BMW iX Overpriced in the UK?

[MrAliG]

Actually considering it, the other thing that car reviewers seem to put little weight on is practicality.

In general the Model X is not one of the best reviewed cars by motoring journalists.

However, it is one of the most practical cars that you can buy. This seems to be of very little interest to journalists. But when your review of a car consists of a few hours of driving, why would it. You aren't going to take the car to B&Q or the recycling centre.

Of course everyone has their own purchase criteria that drives their decision making. I have never driven our Model X far enough to use a supercharger. On the other hand at least once a month I load it up with enough stuff that it would not fit in a smaller car and we regularly have family stay with us and make use of the 7 seats. If it wasn't for this we would have to take two cars often.

The thing is perhaps to apply the right criteria to each car-

The iX seems to get a free pass for driving well whilst being less practical and more expensive than peers. It has of course been an issue with the motoring press for years putting drive quality above all else. Fine in a sports saloon like a Taycan - lacking in space but nice to drive, but not in an SUV.

 

[prabhu]

BMW should simply license VW MEB platform like Toyota, Audi, Porsche, and others. Whatever stopgap stuff they are churning out now with IX is frankly a disgrace, a waste of everybody's time, and bad for their reputation and even the environment.

 

[Casss]

It has of course been an issue with the motoring press for years putting drive quality above all else. Fine in a sports saloon like a Taycan

The same press who will slate manufacturers for testing at the Nurburgring, and then spend 2/3 of their content talking about performance handling characteristics for an estate car or SUV

 

[JonB]

BMW iX Overpriced in the UK?​

All cars are overpriced in the UK. There's a reason the car industry refers to the UK as "Treasure Island", you know.

 

[MrAliG]

TBF this has not been the case for a while especially with the weaker pound in the last few years.

Give or take, list prices are similar in the UK and Europe. The US is still often cheaper, but even then not always. The Taycan is cheaper here than the US, after accounting for taxes.

The thing that would make a nice difference would be the removal of the 10% tariff on non EU cars. Tesla should cut prices when they start manufacturing in Berlin for Europe and the UK, but may not as it would be difficult to have some cars come from China or the US with tariffs and some not. The problem with the tariff is that it creates a price umbrella where European manufacturers can charge more than they might otherwise charge for their cars because the non European competition have this extra cost. This is particularly true with EVs due to Tesla not manufacturing in Europe until recently.​

 

[Peter 224]

Not impressed with the looks for starters but each to their own and all that... Having said that, I think they did a good job of the i3 back in the day bar the suicide doors, however the drive on those has a tesla vibe to it, albeit a bit to eager in comfort mode to the point that driving in echo is th sweet spot which the I4-M50 seems not to be the case and feels more like an ice car (apparently)

An interesting road test of the BMW in Autocar this week.
It seems to me unless you can afford a Taycan a Tesla M3 AWD with Performance Pack is the value/performance/range sweet spot.
The BMW just doesn't have enough range and is too expensive. As tested the Autocar vehicle was £74,000

 

[HaggisMan]

Agreed @Peter 224. The new Taycan Estate looks good too (but was described as looking like it had filled its nappy elsewhere!). Although I suspect the Porsche options list will balloon the cost to something unreasonable.

Not sure where the Audi GT sits in all of this as the Taycan’s uglier cousin.

 

[Mrklaw]

BMW don’t seem to be doing the car any favours sending out the M50 with big range sapping wheels for review, when range will be almost as important as performance in reviews for EVs

 

[Leejmoff]

I've been looking at the BMW i4-M50.. about £15k more than an equivalent M3P.
And, or course, the BMW has to rely on public charging, not Superchargers!!

Saw a review of it yesterday. Looks nice inside, smaller in the back and the boot not much bigger in size, although it is a hatch. Efficiency no where near as good as the 3, and the delay in acceleration compared to tesla is a bit strange. Looks more like an ICE way of dropping down a gear and going for it.

Certainly an interesting car, nice to look at, but again, you have to rely on public charging and if its range is no more than the 3, then why bother if its more money?

 

[JonB]

Yet again the view that Tesla is 10 years ahead of the competition is vindicated.

And I'm not even a Tesla fanboi!

 

[Stuart1714]

One of my friends is a die hard BMW driver although I wouldn’t call him a car enthusiast and he was forced into an EV as a company car so has an ID.4 at present and he has a few months of EV driving and a few round trips of over 400 miles under his belt.

He’s been looking at the new BMW EVs as he’s retiring this year. Due to the costs of the new BMW EVs and not enough decent easily accessible high speed charging on the move, I suspect that he will go back to a BMW ICE this year.

His aim is then to possibly switch to the BMW 3 series EV expected in 2025 which will use a new dedicated EV platform being developed hopefully reducing the cost of the EVs and by then the charging infrastructure may also have improved so that we don’t have to plan trips like a military exercise.

We had a trip recently on a bank holiday where we were going to take the ID.4, but when I saw the charging options available along the route, I insisted on taking the M3.

When it comes to cars, he is a brand man so there is no way you could convince him to look at a Tesla.

 

[MrAliG]

I don’t understand people being attached to any one brand.

I have just bought whatever car I liked/suited my needs at the time.

From memory-
Citroen, Nissan, Audi, Audi, BMW, BMW, Porsche, Range Rover, Tesla

The only slight bias I would have is that the local Audi dealership are arrogant and awful to deal with whereas the local BMW dealership are so much nicer. But TBH you rarely have to deal with them and I still would buy the car I most liked.

 

[Mrklaw]

I’ve had BMWs for ages but others before that. I think its less specific brand loyalty, and more that you get to know a good dealer (can be rare), you are familar with how the car systems work, how they tend to drive, how comfortable they are etc. That isn’t necessarily something you can get on a short test drive, so there can be a tendency to self-reinforce the same brand when it comes time to change. You currenly drive a 3 series, and test drive a new 3 series? A lot will be immediately recognisable so you can focus on the differences and it probably feels like home quickly. You jump into an Audi and you’re spending time learning things and different feels odd etc.

 

[Stuart1714]

I don’t understand people being attached to any one brand.

I have just bought whatever car I liked/suited my needs at the time.

From memory-
Citroen, Nissan, Audi, Audi, BMW, BMW, Porsche, Range Rover, Tesla

The only slight bias I would have is that the local Audi dealership are arrogant and awful to deal with whereas the local BMW dealership are so much nicer. But TBH you rarely have to deal with them and I still would buy the car I most liked.

I’ve had 3 Alfa Romeos, but that’s the only brand I’ve bought more than once as, like yourself, I look for different things depending on circumstances at the time.

I’m sure BMW will sell loads of the new ones, but at least one of their loyal customers thinks they are over priced and he's looked at other brands.

Personally I wouldn’t get one. Apart from the cost, the charging infrastructure isn’t up to standard for the occasional long trip. We did a 420 mile round trip the other day in an ID.4. We stopped at a bank of 8 chargers that were busy and marked as 125KwH. We got a paltry 35. The other cars appeared to get 75 or 35. On the way back we stopped at the same place and we were the only car charging out of 8 bays and still only got 75 and the car and charging unit are both labelled as 125 KWH and we’d just done 70 motorway miles so the battery should be warm and arrived with 13% charge left.

I did a similar route in my M3 at the end of last year. I know that if I’d stopped at the V2 superchargers on the same route, I’d be getting 60 odd or 120 on the way down and 120 on the way back as the stop on the way home is after midnight. There are also a set of V3 Superchargers as well, but they are a few miles off the route.

There are quite a lot of plans to improve charging this year, but at the moment whilst the Supercharging network is unique to Tesla and having experienced an ID.4, Tesla is the only EV brand for me although who knows what I’ll do when the lease ends if other plans surrounding charging come to fruition.

 

[Kurokawa]

Certainly an interesting car, nice to look at, but again, you have to rely on public charging and if its range is no more than the 3, then why bother if its more money?

I am a long term BMW die hard fan, never skip a generation (except E46) of BMW since E30 till F30, F34, my first PHEV was a BMW, my first EV was i3. But the i4 just not competitive compare to Tesla model 3. BMW quality have been going down hill since the E9X era, F series gone worse. TM3 is better price, better performance better equipped, the only thing I wish TM3 have is the i4 lift back style tail gate.
Could not come to any reason to get i4 over TM3

 

[yessuz]

I don’t understand people being attached to any one brand.

I have just bought whatever car I liked/suited my needs at the time.

From memory-
Citroen, Nissan, Audi, Audi, BMW, BMW, Porsche, Range Rover, Tesla

The only slight bias I would have is that the local Audi dealership are arrogant and awful to deal with whereas the local BMW dealership are so much nicer. But TBH you rarely have to deal with them and I still would buy the car I most liked.

This!
Over the years my cars (which I owned) have been:
Ford Escort MK3
Mitsubishi Galant GTI (most expensive to maintain and unreliable car I ever had... 3 clutches in 6 months)
Peugeot 605 2.0t
SAAB 9-3 2.0t (loved it, despite horribly rattling and squeeky interior)
Ford Focus mk1 1.6 auto
Mazda 6 ts2
Ford Mondeo Hybrid
BMW 330e
Renault Kadjar (never ever again)
Nissan Qashqai (meh)
Tes....

and despite the automatic "what else better the manufacturer I currently drive has" - it has never been that "I will look at this and only this.

makes very little sense to stick to brands to be honest.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I am a long term BMW die hard fan, never skip a generation (except E46) of BMW since E30 till F30, F34, my first PHEV was a BMW, my first EV was i3. But the i4 just not competitive compare to Tesla model 3. BMW quality have been going down hill since the E9X era, F series gone worse. TM3 is better price, better performance better equipped, the only thing I wish TM3 have is the i4 lift back style tail gate.
Could not come to any reason to get i4 over TM3

We’ve pretty much always had a BMW on the drive and for the last 7 years now a Tesla. I’m not sure I agree with the getting worse, the E46 we had was good, and the F06? (6 series gran coupe) was one of the best cars I’ve ever owned and took the miles really well.

Whats kind of interesting is the difference between design and construction. There are lots of detail touches in our BMW design which you don’t get in the Tesla, just take a look at hinges, sound insulation, door sills, rubber seals, stitching, boot lining material, interior lights. Teslas are no doubt much better screwed together than they used to be, but there’s still some detail design touches where I’d say they were behind a 50k+ BMW. BMW on the other hand have done what Mercedes’ did a few years back and started selecting cheaper materials and the design went poor. The latest gen BMWs seem to be trying to reverse that, or at least trying to appear to, with ceramic touch or crystal switches, leather dash, soft closing doors, etc. I accept some of that is optional, but being able to configure to your personal taste is a premium feature in itself

Choice is good and I don’t think the BMW is too expensive, or should I say if Tesla can charge almost 75k for a Model Y Performance in Red, white interior and FSD, then they’re all too expensive.

 

[Kurokawa]

We’ve pretty much always had a BMW on the drive and for the last 7 years now a Tesla. I’m not sure I agree with the getting worse, the E46 we had was good, and the F06? (6 series gran coupe) was one of the best cars I’ve ever owned and took the miles really well.

Whats kind of interesting is the difference between design and construction. There are lots of detail touches in our BMW design which you don’t get in the Tesla, just take a look at hinges, sound insulation, door sills, rubber seals, stitching, boot lining material, interior lights. Teslas are no doubt much better screwed together than they used to be, but there’s still some detail design touches where I’d say they were behind a 50k+ BMW. BMW on the other hand have done what Mercedes’ did a few years back and started selecting cheaper materials and the design went poor. The latest gen BMWs seem to be trying to reverse that, or at least trying to appear to, with ceramic touch or crystal switches, leather dash, soft closing doors, etc. I accept some of that is optional, but being able to configure to your personal taste is a premium feature in itself

Choice is good and I don’t think the BMW is too expensive, or should I say if Tesla can charge almost 75k for a Model Y Performance in Red, white interior and FSD, then they’re all too expensive.

I guess BMW focus on the more high end range? Moving from E93 to my F34 and F36 feel slightly let down, the material have down grade little bit and some little issue forcing me back to dealer few time and never get fix. The model 3 is my first tesla and still waiting to be delivered (pray I could be delivered on time in March). Compare to the i4 just don’t see the appeal of i4 especially I end up almost 8k options on i4 to match the model 3 I want. Could just be Tesla offer something tick all my box

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I guess BMW focus on the more high end range? Moving from E93 to my F34 and F36 feel slightly let down, the material have down grade little bit and some little issue forcing me back to dealer few time and never get fix. The model 3 is my first tesla and still waiting to be delivered (pray I could be delivered on time in March). Compare to the i4 just don’t see the appeal of i4 especially I end up almost 8k options on i4 to match the model 3 I want. Could just be Tesla offer something tick all my box

I’ve not been in the F34 or F36, maybe I was spoilt with the 6, but I do recognise what you’re saying about the F series in general seemingly going down. The i4 is presumably underpinned by the G series cars which do seem to be on the way back, albeit at a price.

You need to own the Tesla for a while and see how you get on. There’s plenty to like, there’s also some stuff that might frustrate, but that’s the thing, we all like a different mix of things and there’s now choice, I own a Tesla so the mix for me is good enough at the moment

 

[JonB]

I was sitting in my white M3LR in a shop car park waiting for the missus to grab some stuff from Next that she'd ordered, when this white BMW 220d M pulled up next to me. It looked really expensive and BMW-esque, all folded panels and aggressive front end. Very pretty. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out it's only about 35 grand...