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I live in a hilly area and travel to a flat area
Downhill should charge your battery for nuffin anyway.
Drive kids to school on electric engine, put bike in the boot.
Park car on yellow lines outside school entrance.
Cycle to work.
A friend of mine used to work at a BMW dealership and said their customers were the most petty fault finders you could imagine!
Told me some amazing stories, such as the customer who complained that his carpet mat clips did not line up, a customer who returned a car because the indicator click was to loud and a guy who went over his paintwork checking the paint thickness to find a minuscule difference in thickness!
He used to be a wind up merchant mind, would give a customer dropping off a MINI for a service a M3 as a loaner and a M3 owner doing the same would get a MINI just to see their reaction 😉
BMW motorcycle owners have the same kind of reputation. I once had a bloke checking the straightness of some stitching with a ruler.
The stitching was on a green canvas bike cover!
If nothing else, this thread is putting me off getting a "smart" car since this is the kind of crap that would drive (pun intended) me potty.
Does the car not recharge the battery during braking etc? Surely it must do for that not inconsiderable outlay. :/
I'm sure some folk in Africa who have to walk tens of miles everyday to collect dirty drinking water are deeply concerned about your plight. I imagine right now they are selling off their half dead cattle so they can raise funds to buy you the upgraded sat-nav system. What amazing selfless souls, the spirit of Christmas is truly alive!
I'm not sure the phrase "first world problem" does justice to the anguish this must be causing
Absolutely!
I think it's disgusting!
OP should demand, not "ask for", but *demand* a full refund with compensation for his pain and suffering 😡
Then he should park the car tight up against the door of the dealership and stick the key into a turd he's coiled out on the driver's seat.
That'll teach them!
You really need to find out if the navigation does do the efficiency thing but only with one destination.
If it does then BMW haven't marketed it incorrectly, if it doesn't then they should have specified you need the Pro and you should be able to challenge them on that.
a guy who went over his paintwork checking the paint thickness to find a minuscule difference in thickness!
When I was a detailer we had a lot of requests to do this for customers of expensive cars. It's common for them to be damaged on delivery and need re-painting, some customers aren't happy with that as there could be other damage being hidden and the PDG would help spot the re-paint.
I like these threads...
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I've had my 330e since June. If you want to save the battery you can either put it in battery save mode, or push the gear selector to manual (you don't have to manually change gear in this mode.).
That's said, just drive it in Auto mode, and charge it when you can. Lets be honest, like me, I'm sure you got it for the very low BIK, so you are probably £200+ better off each month..? So just enjoy!
Why not use the sat nav set to your ultimate destination, but drive your own route there rather than following theirs? surely it'll learn that this is a route that you do and will then make it all good for you.
How about charging it at work? Turn up with battery almost empty, use works electricity, drive home on their free fuel. Win win.
^ this is what I do - even arranged for an external power point to be installed where I like to park. Free charging and a reserved spot! #winning
[quote=ski ]a customer who returned a car because the indicator click was to loud
I reckon your mate was telling porkies
LOL @ Houns
Lets be honest, like me, I'm sure you got it for the very low BIK, so you are probably £200+ better off each month..?
This is why my brother in law has a Merc hybrid. Apparently it goes like stink as well. It supposedly does all this while saving polar bears too.
Good god man it's a BMW!! You tell people, they don't tell you (except at junctions obviously, or elsewhere that indicators might be helpful).
I appear to be the only one who thinks it astounding that you actually thought this system was a GoodIdea(TM). Seriously, you really thought some sort of live traffic update would save you any money or kill fewer baby robins? It's just a system that allows BMW to work around various emissions legislation/charges and buy themselves a conscience without cheating like VW did. Did you really think it made any material difference to anything that isn't a standardised emissions test?
EDIT - fixed less/fewer because, well, yes some standards are worth ninja editing for.
or kill less baby robins?
Fewer darling! They're small enough as it is.
Some real heros on this thread 😕
I work in the automotive industry, and if my experience is anything to go by, don't buy any car on the basis of anything software related. No-one understands it and they are rushing stuff out without testing it properly, even if it's safety related (e.g. Driver Assist stuff). Premium brands might even be worse, as they all want to have the latest (i.e. the least tested) features.
Should have bought an outlander PHEV, obvs.
My MD bought himself a brand new Fiat Panda to save fuel - his other cars are a big Merc, 3 series BMW and a Porsche 911.He drives the Panda the most!
Even the humblest Italian cars are more fun than German Company lease fodder. Pandas are brilliant little cars that just beg to be thrashed. Looks like I might be getting another having sworn "never again"...
I was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn't recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional "get you home motor". BM are still slacking a bit.
How much battery is the satnav using,? Maybe turn the heated seats off, refrain from using the wipers, heating and radio. I think you may get a bit more out of it if you fold in or take off the wing mirrors. 😆
I was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn't recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional "get you home motor". BM are still slacking a bit.
My RC cars back in the 90's used to have regenerative braking built into the ESCs so I had expected it to be built into every electric and hybrid car.
I was tempted by an i3 on business lease. In the end I stuck with my 15 year old peugeot estate after doing the figures.
It's just a system that allows BMW to work around various emissions legislation/charges and buy themselves [b]and their customers [/b]a conscience without cheating like VW
FTFY
I've had my 330e since June. If you want to save the battery you can either put it in battery save mode, or push the gear selector to manual (you don't have to manually change gear in this mode.).
Thatscold - BMW have updated the battery save mode since you got yours. Instead of recharging to 50% it recharges to 90%, so now its cold, all you need to do is have the heater on and it keeps recharging.
How are you not having to change gear when you put it in manual? If I put it in manual and then don't use the paddles to change gear it just redlines it....which isn't very efficient.
I was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn't recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional "get you home motor". BM are still slacking a bit.
The i3 I drive at work now and again has regenerative braking. The "range extender" motor does just that though. So when the battery reaches a certain level (which I believe can be adjusted in settings) the motor kicks in and charges the battery so the car still runs as normal as the car is still running on the electric motor rather than a little 2 cylinder motor.
I had an i3 on hire/test from BMW 5 weeks ago. I'm thinking of getting rid of the XC60 and replacing it with a hybrid, I've had a Prius and that was woeful, I don't want a CT200h either because that's just a posh Prius.
So since I've owned a brace of 530d spot tourings, I thought I'd try this i3 out.
It's a nice place t be, nippy, quiet, comfortable. The range was about 240miles before it popped, it had the engine in to recharge the battery, but I left it feeling £32k on a small car is stupidity.
I'll end up getting another XC60 no doubt.
My Macan can't do this either
Might have to trade it for the new Bentley Hubris
Most hybrid have some sort of manual override where you can tell the car if you want it to be battery only / engine only etc etc.
Can you not just do this on the sections of your journey where its most appropriate?
I borrowed a 330e a few weeks ago for a weekend trip to the lakes. Was quite amused how quickly it was to drain the battery in comfort mode. Ended up leaving it in sport mode for the remainder of the trip.
-Electric mode was great round town
-Comfort mode couldn't make its mind up what it wanted to do unless you punched in a destination, then it worked(ish). It would also hang onto the gears rather than changing up early which I found a bit odd.
-Sport mode made the car work as I expected. Electric motor supplementing the engine where needed and recouping energy through the brakes. Also seemed to return better economy than the comfort mode (probably due to changing up early as I would expect it to when on a light throttle)
At the end of the day, a cars economy is judged on a drive cycle (NEDC, etc) which arn't really representative of how we drive, only way is to demo a car and judge for yourself. Highly likely I will be replacing my Golf Mk7 with a Mk7.5 GTE.
Funkydunc, I think Thatscold is talking about pushing the gear selector left into "M/S" IIRC this will put the 'box into sport mode (quicker shifts) but will not be manual until you override with the paddles (or push back or forward on the stick). That's how the ZF 'box works on my 1 series anyway.. Never driven a 330e so it may be different.
Also - 20mpg at best on the IC engine?! That is pretty shocking.. it's a 2.0T right? Is this so low because of re-charging and the electric gubbins being so heavy?? You should save some money on fuel and get an M135i... (not sure the BIK advantages will be the same mind..)
Yes this
Funkydunc, I think Thatscold is talking about pushing the gear selector left into "M/S" IIRC this will put the 'box into sport mode (quicker shifts) but will not be manual until you override with the paddles (or push back or forward on the stick
Or just use sport mode.
I have installed a charging unit at home, and also have charging at work so during the week I use electric most of the time.
suburbanreubenI was thinking about buying one of the little BMW i3s. I was very surprised to see you still needed to plug it in overnight, and it didn't recharge under braking or coasting with the assistance of the optional "get you home motor". BM are still slacking a bit.
Unfortunately what this demonstrates ^^^^ is that modern cars are now too complex for the average person to actually understand!
1) the i3 has (of course) regen braking. When you lift off, it recovers energy from the cars KE (KE is 0.5 x MASS x VELOCITY^2) back into the battery. IN reality, you pretty much never use the friction brakes, and "one pedal" drive the car
2) Being an "Range Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV) and NOT a hybrid, of course it doesn't recharge the battery from the ICE. That is a very inefficient thing to do. The point of an REEV is that you use the battery energy to get you around and only use the Range Extended in extremis, when you need to drive further than the pure electrical range allows.
To say "BMW are slacking a bit" is, quite frankly, the stupidest thing i've heard for a long time. They have (and have had for 2 years now) a carbon composite bodied EV and REEV in mass production, meeting all worldwide standards and offering seamless real world useability (4 seats, decent space and all the "normal" things a modern passenger car buy expects.
In the real world, the i3 (and LEAF/Zoe etc) all a massively more efficient than any comparable sized / spec'd ICE passenger car. My i3, even driven with no heed to economy does over 140Empg, and if you hypermile it, than 300Empg is possible. Pretty good for a 4 seat, car with a 0-60 in the mid sevens! (Empg is Energy comparison, CEmpg or Cost Equivalent mpg is roughly 3 times higer due to current lack of tax on 'lecy compared to fossil fuels)
From BMW's press release on 330e
[i]BMW ConnectedDrive works in tandem with the navigation system to allow even better use of the available electric energy. Here, the system assists the driver with proactive energy management and calculates an operating strategy which responds to the driving style and [b]route profile at hand[/b] – and thus ensures the plug-in hybrid drive system is [b]used as efficiently as possible[/b]. The system adapts the drive strategy to the [b]overall route profile.[/b][/i]
I think Thatscold is talking about pushing the gear selector left into "M/S" IIRC this will put the 'box into sport mode (quicker shifts) but will not be manual until you override with the paddles (or push back or forward on the stick).
Or just use sport mode.Will check it again tonight, but pretty certain mine goes to manual.
Sport mode uses epower and IC engine at same time
In the real world, the i3 (and LEAF/Zoe etc) all a massively more efficient than any comparable sized / spec'd ICE passenger car. My i3, even driven with no heed to economy does over 140Empg, and if you hypermile it, than 300Empg is possible. Pretty good for a 4 seat, car with a 0-60 in the mid sevens! (Empg is Energy comparison, CEmpg or Cost Equivalent mpg is roughly 3 times higer due to current lack of tax on 'lecy compared to fossil fuels)
But do you still need to plug them in overnight?
What range do they have fully charged?
Yeah, the i3 I had needed plugging in overnight.
On our new BMW we've got Professional Media, just saying. Although it's not a funky e model 🙂
Although for your problem I'm unsure why you can't just put in the ultimate destination and ignore the SatNav trying to tell you you're going the wrong way - as it'll just keep on adding the miles. Not perfect but should go someway to solving it - or put in a postcode 5 miles further away?
Yeah, the i3 I had needed plugging in overnight.
Which restricts the market to those who have garages, which is what, 10-20% of the population? Even less in cities, which is where electric cars would make most sense.
So yes, relying on early 20th century technology to recharge the batteries is, er, slacking a bit.
suburbanreuben - MemberWhich restricts the market to those who have garages, which is what, 10-20% of the population? Even less in cities, which is where electric cars would make most sense.
So yes, relying on early 20th century technology to recharge the batteries is, er, slacking a bit.
Just a front garden will do (which I admit still limits it....
A household round the corner from us had a Leaf, which sits on the driveway. They've had a proper charging point installed & that's just outside their front door on the wall.
So yes, relying on early 20th century technology to recharge the batteries is, er, slacking a bit.
Not really, our infrastructure needs to be updated to account for new technologies. Its a chicken and egg situation. Someone needs to take the first step to instigate the other side doing their bit too.
Yes this initial period of electric cars will be a bit crap while we figure out what works and what doesn't but the important thing for me is that manufactures are trying innovate and try new things and push new things into the mass market.
I'm impressed by the cost, even more so that one of my parents has just got one to fit in with the Jones' and she would have had to pay around 330% tax and duty on it as well.