Yesterday I had a chance of being inside an i4 m50 and also test drive an iX50. It was a single day event in Lisbon, Portugal. The i4 and iXs had German plates, the first press cars should only arrive in Portugal in Jan22.
Here are my initial 25 thoughts on the i4 m50, after 35-40 min walktrough (multiple posts as there is a max of 10 pics/post):
Here are my initial 25 thoughts on the i4 m50, after 35-40 min walktrough (multiple posts as there is a max of 10 pics/post):
- Frozen Portimao Blue - this color is amazing. Although the car was indoors the effect works very well and it’s very different from almost colors around. It has a very smooth texture that doesn’t feel like car paint. It feels like a smooth matte surface.
- Grill design - the front grill design works well on the car. It makes the front “bigger” and results in a modern car appearance. There was an ix3 pre-lci with a smaller grill that felt older. The rader is clearly visible on the right side which could have been avoided by fully covering the lower part or placing the radar integrated on the top part, which is already covered. It’s a detail and somewhat hidden but takes away the symmetry for the eagle eye.
- Door closing sound - it sucks. Front and rear. I have a 6 series coupe from 2011 also with frameless doors and it’s incomparable. 6 series still feels a solid door (although is in fact much bigger and heavier) even with the window opened. The i4 the door feels light (also smaller) and has a horrible cheap plastic closing sound. My hopes would be for this to be tuned in the final version, as the door sound is usually engineered. Let’s see.
- M sport seats - they feel very comfort and also tighter than the normal Sport seats (I have the sport seats on a g01 x3). Adjustments are the same. Although the car had only 500km the driver seat leather felt a bit worn, probably due to many tryouts during the car roadshow. My x3 has almost 3 years and 50k km and the vernasca leather seats look like new, this wasn’t the case. The back visibility is somewhat limited by the seats format but I don’t think it’s different from the normal sport seats (I have to try later). You see a whole plastic cover instead of the back leather and head rest on sport seats.
- Sunroof opening - it doesn’t open all the way. For a moment I had the keys in the car so I could test a close and open and tried to do the “second” push in the button but it doesn’t open further. This is the maximum.