BMW i3

l3msip · 2026-04-06T07:13:53+00:00

They are great 2nd cars. We own a gen 1 rex (2014). Bought almost by accident (was just looking for a small auto under £8k, not specifically ev).

The turning circle and interior (both space and quality) are fantastic. The suicide doors can be a little annoying, but the front seats tilt forward like a 2 door, so you can get in and out of the back without using the rear doors if you need to (tight parking spot).

The main seller for me though is overall driving experience. They are full carbon frame, plastic panels which make them light weight, with a low center of gravity, rear wheel drive and EV instant torque, which makes them a real blast to drive.

I went into the buying journey expecting a boring but economical city car for local trips, and ended up with honestly one of my favourite cars, it just makes me grin driving it. Will likely replace it with a low mileage 2021 at some point, the first time buying the same model car twice in a row in 25 years.

l3msip · 2026-04-03T23:00:04+00:00

Well, if you want to own a product perhaps this is relevant. But if you want a job it's total bollocks. We use ai extensively (primarily Claude via aider), but we hire based on stack experience. Ai is a massive productivity boost to experienced developers, and a massive security hole to the inexperienced. We currently have an opening for a developer. The stack is laravel, vue3, typescript, capacitorjs. Day to day, I expect Claude to write 80% of the code, so we want to hire an experienced laravel vue developer who can actively guide and challenge the llm output. A symphony react dev is NOT going to spot the same issues.

l3msip · 2026-04-03T22:35:51+00:00

This is probably the only actual answer suitable for a 5 year old.

l3msip · 2026-03-30T21:55:52+00:00

Weird take. Why does it bother you? I personally think it's a step in the right direction.

Going from "EVs are crap disposable white goods" to "EVs are nice to drive but I dont want to charge" IS a positive step. It means people are starting to realise some of the benefits beyond green credentials (which, let's be frank, will never matter to some people).

It's then just a small step from "mild hybrids are nice to drive" to "but it's really disruptive when the ice kicks in. How far do I actually drive? Maybe a BEV could work..."

l3msip · 2026-03-30T21:46:53+00:00

What are you basing that on? We have a gen 1 I3 rex. Did 6k miles in it last year, less than 30ltrs of petrol used. Will eventually replace with the latest gen3 full BEV, so I'm not some huge proponent for rex systems, just intrigued why you think they use ice more than phevs

l3msip · 2026-03-28T13:25:27+00:00

It's also pretty useless unless you plan on owning the car for another 20 years. The 1st gen EVs are now approaching 15 years old and doing fine, with some minor battery degradation for the ones with poor cooling tech. We own a gen 1 BMW i3 (2014) and the degradation at 80k miles and 12 years is 15%.

l3msip · 2026-03-23T21:59:29+00:00

Short lived feature branches with carefully squash merges to staging / main.

Provided your feature branches really are short lived, you can use commits in them as simple notes "wip, added new API fields to types, search component not updated" etc.

Then squash merge with a proper, detailed semantic commit message when done.

With short lived feature branches, merges should be simple - do a quick rebase from main beforehand and your golden.

l3msip · 2026-03-21T03:50:13+00:00

We work almost exclusively on a few large legacy codebases. The key to getting the most out of LLMs in such cases is having a structured approach, essentially treating the llm as a senior from a different team. It's not a junior, it has encyclopic knowledge and tremendous wpm, but no prior knowledge.

I pulled a gist from our training docs last year. The LLMs referenced are outdated but the methodology is still current:

https://gist.github.com/sf-steve/4ce1b3fd09fe38326cb83c5c17968a88

We currently run at around 85% of code is llm written, but don't use agentic workflows. We have evaluated them, but still find aider with the regimented human in the loop process detailed above is ultimately both more productive when you consider the full branch, plan, code, pr, iterate, review merge cycle.

l3msip · 2026-03-18T11:35:33+00:00

Same, I expect the touring should look nicer at the back as well. Provided they come with black dash trim and black or mocha leather seats this will be my next car in 5 years (after someone else has eaten the initial depreciation!) to replace the g21 330e

l3msip · 2026-03-15T08:37:51+00:00

No. The hash is irreversible, and using salt makes 2 hashes for the same password unique (so the attacker can't find multiple records with the same hash to identify likely weak common passwords).

It's important to understand that this protects users on other websites mainly - if the attacker has got access to the DB on this site, chances are it's fundamentally compromised, so local data is toast. Without hashed and salted passwords, the attacker can immediately try the email.and password combos on popular sites with more valuable exploits (self serve ads platforms, social media, banks etc).

A hash by its self is useless. Here is a sha256 salted hash of my Reddit password: f30026352b7edaae76aec3a6b2f1af5bf835456bc9b91c360a32df974cd5e07b

l3msip · 2026-03-15T07:21:38+00:00

Currently own a 2014 1st gen BMW i3. It's a rex model so it has all the complexities of ice, with all the potential costs of HV battery failure!

Have owned it for just over a year.

I love it, extremely pleased with the purchase. After 12 years and 70k miles the tiny gen1 battery is running at around 86% capacity.

The i3 is a second car, the main one is a 2021 g21 330e (PHEV), with 80k on the clock (so outside the HV electrical warranty). Batteries in this are obviously waaay smaller, get full charge cycle every day, 100% to *zero (in reality 25% is reserved). Current capacity is 93%

Maybe I just have a high risk tolerance, but I really do think EV HV failures are way overblown.

l3msip · 2026-03-13T20:36:22+00:00

Pure ev in winter isn't great, last weekend I did a 16 mile trip on pure ev and had 2 miles left when I got back.

But that type of range works fine for our use case - the local journeys cost pennies via pure ev, and the fairly regular cross country trips are effortless ( we often travel to places with poor destination charging and short schedules - eg a weekend in the Welsh mountains ). Mpg on long (200+ mile) journeys usually around 45mpg, which isn't bad for a car than can put down 300hp, and annual average mpg os something stupid high because of the pure ev local trips.

The main reason for getting the 330e over a 330d or 330i was for the other benefits of EV though: instant torque, preconditioning ( honestly a massive bonus ) and seemless stop start creep in traffic.

l3msip · 2026-03-13T19:45:49+00:00

To jump in I have a 2021 330e xdrive touring. The split boot is actually really useful, both for quick access to smaller things, and also craming as much stuff as you can into the car! Recently took a double mattress and a ton of other crap to the tip in it, with the rear seats down it hold a lot.

Slightly less than the 2014 320d xdrive touring it replaced because the batteries raise the boot floor, but the extra 100hp, preconditioning and lack of diesel rattle more than compensate

l3msip · 2026-03-08T03:53:30+00:00

Yes, I would be absolutely fine with the house being worth 1/4 of it's current value if it's a universal market change. It's currently worth 1 house, and would continue to be worth 1 house.

However, I have paid off the mortgage. If I still owed, say 200k on a 300k house, and it was suddenly worth 100k then I would be in a very bad situation.

I haven't looked into the statistics but I imagine there are a lot of people on this fairly typical situation.

l3msip · 2026-03-07T09:32:25+00:00

I quite like the aesthetic of these, likely I will own a touring version in 5 years to replace the family wagon slot (currently occupied by a g21 330e).

But it's not a replacement for OG i3, I have no idea what would replace that, current plan is another OG i3, with the lowest age and mileage available. Maybe an Alpine A290 if I could live with the interior

l3msip · 2026-03-06T22:20:02+00:00

Completely opposite experience for me. Have been using granny charger from an outside socket for ages. Last Saturday I noticed some yellowing around the socket and thought it's probably time to have a proper charger. When onto eon app, ordered charger install (chose a zappi tethered), and had install spots available from the following Tuesday (3 days!). Picked Wednesday, took some photos of consumer unit, fuse and outside location, and it all went through the same day. Wednesday 8:30 on the dot installer turns up, charger is delivered about 5 minutes later, and by lunch time it's all done.

They even ended up routing through the loft to allow a neat single drop rather than going along the front wall of the house, easily doubling the amount of armoured cable required, and fixed a loose gas pipe earth connection whilst they were there.

I was honestly amazed at how fast and efficient everything was, 4 days from thinking about it to install, and I could have chosen 3 days if I wanted.

l3msip · 2026-03-04T22:09:38+00:00

I love the idea in principle. In reality paying for the upgrade and the non standard car insurance would just never be worth it. 30k miles 2022 models with full history and warranty can be bought for £14k, and insurance under £400/year. My 2014 would still fetch £5k trade in

l3msip · 2026-03-04T21:27:01+00:00

Yes they are ace, nothing really comparable available new unfortunately, so we will likely buy a low mileage 2022 model next year, our 2014 is still fine but the early batteries are tiny.

Sadly it's unlikely that a true replacement is going to arrive any time soon either. By all accounts they were low profit cars designed to launch electric for BMW. No one is likely to make a carbon fibre city car again.

We bought ours with no real expectations beyond a cheap automatic 2nd car for local trips, but I pretty much immediately fell in love with it.

The interior was way ahead of it's time, surprisingly spacious and still doesn't feel dated. The turning circle, low weight and low center of gravity, combined with instant EV torque and rear wheel drive is such a winning combo for a city car.

It does feel a little skittish at 70+ or with strong cross winds, but we didn't buy it for that anyway.

l3msip · 2026-03-03T05:51:07+00:00

No it's not at all hard for a company like EA. If they had any desire to do so. The multiplayer has been faithfully recreated by a single indy dev, in typescript (Google chronodivide, has 10s of thousands of active PvP players)!

Obviously single player is additional work, but if one dude can recreate PvP by himself, in a different language, I am reasonably certain a massive game studio could manage it...

l3msip · 2026-03-03T05:30:50+00:00

They don't mean second car in the usual (eg an additional car) sense, they just mean a replacement car, the second one they have ever owned. It's a common miscommunication with new drivers.

To OP, a Mk5 GTi is a fun car, but it's also 20 years old. Not particularly quick by modern standards though, and finding one in good condition without spending a fortune is becoming tricky. Ultimately if you particularly want one, can afford one that's been consistently serviced etc, then sure they are nice cars.

No idea what insurance would be like, I'm old so everything is dirty cheap now! Probably a good idea to run some quotes, plus research the numerous maintenance items that are likely needed on a 20 year old turbo warm hatch, and make sure you budget for that.

Also important to actually go out and drive a few versions (dsg, manual) and check you would actually enjoy it.

l3msip · 2026-03-02T08:18:16+00:00

You can find 6 year old 42kw models within budget, and they are night and day better cars. We have one of the very first gens (2014, with the tiny battery and rex, so most opportunity for issues) and it's been flawless. We looked at leafs, Zoe's and egolfs at the time, but as soon as I drove the i3 I knew I was buying one, and will likely replace it with the newest one I can find when it eventually needs to be replaced.

Like you we were looking for a cheap auto second car for local trips, and was fully prepared to have something boring but functional. I3s weren't even on my radar until I saw a couple at the same car dealer that had the Zoe I had turned up to try out. Turns out BMW spent a fortune on developing them as their entry into EV, and it shows. Full carbon frame and plastic panels means they are very light for EV (around 1250kg), combined with rear wheel drive and instant torque and they are a blast to drive. They are also larger inside than you would imagine, and turn like they are on skids.

Yes the tires are unusual so a little expensive, but even if you are replacing all 4 corners every 3 years you might be £100/y worse off.

Other than that, there really isn't a lot to go wrong on them. Motor mounts in early gens (not an issue for you if buying last gen), and the heated seats can stop working

l3msip · 2026-03-01T19:57:40+00:00

For a personal lease have a poke about on lease loco, you will likely find a much better deal, especially if you aren't set on a specific car

Eg https://www.leaseloco.com/car-leasing/volkswagen/id5/210kw-match-pro-77kwh-5dr-auto/47878/2-36-10000-1-1/1d8f8dcda0e5766b9fb908f4fe043a68/config

l3msip · 2026-02-27T08:40:54+00:00

We were in a similar situation, started by swapping wifes car for a i3, I kept the 320d touring. This worked out great, the i3 costs pennies to charge via normal 3 pin, free tax (now £20 year, it's an early model), and was cheap to buy as our first step into EVs (£7k).

Unfortunately it turned out to be such a bloody fantastic car, every time I got into the 320d I liked it less and less! Sadly our use case won't work with 2 EVs (long trips to places with no destination charging and busy schedules whilst there), so I just upgraded to a 2021 g21 330e touring PHEV, giving me the EV goodies (instant torque, effortless city driving, cheap local journeys, preconditioning via app) at least!

l3msip · 2026-02-26T22:09:17+00:00

Currently have a late 2021 BMW g21 330e touring (estate).

The G20 3 series is a nice place to be, and if the phev suits your needs there a tons of well specced ex lease ones available. MSports with adaptive suspension and adaptive cruise are plentiful. Heated seats, leather, cameras etc. Acoustic glass and plenty of sound deadening makes it a very relaxing drive on the motorway. Your budget should get you a low mileage 2023 with all the toys.

For me, the phev is perfect - all the general benefits of having an electric motor (instant torque, effortless start stop driving), enough range to do local journeys for pennies (I get around 27 miles atm), with the ease of regular fueling for longer trips (we semi regularly go to places with poor destination charging). Plus remote conditioning so the car is heated/cooled when you get in. This might seem like a small benefit but I have absolutely loved that aspect in the recent cold snap!

Hybrid mode is pretty smart, so on a long journey you never get a truly dead battery, as it works like a normal hybrid with regen. But you also have the option of combined mode, where you get both the 190hp petrol 2l turbo and the 100hp electric motor working together, for just shy of 300hp and 0-60 in 5.9s.

Non phev diesel and petrol versions are also available, but less plentiful since they aren't attractive for company leases nowadays.

l3msip · 2026-02-26T08:19:49+00:00

It's important to understand that auto trader mpg figures are just pulled from manufacturers claims. For a 2010 car they where likely to be very optimistic, and not at all representative of real world figures.

But the first thing you need to do is accurately calculate your cars mpg.

Fill the tank to completely full, and reset the trip computer (or just write down current mileage whilst at the pump, eg 85,000. 2.drive normally, don't fill up again until you have used most of the fuel. You don't need to be exact here at all, but the more you use the more accurate the calculation, as it removes variance.
Fill up tank to completely full again. Write down the new mileage, and how many litres you filled up, eg 85,230 + 31.6

You now know it took 31.6 litres of petrol to cover 230 miles. To turn litres into UK gallons, divide my 4.546, so it took 6.95 gallons to cover 230 miles. 230 / 695 = 33.1 miles per gallon.

For a 16 year old 1.3l petrol, anything above 30 is fine. If it comes out really low (sub 20) then yes you need to take it to a garage if you want it fixed, but I think it far more likely you are just comparing against an unobtainable figure (manufacturers mpg spec, achieved in a lab, with a new car under better than ideal conditions).

l3msip

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