I have owned a BMW i4 edrive40 since last summer. I think it’s a great car, quiet, refined, comfortable and plenty of power. I have owned a succession of BMWs over the past 30 years, mostly 3 and 4 series, both petrol and diesel, but I reckon this is among the best. It’s also a practical vehicle capable of carrying plenty with the rear hatchback opening and seats folded down. What’s more it doesn’t have the run-flat tyres that ruined the ride on many U.K. potholed roads!
However, having just moved house, the impracticality of our new driveway is forcing me to seriously consider swapping it for a smaller vehicle. This will be a shame as I think it looks great in the dark burgundy red colour (for which I paid a hefty price!).
Thanks for your further comments. A member of my family does have the Tesla and although I have not driven it, travelling as a passenger put me off. My 330e does suffer from the constricted space, although it does have rear seats that fold down and that makes a significant difference. The hatchback style of the i4 is an attractive asset. The hybrids are certainly a compromise and now I think that an EV is viable as one’s sole means of transport (apart from my bike). I will certainly drive both the i4 and the Polestar before I decide.
A strong endorsement of the i4! It’s a lovely colour and it would be a great shame if you had to exchange it. One reservation I have is about moving house and then not having a driveway with a charging unit. It seems to me one of the biggest obstacle to wider uptake of EVs.
A friend drives a Polestar, bizarrely seems to me much smaller on the inside than you’d think from the outside. He thinks it’s fine but then his last car was a Boxster!
My neighbour has an i4 (through his biz, natch). He and I both like it lots, even though neither of us have ever been BMW fans and our current cars are both our first BM’s!
I’m sure they drive really well. Just don’t get how they have gone from hero to zero style wise in such a short time.
But I guess MB went from understated style to total bling in a similar time!
How about this
I was recommended to use Zapmap to guide me to public EV chargers. It seems rather similar to WattsUp, which I hadn’t heard of until it was mentioned here. While Zapmap shows many charging locations in some areas, on closer inspection many are slow, many are distant from major trunk roads and commonly they faulty. Some do not take contactless payments and you need to have the right app with a pre-authorised card already loaded - not something you want to do on a wet, windy night in winter. And, worst of all, they are almost all outrageously expensive, commonly 79p/kwh, or more.
In summary, I am totally disillusioned with the public EV charging network in this country! I think the situation is better in the south-east than in my local area (East Midlands). On my longer journeys, mainly north and south along the A1 and visiting Manchester (via A50/M6), with careful planning I seldom have a serious problem. Tesla owners have a much better deal, plenty of superchargers and much lower prices, but that doesn’t help me, although I understand Tesla is now beginning to open some of its superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles.
The dashboard looked great, quality materials and classy looks. Then about 18 months ago they tore it out & replaced it with a very ugly looking touchscreen which has just been plonked on top & not attractively integrated.
No doubt cheaper to produce.
I have been fortunate enough to have owned five 3 Series from new since 1992 & have driven nothing else.
It’s not just BMW, a lot of modern cars suck. All the fun seems to have been drained out of them with the incessant nannying driver safety aids.
The one terrible thing on the i4, which I have noticed other cars do is this lane keeping safety device where it trys to stop you leaving the lane. Fine on a motorway, but on the road out of our village the layout was changed from a dual carriageway to a single lane. They covered over the old road markings but they are still sort of visible. In the right conditions the i4 sees the wrong road markings and violently pulls left or right. The first time it happened I thought it was trying to kill me. But now I am expecting it Im ready to fight with the steering, or I just turn all the driver aids off everytime I get in the car.
On the latest cars you get annoying warnings every time it thinks you’re exceeding the speed limit. Terrible.
I agree it is annoying at first and it takes some getting used to. At least you can ‘turn it down’ to give minimal intervention and you don’t have to reset it every time you set out on a journey. I think this measure, and other so-called safety features, were introduced to ensure compliance with EU regulations. I’m fairly sure all new cars sold in Europe are similarly equipped, not just BMWs. My own car doesn’t have the annoying gong-like sound that the very latest models have whenever the speed limit is exceeded.
Agreed, I remember finding it terrible when I got my car and was pleased when I discovered I could turn it off, not just down.
Completely transformed the driving experience, having found it trying to control the car and put a bit of influence on steering while on long bends on motorways and duals, even when well within lane boundaries.
I thought it was me for a bit or BM had sold me a lemon but when I turned it off, the car was transformed.
I doubt they were designed to be dangerous, although some are very annoying until you get used to them. I’m fairly sure my car will brake itself in the event of an imminent collision but I’ve never had cause to experience it in practice. It also has something called an ‘attentiveness assistant’ which will somehow wake me up if it thinks I’m nodding off!
I think these and other similar features are already widely used in many new models today. I suspect that within a few years they will come to be quite normal. After all, the seat belts were not universally welcomed when they were first introduced.
classic Beamer
