-winter-tires-revie... for the winter. At least according to that review, using the winter tires would have been better in the snow.

Of course if you’d rather run all-weather tires without the hassle of changing from summer to winter tires, it seems like the i3 is a bad choice.

The 19" tire is "All Season" rated. The 20" performance tire is "Summer Only." So if you want an i3 "without the hassle" you simply get one with the more-common 19" wheels.

Yep. I rock all season tires on my (not an i3) car as well. They’ll never be great in the snow, but I live in an area where snow is rare so that’s fine.

I can certainly imagine the “bicycle” tires must not be very good at all in the snow unless they’re the specialized winter version!

My mechanic said the cost of tire replacements is nuts on them.

$180 apiece. (our i3 has the 19" wheels. No idea what the 20" go for) Some Costcos stock them, ours had to order and it arrived next day.

I'd expect this cost is in the ballpark for their other cars.

Traded in my AMG-variant Mercedes for an i3 almost five years ago, and, while I miss the Mercedes, which was far more sure footed than any BMW i've known (probably courtesy of AMG), the i3 is a great entirely weird nerdmobile. And its tail end opens like the back of a cargo plane...just weird and useful.

Tires cost a fortune because they're annoyingly thin, so wear down fast, and only are made by Bridgestone, I think. Handling is great: carbon fiber and alumin[i]um.

I can't provide a source right now, maybe Matt Farah, but I've always heard i3s are of extremely high quality. Perhaps people like to project their range anxiety onto the rest of the vehicle?

I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s not so much the quality that puts me off, it’s the appearance. I personally think it’s ugly and there’s way too much “noise” in its aesthetics, for lack of a better term. But as the previous commenter said, to each their own. I’m sure it’s a fine car. It’s just not the aesthetic I’d go for, especially as far as BMWs go.

It really is. The entire body is carbon fiber. We had a major hailstorm about a year back and it trashed everyone's car except mine at my office. No damage. I also had a joker run a light and clip my left-rear quarter panel - moving me about 1.5 feet in the process - also no damage.

I'm actually leasing mine and plan on buying one used. You can find them for sub-25k and quite honestly it's one of the best values EV-wise you can find.

Yes that's the problem with electrics, even when they try to make them unappealing people still love them.

Is electric AWD more like a low-end AWD (like Haldex) or can it actually compete with quattro?

With fully independent powertrains for both alxes (and potentially, for each of four wheels), electric AWD is potentially better that anything that mechanical AWD can offer.

I say "potentially" because one can always screw it up with bad (or poorly tuned) software.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com