bmw i3 tips and tricks

The new look

Before the wrap

A few weeks before I took delivery of my i3, I announced that I would be getting a complete body wrap for it shortly after I took possession. I was never really in love with the color choices that BMW offered for the car and also didn't particularly like that the hood on all of the cars was gloss black, regardless of what color you chose, so I wanted to see what the car would look like monochrome and with a more bold color.

Laurel Grey looked better than I thought it would!

I do have to admit, once I started seeing the i3s in person at dealerships, the colors BMW selected did begin to look better than I expected. In fact, my Laurel Grey i3 looked so good, I had reservations about going through with the wrap after all! The Frozen Blue accents look great and the Laurel Grey is a very dark grey, which nearly eliminates the color difference of the black hood, making the car look all the same color from only a short distance.

I had it done at Designer Wraps in Millville, NJ

The infamous rear window dip

Well as you can see, I went through with the wrap and I'm really happy that I did. The bright red metallic wrap (3M Metallic Red for those interested) looks fantastic and the black trim I used on the side doors really achieved the effect that I was looking for. One of the questionable design effects on the i3 is the drastic drop in the window line in the transition from the front to the rear window. BMW said they did this to allow a better outward view from inside the vehicle, particularly for the rear passengers. Since the rear windows are fixed and cannot be opened, by making them as large as possible the rear passengers hopefully won't feel "trapped" inside. By using a black wrap overlay that extends from the corner of the front door to the bottom of the drop at the leading edge of the rear dip, I was hoping to give the appearance that the entire opening was one smooth stream-flow. It looked good on paper, but would it achieve the effect in person? Take a look and tell me what you think. I'm pleased and believe it gives the car the design effect I was hoping for.

The black line hides the dip and smooths out the flow of the window opening. 

One of the good things about vehicle wraps is that the wrap protects the paint underneath very well. It resists scratches and chips from small rocks and when you do take it off, the car is pretty much perfectly preserved. I'll probably leave the wrap on for about a year and when I take it off it will feel like a got another new i3. As I mentioned above I was really pleased with my Laurel Grey i3 once I finally saw it so I won't mind removing the red wrap once I tire of it. Here in the US, all of the test drive cars were either Solar Orange or Andesite Silver, so if we wanted a different color we had to order it without actually seeing the color in person. I was probably one of the very few people in the US who did see most of the other colors because I go to many of the various industry automotive shows. I saw a Laurel Grey i3 for a short time at the Geneva Motor Show a few months ago so I was able to get a quick glimpse of it in the flesh for the first time. At that point I had already ordered my Laurel Grey i3 months earlier sight unseen.  

The red grills gotta go!

While I really like the overall look, there is one thing I don't like and I am going to correct. I had the center of the BMW double kidney grills wrapped red like the rest of the car. It just didn't translate from paper to reality as well as I had expected. There's too much red in the front of the car now and I'm going to remove the red wrap inside the grills and return it to the gloss black of the stock i3.

I wrapped the lower rear bumper black

Stock i3s have a color coded rear bumper insert

Another reason I decided to get the wrap is because I write for a few online car sites, like BMWBLOG, InsideEVs, GreenCarReports and PlugInCars and I thought it would be cool to have the distinct color so the readers would immediately know that's my car when they see a picture of it, and that might inspire them to read the article (or perhaps make them quickly leave the page!). I'm sure others will get wraps and customize their i3s also, but for now if you see a custom red i3 with the black out trim on the side doors in a news story, I think it's safe to say, "That's Tom's i3." : ) Please let me know what you think of it in the comments section below.

Some pictures we took during the wrap process:

I had a leftover ///M badge from my April Fools post so I stuck it on for kicks

UPDATE: I removed the red wrap from the BMW kidney grill. It definitely looks better all black.