Road Test

[C Mclean]

A couple of weeks ago I had an extended test drive for a couple of days in a BMW i3. I know, I know it's sacrilege to stoop so low, but honestly I just couldn't help myself. Anyway, the i3 is a bit of a hoot to drive, instant acceleration without even trying, scoots round corners and through the traffic like a rat up a drain pipe. But for me the negatives were its downfall; drivers seat is like sitting on a wooden bench, seems to be very little padding and there's no lateral support. Every time you cornered, it felt as though you were about to slide off. With the seat belt, you grabbed a hold of it to pull it across you, but due to the tongue sliding down the belt, you have to hold it with one hand and slide the tongue across the belt to the buckle, a silly minor thing, but with the Lexus the tongue is held far enough up the belt so you can buckle it easily. You get a lot of reflection from the dash onto the windscreen. I just couldn't find a comfortable seating/steering wheel position. Drivers door armrest felt too low. The default drive mode is "Comfort" but that like driving a Lexus in sport mode on steroids. You can easily drop it to "Eco Pro" which softens the the settings to feel like a normal throttle pedal, but the downside of this setting is that you're limited to 50mph, it's easy to get a WTF moment when you overtake someone and the speed limiter starts its antics. One pedal driving, very easy to do and you soon get used to the strong regenerative braking. Plenty of room in the front and with the windscreen set so far forwards it's a very light and airy cabin. The rear is a bit on the small side, but who really cares, that's for passengers anyway. In the end I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't overcome the negatives so it was back to the drawing board and I'll be picking this little beaut up on Wednesday.

[DJP]

Very nice indeed!! Interesting write up too

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[Guest]

We thought a lot about the I3 for local driving in and out of town and because the better half's office is only local it made sense,but we decided at the moment they are still overpriced,even the very few used models are too pricey.i think we will go down that road for a second car eventually though.

Nice write up and great looking NX.

[capese21]

You made the right decision. The NX is superb.

Ed

[lex - eleven]

I would have stopped at the badge. Couldn't bare the stigma of being a BMW driver. 😂

adventure before dementia

[C Mclean]

22 hours ago, lex - eleven said:

I would have stopped at the badge. Couldn't bare the stigma of being a BMW driver. 😂

adventure before dementia

My brain was still in the era of the 2002 & 3.0csl when I was still on the tools. These memories seemed to block out the antics and reputation of the  3 series, C class and A4 self abusers...