this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2023
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The i3s is a fun as hell hot hatch. I absolutely adore mine, and can't imagine ever selling it. It's much larger on the inside than you'd think, and I move a ton of shit with it regularly.
The i3 is about the closest I can imagine, but the tires look like bicycle wheels so I don't imagine it does hot hatch things very well. But I'm willing to be convinced.
The best way I can describe the tires is that they have far, far more grip than they have any right to given their size. For street use, the EP500s are more than sufficient and I've never felt like I was wanting for grip. For AutoX, they do okay, but definitely severely hamper the performance of the car. It's RWD, so you're not over stressing those narrow fronts too much when you really push it, but it still likes to understeer more than I'd like, but I think that's also a symptom of being unable to turn DSC all the way off, because it feels a lot more balanced when I put it in the "everything, including ABS off" mode.
I've got plenty of experience with hot hatches; my first car was an APR stage 2 tuned Mk5 GTI, and I regularly drive my friends' FoST and FoRS. It definitely doesn't feel quite as sporty as those, but I find it far more fun as an around town daily. We've also had an F-Type R, ZL1, and M3, and while they're phenomenal experiences and super fun to drive, any time you're even pushing them a little on public roads, there's just that incessant nag in the back of my mind both knowing the car can give so much more, but also that doing so is insanely risky. I feel like I get to push my i3 a lot more on public roads without being downright reckless, and it just makes it way more fun to drive because of that.
With all that said, the TL;DR is that they're way more fun than they have any right to be, and ignore preconceptions or hangups on the performance numbers you might have,
Ooo, I didn't know it was RWD. That does sound pretty fun, especially with the instant torque of electric
No one ever does! Myself included, until I was actually driving back from a Model 3 test drive when they first came out, and happened to see one parked out front of the BMW dealer. I had completely forgot they even existed, decided to look it up, found to my surprise it was RWD, and drove back over to test drive one. I bought a 2017 REx a month later and loved it so much I bought my '21 S since I knew they weren't going to make them anymore. The normal i3 is good, but the S is absolutely the way to go.
And they're in my price range, and they have suicide doors.
You may have just sold me my next car
I might add a couple of suggestions to make things as painless as possible. Get the H&K sound system and Tech package. The tiny screen looks super crappy in such a nice interior and the base sound system SUCKS. No, seriously, it's absolutely abysmal and is legitimately far worse than the one in my wife's base Kia Niro. I'm not super snobby when it comes to audio systems and mostly listen to podcasts and such, but it's barely passable even for that. Second is if you plan on getting a BEV, get one with a heat pump. It makes a massive difference in range even if it doesn't get super cold where you live.
Also, after having a 33kWh REx and now the larger 42kWh BEV, I don't miss the REx at all. It's not a road trip car by any means, but I got it from Atlanta to Detroit with zero issues, it was just a slow trip. I've driven it all around MI and done a couple of road trips to Chicago in it, and had zero issues.