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by HereBeBeasties 1153 days ago
That's quite a lot of projection. I bought a Model 3 because it felt objectively better / better value than everything else on the market at the time, having, you know, actually test driven pretty much everything. (Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia e-Niro, Jaguar I-PACE, Porsche Taycan even).

Techies might (gross generalisation warning) tend to: a) Have higher than average disposable income b) Be early adopters of new tech c) Care less what other people think of them than an average person d) Judge things more objectively than an average person.

So it's hardly surprising a lot of them end up buying a Tesla Model 3. They are very well-packaged, fast, have good range, the Supercharger network, and are fairly mid-priced as cars these days go (similar to say a slower BMW 3 series diesel, at least in the UK).

The BMW i4 launched recently. The Tesla Model 3 is a six year old design. And yet the i4 has much worse range, is either slower or much more expensive, and according to all the critics seems to be less fun to drive.

Heaven forfend that anyone buy a car on its merits, as opposed to what other people think of the badge.

2 comments

The i4 has a range comparable to a model 3. It is still fun to drive, more so if you have the M50 but even if you have the i4. It has a better interior, but lacks software as nice as Tesla and the supercharger network, which IMHO is the only big disadvantage it has over Tesla.
Harry begs to differ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmeX8c672U - it's 2.3 tonnes for the M50, which compromises all the dynamics quite considerably. He absolutely slates it in that regard. Regarding range "A range of under 200 miles is simply not good enough, especially at eighty thousands pounds. I would just buy the Tesla instead of this. The first real disappointment of 2022."

https://evcompare.io claims a real-world winter range in miles of:

192 for the BMW i4 M50

241 for the BMW i4 eDrive40

252 for the Tesla Model 3 Performance

282 for the Tesla Model 3 Long Range

So yes, the much slower i4 with the 18" wheels gets a similar range to the much faster Model 3 Performance with the 20" wheels. That's not really apples-for-apples though is it?

If you don't want the M50 / M3 Performance speed, then save the £6k and get a Model 3 Long Range. You'd have more performance and more range than the i4 eDrive40, and a car that weighs nearly half a tonne less.

(That's before options - it's about £9k to get all the things that are standard on the Tesla, like keyless entry, a heated steering wheel, electric seats, lumbar support adjustment, auto-dipping headlights, wireless phone charging, drive recorder, active cruise + lane keeping (autopilot), a glass roof, etc.)

That's fair. And yeah stereotypes are not fair. But we all do it anyway. Drive to the grocery store in a Lambo and expect to get sized up. That's just part of the deal. Even if you objectively find the Lambo to be a great value with superior tech.
You can’t fit a car seat into a Lamborghini.