The future starts now

This is the actual car they want us to buy. It wasn’t there when I dropped off the loan car (in the background here)but they brought it over from another branch to film the personal video tour these shots are taken from. 



Funnily, I’m less taken with the black wheels on the white car. I like the blue seat belts, though. 



I don’t think I mentioned the noise maker. Our car doesn’t have one; the loan car does. It cuts out at about 20 but below that it makes a low-pitched ‘whooo’ like a chorus of slightly surprised ghosts. The pitch rises with speed. It’s certainly noticeable; I went out on Friday evening to try the LED headlights (significantly better than our last-century halogens) and my teenage neighbours opposite were playing on bikes in their drive as I returned. I already had the windows open for a better listen, so I heard their amused comments on the ghosts and it sparked a bit of a chat about the car. It seems young people in general, not just my offspring, thoroughly approve of electric power. So that’s all right. 

This one is new (still has its transit protection strips.) It’s just one that’s in stock and available immediately. We can make a factory order if we prefer; the only difference would be waiting till June for delivery.

The grant equation is more complicated. BMW’s price cuts bring the starting price of an i3S below the £35,000 ceiling, but not by enough to add the light Loft interior, which we consider a must-have, without going back over. Which brings a regular i3 back into consideration because that starts lower still, and would be significantly cheaper with the options we’d like. But I did really like driving the i3S. Difficult, innit?

For what it’s worth, I’m leaning towards ordering an i3S exactly as we want it. We’d still have it five months before the end of our finance agreement, and it wouldn’t have black wheels. Of course, if the dealer would swap the wheels for us...

Well, maybe if I drove the car more often with all the windows open, I’d feel the need for more glass slidy bits I could open. But I seldom exercise even the options I have so I’m not looking for any new ones.

Fine if you like it but a poor reason to compromise the entire car. The slidy roof doesn’t ruin the i3 as it does the CLS — below motorway speed I wasn’t really aware of it, and then from the noise rather than the headroom loss — but it’s simply not a thing I want in a car. I occasionally used to like dropping the windows in my 325 coupé, but above 40 or so it was quieter and more comfortable to close them. I do the same in both current cars — frameless windows, you see — but that’s plenty for me.

Thinking is moving on. We’ve decided against the white car in the video. Any one of black wheels, blue seatbelts and curiously brown-stained upholstery we could live with but not all three. But MrsB1 has warmed to the idea of an i3S with the slightly plusher ‘Lodge’ interior — with silver wheels and grey seatbelts. And if we don’t mind waiting for a factory build, we can have the air-source cabin heat pump too, which will usefully improve range for winter day trips.

The grant calculation is neither here nor there; only an absolutely plain i3 would come in under £35,000 list, and we already have one nicer and cheaper than that. So if we’re paying the extra we might as well hold out for exactly what we want — which means no ‘sun protection glass’ either.

My salesman says they’ve had a few in that situation. The grant applies to contracts already signed, so those with firm orders shouldn’t be affected — although they also miss out on the price reduction.

Yes, I was expecting it to be longer too. Last time round there was a sound reason for taking what was in stock: there were pre-facelift cars at advantageous prices and all sorts of incentives on offer. Ours is pretty much as we’d have specced it anyway, but for the dark rear windows — which don’t do anything useful but aren’t really noticeable from inside the car.

I confess I’ve not checked what the i3S will cost to insure. Never mind; pretty sure I want one now, and even MrsB1 is playing ball. I think it’s the Lodge interior that swung it; happy beavers are always good news.

When will you get it?