I tend to give all cars a fair shake being that I own a GM product, a Ford product, a Honda motorcycle, and the BMWs: a 2006 325i and 1997 Z3. I've no propensity for Brand bashing, but conversely I take every Brand's marketing info with a grain of salt and don't swallow the hype so easily. You'd exepect a BMW EV to handle well and I was glad I found it so. However I find the Volt as impressive engineering-wise as I do BMW's i3, but for different reasons, which makes sense since their intended uses are somewhat different. The i3 is a tall vehicle, but that's because of the limitations of a body-on-frame design, cars from the '40s are the same way. I can’t see it getting any better driving dynamics, but they are not bad from my 30 minutes with the car. I’d love to get it on some back roads, but there lies the dilemma, good roads (which I drive every day) are at the i3’s EV range limit. I would purchase a Rex version. I need to drive that to see how differently it drives from the EV version. What I really don’t get is the i3's placement of the charge point; maybe BMW just can’t break tradition…
My real interest for an electric is not altruistic by any means but just merely to get on the grid for a stable fuel price rather than deal with the fluctuations of gasoline (some Arab farts and the price goes up 20 cents - stupid). I need to find a new DD because at 255K on the E90, I want to retire it while it remains in good shape and start removing the miles from its body and components; it is such an excellent car to drive. I see my E90 as the last true classic BMW. I mistakenly gave up my E30 when I bought the E90, I tend not to make mistakes twice (usually
).
I know I'm harsh most times, but I'm a car geek and I really love to have good discussions with like-minded car geeks that possess intelligence; I find it in the i3 forum with you gents.