Gadgetory

when BMW said they were going to start with a clean sheet for their eyes series of cars they weren't kidding about this one when you attack a corner and get on an attorney is just fun the i8 looks drives and moves itself like almost nothing else on the road the i8 is BMWs first plug-in hybrid but as you can see they didn't exactly go after the Prius this car has concept car looks it's also impressive with the construction technologies used here aluminum and plastic panels or what you see but you don't see is a carbon-fiber reinforced plastic passenger cell or what they call in racing a tub makes the car incredibly strong but also exceptionally light and that's critical when you've only got a three cylinder gas engine and a smallish electric motor efficiency is important here in the aim of performance inside it's a 2+2 nominally the +2 parts a little optimistic as you can say now the first thing that grabs you about the cabin of the i8 is not some amazing futuristic interface notice most of this switch gear is physical standard BMW stuff you do have an instrument panel that's all LCD and of course you got your eye drive screen right here but what does grab you is the very spacious futurism of this it's low slung you sit low the dash is low it feels very wide it's a distinctive experience a lot of cameras on this car you've got a rear camera of course there's also a front camera and it can be stitched together with mirrors to give you an overview camera over here is the button that's an interesting way of enabling or disabling kind of the perimeter curtain of driver safety tech collision avoidance and you can set exactly what systems are turned on into what sensitivity media sources on this car pretty much what you see in other BMWs with the ability to have a hard drive storage space external devices plug in through USB and aux you've also got a snap-in 4g adapter available here we don't have that in our car but notice a couple things in this vehicle AM stands for morning and CD stands for what you had to liquidate to buy this car because it does not get AM radio and it has no optical disc slot now that's futurism whether you like it or not now when you're in navigation mode this is a little different other BMWs it talks to the powertrain to best put it in the right mode of electric gas or combination thereof to get the best efficiency out of your drive not just the best time in short its distance okay drive controls we know this sort of spatula shape shifter on BMWs before with the sport gate to the left start/stop button below that a Z drive to force it into electric if it has sufficient battery no sport or Sport+ you really have comfort as your standard eco as your reduced or retarded performance when the shifters in sport the whole car goes into sport mode and that's reflected in the gauges as you can see up under its carbon fiber and aluminum knickers is a one and a half liter turbo three cylinder gas engine in the best that drives the rear wheels only through a six-speed Automatic out front is an electric motor and that does the front wheels only through a two-speed gearbox the two ends are only connected by a software add it all up and it sells all wheel drive but in a very unusual way total horsepower 362 420 pound-feet of torque or on tap that gets you to 60 in 4.2 seconds under the right conditions you have 22 miles of pure electric driving per charge and that charge takes about two hours on a 240 outlet all said your mpg is 28 and your mpg II in electric mode is 76 in the green car world those with these tepid numbers were it not for this cars performance some people have driven this car come away a little disappointed I understand that it's prowess I didn't come to it as a supercar I thought it was gonna be a new-age GT and in that respect fantastic the car handles as wide low and flat as it feels inside here they don't be exhaust it's not at all wimpy like you expect from a highly electrified vehicle they've tuned in teaming counteract that impression ride quality is great that always matters to me you're gonna buy a car you gotta live with it and the shifts super quick the only odd note I found in this car is around town when you're not really into it it'll sometimes fall in its face as it tries to decide between what blended mode of power it wants to be in or if it should be an electric only and sometimes you'll get this kind of weird indecision I'm not a big fan of cars on steroids so bear that in mind if you are this may not be enough for you but I find it's athletic without being brutal Mads my car car and it's still fun not sterile okay the i8 is a hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars worth of tomorrow mpg is good for a car this fast but people who buy these cars aren't pinching pennies and while that performance is exceptional as I pointed out it doesn't come across as brutal or extreme so what's missing that market instead it balances both and lets you own a piece of a very impressive automakers future vision and big bet or cars driven CNET style standing by now at CNET on cars.com click on the road