It seemed sudden. Nothing for months, then all at once we have another car. That is how it can be with major purchases. When it comes together it always feels sudden, no longer how long the process took.
We are now the proud owners of a 2014 electric BMW i3. It looks quite red in the photos, but it’s actually a rust-orange.
We’ve been talking about replacing the Mini Cooper for quite awhile. According to my google drive, I created my “Car Stats” spreadsheet on September 5, 2023. I probably hit a pothole that day that threatened to swallow the Mini.
The BMW i3 has always been high on my list, except it was discontinued in 2022. And they always say not to buy an old electric vehicle, right? There’s some good reasons for that. The engine battery eventually wears out and the battery is a major percentage of the price of an electric car. Also, range improves every year, so old electric vehicles have terrible range.
This old i3 can’t even make it to Phoenix and back. In fact, in the heat of the summer it wouldn’t even make it to Phoenix, much less back. And Phoenix is the holy grail around here. Therefore, this car has been sitting on a local used car lot for some time. I’m pretty sure I’ve noticed it online before. But it’s a 2014 and who buys a 2014 electric car?
Us, apparently. The prices of used electric cars are dropping a lot, so if you were assuming, like us, that they are by definition a bad deal, you might want to recheck that. True, this car won’t last forever and its range sucks, but it barely made a dent in our bank account.
We wanted an interim car because I’ve had it with the Mini Cooper, but who knows if/when the Telo truck we want will actually be available. It might be available in a couple of years. Buying a fancy new car does not make sense if you hope to replace it in 2-3 years. But continuing to drive a car we no longer like, while waiting for a concept car that’s at least two years out and may never make it to the market at all, isn’t a great strategy either. So we bought an interim car.
The i3 is oh so much nicer to drive than the Mini! There’s a fairly big difference in the driving experience between a 17-year-old gas car and a 10-year-old electric car. Wow.
We don’t mind the low range because we were only looking for something for me to use around town. All I ever do is go to the botanical garden on Mondays (a 6 mile round trip) and the UPS store, Trader Joes, and Sprouts once a week (also a 6 mile round trip) and Tally’s, where Biska goes once a week to doggie daycare to socialize (14 miles round trip). Plus the occasional trip downtown or to see a friend or to meet John for lunch. I bike to the gym, even in the heat of the summer, because it is truly that close (less than a mile).
We are currently charging it slowly on a regular 120 volt outlet (just like you have all over your house). When John has time, he will install a 220 volt outlet for it (like for a dryer or a stove). On 120 the car is like a cell phone – plug it in at night and it’ll be charged by morning.
We’re not worried about public charging options because if we’re going somewhere outside of Tucson we’ll take the 4Runner or the truck or the van. It’s not like we have a lack of car options! And the i3 isn’t an out-of-town sort of car. Did I mention the range sucks? Yeah.
It does have a small gas engine and a 2-gallon gas tank that can partially recharge the electric engine if you run out of juice. Two gallons hardly seems like enough to bother with all the extra mechanics involved in a hybrid. But apparently they wanted to meet a certain set of EU regulations in order to qualify for an advantageous category of vehicle in Europe.
The i3 small but not tiny. Here’s a screenshot of part of my handy-dandy spreadsheet comparing small electric cars. The i3 is 6 inches longer than the Mini but has a tighter turning circle. I have a thing about a tight turning radius, lol. Like I’ve mentioned before, I want a small maneuverable car! But I also want it to be tall enough for good visibility.
It has rear-hinged back doors for a clamshell effect. Our truck has that feature too, and it makes for really easy access. It’s particularly useful getting the dog in and out.
It has much better rear passenger space than the Mini does.
The upholstery is also in surprisingly good shape for such an old car. It comes from central California and doesn’t have a lot of mileage. (Probably because you can’t realistically leave town on a charge!)
Like the Mini, the rear seats fold down. The i3 has significantly more space in the back than the Mini does.
And that privacy cover can easily be removed if you want to put something tall back there.
See, tons of space. I could go furniture shopping!
It also has plenty of room for groceries without having to put the back seats down at all. Compared to the Mini, this has a huge trunk. Even with the seats up!
It sits higher than the Mini so I can see out better. Here’s a shot from a distance so you can get a feel for the size.
Our friend’s first comment when they saw it the other night was “another car?!?” Because yes, we now have quite a collection all stacked up in our driveway.
It looks like a used car lot, and you can’t even see the Mini Cooper in that photo! Our 2008 mid-sized pickup we are keeping for now (but would love to replace with that Telo truck I told you about, if it ever comes on the market). And we have our 2012 camper van that we are very attached to and have no intention of replacing anytime soon (we hope it lasts a long time). And John has a 2018 4Runner SUV. He bought it for the 4-wheeling capacity in the mountains, but it is large and offers a smooth ride, so it is also good for when we have visitors.
That’s not counting the sailboat which is on a trailer in our driveway (under the dark blue canvas in the background of the above photo), that we haven’t used since our epic trip to Florida in 2021. We have plans for that sailboat, just you wait and see.
So yeah, for now, too many vehicles. But we’ll get it all figured out. It just takes time. One step at a time. Let me know if you know anyone who wants a 2007 Mini Cooper in excellent shape (for a car that old). John did a great job of taking care of it. And it’s turbocharged, lol.
Meanwhile, the next step was to get the i3 home and figure out if it actually works. We had test driven it – it was fun to test drive. And the AC even worked (no small feat for an old car in our climate). But does the battery hold a charge? We bought this car cheap – with no warranty. I’m not sure if there is a 72-hour remorse law on the books in Arizona or not. That’s the biggest issue I could imagine; getting it home and realizing it couldn’t hold more than 20 miles worth of charge. I don’t mind not making it to Phoenix and back. But I at least want to be able to get to Dan and Dawn’s house on the westside (26 miles round trip), or my friend Peggy’s house even farther west (40 miles round trip) and of course the Desert Museum (41 miles round trip).
The Desert Museum, I may have mentioned before, isn’t an indoor museum, it’s a botanical garden and wildlife exhibit with some indoor exhibits of reptiles and things, showcasing everything that lives in the Sonora Desert. So the zoo-like section doesn’t have giraffes, it has javelina and other animals that live in this region. It’s a great place. But I’m way off topic.
The million dollar question is (actually, the few thousand dollar question is), will the new-old i3 engine battery hold a charge?? We plugged it in overnight and prepared to run it through its paces the next day. Would I be able to drive this thing any further than I can walk?
I’ve only been driving it for a couple of days, but I have figured out that it indeed has terrible range. I don’t actually know exactly how terrible it is, because the read-out estimating miles left on a charge isn’t accurate. At least not in the Tucson heat, with the AC blowing high the entire way. Also sometimes a fan runs even when it’s turned off and sitting in the driveway – trying to keep the battery from overheating, I assume.
But what I am noticing that I didn’t expect is how fun it is to drive! It handles the rough Tucson roads vastly better than the Mini Cooper. And the i3’s responsiveness is amazing. It has regenerative braking, as well as very rapid acceleration.
The regenerative braking means that all I have to do when approaching a red light is just ease up on the gas a little and it gently brakes rather than coasts. I don’t have to switch my foot to the brake unless I need to brake hard. This greatly reduces switching back and forth between the brake and the gas in stop and go city traffic.
The responsiveness of the acceleration is a real joy too. I’m not the sort of person who needs to go from 0 – 60 in some tiny fraction of time. But I really like how the car immediately does what I ask it to do.
In contrast, our Mini Cooper is turbocharged, which has a noticeable lag before the turbo kicks in. I’ve been putting up with that full second of lag time for, what, 15 years or more, and I got used to it. But I don’t miss that lag. It always felt like reluctance. I imagined my Mini Cooper whining at me like a child, “Uhh! I don’t wanna! I’m tired!…Okay, FINE then, I’m GOING! You happy now?”
So yes, I’m happy, I’m very happy with our new used i3. Although I think it needs a new name. I don’t want to call it “the electric car”, which is clunky, and i3 is impersonal. I sorta like “Tether” because it needs to spend most of its life tethered to an electrical outlet and it can’t go very far. Lol.
I’m also thinking maybe Elly, short for “electric” but also sounds a little bit like “i3”. Or is that way too contrived? We could just call it i3. I mean, we were kids when the cuteness of R2-D2 stormed the world. No one complained about R2-D2’s name being too long or impersonal. You just have to say it with the excited energy of a 10-year-old going to see the best movie EVER.
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