2015 BMW i8: Is i The New M? – Ignition Ep. 115
On this episode of Ignition - Presented by Tire Rack, Motor Trend’s senior features editor Jonny Lieberman takes a hard look at the new plug-in hybrid performance car from BMW, the crowd stopping i8. The electrification of the sports car is upon us, and BMW’s wild looking entry features a puny turbocharged three-cylinder behind the driver that powers the rear wheels, as well as a potent electric traction motor motivating the fronts. Does the layout sound familiar? It should, because that’s how Porsche constructed the 918 Spyder. Can the lightweight, carbon fiber i8 deliver half the fun of the big bad Porsche at approximately one eighth the price? Stay tuned to find out!
Ignition - Presented by Tire Rack appears every other Monday on the Motor Trend youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/motortrend
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On this episode of Ignition – Presented by Tire Rack, Motor Trend’s senior features editor Jonny Lieberman takes a hard look at the new plug-in hybrid performance car from BMW, the crowd stopping i8. The electrification of the sports car is upon us, and BMW’s wild looking entry features a puny turbocharged three-cylinder behind the driver that powers the rear wheels, as well as a potent electric traction motor motivating the fronts. Does the layout sound familiar? It should, because that’s how Porsche constructed the 918 Spyder. Can the lightweight, carbon fiber i8 deliver half the fun of the big bad Porsche at approximately one eighth the price? Stay tuned to find out!
Ignition – Presented by Tire Rack appears every other Monday on the Motor Trend youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/motortrend
Subscribe now to make sure you’re in on all the action!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsAegdhiYLEoaFGuJFVrqFQ?sub_confirmation=1
Facebook – http://facebook.com/motortrendmag & https://www.facebook.com/mt.ignition
Twitter – http://twitter.com/motortrend & https://twitter.com/mt_ignition
Google+ – https://plus.google.com/+motortrend/posts
Instagram – @mt_ignition
Website – http://www.motortrend.com
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2015 BMW i8 review
http://buff.ly/1pk49NW
(Update: I’ve taken delivery and the vehicle is staggering)
I’m probably the only person here that’s actually ordered an i8. 99% of
the critical rhetoric on this page is your typical, garden variety
ignorance spawn from uneducated individuals incapable of embracing
intelligent technology. People feel threatened by quickly changing
vehicular climate – from IC to plugin hybrid, they’re finding it difficult
to embrace a changing industry, I resisted until I understood the benefits
of aforementioned technology. People are drawing false conclusions, making
sweeping generalizations and reinforcing their own confirmation biases
without actually engaging in any critical or objective thought. Oil isn’t
going to last forever, if legislation controlling efficiency had never been
introduced, car manufacturers would still be producing the same old
technology. Do you like the internet? That was a result of innovation
from our friends at DARPA; but I guess it would be pretty cool if we still
had PC’s incapable of communicating with each other. Oh wait, no it
wouldn’t. Technology changes, instead of throwing down a blanket of hatred
for it, backed by ignorance, try to understand that leveraging electric
motors *with* IC engines yields a net result greater than IC alone. In
time prices will come down increasing the accessibility of high performance
hybrids to the masses as well.
You can get a M6 for the same money. Which one would you buy?
German engineering at its best wow
No, thanks.
If it doesn’t run on gas/ethanol, it’s bullshit.
Love the Car and the English subs :-)LOL, I8= Innovate?
“Of course it’s fake, but who cares”
Umm, I’m sorry, but fake engine noises are pointless
One of BMWs biggest flaws is fake engine noise piped into the stereo system
“Who doesn’t like 3 cylinders”
Yeah, about that, if I’m gonna pay $100,000+ for a sports car, I don’t care
if it’s a performance hybrid, but I *don’t* want an idiotic 3 cylinder
engine in the back, much less one with a fake engine noise so you think you
have a bigger and more powerful engine in the back
One of the nicer sounding (Jag) engines out there.
150k I’ll pass but impressive looks and performance.
Sack the designers of that BMW ugly
Look at the jag beautiful. .and i am a big BMW fan
I really, really hate this host. I hate his voice. Why can’t Carlos Lago
host all the shows?
Oh god he’s right! There is a Porsche coming out of the back!!!
“Sound is fake. Who cares?”
Really now? O_o
The grey insert in the back look like it ate a 911.
I’ll take the jag
2015 BMW i8: Is i The New M? – Ignition Ep. 115: http://youtu.be/Dqr_R9QTRYw
Your move Stuttgart.
This car is just beautiful. Someone should probably race it against Tesla’s
P85D
#nq
am i the only one that thinks that i8 is super overrated ? may be i am
…… -_-
Take a second to think about what Lieberman said.
This *mid engined AWD BMW* is faster than a *Dodge Challenger*…forgive me
for being underwhelmed. And the F type is a shit car imo, it has no price
bracket that makes sense.
could you see this guy pulling up in this car
You said it’s far from perfect but no comments on why it’s not.
I dont understand this guy,
“These cars are fun to drive, but I hate em because there socially
repugnant”
TOO WHO? I know guys that have 550 hpw mustangs, corvettes, BMI M6, and a
lambo I hang around alot of race track and no one talks so disrespectfully
about cars as this douce bag does.
BMW did what Audi did with the R8 when it came out. Its the next futuristic
car to copy.
Haha that ending is brilliant.
This is not a car. It’s a toilet seat.
What Is The Color Of The i8?
The Tesla Model S could beat that thing any day but without the looks of
that BMW i8.
But i have to say that Machine of a BMW is a ECO efficient monster!
I don’t believe it. You guys are biased. No way a hybrid can even come
close to those numbers.
1.21 Jiggawatts!!! Saw this at the car show, it looks incredible in person,
really hot car, I thought it was a concept. Honestly go see this thing in
person.
11:00 pooping out a Porsche!!!
Really good review. I really like how you present. It sounds like you are
talking to a real good friend of yours sitting in passenger seat. You and
Carlos are the reasons why i watch motor trend reviews. Some other
reviewers are pretty good too. Go motor trend!
I’d take the Jag
If he approves of a BMW you know it’s a good one.
I can get a faster Tesla(obviously looks worse because that’s how Elon Musk
rolls) for a couple dozen grand less than the i8. Unless you’re planning on
going on road trips in this car, there’s no doubt the Model S is a better
call. It’s a great car that I would love to have if it was priced in a
category where it could actually beat the competition. If you want
efficiency you get a Model S, if you want speed you get something less
efficient, if you want both you can buy one of each for that price. You buy
this because you WANT an i8, not because you can handily justify it.
How ugly is this car OMG!!!!!! I don’t love the world that much to drive
this piece of garbage. Seriously who would spend big money on this car. So
many better cars. Only the extremely wealthy will buy this. If you have 90k
and will be spending it on 1 car this would literally be last on my list
I can’t stand when this obnoxious slob does the reviews for MT!
This guy is over exaggerating this … thing…
And because of that, it’s hard to believe what ever he says.
If I ever would be that…amazed by a car I’m driving, all I would say
would be – “this is fucking awesome…….this is fucking awesome, this is
fucking awesome……hooly shit……this is fucking awesome. This is so
good….this is fucking awesome.” Obviously he is a person who gets paid
for being so….exaggerated about something.
Jag-gwar? :-S
this car in Europe cost from 160.000 to 200.000 so its way cheaper in usa.
I’d much rather have the jaguar. It just feels more natural, it looks,
sounds, and actually is aggressive by its very nature. The exhaust pops and
clicks and roars, unlike the lawnmower the i8 has in the back. It’s pretty
much a british muscle car, and there’s nothing not to love about it.
Yes, it’s terrible for the environment, but it’s not like there are going
to be hundreds of thousands of them rolling around, supercars shouldn’t be
too much of a concern for the environment.
Who else checked to see whether or not they clicked on the wrong video at
the beginning of this episode lol
How do you do inplace burnout like the one in the beggingin with an
automatic transmision?
NO IT’S NOT “JAG-WAR” IT’S “JAG-U-AR”!!!!!!!
The I8 is completely fun I’ve driven it
As I’ve posted many times before, the i8 is an amazing car, from it’s 20
years in the future looks, to it’s performance and power figures. And yes
it’s pricey, but that is to try to turn a profit after all the R & D
money that had to go into making it into a road car the way it looks
(basically unchanged from the Vision Concept), and the way it performs.
And I’ve explained it many times before to people who are afraid their 7
mpg V-8 muscle cars are going to go the way of the buffalo because of cars
like this, but the complete opposite is true. As Jay Leno said, it’s cars
like these that are going to save the big, gas-guzzling brutes. I’ve
explained it so many times so I’ll try to keep it short. Yes, the i8 is
pricey, but other car manufacturers are going to be coming out with way
cheaper cars that use the same hybrid sportscar formula. Think hybrid EVO
or hybrid WRX STI. So you can have your fuel sipping/low emitting sports
hybrid for the weekday, and then enjoy your vintage or
modern sportscar/muscle car on the weekends, which is when most people take
those things out of their garage anyway. If a lot of people start adapting
to hybrid sportscars, electric sportscars, and hybrids/EVs in general,
overall emissions are going to go down, overall gas usage is going to go
down, so cars like the i8 and it’s bigger cousins, the P1, the 918, and
LaFerrari, are going to push back that dreaded day that I hope never comes
where legislation is put into place to outright ban super powerful cars
that get only something like 7 mpg and emit almost solid chunks of carbon.
So thank cars like the i8 and lower-priced sport hybrids that are soon to
come for making it so that day never comes where powerful gas-only cars
that don’t reach a certain mpg and emissions threshold are no longer
street-legal. And if you’re someone who believes in/cares about global
warming or not, by having a sport hybrid you’ll be doing your part to be
nicer to the Earth and only sip the fossil fuels that we do have left
(which equals saving a fortune at the pump, whether you care about
emissions or not).
So in summation, in my opinion, and Jay Leno’s, cars like the i8 are going
to save the big, powerful gas guzzling/heavy emitting brutes, and are not a
sign of the death of them. So be thankful for their emergence.
So, at the end Johnny says, “Is it perfect, far from it”. Yet, I didn’t
hear one critical remark about the car. If I hadn’t heard him say that, I
would have thought the car was, actually, pretty perfect.
Its not that the i8 is .1 second faster than the HellCat around the figure
8, its that the HellCat is only .1 second slower.
I wish this guy did more reviews and comparisons, he’s noticeably more
intelligent than their other host.
Just save a fortune and get a scion frs if you want to buy this car, it
does everything this car can do without looking like a homo. Also you can
park it in a parking lot.
Looks fake
Idk if it competes with the Tesla but its soo much nicer inside and out i
do like engines growling but this car looks bad ass and it has all the new
tech but i still want the c7