Hi everyone.
Tough choice this year, I've been waiting years for an M3 Touring but I've also been waiting for a car which would persuade me to switch to electric. Unfortunately the M3 Touring came too late and a new salary sacrifice scheme at work meant the time was right to go EV. I've driven BMW's for over 12 years and while I'm always open to try a different brand, I hadn't really found anything else to tempt me away.
However when it comes to EV's I did look around. I'm not a fan of Tesla, I appreciate all that they have done to move the EV market forward but I don't like the styling and the interiors are bland. As most of my charging will be at home and I'm in NI where there is no supercharger there was no good reason to look at them. I also despise SUV's, I did drive an e-tron just to see if I was missing something but that confirmed they certainly weren't for me, way too far off the ground. I'd ideally like an estate car (station wagon for those of you in USA) but the options are few. So I shortlisted the BMW i4, the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo (almost an estate) and the Polestar 2 (no local "space" so have been unable to see one in the flesh let alone drive one).
The Taycan is phenomenal, from a driving point of view it was the best. I was prepared to be very light on the options list to get the price of one close to i4 but the issue became size, its a huge car, 5m long and nearly 2m wide. If I drove to work and had on site parking etc it would have made sense but we end up in tight public parking garages with typical bays being no more than 2.4x4.8m or on street parking so we concluded that it would become tedious and having then to deal with the inevitable damage it would pick up. And despite being frugal on the options it was still an expensive car........it is fantastic though!
So we decided on the i4 and then it was a question of eDrive40 or M50. We managed to drive the 40 around Christmas time and while it was a short test drive I was a little underwhelmed, I guess its the adjustment of big HP numbers but pushing a lot of weight so the performance isn't quite what you have in your mind. Otherwise though a great car and plenty fast enough for the road. It did leave me wanting to try the M50 though. We also live about 160m above sea level accessed by steep rural roads and prone to snow in the winter. While I've managed with RWD BMW's with winter tyres in the past I also felt the M50 with its AWD would give us a bit more traction in the winter.
I finally managed to get an M50 for a couple of hours a few weeks back. I got to drive it on a variety of roads including the Antrim Coast Road and using all modes. One thing I wanted to be sure of was that it could be sensible for daily driving, ie not trying to kill you at every slippery corner! Its easy to drive the car normally, but when you want it the power is very addictive. I have a Caterham 7 with 250bhp weighing just over 500kg so around 500bhp per tonne and with a sub 4s 0-60. For the M50 to weigh 2300kg and match that 0-60 is quite amazing, ok it isn't the brutal assault on the senses which the Caterham offers but then you don't really want that on the daily commute. When running in eco pro there is less power available (could be down to throttle angle), I had heard the front motor is not engaged in eco pro other than if its required for traction which would make sense.
I'd watched reviews saying the edrive40 is more fun, and maybe if I'd had time to get to know both and could really push them on my favourite roads I might come to the same conclusion but I came away from the M50 with the same smile I'd gotten from driving the taycan. The Porsche's steering is better and I prefer their separate throttle and brake approach but given the price difference the M50 is right up there. My wife love's BMW's and she really liked that the car was familiar.
So this is what we have ordered:
BMW i4 M50
San Remo Green
Extended Shadowline
19" 861M Alloys
Blue Calipers
Black Vernasca with grey stitching
Sunroof
Carbon Fibre Interior Trim
Front lumbar support (only drivers side apparently due to chip shortage)
I've left off loads of other stuff as I consider most of it unnecessary and just more things to go wrong.
Still going through our work scheme process so I don't believe the order is with a dealer yet, just waiting on them to confirm, so no dates other than being told its about 24 weeks from point of dealer order. Given what others are saying here I'm not inclined to believe that until I see it in ink.
Tough choice this year, I've been waiting years for an M3 Touring but I've also been waiting for a car which would persuade me to switch to electric. Unfortunately the M3 Touring came too late and a new salary sacrifice scheme at work meant the time was right to go EV. I've driven BMW's for over 12 years and while I'm always open to try a different brand, I hadn't really found anything else to tempt me away.
However when it comes to EV's I did look around. I'm not a fan of Tesla, I appreciate all that they have done to move the EV market forward but I don't like the styling and the interiors are bland. As most of my charging will be at home and I'm in NI where there is no supercharger there was no good reason to look at them. I also despise SUV's, I did drive an e-tron just to see if I was missing something but that confirmed they certainly weren't for me, way too far off the ground. I'd ideally like an estate car (station wagon for those of you in USA) but the options are few. So I shortlisted the BMW i4, the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo (almost an estate) and the Polestar 2 (no local "space" so have been unable to see one in the flesh let alone drive one).
The Taycan is phenomenal, from a driving point of view it was the best. I was prepared to be very light on the options list to get the price of one close to i4 but the issue became size, its a huge car, 5m long and nearly 2m wide. If I drove to work and had on site parking etc it would have made sense but we end up in tight public parking garages with typical bays being no more than 2.4x4.8m or on street parking so we concluded that it would become tedious and having then to deal with the inevitable damage it would pick up. And despite being frugal on the options it was still an expensive car........it is fantastic though!
So we decided on the i4 and then it was a question of eDrive40 or M50. We managed to drive the 40 around Christmas time and while it was a short test drive I was a little underwhelmed, I guess its the adjustment of big HP numbers but pushing a lot of weight so the performance isn't quite what you have in your mind. Otherwise though a great car and plenty fast enough for the road. It did leave me wanting to try the M50 though. We also live about 160m above sea level accessed by steep rural roads and prone to snow in the winter. While I've managed with RWD BMW's with winter tyres in the past I also felt the M50 with its AWD would give us a bit more traction in the winter.
I finally managed to get an M50 for a couple of hours a few weeks back. I got to drive it on a variety of roads including the Antrim Coast Road and using all modes. One thing I wanted to be sure of was that it could be sensible for daily driving, ie not trying to kill you at every slippery corner! Its easy to drive the car normally, but when you want it the power is very addictive. I have a Caterham 7 with 250bhp weighing just over 500kg so around 500bhp per tonne and with a sub 4s 0-60. For the M50 to weigh 2300kg and match that 0-60 is quite amazing, ok it isn't the brutal assault on the senses which the Caterham offers but then you don't really want that on the daily commute. When running in eco pro there is less power available (could be down to throttle angle), I had heard the front motor is not engaged in eco pro other than if its required for traction which would make sense.
I'd watched reviews saying the edrive40 is more fun, and maybe if I'd had time to get to know both and could really push them on my favourite roads I might come to the same conclusion but I came away from the M50 with the same smile I'd gotten from driving the taycan. The Porsche's steering is better and I prefer their separate throttle and brake approach but given the price difference the M50 is right up there. My wife love's BMW's and she really liked that the car was familiar.
So this is what we have ordered:
BMW i4 M50
San Remo Green
Extended Shadowline
19" 861M Alloys
Blue Calipers
Black Vernasca with grey stitching
Sunroof
Carbon Fibre Interior Trim
Front lumbar support (only drivers side apparently due to chip shortage)
I've left off loads of other stuff as I consider most of it unnecessary and just more things to go wrong.
Still going through our work scheme process so I don't believe the order is with a dealer yet, just waiting on them to confirm, so no dates other than being told its about 24 weeks from point of dealer order. Given what others are saying here I'm not inclined to believe that until I see it in ink.