Making a decision

I have been following the development of electric cars for a number of years, but have considered the range and charging speed as impractical for my needs until now! I have been a BMW driver for over 12 years and have always like the quality and service of the brand. When the i3 came out a number of years ago, the range available at that time was not sufficient to make it practical for me. I have a 40 mile commute each way.

However now the new i3 has a practical range of over 150 miles, and the company I work for have now installed charging points, it has made the i3 more attractive, coupled with my plan to retire in the next 18 months, the thought of not having to pay petrol/diesel, vehicle excise duty (for now), make it even more attractive.

I arranged to have a test drive with my local BMW dealership and they offered me an i3S for a few hours. As my longer term plan is for our household to go down to one car, it was important that my wife was comfortable driving the i3.

The test drive was simple enough. Select drive and off we go! It took some getting use to the regenerative breaking as the i3 does not coast if you take your foot of the accelerator. Instead, it generates charge to the battery by some wonderful electronic wizardry, and so you tend to pull up short at junctions. By the time the test drive was over, we were both getting the hang of it. We travelled for about 70 miles in the local area on all types of road from town, rural, motorway, and it was so easy. The i3 is quick off the mark and with a smaller turning circle than I have been used to, it makes for a nippy vehicle for around town.

Back to the showroom and we talk to the BMW Genius (!) about what sort of deal we could make. After his several visits to his Sales Manager, we finally agreed on some figures I was comfortable (it took 3x "Is that your best offer?" before we actually got it!). Never go for the first two!

As for options, we went for Sun Glass, to reduce UV, Parking Assist (for the wife of course!), a sun roof. Everything else, I think, we left as standard.

Deposit paid and I was given 1st July as a forecast delivery date, and off we went. Then it all went quiet! No response to emails, until I dropped a contact message to Sales on their website.

Now I am bring told the delivery date of the new i3 is about 22nd / 23rd July, which is rather unfortunate as the MOT on my current vehicle expires on 23rd. More negotiation to be done here. I will post an update when I have a confirmed delivery date.