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Is the BMW i3 a decent city commuter EV? (piefed.zip)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/electricvehicles@slrpnk.net
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I see a couple of i3s in buy&sell sites in my city. They're usually 2016-2018 models selling from $9k to $15k and mileage ranging from 40k to 80k. Some of them are pure EVs and others have the range extender (~80 miles of gas range). Some have upgraded infotainment that supports wireless Apple carplay, and some have only like 80 miles of range left.

Just from the visual POV, it looks like a fun little car to use for general city driving (work, groceries, errands, etc.). An EV for less than $15k that isn't an older generation Nissan Leaf is pretty rare to find too. Are these models any good?

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[–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I did see some reviews saying to avoid the gas range extender because that requires exclusive BMW maintenance that gets expensive. So the pure EV is a better choice, and yeah I also saw recommendations to get a 2017 or newer for the bigger battery.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago (2 children)

    Rich Rebuilds ran into a bunch of trouble with it and IIRC the car acted up when the range extender wasn't functioning. If your range requirement isn't a lot, the non extender variant is probably cheaper too.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Rich Rebuilds purposely buys dramatically shitty cars for content.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago*

    Well obviously. But often those are typical issues you'd find for the model as they age. And he managed to buy 2 non-running i3s where the rex also wouldn't start. Cars not even that old yet.

    I think the issue in the end wasn't even the rex, but the rex refuses to start if the stars aren't aligned. And if you're in the NA market then you can't even start it manually so you can only troubleshoot it by running the battery nearly flat when it's acting up. Which is why imo it's not a great extra and I'd rather take another car with a bigger battery if the extra range from the rex is crucial. The rex system had to be compromised for the car to retain its title as a BEV rather than a PHEV.

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