BMW i8 - seen in the wild.

Sadly, no original pics, but it was definitely one of these:

Maybe I need to read more "Car and Driver" or something, I guess I never realized these made it past the show circuit and the "Free Gift Car from GT6" category. Probably the closest thing I've seen to a concept car on the street. Still haven't decided if I liked or hated it. Didn't have time to stop and look it over.

I've seen a few out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ugly. Not as hideous as the I3 but still pretty frickin ugly.

It's my $130,000 car of choice.

That doesn't mean anything, but still.

It seems to look a lot worse in some colors than others. I like them in black quite a bit!

The back end is a little weird.

In reply to Vigo:

It was black. I looked at the other available colors and agree, only the black doesn't look like something from "Tron".

And the "back end weirdness" is actually what drew my eye.

I think the car looks good, even if a little odd. Hybrids are still not quite accepted (at least in the US market) if they have to look futuristic for people to buy them. It looks miles better than the i3.

there is a white one running around here.

I was just over in Germany for a Mold show, they had one on the floor.. It looked pretty cool :)

I think that the i8 and i3 are very interesting looking - in a good way. No design makes everyone happy, but I always admire manufacturers who are willing to push the ball forward, which BMW has certainly done in this case.

Mr_Clutch42 wrote: I think the car looks good, even if a little odd. Hybrids are still not quite accepted (at least in the US market) if they have to look futuristic for people to buy them. It looks miles better than the i3.

Or the manufacturers are free to let the cars look futuristic because...they are!

Saw one in LA a few weeks ago. Heavy traffic on the 405 (like, at a stand still), so I had time to really look. I think it looks better in person than it does in photos.

I saw one on the PCH a month or so ago when I was in LA. I like it, its futuristic and outrageous and cool looking. I wish more companies would build on that side of the spectrum instead of the bland Prius end of the scale.

I have seen one driving around and had one at an Earth Day thing at work with a Tesla parked next to it. It makes the Telsa look pretty bland in comparison. The Tesla is also clearly a larger car. Of course I work very close to a BMW design center. They are very swoopy. Nice looking car, but PRICEY.

Clarkson liked in on Top Gear, but did mention it got pretty bad gas mileage considering (30's).

I saw an i8 last week in passing. I too thought it was just some sort of concept car and not a real car for sale. I didn't get a good enough look at it to form much of an opinion. I see an i3 that is always plugged in while the owner is at work. I liked it the first few times I saw it, then the last time parked the WRX next to it and realized the seats are a good foot higher off the ground that my car. I can live with a tall roof line if I had to (like a Fit), but I guess the i3 seats are perched on top of the battery or something? Strange. Now I am not really all that interested in them because I don't want to feel like Yertle the Turtle when I am driving.

If you're in Canada, there's a couple dozen in a port now, and they're starting to move across the country to dealers. Pretty cool. i3's are neat too. Trying to explain that "this one has a gas engine, and this one doesn't" is harder than you'd think though.

T.J. wrote: I saw an i8 last week in passing. I too thought it was just some sort of concept car and not a real car for sale. I didn't get a good enough look at it to form much of an opinion. I see an i3 that is always plugged in while the owner is at work. I liked it the first few times I saw it, then the last time parked the WRX next to it and realized the seats are a good foot higher off the ground that my car. I can live with a tall roof line if I had to (like a Fit), but I guess the i3 seats are perched on top of the battery or something? Strange. Now I am not really all that interested in them because I don't want to feel like Yertle the Turtle when I am driving.

You should try driving the i3. It's fun, and no, you don't feel like you described while driving it. I spent 3 days with one and it was practical, fairly comfortable, and fun. You could feel that it was lighter than most electrics, and that it carried it's weight down low, with a low CG. Very peppy, with instant throttle response at any reasonable speed (I punched it at 80 mph and it still scooted forward with aclarity).

I've seen quite a few i8s around, mostly at cars and coffee events, though. Love the way they look, like the future is already here.

I think it's a good looking car. Haven't seen any IRL yet but I'm sure it won't be long until there are a few driving around here.

They are quirky cool. Not like I have the money to buy one

In reply to Chris_V:

If I could get the wife onboard, I would at least go drive one. The seat bottoms must be a foot higher than my WRX though, but the idea of not paying for gas very often makes it interesting as a potential WRX replacement.

T.J. wrote: In reply to Chris_V: If I could get the wife onboard, I would at least go drive one. The seat bottoms must be a foot higher than my WRX though, but the idea of not paying for gas very often makes it interesting as a potential WRX replacement.

Just tell her it doesn't hurt to try it out. I don't know if they are still doing the 3 day test drives, but that was an eye opener for me, even after living with the Volt. if you want a light and airy cabin, this is the car.

And the loaner car program for if you have to go on a longer drive occasionally is excellent.

Chris_V wrote: You should try driving the i3. It's fun, and no, you don't feel like you described while driving it...

I think it would be nice if it didn't LOOK so much like an electric car (something the i8 actually has going for it).

I mean, at some point they have to realize there are people on the earth who are interested in an electric car but are not into effectively driving around in a gigantic I AM DRIVING AN ELECTRIC CAR banner.

I, and the One Lappers were pretty fortunate to ogle one at High Plains Raceway...

... I was trying to convince the owner to bring it to One Lap next year; don't think I was successful though

aircooled wrote:

Chris_V wrote: You should try driving the i3. It's fun, and no, you don't feel like you described while driving it...

I think it would be nice if it didn't LOOK so much like an electric car (something the i8 actually has going for it). I mean, at some point they have to realize there are people on the earth who are interested in an electric car but are not into effectively driving around in a gigantic I AM DRIVING AN ELECTRIC CAR banner.

There are actually a number of EVs that are based on regular cars. Like the Focus EV, the eGolf, the Spark EV, the Fiat 500e, and the Mercedes B class EV, the Soul EV, the Fit EV. In fact most EVs look like regular cars. But EVs, with their batteries in the floor and no actual engines, don't NEED to look like regular cars, and the i3 is a great example of packaging and EV in a useful form factor. In fact, the i3, Leaf and iMiev are about the only EVs that don't look like regular cars.

I've seen a few i3's, but so far the only i8 I've seen was painted bright yellow and parked in front of the Turner Motorsports facility in MA.

I think the i3 looks like a german tuner version of the Element...but I really want one, because 98% of my driving is within the 120 mile range (so 60 mile radius) of my home and 90% is within 25 mile radius.