I was riding up the 405 freeway yesterday when I heard a loud “BANG!” Someone had hit my brand new (to me), mint condition, Galvanic Gold, hyper-rare 2021 BMW i3S. I turned to see a motorcyclist splitting lanes ahead, wobbling from the impact. He continued riding; it was a hit and run. I drove to work, stepped out of the car, and surveyed the damage. “SON OF A BITCH!”
It was a scratch. Not a huge scratch, but a scratch. A white line on my mirror, and I was livid! Mostly because this biker had hit my car (possibly on purpose, since he was splitting lanes, and possibly punishing those who were maybe a bit off to the left) and just rode off with not a care in the world. That’s just unacceptable! It’s also possible it was an accident; either way, just stop if you hit someone else’s car — not cool.
Anyway, here’s the baby scratch on my mirror:
The impact had been loud, so I was surprised the damage was so minor. Luckily, though, it wasn’t on the mirror housing’s gloss black section, which is painted, but instead on that coarse black plastic section, which appears to be injection molded and black all the way through.
This is actually a great design choice by BMW, because it means you can bang that mirror on a parking garage entry-ticket machine and, while you’ll sustain a scratch, you won’t be able to tell because that scratch’s valley will be the same color as the rest of that part of the mirror. I know this because look at how my mirror looks now:
Looks pretty much all fixed! If you look closely, you can see some roughness from the motorcycle incident on the right half of this image:
But for the most part, it’s repaired, and I’m happy with how the car looks overall. But it got me thinking: First, if a little scratch like this has me all concerned, I need to get XPEL PPF as soon as possible. And second, when is this “phase” going to go away? Like, surely not every scratch is going to bum me out forever, right?
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My brother just bought a yellow Audi S3 recently, and he’s going through the same issue. He got a rock chip the other week, and it bummed him out. I used to have the same worry with my brother’s 1966 Ford Mustang and my 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee “Holy Grail.” They were all just so nice that adding even a scratch to them could ruin your afternoon. Surely you, dear readers, can relate? When will I be released from this prison?
Anyway, my partner, Elise (that’s not her real name), suggests that I keep my 2014 i3 and use that as my errands car. I won’t care if someone hits its mirror or if a rock chips its hood — it’s older, it has higher mileage, and it’s not in mint condition. But does it make sense to have two i3s? Does it matter if it makes sense?
Maybe it doesn’t matter if it makes sense, and I should just own the cars I like, and when I get tired of one, I get rid of it. Maybe I’ll get tired of having two i3s, or maybe I’ll remain in this drunken-love state in which I see the i3 as an engineering masterpiece the likes of which we may never see again. Who knows? All I know is: I may be holding onto that gray i3 for my daily commuting — at least for a while.
I have a bunch of reasonably good cars. I do the PPF/ceramic stuff when they were new..
The sports cars get tracked.
At the Nürburgring and Spa among other places. There will be track rash. For me ,worrying about scratches would prevent me from enjoying the moment. I once crashed at the Ring in a brand new V10 BMW M6.
So., a learning experience. This is nothing to do with having money either.
I have driven every car I ever owned without worrying and they all had the odd chip but I put it down to experience .
Was doing this when I didn’t have a dime.
I will track my 992 GT3RS at the Ring in the Fall. It will have some marks.
Of course I could keep it safely parked and in new condition.
My advice is to drive the darn thing. I have had a million adventures on the road.
An i3? That’s like an $8k car…(ducks)
It’s the holy grail of 8K cars… (runs)
It’s the Cadillac of BMWs!
It’s the nicest car DT has ever owned!
“But does it make sense to have two i3s?”
Yes. Designate one as a parts car.
Wait, I’ve seen this episode before! No spoilers, but it doesn’t go quite exactly according to plan.
Absolutely sell the backup. The cost of keeping a second car (including the money you’re not getting from selling it) is far greater than that of maintaining the nice one, and worst of all, you’d be robbing yourself of time in your good car.
It’s one thing to not daily a car because it’s impractical, thirsty, unreliable, unsafe and/or uncomfortable, but to buy the self-proclaimed perfect commuter and store it away in lieu of the less-perfect version is beyond silly.
Drive the damn car.
The point of buying this car was to drive it, correct? Driving it carries the risk of something happening to it, including being totaled, forget just a scratch.
I say drive the shit out of it.
As for the other i3, determine if in the context of the above whether it is still worth keeping.
Yes. No. 🙂
In past years you described yourself (IIRC) as a “certified cheap bastard”, but I think you’re beginning to appreciate the value in spending a bit more for something nicer, rather than settling for the least-cost option. This is good.
Some people will no doubt have negative opinions on the utility/practicality/efficacy/morality/etc. of having two similar cars, but frankly unless those other people are paying for your cars they can shove off. You do you.
What’s the point in having nice things, if you never use them. Get the PPF and drive the car. Live life. Life can be messy.
Quit being a f—ing pansy and drive your car. The world is only lightly organized chaos. Owning anything at all means it will get seasoned with cosmetic flaws as it is used. This is why guitar player pay extra for a relic finish.
Oh the Honeymoon phase. So sweet.
But seriously, it’s pretty funny to see the transformation from shrugging at dissolving Jeeps to freaking out over side mirror scratches. Though I get it, when I pay the big bucks for a non-shitbox, I tend to get a little precious about these things.
Jeeps and some Subarus and some trucks wear their damage like badges of honor. Purposeful looking damage that implies worthwhile experience. Seems like you’re in the process of recalibrating your brain to “expensive daily” mode.
I went the opposite way and bought a $4500 Toyota Sequoia that already has roached clear coat. I’ve scratched it a few times and I don’t care. It’s pretty freeing.
I’m not quite there yet with my van but the kids will eventually tip me over to the *shrugs* side I’m sure. We’ve just about hit this point with my wife’s Forester as it’s paid off and has taken a significant number of lumps at this point.
I just shoved three trees and a bunch of dirt in the back of my wife’s paid off Forester and didn’t even shrug at what all of that was doing to the interior. It made me question our plans to trade it in for something nicer LOL.
Life is too short to buy garage queens.
Enjoy using what you bought. Minor damage is normal. I have several chips in the paint on the front of my cars, but it just makes me more relaxed about the next chip in the paint.
You have advantages: carbon fiber reinforced plastic resists dents, and panels can be replaced pretty easily.
Just like any other car, when it bothers you enough, you’ll pay to have it fixed.
Totally agree. I bought a 2005 Pontiac GTO fresh off the lot and rarely drove it. I didn’t want to rack up miles and wear and tear. Fast forward to 2018-ish and I still had it but wasn’t in love with it and so I sold it and bought a used C7 Corvette. I knew going in I was probably only going to keep it a couple of years so I drove it everywhere. It was awesome. I still took good care of it, but I didn’t stress out about it. I did enjoy that GTO, but I had way more fun in the Vette.
Unrelated – I know Corvette’s have a certain demographic (old, possibly racist white guy) that probably puts off a lot of people from ever being interested in one, but damn if it’s not a great performance vs price proposition.
I had just assumed from the get go that you were keeping both. But the more important question is: When are you buying and living out of an Aztec?!?!?!
I cannot find a decent one… Are Azteks becoming extinct?!
It’s Montezuma’s Revenge.
That makes sense, and yeah probably. They’re certainly not a collectors car and 20 year old GM products are not known for being in the best shape ever these days
Wrong side of the country, but shipping is a thing. http://atcm.co/S2PVDP/2AAF78BC. This is the best autotrader had to offer
Nobody ever said you get to live in a decent one.
Michigan Dave would have pulled an Aztek out of a swamp if it was the last one available.
I’m sure he is worried about the price vs condition, not his own comfort
When we jumped at the chance to make you live in an Aztek, it was not because we thought they were decent. It’s because we thought they were terrible and this sounds funny.
Remember, you can always touch up a chip, many scratches will polish out, and painless dent removal will take care of any door dings you acquire. I’m very particular about my car, I’m the guy that parks in the back of the lot and walks rather than risk a door ding up close. But it’s also a car–its going to get some rock chips or dings or whatever. If they bother me, I’ll fix them or pay someone to fix them. I do what I can to prevent those things, for sure, but you can’t control everything.
My dad bought a 2021 911, brand new. He kept it until this year and only put about 6k miles on it the whole time. He had a paint protection film installed but was still worried about rock chips and dings. He wouldn’t even drive it to work because he didn’t want it to get damaged in the parking garage. He wouldn’t drive it anywhere the roads might be rough. Fortunately it was a 911 so the depreciation was relatively minor and he got a good price for it. But my point is that he rarely enjoyed the car. He spent all his time worrying about what could happen to it, rather than enjoying it. It drove my mom and I nuts, he had wanted a 911 for decades and when he finally got one, he was too paranoid to drive it.
1. Dashcam is the best investment you’ll make. (me, who works in the court and sees it daily)
2. This is why more body panels should be aluminum so something like a minor scratch doesn’t turn to rust (Canada here)
I couldn’t agree more. That being said I’m more for all aluminum bodies over just aluminum body panels, dissimilar metal corrosion sucks!
100%
Just drive it. I doubt it’ll be a collectors item.
I could see it being one in 30 years. Still doesn’t change that he bought it to drive it.
If it makes you feel a little better, I’m sure the motorcyclist didn’t do it on purpose. A brush like that (I’m assuming bar ends?) is enough to dump a rider, easy.
I’m sure he wasn’t paying attention, sure, but on the road, motorcyclists are in no position to punish anyone. Bottom of the vehicular food chain for sure.
FWIW, I had a motorcyclist kick the front fender of my ‘till then, pristine 89 Civic SI, leaving a dent. He jetted away before i could get his plate number. I still don’t know what I did to piss him off.
That sucks, and there are definitely jerks out there. But even kicking a car like that is dangerous – equal and opposite reactions and all that. Guys who do stuff like that are eventually going down.
And whatever anger a rider is feeling, it pales in comparison to the pain of hitting the asphalt!
Ha ha gimmee a break…it’s still damage, a hit and run, and leaving the scene of an accident…just because he’s a biker doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be held responsible. If he was actually paying attention, it wouldn’t have happened…so he did do it on purpose and should pay for it and get charges…duh
And this is the reason why we can’t have nice things…
I think that one of the best “luxury” features a car can have is the owner not caring about minor damage. Even if buying a new car, I’d almost rather have it come with some minor dents and scratches so the care goes away- hail damage discounts would be the best.
Yes this is a phase every new car owner goes through – you’re just used to dailying $500 beaters. Never going through this phase is one of the benefits of doing that.
It’s a quirky BMW i3 not a Bugatti – drive it and get rid of the old one.
You had like 14 Jeeps at one time. I look forward to the story of your 18 i3s.
With some BMW math you can combine all the numbers, leaving a garage a value of BMW i54, or if i3 and i3s are non-compatible, will we eventually see a garage of i27s and i18 perhaps? What if David throws in an i4 or i5 of the current generation when they depreciate? The possibilities are endless
Lane splitting should be banned.
I used to think lane splitting was the greatest thing ever. Then I turned 26.
Filtering is great. Lane-splitting the way some do it is insane (I’ve had them split between me and another car while we were both going 75+). Anything under like 25-30 mph is perfectly safe if people are paying attention – which is not frequently the case.
If done properly it’s better for everyone, which is why so many non-US countries allow it. Most of Europe condones it, even. Between lines of stopped or barely moving traffic it’s safer.
I’m not arguing against filtering through in slow traffic, even though there are plenty of people in cars and trucks who move over half a lane to get a better look at what’s ahead. As long as it’s done at bicycle speeds of 20 mph or less.
There are definitely enough squids out there. I saw a guy split lanes at highway speeds between a semi and a triple, and the triple’s trailers were squiggling down the highway at the time, so the gap between them was constantly changing. These are the jerks that make it nearly impossible to advocate for lane splitting.
I guess we need to make the distinction between lane splitting and filtering much more frequently so the non-riding majority understands the difference.
I used to agree until sitting in traffic in 100 degree weather on a bike. At the time, my wife and I shared one car and I worked 8 miles from home, so if she needed the car, I had to take the motorcycle. I always rode with a motorcycle jacket with all the pads so if I go down it minimizes the impact to some degree, full gloves, boots, and a full face helmet. Due to traffic, that commute home would often take me 30-45 minutes. Sitting in a car that’s annoying but not a huge deal, sitting on the bike I legitimately almost passed out one day, and the bike was struggling not to overheat. After that I started lane splitting, which got me home in usually less than 20, but more importantly kept me moving so that both the bike and I could be effectively air cooled. Yes it’s an easy argument that people should just not ride in weather like that if it’s unsafe, but at the time, both vehicles combined might have been worth $2500 and even if I could have afforded another car, I wouldn’t have had a place to park it so that was the only solution that really worked for us. There was not a bus service close enough to work, and yeah. I always split lanes very slowly and carefully, and if I couldn’t fit I would just wait it out, but I am a big advocate of it now.
While sympathetic to your specific circumstance, my feelings on the matter can basically be boiled down to “if you want to share the road with traffic, follow the traffic laws”.
I don’t believe for instance that people in cars with broken AC should be allowed to drive on the shoulder to get home faster, which could justifiably follow from your argument.
I disagree that that is similar. My car didn’t have AC either, but while it was not pleasant to drive on the super hot days, it was never dangerous because I didn’t need full sleeves and a helmet and all that to be safe in the car. To be fair though, in California, lane splitting is obeying traffic laws. I don’t think any other state has explicitly stated it’s allowed, but the CA laws have been interpreted that way so they are not breaking any laws.
Right, my contention is that it should be made illegal in California and anywhere else that it isn’t currently.
It was made legal here after studies indicating it is, in fact, safer for all involved. The problem here is the hit and run, not the lanesplitting.
I do it every day in stopped traffic. Splitting through moving traffic is a great way to
get where you’re going fasterdie!You can legally do this in Utah now. It’s called Filtering instead of Splitting. Once traffic is below 5 mph you can scoot to the front of the line then zip away ahead of everyone once the light changes. It’s been legal for a number of years here now and it seems like it works pretty good for everyone.
California explicitly allows it and at one point the CHP actually had a guide on how to do it safely, which I think has since been removed.
It was removed when the state officially made it legal, rather than just accepted
Every bike splitting lanes is leaving more-room/less-traffic for the cars.
Don’t bother arguing with these cranky old boomers
The “why not both” suggestion your partner made suggests you are either meant to be or a dangerous combination.
Either way, the content we’ll get on the site will be top tier, so I vote all support this relationship as much as possible.
That’s why I currently own 14 or so cars…My wife is the ultimate yes-woman!
Just drive it David. I know you plan on keeping this car for the next 800 years, but as confident you are in the pack, lithium packs do degrade over time. Slap them miles on it, get your money out of it!
Do you own it, or does it own you? If you own it, use it as the gods intended. Rack up the miles and enjoy. If it owns you, park it in your garage and drive the one it was supposed to replace. I know scratches and dings suck, but it’s part of the natural lifecycle of a car. It hurts less with time. I write this thinking about the gouge I put in the bumper of my Mercedes by not pulling it far enough into the garage.
Having no small toddlers around, I put the safety light and receiver at bumper height after doing exactly that to the Impala.
That’s why I love driving beaters. Especially in the city. I have the right of way just about every time.
Sure that BMW may act like he won’t let me merge, but one of us will care if we swap paint, and it’s not me!