[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by MKSixer

1. You mentioned them first. Ah well not really. Your quotes: (1) "I own and E63 M6 and have friends with the entire gamut of auto's from the McLaren P1 down. One of the P1 owners, an engineer, states that the i8 is amazing in that it delivers an advanced power train for $135K." (2) "I have a close friend who acquired a Ferrari about 18 months ago. He sold it because he underestimated the $25K per year that it takes to keep it on the road." and (3) "I have a bunch of hard working engineering friends, small business owning friends, and biotechnology friends who work 65-80 hrs per week to take care of their families. As like minded people (we are car people...all cars, not just exotics.)" - I'm unable to understand how an Owner of a McLaren P1 (i.e. he's wealthy) qualifies as a source that the i8 is the paradigm shifting car you think it is.

2. It is as usably fast as my E63 M6 and gets 3.5 times the fuel economy. If that is not a paradigm shift, I do not know what qualifies. - You are correct. Now if the i8 did this AT THE SAME PRICE as a E63 M6... then maybe it's close - but really not. Let's see if BMW can cut the price in half in 15 years (hint - this is what Ford did with the Model T).

3. I can think of quite a few crap boxes in the $150+ range. One out of 62. Give me a break. - You missed the point entirely. The engine of the year awards is exactly that, of the year. The voters get wowed about engine performance, the owners are left to deal with the reality of the quality issues.

4. False. Technical leadership is not limited to adherence to CAFE regulations. That is actually called compliance. Next. - Next... No, actually not. The point is while Honda (Insight 1999) and Toyota (Prius 2000) and I'll go GM too with the EV1 (1996), were in production with high-MPG hybrids (and GM's EV), BMW was paying huge fines to the EPA; so Honda, Toyota and GM were actually in technology leadership roles, while BMW was shitting in its diapers.


Cheers-mk

See above. And...

The i8 doesn't impress me as an automobile considering the main purpose of the automobile is to take people and stuff places at a reasonable investment and with continued affordability; and in the case of some good cars... have fun doing it (why I drive a BMW). The i8 does none of these things in my view. It has 5 cubic feet of real trunk-lockable storage (you can get $26K of carbon fiber luggage for the back seat though), and Car and Driver's instrumented test it returned 26 MPG. Sure, it'll launch 0 - 60 in 3.8 seconds but that's a purpose mode of the drive train (launch control). In electric mode it goes 0 - 60 MPH in 9.2 seconds (I guess that's at 76 MPGe too). And in between modes for just normal driving it is 5 - 60 MPH in 4.6 seconds (I guess this is where it gets 26 MPG). I'm sorry, but that is just not impressive and certainly not paradigm shifting... So it appears to me the i8 is an EV that gets 15 miles on an electric charge an attains 60 MPH in 9.2 seconds (what a 1st gen Volt does), and carries around a 300+ HP turbo 3-banger (at 22 PSI boost - we'll see how long that engine lasts) in its ass to get some good performance numbers for the press to report on while achieving 26 MPG. These are reasons I've not taken the time to test drive it, the car for its real world capability is just not worth $150K. Sorry. It is a great engineering exercise though and why engineers like it.

Cheers-Efthreeoh