Autos

I Just Sold My 2014 BMW i3, One Of The Greatest Cars I’ve Ever Owned – The Autopian


I’m not supposed to really be writing this, because I’m on my honeymoon. But my wife stepped out for some morning yoga, so here, let me bang out a quick blog about the sale of my 2014 BMW i3.

I know, I know: When I bought my 1989 Chevy K2500, a few folks said something to the effect: “David, that’s a cool truck, but weren’t you supposed to be reducing your fleet of cars?”

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It’s true. I am a sucker for a deal, and sometimes that gets the best of me. But let the record state that there will be a net reduction of automobiles from my fleet! For one, I’m selling my 1954 Willys CJ-3B, and two, I’ve already offset that K1500 with the sale of my 2014 BMW i3.

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Given that my wife is about to come back from yoga, my tribute to this i3 is going to have to be short.

It all began in the spring of 2023; I had just moved to LA, and I was looking to buy my first electric car, since I figured it’d be good to have experience driving an EV as editor-in-chief of a car website. The issue was that pretty much all relatively-affordable EVs bored me to tears. That’s when The Autopian’s very own Thomas Hundal suggested an EV from one of his favorite brands, BMW — the BMW i3. Thomas knew I was an engineer, so he understood that a super-advanced carbon fiber machine with suicide doors and a gasoline scooter engine as a ranger extender might tickle my fancy.

He was very right. I rented a 2014 BMW i3 on Turo, and a week later I was sitting in a San Diego Hotel room ready to purchase the cheapest one in the country (from a BMW dealer). It was $10,500 for a 135,000 mile i3, which — now, just under two years later — seems like a ripoff. But then, it was a decent deal.

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I ended up pulling the trigger on that car despite the fact that its battery was toast — I was supposed to be getting 70 miles of all-electric range, but the car’s dash indicated only 48.

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Luckily, I had done my research and found that there is a little “loophole” in the i3’s warranty: If you buy a range-extended model (and not the fully-electric one), the state of California considers it a Partial Zero Emissions vehicle, and as such, it must be covered by that PZEV warranty that was really drawn up for hybrids like the Toyota Prius — cars that are mostly driven by gasoline, but that have a small battery to assist. The BMW i3, being the only vehicle with a true range extender, is an electric car first with a gasoline backup, but it still gets covered by this warranty. This means the relatively large 22 kWh battery is covered for 10 years, 150,000 miles, and the motor and all the power electronics are covered for 15 years, 150,000 miles.

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It took only a few weeks for me to get my i3 back from the dealership, who had replaced the $20,000+ battery for free, making my $10,500 car an amazing deal. Here’s a first look at my car once it arrived:

And here’s a range test (I love the intro of this video):

I drove my i3 for about 18 months, and I loved every minute of it. It truly is the perfect LA car; it’s got just enough range (if you can charge at home like I can), it’s got more space inside than you’d think, it has enough ground clearance to handle LA’s sometimes-uneven roads, it’s quiet, it fits into tiny parking spaces, it’s insanely nimble and quick, visibility is good — I love everything about it. In fact, I loved my 2014 i3 so much it made me want to buy a later-model i3 — one that I could keep forever.

That’s not to say I couldn’t keep my 2014 i3 forever, but my old battery lasted me 10 years, and I don’t want to fall in love with a car and have to let it go in a decade. So I started looking at 2019 and later i3s — the ones with the biggest battery packs (i3s came with 22 kWh, 33 kWh, and 42.2 kWh packs). I nearly bought this gorgeous white one:

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Ultimately, I decided $22,000 plus tax and shipping and interest was too much to pay. So I kept looking, and spotted the true holy grail: a 2021 model in the final-model-year-only paint color Galvanic Gold. Not only that, but the car had the beloved Giga World interior that my 2014 had, it had the good sound system, and it was an i3S (sport model) just like the white car above. When was I going to ever find a gold i3S REX (that means “with range extender) with the Giga World Package and the good sound system? BMW only made 1,500 i3s in total in 2021!

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So I pulled the trigger, and when the car arrived, I both loved it and struggled with the fact that I’d spent so much money on a car. I put the car up for sale three or four times; I had a buyer who was ready to send me a check. I ended up backing out of the deal and making it up to him by finding — and I’m not entirely sure how I did this given how rare this car is — the exact same car for sale in his hometown at the exact same price (I think this may have been a sign). Was spending $30 grand on a car responsible? I had just gotten engaged; shouldn’t I be looking out for my future family? This bothered me to the point where I stopped driving the i3 because I didn’t want to damage it in case I sold it.

My fiancee reminded me: “David, you bought the car for a reason.” And she was right: It was the ultimate version of my favorite commuter car ever, and it made me feel like a million bucks every time I drove it. Finding another in the future was just not going to happen. And so I kept contemplating selling the car, and then, after a few months, I got comfortable with the fact that I’d spent that much money on a car, and the anxiety left.

Now I’m beyond glad I didn’t part ways with my beloved Galvanic Gold machine. Every time I drove the thing, I beam with pride. Being able to daily-driver a car that you love is a blessing. And though I’ll likely never buy another car in the five-figure range again, I’ve been able to justify my gold i3 by knowing that this isn’t just a recreational vehicle that I’ll drive every now and again. This is a vehicle I can drive every single day, and given that it’s got 11 years and 125,000 miles left on a pretty all-encompassing warranty, I can do so without any real concerns.

With my Gold i3 now my daily driver, the gray i3 now needed to find a new home.

The issue is that I couldn’t quite find a buyer. See, my i3 wasn’t like any other 2014 i3; not only had I gotten a brand new battery, but I later stopped by the dealership and asked if my compressor was going (AC compressors on i3s can fail in a way known as the “Black Death”). The dealer said that, indeed, my AC compressor was on its way out, so mine was replaced under warranty.

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The issue is that the average buyer didn’t really appreciate the value of a new battery/AC compressor. It’s not the same as having an engine replaced on a car whose engine should last 300,000 miles. No, i3 batteries all degrade, and AC compressors are like ticking time bombs. Finding a car with a new battery and new compressor is almost like finding a new car if you consider the price of those replacements relative to the value of the vehicle.

Anyway, I wrote the article above about why it was so hard to find a buyer for my 2014 Carbon Fiber Wonder from Leipzig, and in time, I received a few emails from mostly car-nerds who were amped about finding an i3 whose battery and compressor they didn’t have to worry about. One gentleman from New Hampshire wanted the i3 to act as his second car (his first one being — and I’m not joking here — a freakin’ Pinzgauer!). I could not tell him no; the idea that my i3 will get to share a garage with a Pinzgauer is just awesome.

We agreed on a fair price ($11,300), and now my beloved 2014 i3 is gone. It was a truly inspirational machine, and I’ll never forget it.





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