BMW i8 - real life experience and buyers guide help

[Pistom]

i8s still look and from what I can see, are quite special cars and they seem to be very cheap to buy for what they offer but I was wondering if any owners here would share their experience or could advise what to look for when buying used.

I love the idea of the hybrid package with that little 3 cylinder engine. For a hybrid, it seems to be pretty light and imagine that can only be good for how it drives and overall economy whilst being reasonably quick.

Are there sources of technical assistance for owners who do their own spannering/laptopping and is there any work which needs the car to go to BMW?

It's only been out of production for about 4 years now so I imagine spares shouldn't be an issue.

[Pistom]

steve_n said:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks - I had read that but am hoping for more technical detail.

The fact that there seems little discussion suggestions that there's little to speak of and they're pretty good cars.

No real horror stories of failed electrics or carbon fibre repairs needed which write off a vehicle, although some seem to have issues with cracking windscreens.

[Pistom]

Wills2 said:

As for most things BMW, Bimmerpost is the source of most models if you want a owners community to ask questions of, link to the i8 sub forum there will be loads of info there

https://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/forumdisplay.ph...

Thanks - from my digging around so far, it does look like Bimmerpost is probably the best place I've found so far. I'm surprised there's not more about it on PH but PH is a very varied forum whereas what I'm looking for is more specialist.

Considering it's not a very common car, I'm surprised to see so many for sale.

I've got a viewing booked later this week for a Roadster.

[Pistom]

Billy_Whizzzz said:

Au contraire - https://www.the-intercooler.com/library/blog/man-m...

Thanks - some interesting comments and discussion there but the article itself reads like something from one of those budget airline inflight magazines and is about as long. Am I missing something? It feels like it should be covering in depth ownership but I can only see a few paragraphs even after subscribing.

[Pistom]

Thanks for that - having been to view a few, the AC, door locks, struts and front drive shafts etc seem to be a common issue.

The drive in e-drive mode isn't great but in AWD is pretty impressive.

I think the main thing driving prices down is - there's lots of them available compared to the number of buyers for this kind of car.

[Pistom]

DJMC said:

It had the most warranty claims on Carwow's recent round up:

https://youtu.be/lu4-tXJZxi0?t=860

So you're saying it's got character!