I’m obsessed with BMW i3s. Obsessed.
Ever since buying the Cheapest One In America last year for $10,500 and putting about 10,000 miles on it, I cannot stop talking and thinking about i3s. I shop for them daily even though I already have one. I’ve joined every i3 owner’s forum, I’ve purchased the official BMW i: Visionary Mobility book, I stop by BMW dealerships just to look at their i3s, and I even bought a hideous BMW i3 T-shirt that my girlfriend isn’t the biggest fan of. And while I’ve been obsessed with many cars before, this time feels different, because there are very few people who get it like I do; most car enthusiasts have absolutely no interest in talking about i3s, and it feels weird.
As most of you know, I’ve been a car enthusiast for pretty much ever. I’ve owned everything from a 1948 Willys Jeep to a 1958 Jeep Forward Control to a 1965 Plymouth Valiant to multiple Grand Wagoneers to a 1966 Ford Mustang to Jeep Cherokees and five-speed Grand Cherokees and on and on. All of these are cars that traditional car enthusiasts love. Many have carburetors, all burn gasoline, their vintage design looks awesome, many are excellent off-road machines, and they’re fun to tinker on. Most people have some kind of connection to them or are interested in learning more, so they make for good conversation pieces.
The BMW i3, though, is different. It’s a relatively new, small, pug-nosed luxury compact car. Most people think it looks hideous, it only makes 170 horsepower, it’s doesn’t sound good, it has way less range than most EVs, it doesn’t handle that great, it isn’t easy to tinker on, and I could go on and on. The BMW i3 is, when viewed through the lens of many old-school car enthusiasts, not a car-enthusiast’s car.
Then how is that I, a diehard car enthusiast — someone so obsessed he studied engineering to develop cars in Detroit, then became a car journalist, then started a car enthusiast website — am so into this non-enthusiast car? I think the answer is a combination of two things: 1. You know how your friends who are the most diehard music fans tend to listen to music that normal people think sounds like garbage? Music that may be “technically” the best, but that is a bit odd to the masses? I think there’s some of that going on here. I think I’m in so deep that I see things in a way the average person doesn’t. And 2. What I’m seeing is just marvelous engineering: a carbon fiber body on an aluminum skateboard chassis; a rear electric motor coaxial with a little twin-cylinder scooter engine built in Taiwan; an insanely advanced and gorgeous interior made of sustainable materials; a crazy small turning radius thanks to skinny tires; ridiculously advanced interior features for a good price tag, and on and on. These aren’t things the traditional car enthusiast cares about.
I feel like I’m on an island. Nobody gets me! My old crew of friends whom I normally tell all about my cars — they don’t care about the i3. I don’t really care that they don’t care, since I don’t buy cars for anyone but myself, but this is a new feeling for me, and I now understand what my friend Nick feels when he talks ad nauseum about Pontiac Vibes (small cars that, like i3s, are just excellent at what they were designed to be). Here’s Nick at an event for members of the Genvibe Pontiac Vibe club:
To be sure, like Genvibe, there are plenty of BMW i3 owner’s forums, Facebook pages, and other support groups for the afflicted, but it’s not the same owning a car that isn’t something a traditional enthusiast would be interested in. I was recently on the phone with a BMW dealer inquiring about an i3. I made small talk; he told me he owned an E92 M3, I told him I owned a bunch of classic cars. “So, you’re a car enthusiast and an i3 fan, eh?”
What the … ? I’d heard similar things before when I talked about the i3. I guess people figure: How can a little compact car with little power, no manual transmission, no sound, and polarizing styling possibly be an enthusiast’s car? Isn’t this the same as liking a Toyota Prius?
I think it’s very different. I think the BMW i3 is the modern Citroen DS.
Watch that video above, and you’ll see YouTuber “Classics World” explaining why the Citroen DS is “The Greatest Car Ever Made.” Sure there’s some discussion about styling, and perhaps the DS has the i3 beat in that regard on the exterior (the i3’s interior, though, is a masterpiece), but design isn’t the DS’s biggest strength — it’s the car’s technology. You’ll see in the video that, what makes the car so impressive more than anything is its advanced tech — its unibody design and its self-leveling hydropneumatic suspension, which is part of a hydraulic system that powers all sorts of subsystems including power steering, brakes, turning headlamps, and on and on.
The DS was an engineering marvel when it arrived on the scene in 1955, just as the i3 was when it joined the party in 2013. It’s the little Bavarian compact’s carbon fiber body, it’s the rear scooter engine tucked right up against the electric motor, it’s the eucalyptus wood interior, it’s the door panels made of Kenaf fibers, it’s the absurdly skinny wheels — the i3 was, as engineering expert Sandy Munro put it when the i3 came out, “The Model T of our time.” It may lack some of the DS’s elegance on the outside, but look inside and under the skin, and what you see is pure magnificence.
But that’s not what most car enthusiasts care about, so for the first time I find myself obsessed with a car that is largely unloved. Folks, when asking me which cars I own, will show interest in all the old cars and then, when I mention the i3, will think it doesn’t fit in. But that’s fine.
But just because no one likes the music I like doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. It’s just a bit different going from rocking out with your friends to quietly listening to your tunes all alone with your headphones on.
It’s fitting the Prius or Prii came up. I have owned one for 7 years now (2012 plug-in) and surprisingly to me it drives and handles better than I expected and I really like it and I think my wife does as well.
It is an excellent example of a vehicle that achieves its design mission extremely well. It is not fast, though it is comfortable maintaining decently high speeds* on long road trips while sipping fuel, plus seating 4 comfortably and it is of course very reliable with super low running costs
*70-100 mph out west (super remote parts of ID, WY, MT, UT, NV, NM) where one is likely to see more pronghorn than cars
I’m with you: love Willys Jeeps, sports cars, and the i3 (we had a 2015 REx).
Dude. The DS is a design marvel – better qualified people than us have settled that long ago. And yes also an engineering marvel.
THANK YOU, DAVID! I could not agree more. Life-long, die-hard auto enthusiast here and I can’t shut up about how much I love my 2014 BMW i3 REX. The point that I try to make to people that “don’t get it” is what a marvelous piece of engineering it is. When I still get blank stares back, I usually just mention two words: carbon fiber – “like a McLaren!” and this usually gets them.
My other car is a 1983 Mercedes 240D 4-speed, so I’m definitely swimming in both ponds.
Good Lord we need an intervention. BRING IN THE RUSTY JEEPS!
On a serious note though, i3 is a cool car, no shame in that. It all went south from there with electric BMWs as far as I’m concerned, so there’s that.
I’m satisfied being into models that most people find to be detritus. Keeps my prices low!
David, I felt this article in my soul. I bought a ’14 BEV last year in part inspired by your journey. Like you, I’ve become obsessed with the car. I get ridiculously excited when I see another one on the road, and wave at the sister cars I see tooting around town.
But not even those i3 drivers seem to be very excited about their own cars. Barring one exception, I’ve never gotten so much as a nod from fellow i3 drivers.
It’s such a good little car; the storage space in the trunk has yet to let me down, effortlessly hauling two weeks of groceries for a family of four. Sometimes I fold down the seats, only to find out that I didn’t really need to do that. That turning radius is phenomenal at school drop off and that instant torque is handy when you need it.
No one else much seems to care, which is always a little dispiriting, but at the same time, hopefully that’ll keep prices low if/when I go shopping for a second one…
David, if you come across a 2018+ i3(s) REx for less than $16k please let me know! I understand you are a busy website man but it sounds like you have an obsession here and you could funnel some of that energy my way.
I missed a couple great deals last month and now I’m not seeing anything.
I’m with you David. I also love these cars. If I had a daily commute, I would have a 2019+ i3S BEV (preferably with a Heat Pump) in my garage. Instead I work from home and have nothing in the garage that is mine. My wife and I downsized to a single car during the pandemic and the one we kept is hers.
Oh, I know exactly what this is like. My coworkers worry about me over my taste in cars.
Who wants to follow the herd? -It’s all dust & cow patties back there!
Look, I need a Zündapp Janus, Tatra and/or Amphicar.
This enthusiasm is mirrored personally when someone brings up the Honda Fit.
Those were really good, though! They deserve more respect, dammit.
2 words…magic seats.
My hot take – there is absolutely nothing wrong with being enthusiastic about a car that is successful at doing what it intended to do.
Enthusiast should cover more that “it go fast”
My wife and I have an inside joke for things like this: “Some people like feet.”
My sister owned an i3 for about 7 years and loved it. I was skeptical, because I don’t like the looks, but when I finally got to ride in it and drive it I got it. It’s the perfect city car. The problem with it – and a lot of modern cars, especially EVs – was that a relatively minor accident totaled it.
My username on the old site was “guy who legitimately loves his BMW X4” so I sorta get you 🙂
Also I love the i3 as well, and would probably have one if I had room for a 2nd car at my current place… Well, that or an RF Miata… Or a Morgan… Or a Spark EV… Or I would have decision paralysis and end up with nothing ????
Good thing you went down the engineer and journalist path. You’d starve as a salesman.
Can you put more conventional 5″ wheels, like a 16 or 17, on an i3? It seems like the tire selection for 20×5 wheels is gonna be minimal.
Some people are trying, but spacers are needed to clear the brakes and other components. So it can be done, but it is not ideal.
Tire Rack and Discount Tire show one option – Bridgestone Ecopias. Better hope Bridgestone keeps making them. And don’t buy an i3 somewhere you need winter tires.
I ran bridgestone blizzaks in NY winter on my 2018 i3 REx – I miss the little guy, but needed more space unfortunately. If they had made a minivan version of it (like a 125% of the i3 maybe?) I’d have one now!
Apparently no, but in Europe it was also sold with 19” wheels. 155 and 175. Not a very common size, but shared with some other cars not sold in US. And despite what one might think, you can get proper Nordic winter tires, as well as ”central european” winter tires. So at least on this side of the pond there are tire options.
You’ve exactly described my 13 year ownership of multiple 1st gen Honda Insights, including one with a bonkers 220hp K20a swap.
At the end of the day it was my completely stock, green Insight that I loved despite John Travolta making them both uncool and somehow, cool.
https://youtu.be/naVBpaR5U5Q
Spiderman_pointing_at_spiderman.gif
Yeah but insights are cool.
As an engineer/car enthusiast/musician/music enthusiast, your analogy about die hard music fans is spot-on. The thing about the i3 is it is absolutely not an enthusiast’s car. It’s an engineer’s car.
Engineer and 3-time i3 owner, here!
Another engineer, here, and can confirm this. Perfect take. I tend to get fixated on lots of mundane things that feature some neat engineering and catch myself boring the crap out of people talking about them. I’m specifically obsessed with old mechanical stuff that was designed for infinite life that is still used way past its supposed expiration date. A great example are the screw machines we still run at work. There is just something so damn cool about a concept developed over 100 years ago that is still cost-viable to run. The problem now is we are running out of skilled people to set them up. In my car-life, it’s the glorious lump under the hood of my F150 – the 300 inline 6.
Yes ha ha YES!!! I want to hear about all of the overengineered doodads. They’re not boring! You just have to frame it in a way that isn’t boring sometimes and lead with the interesting part.