I3

The Start of a Busy Year

Sunday 31st January 2016

Happy New Year everyone!

I haven’t forgotten about you all but work has been very busy, which is a good thing, but has left with me little time to write, which is not such a good thing!

I also have been enjoying my newly lowered BMW i3. It has been so much fun to drive! It has been nearly two months since we had the suspension lowered and I’m still so impressed with the difference. I’d highly recommend installing the lowering springs to all. I’m definitely thinking about installing wheel spacers next.

So besides driving my i3 and working, I popped over to the UK to see family. It seems every time we go over there someone is always moving house which means we always end up being very busy. I did, however, get to ride on the Electric Buses in York again. They have been increasing the number of Electric Buses that they have in operation and it does make a huge difference. Even my niece could tell the difference, how it didn’t lurch around as there are no gear changes. It is, at the end of the day still a bus but at least it’s a smooth bus. I’ve been reading more articles in the UK about more Electric Buses on the way in different areas. It’s all good news. It’s all helping to clean up the air. It is just a shame that there are still too many stinky, cronky, diesel buses out there. It’s time to persuade all the bus companies to go Electric.

What else has happened? Well, as the temperature has started to drop my i3’s steering wheel or something around that area is making scraping and squeaking noises. We had the issue last winter and it was supposed to have been lubricated and after that there was no sound at all. But as soon as the temperature dropped, it is back again. It’s most frustrating as every time you turn the steering wheel a certain amount it’s there. It’s taking away my fun times as it sounds like there is a gerbil running around its squeaky wheel. I am waiting to hear if there is another fix for that. My range has gone down a bit with the colder weather and the need to use the heater. Yes, even I need to use the heater when it’s -9℃!! BUT, if the sun is shining on the car I turn off the heater as the solar heat is more than sufficient with just a little seat heat thrown in. I’m still getting 5.3miles/kWh average on my i3, which I think is pretty good, especially considering that the temperature is dropping.

The i3 has definitely become my car of choice since the suspension was lowered. Who’d have ever thought that making such a small change would make such a big difference?

We recently had a huge snowstorm and we ended up with 24 inches of snow. That meant that no cars were going out anywhere. We had made sure that all the cars were fully charged just in case we lost power, which fortunately we didn’t. The day after the storm we dug out the drive but only a cars width – there was just too much snow to move all of it. As the township didn’t clear our roads properly for a couple of days that meant we couldn’t get out. But, I was okay with that and I am more than happy to keep off the roads when they are slippy and to give the township time to clear the roads properly.

Here is our new addition to our Electric Family, that arrived two days after the snowstorm!!

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