A new Mazda MX-30, or a used BMW i3S - where should YOU put your money?

back in 1989 mazda gave us the mx-5 and in doing so reinvigorated the world's love of the small two-seater open-top sports car and such was the car's success that many manufacturers followed them notably rover group with the mgf but it was other prestige manufacturers that took the bait and followed them down a similar path mercedes with the slk audi with the tt roadster and of course porsche with the mid-engine boxster but it was the other manufacturer bmw that actually followed mazda's blueprint more closely with the z3 we see it didn't employ fancy folding hardtops like mercedes it didn't do the four-wheel drive bauhaus design like audi and it certainly didn't although it would go on later to have bigger engines employ a flat six mid engine layout like the boxster no it went down the front engine rear drive manual transmission manual folding roof just like mazda had done with some retro design touches just to give us that well that little feeling of being that proper classic roadster fast forward to 2013 and bmw gives the i3 its first battery electric vehicle it is uniquely styled it employs some very clever and very space age type of construction methods as well as sustainable materials and recyclable materials for a new age world it also gave us well quite small batteries in fairness because bmw's idea was well battery technology was in its infancy back then and they were easier to package and it thought well most people are just going to need a small amount of range for what is a vehicle that is designed primarily for the urban commute perhaps then it shouldn't be a surprise that sort of history has repeated itself but this time it is mazda that's following bmw's blueprint and giving us the mx-30 after all what is it they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery welcome back to the bmw i3s welcome back to the mazda mx30 and of course welcome back to autoeve [Applause] [Music] now before we get started on this week's video time for a bit of housekeeping can you do the usual like subscribe comment press the bell to get notified when the next video goes live yeah we've got out the way now perfect superb onto the video what do we have well this came about as a bit of a conversation with myself and my colleagues in the auto ev office you see the uk government's decision well not so long since ago to lower the ceiling of the plug-in car grant for electric cars has meant that some manufacturers have realigned their prices so they come in below that 35 000 pound ceiling notably bmw with the i3 range with his other manufacturers who were new to the market such as mazda came in very aggressively with the pricing in the first point now the mx 30 range starts from just over 26 000 pounds and that got us thinking whilst that won't get you a new i3 it would buy you one well maybe say six to 12 months old or an ex demonstrator so what would you rather have would you rather be the first name on the registration document with a brand new sparkly mx30 or would you be willing to forgo that prestige of having a brand new car and buy a used i3s well that's what we've decided to do today in our first new versus used twin test and they're closer than you might think so let's start with the oldest of the two which is the i3 which believe it or not is now nearly nine years old but you wouldn't know what to look at i mean i genuinely think this is one of bmw's absolutely greatest designs and goodness knows don't they need that at the moment it looks like nothing else they've done before and nothing else they've done since i think it looks sensational this is an i3s that we have um here today and it's got this very distinctive sort of like two-tone color scheme that a lot of i3s do you've got a short kind of stubby bonnet you've got these kind of angry looking headlights here of course you've got the double kidney that doesn't look like a buck-toothed demented rabbit at halloween the usual bmw i blue tinge around the batch to let you know it is a fully electric car and of course the car was face lifted a little while back when they introduced the i3s so you've got these kind of new kind of daytime running lights here and of course the little added bits there and a big bumper that sticks out like a spoiled child's bottom lip the i3s also gets these extended sort of wheel arch trims here that are done in black you get 20 inch alloy wheels on the car as well 20 inch wheels are a small car i never thought i'd see the day but there you go and around the side of course it's most distinctive you've got this lovely sort of window line that sort of drops at the bottom here to give a lot more sort of like light and interior space and a feeling of interior space in the rear the contrast roof and of course this section here that comes up seems to just squeeze the body in so it takes away the kind of visuality of the height of the car and then just all sweeps up into this lovely little rear quarter light here genuinely one of the best out there and look of course it's party piece the doors and then at the back of course you've got this lovely one-piece tailgate that goes to the top of the bumper you've got these angry robot leds like rear lights and again your big bmw round all there and the whole thing just looks fantastic in my opinion and the mazda well it sort of follows a slightly different path in being a small compact crossover which is very much on trend at the moment but that's no bad thing because it is mazda we're talking about and they've not stuck to the usual kind of crossover rules it's a little coupe a crossover style thing ideally mazda see this is taking on cars such as the mini electric the honda e and the fiat 500e but it does give you a little bit more for your money in terms of actual physicality but we'll get on to that a little bit later but the design of it i think it looks brilliant i genuinely do very different to the bmw in some respects you've got this lovely long bonnet and then this sort of koopa like bustle back but round the front you've got these lovely led headlights that are set back this great negative space in here and of course your ubiquitous black cladding to make you think you are driving a big tough off-roader even if you're just actually going to sainsbury's and that cladding extends obviously around the side gives you extra protection especially along the cells now you can get the car all in one color this one's got the distinctive sort of like three tone if you like so you've got the lower one here you've got the silver here and then the black painted roof at the top and that's quite an interesting visual design trick because this lighter silver color here kind of makes you think that the coupe of the car's got that lower coupe roofline that actually does it's a higher roof than you think it sits on 18 inch alloy wheels so two inches smaller um than the i3s and all mx30s come on those 18-inch wheels but look what we've got here the mazda called these freestyle doors have they copied bmw well arguably no because in 2006 mazda gave us the rx-8 coupe which employed the exact same style of doors although conversely you could argue that back in 2002 rolls royce part of bmw group gave us the phantom with its rear hinge coach doors we'll call that a fair fight shall we but it's at the rear you can see mazda's more kind of coupe like profile this big roof spoiler sloping tailgating these wonderful real lights like rocket thrusters coming out very much in stark contrast the bmw's much more upright stance you've got again you usually just say black so like bumper at the rear that kind of follows on from the you know the sort of like the cladding that goes around the car to give us to say that sort of pretend suv like look now what do we think well if i'm being completely honest with you i think the bmw is the car that sets the tone here i think it's the car that's going to dateless i mean the car is almost nine years old as i've said and i still think it looks as fresh as a daisy and whilst i love the way the mazda does look i think it's victory to the bmw and the style stakes but what do you think let us know in the comments below in terms of practicality what are we faced with well it's the mazda that takes the spoils if it's boot space that we're talking about with 366 liters in comparison to the bmw's rather poultry 260. although what i will say is bear in mind with the mazda if you specify the bose sound system that figure drops by 20 liters because they need to package the amplifier but still it is the bigger of the two cars now neither car really have storage for the cables the bmw does have a small um tray underneath the front boot but i don't think it's that weatherproof i'm not sure i'd want to keep the cables there so they are relegated to bags in the boot and the mazda well it's the same really there's nothing on the floor keep cables in because it's got to say it's got the amplifier in there so it's really relegated to this bag in the back and then one lying loose there but in terms of our suitcases what does that mean well the bmw will just take two small carry-on bags if you've still got the cable bags in it as you can see there whereas the mazda well that will take one large suitcase and one medium-sized suitcase and both cars also feature split folding rear seats and the bmw is 50 50 in the mazda 60 40. now getting into the car in terms of rear accommodation the bmw starts to claw things back a little bit you see it's just designed to be a four-seat car there's no pretense of having a fifth seat in the center here so for fort it's actually quite comfortable and of course with these doors the window line in the bmw is a lot um deeper than it is in the mazda so there's more feeling of space now this car has a particularly sort of light interior as does the mazda and a light headlining it's also got the optional front sunroof so the feels a lot more light inside the car so it floods it in so it does feel like more accommodation is in the bmw it also has thinner front seats although they're really comfortable they are really well constructed and really well engineered and designed so there is a reasonable amount of space the floor is flat um i've got okay not bags of room but again given the style of cars these are it's okay isofix points as well there's two one in this side one on this side and the easier to get at in the bmw than they are in the mazda but let's check out what the mx30 is like right so the doors work the same way ah but it's um kind of um yeah getting in isn't quite as easy because the bmw has a nice release lever just telling you an extra bit of space to get in whereas the mazda doesn't it has a electric button on here now this is a gt sport tech car that we're in you can also move the driver's seat from there but don't get me wrong it doesn't feel bad in here but as soon as you do that you realize how much more enclosed you are because of the window space there's a touch more knee room than i have in the bmw and foot space is slightly better in terms of where the seat position is but i don't have a flat floor now you might question why this is let me explain there's a raised m transmission tunnel here and the reason for that is like bmw used to do on the i3 at some stage mazda are going to introduce um a range extender version which is going to use rumored to be a wankel rotary engine mazda let's be honest um so you can actually charge the battery on the move some are going to see that as a bit of a backwards step and i know a lot of people are going to ask well why not just fit a bigger battery but we'll come on to that in the usability section and but back here as i say the rest of the accommodation is fine um it does have the pretense of being five seats but i really genuinely can't see that many people wanting to sit in the center especially with that raised floor i've just said the ice fix points aren't as easy to find they are they're okay they're under these plastic clips my mistake um headroom's okay it's not as big as the beer sorry it's not as much as the bmw bearing in mind i'm five foot seven five foot eight and it's the fact is the car is four centimeters lower than the i3 so although it gives you that idea of being quite a low sleek car um it is inside but bear in mind as i say this is a gt sport tech trim and this has a sunroof um you might get a little bit more headroom in one without but the black headlining and these smaller windows make you feel a bit more enclosed if i'm honest the seat itself is okay and as i say there's there's there's not bags of room it's all right the you sit with your knees slightly up as you do and again with the bmw there's a tiny bit of storage back here not much at all in either car the bmw's the cup holders mounted in the center where the fifth sorry the third seat would be whereas in this one here you've got the flip down armrest with two cup holders back here but there isn't any um pockets on the back of the front seat of this car like there isn't in the i3 at all um and there isn't in the um though sorry there's a map pocket in the back of the passenger seat so you get more feeling of space in the bmw um you get a bigger boot in the mazda let's call it a draw in this section now i want to just spend a little bit of time talking about these doors on both of these cars because they do work in exactly the same way so it's applicable to both the mazda and the bmw i'm a family man i have children i have a seven-year-old daughter and of course she's going to jump in the back of the cars that i use and a lot of people are a little bit concerned about these doors but don't because that back door will only open on both cars if the front door is actually opened as well so you've got to open that door before the rear one can be opened and also as well unlike the old mini clubman that had the that sort of same style of door but it had it on the other side in other words your children would be getting out into the roadside into traffic obviously on the bmw the mazda it's on both sides so you don't have that fear now in terms of safety as well i know i talked about this on the mx 30 road test video when we tested it earlier back in the year but doing away with this center pillar don't worry about it at all because these doors are really really thick and both bmw and mazda are absolutely stringent on their safety and in fact the mx30 gets the highest end cap safety rating for side impact so you have nothing to worry about by having these style of doors now the interior of the i3 is as modern and futuristic as the exterior is and it still looks that way in fact it's one of my favorite interiors of any car um bearing in mind we are talking about um a used i3s here this particular car which is the bmw press car is fitted with 5000 pounds worth of extras so just keep that in mind when you're looking at them secondhand ones anyway the satellite navigation system on um the screen is now the navigation pro so you get the wide screen earlier cars that had the slightly smaller screen as standard but the wider screen is an option but it's just simplicity itself you've got the screen there which seems to hover sort of like above the dashboard and then the driver information screen here where we've got speed um charge uh trip meter and total mileage and stuff physical control buttons and here for your audio system and your heating and ventilation control and they are simplicity itself in terms of their use this screen is controlled by bmw's well we thought it was radical at the time we saw on the original bmw 7 series but the idrive controller which is mounted down here um and then you just you've got some shortcut buttons and then it's just nice and simple to use it is absolutely fantastic and it now also comes with um it has speech recognition in terms of um address input um you can also use the the idrive controller will also recognize touch so again be that mind the older models won't but this particular one does um in terms of storage up here i've got more than enough there's no transmission lever here it's mounted up on this column here um i've got wireless charging for a mobile in here again bear that in mind it might not be in an older car but it's under this armrest i've got cup holder here from a coffee flask there's one there i've got connectivity in here in terms of um usb and usbc and there's also a 12 volt charger there's an electronic part break to free up even more space it's just delightful in here but it's not just the design as i said before it's the innovative use of materials that makes me really love the i3 this material up here which is on all i3s and the doors is called canal and this is a plant-based material and it feels like a kind of just a hard kind of cardboardy plastic almost kind of hybrid but it just looks interesting and as you see it's sustainable if you have a car with the leather seats for instance the oil that they use they're naturally tanned and they're used using olive oil which is better for the environment if you have a car with the wood um dashboard it's eucalyptus wood because again it's more sustainable and eucalyptus trees um their forestry plantations are more sustainable throughout the world so bmw put an awful lot of thought into the car i mentioned the seats earlier and that's again a really important point they're quite thin but they're very comfortable you've got a really good driving position in the car and you can't complain at all they don't feel very thin they feel really comfortable even over longer drives but again going back to the sustainability the seat frames are made from 20 recycled plastic bottles it's a brilliant place to be it's a phenomenal interior and as i say nine years on it's still one of the class leaders now i know i've just waxed lyrically about the interior of the bmw i3 but moving into the mazda do not feel that you are going to be shortchanged in this one because this interior is also an absolute delight you sit much more cocooned in the car um my wife's been driving both cars this week as well and she said that she felt she sat much higher in the bmw much kind of lower down more sporty like in the mx-13 that sort of the feeling that you do get and this interior is absolutely delightful you've got a high mounted 8.8 inch screen up there which is controlled oddly enough by something looks a lot like a bmw i drive controller down here so you can scroll in and out of the maps or shortcut buttons to get to your communication your navigation your entertainment i mean it's just brilliant the way this works and of course that would be a big stretch but the screen is mounted exactly where you want it to be really easy to use nice and high up visually looks fantastic and works really really well one um place where the mazda wins for me over the the i3 is it comes as standard with apple carplay and android auto you only get apple carplay in the i3 and again depending obviously on the age of the car you may not get at all but the mazda comes with android auto as well as apple carplay you moving down into the center console you've got another screen here which is for your heating and ventilation but again i mentioned it in the road test um that we did on the mx30 at its launch and mazda have also seen fit as much as they are a touch screen for your heating and ventilation they also duplicate it with physical buttons not sure why but they do so thank you for that mazda um the steering wheel is this lovely round three spoke steering wheel that reminds me so much of sort of like the japanese sports cars the 70s the rx-7s and the nissan zed cars the whole interior has a real feel of quality about it as well much like the bmw the touch surfaces that you touch just have a nice feel about them going on to the sustainability um side of things like again like the bmw mazda use cork for the center console so you've got this high mounted solid floating console here which is padded at the sides by the way so you don't jar your knee off them that's a really nice touch well done mazda um but yeah it uses cork which is very sustainable and it's made from the off cuts of bottle tops and if you wonder why they use cork it's because mazda started life as a cork company back in the 1920s so it's a nod to their heritage you also get it on the inside of the door handle so again it's that touch surface where you're actually touching things that feels just nice um the car if you option it with this sort of um half leather trim um it's vegan friendly leather so it's not real leather it's you know vegan friendly so that's important and also again you've got recyclable materials used in the door cards and other parts around the interior so it is a good good um you know in terms of its vine and eventually friendly impact it's really good the rest of the cabin can't really complain about anything in here in all honesty you've got good connectivity um you know there's good amount there's better like storage in some respects and there isn't a bmw got a big deep cubby there um we've got a couple of cup holders here um which i see are covered by this cork kind of matting and then underneath here underneath the center console is a really big tray down there that's cork lined and you also you get usb ports as well i think yep a three pin plug as well so you can pop your nespresso machine if you fancy a cappuccino on the move good door bins as well you get nice size door bins in the bmw i forgot to mention that and they'll take decent-sized water bottles and things so in terms of their interiors you don't feel short-changed in either car i prefer the sort of style of the bmw but the mazda kind of counters with having its own individuality and as i say my wife made the comment it feels a bit sportier in here a bit lower down a bit more of a kind of sports car feel about it um so you kind of pays your money he takes your choice let's call it a draw here too now for the sake of it being a level playing field here we're only going to discuss the i3 without the range extender um option so rex if you see in the used car um listings you'll see it as a wreck and that means it has a range extender which is a small capacity petrol engine now that doesn't drive the wheels at all that is they are used as a generator if you like to actually charge the battery so as the battery gets low the range extended engine kicks in and chopped which charge in the battery which then supplies the electric motor which then drives the wheels got it okay right so we're not going to talk about that one at all we're going to talk about what we have here which is a car that has a 42.2 kilowatt-hour battery which should give according to wltp figures a range of just over 170 miles in reality you're probably looking more between 140 and 150 which might be okay for you and again you've got to remember the idea behind both of these cars originally was them more like seen as an urban run around so most people's daily commute way less than that you're probably going to have more than enough it's not going to be a motorway style of car the i3 that being said you can still use them obviously for that if you're you know in terms of the way that they drive but just remember you're gonna have to charge them a bit more so how does that compare well the bmw disappoints a little bit by only being able to take charging speeds of up to 50 kilowatts which means that going from a zero to an 80 charge is going to be between 45 and 50 minutes so a little bit longer than you do get on some of the more modern cars that being said with the small battery that it has if you're charging from your seven kilowatt wall box at home it's probably going to go from zero to full in just over five hours which brings us neatly on to the mazda's achilles heel and that is its range you see according to wltp figures the 35.5 kilowatt-hour battery in the mazda will give you a range of 125 miles reality is it's probably closer to 100 in fairness now mazda have done their research and we've alluded to this in the original road test video if you haven't seen that i'll pop a link to it above and they say this is right sizing in other words the research that they've done shows that most mazda owners have a daily commute or daily mileage use of around about 26 miles so in their opinion why carry around a big heavy battery with unnecessary capacity that you're never going to use on that daily basis have they got it right well interestingly enough as bmw have moved away from fitting a range extender mazda planning introducing one as i said on the mx30 which will be a small capacity wanker rotary that will be able to put charge into the battery not drive the wheels still an electric car but a petrol engine that will generate power to the battery in other words to give power to the wheels um for those people who need to do those extra bit of miles so it's interesting that as one manufacturer's abandoned that another manufacturer's um coming into it you could argue then well why not just fit a bigger battery well as i say mazda just feel that it will then impact onto the dynamics of the car and we'll see that and the performance and handling section that the car itself would be carrying around a lot of unnecessary weight if that was the case and therefore would impede the dynamics that mazda are renowned for anyway back to charging it will take a slightly faster charge than the bmw so you'll get that 80 charge in just 30 minutes as opposed to the 45-50 minutes of the i3 but similarly overnight i am five hours six hours from a seven kilowatt wall box to fill so in our opinion in this section despite having the slower charging time it's the bmw takes the victory with its longer range now we're going to start with the bmw i3 now bear in mind there are two models of i3 available there's the i3 and this the i3s and it's not just visually that they look different there is a little bit of performance difference so an i3 has 170 horsepower the i3s that we are driving has 184 so it is a little bit quicker um but as i say we're talking about you know certainly second-hand i3's here so you know you you've also got the choice of either so we're not going to labor too much on this section because obviously we've driven and road tested both of the cars before again i'll put the link up um to the original road test video so you can go and see them but let's quickly talk about the i3s it is brilliant to drive there's just no getting away from the fact that you look at this car and you think oh that's a talk and a small one box style of car that can't be much in terms of the way of dynamics trust me it really is it is a brilliant car to drive now the motor is mounted at the rear and it drives the rear wheels and as i say it's 184 horsepower in this car and if you were coming from something let's say hot hatch ish um and i'm not talking about you know golf r or bmw m135 i'm talking about like golf gti maybe mini cooper s the performance this car gives you is going to be on a par with that not to 60 is under seven seconds it is quick for this style of car but it's not just the knot to 60 times people get bogged down on acceleration of electric cars it's how the car actually drives and how it behaves that's important to understand with the bmw and it behaves like a bmw does it has a lovely um steering uh feel to it it's just an oily precision that bmws always seem to have you know even with the electric power steering they've got it absolutely bang on now grip is okay considering that the i3 started with quite sort of skinny tires and if you look at the i8 they're sort of like hybrid supercar they didn't actually look at the tires on that they're really they're really thin they're not the sort of tires you'd expect on a car with these levels of performance but grip is okay grip is absolutely fine i don't think you'd ever really find yourself in a position or a situation where you'd be you know clinging on for dear life and if you do then dare to suggest you've dipped into the pool of talent and found it very empty indeed but the way the car drives is just lovely you get this really nice driving position there's great visibility in the car the dashboard is really low and everything's within easy reach the only thing the only thing i would say i could fault this particular car for and i will say this particular car being the s the 20-inch wheels do give the car quite a fun ride quality now i've driven a standard i3 and it is better but it's not pillowy soft okay so you are gonna have that trade-off you do have a slightly firmer ride it's got 20 inch wheels it's got sportier suspension you can feel it that's the big difference refinement is good refinement is okay there's frameless um doors here so there is a little bit of wind rustle just round about there where you um where the totally front and rear doors meet so you do get that little bit of wind rustle but other than that it's pretty good it's pretty decent roundabout town the car is very maneuverable as i say these cars are kind of more designed for the urban environment and is a very maneuverable car visibility is good it's a lot better than it is in the mazda and we'll come on to that you know your over-the-shoulder visibility as i say that styling at the back you know you think yourself oh it looks a bit odd but you know those deep rear windows you really can't see what you're doing so it is excellent in terms of that and obviously you get different driving modes as you would expect in any electric car and it's activated via this switch down here now there are four there's eco normal sport and eco pro sorry eco pro plus my apologies eco pro eco pro plus normal and sport sorry comfort and sport i'll start that again there are four driving modes in the bmw i3s eco pro eco pro plus comfort and sport hey when you go into sport the throttle response sharpens up dramatically and it hurls you down the road it's proper proper hot hatch stuff i really love that comfort mode is fine comfort mode is pretty much what you would drive round and most of the time and be quite comfortable with that eco pro and eco pro plus obviously those are the ones that are trimming back on everything and you can set that up and you can configure the eco pro plus as to what it will shut down but things like your air conditioning and your radio and such like you know you can't use um in those modes because it's eeking out that very very large battery um i have to admit i've never really found myself using either of them um in an i3 that's a lie i did i tell a lie i did it once with a standard i3 when i was trying to find a charging station that worked um and it does it works okay it's absolutely fine when you go into those modes but comfort and sport i have to say you will notice a difference between the two and most sport modes you just think ah they're all right and they're a bit of fun and but you soon kind of lose your interest in them not in the i3 not in the i3 at all sport is a really really fun thing to be in when you're driving this car and it just gives that alacrity and where you can feel that extra power that you don't get in some of the other cars otherwise what else is there to say well it's not really an awful lot as i say it just has a feeling of quality when you drive the car as i say the rides are the only thing that would let it down the brakes have a nice feel there's a little bit of regeneration in them it's not really adjustable like it is in the mazda you know you can feel the regen sort of kicking in and it's nice you can get that sort of one pedal driving and you kind of lose something like town speeds um which is okay but again it's this sort of like the throttle pedal itself has got that it's got that floor hinged kind of you know organ stock pedal that you like when you're kind of driving something a little bit sporty and um yeah it's got a lovely response to it and it's really really nice this is a brilliant car i mean make no mistake if you're a driver and you want to go down like the electric car route then you and you've not driven an i3 you've got to go and drive one because it is brilliant to drive it's it's one of my absolute favorite cars and not just electric cars one of my absolute favorite cars it is so much fun to drive one of these i love it absolutely love it but that's not really what we're here to decide today remember we're here to decide whether or not you're better off spending your money buying a new mx30 mazda or a used i3s and what you like might be very different to what i like let's go and give the mazda try and see where we're making that so the mazda what's it like well it's down on power on the bmw it's a 143 horsepower so it is trading off quite a bit of performance not to 60 is closer to 10 seconds than it is to nine so it is you know very very slick much uh behind the i3 in terms of that benchmark sprint but that's not really what this car is about and i've got to say you you don't get that sort of instantaneous slug of torque that you get in the bmw but what the mazda is able to do is carry its speed really well so when you do get up to that speed if you're on a sort of series of bends or or you know it's like a slightly twistier road the level of competency competency in the chassis is exceptional you can really tell that this car has been engineered by people that know what they're talking about that know what they're doing but like the bmw then in that sense as well it's quite surprising how similar the two cars can be but everything has a feeling of just again that kind of slickness to it that solidity that's nice when you just know you've got a car that's just been built really well you've got that they've built in this sort of noise i don't think if the microphone's picking it up it's this weird kind of fake engine noise it's like a thrummy little three-cylinder engine it's quite odd but oddly pleasing if i'm being honest with you um what's it like otherwise well it is brilliant i have to say i really like this car it's drives better than you expected to you look at it and you think oh it's going to be one of these kind of crossovers and it's you know it's not going to be that much good when it comes to enthusiastic driving and you'd be very much mistaken in fact if you look at the spec sheet the fact that it has a torsion beam rear end makes you think oh it's really old-fashioned but they've made it work really really well the grip is good the brakes are really nice um you can adjust the regeneration um via two paddles mounted behind the steering wheel to be very aggressive or take it off completely so that it costs where it is better than the bmw is is in its refinement it's a lot quieter in here than it is in the bmw there's not the same amount of wind noise that you get around about the doors which is nice so oddly for the car with a smaller range it's probably the more comfortable on a longer drive i've got a good driving position i love as i said before this round three spoke steering wheel that just reminds me of the old kind of japanese sports cars in the 1970s you sit well in the seats they're a little bit i don't know they're not quite as nice as the bmws and they seem to pinch me on the sides there a little bit too much but the head restraints in a nice position which is good very clear instrumentation and again like the bmw the controls that you use um are they've just got a well-engineered and quality feel to them throttle pedals the same it's floor mounted throttle pedal you've got a nice amount of progression too it feels good under your foot as i say the brakes are nice the grip level is fine the ride quality is better than the i3 it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a comfort orientated car there's no sporting pretension pretentiousness here despite having the mx nomenclature applied to it which is normally what might the people on there so export your offerings but this card just feels nice it feels comfortable it feels well engineered as i say i really like it and as i urge you if you're in the market for a car of this sort of price wise and this would suit you you've got to drive it because it drives beautifully well don't dismiss it don't dismiss it because to do that you're doing it and yourself a real disservice i like this car it drives better as i say than you expect it to to drive it's great the only downside is that rear visibility um i've said it before i'll say again the thick pillars you know when you're over the shoulder look you know you just there's too much of a blind spot there that's the only downside that i can really sort of find in terms of the driving position and how easy the car is to drive it's just that blind spot as i say that over the shoulder look it's just too restrictive you get good big door mirrors though that's fair enough and you get blind spot monitoring which is handy but yeah that's where the styling kind of comes into the car and limits limits things for you other than that there's not a lot to complain about in here not a lot at all now in terms of pricing this is what this test is all about as i said right at the beginning you the mazda mx 30 range starts from 26 000 pounds this particular test car we've got is a gt sport tech which start which comes in at just under the thirty thousand pounds with the uk's plug-in car grant applied to that price which is correct at time of filming the bmw we have which i know is a brand new car but it's just for illustration purposes this one's optioned up this i3s has optioned up to 40 000 pounds but for the same price as the jt sport tech brand new you'd be into something like a car that had maybe i don't know a few thousand miles on it you'd get for the similar type of price if you're willing to go a little bit older you'd still get an i3s at round about the same sort of price as a mazda mx-30s leading a car at 26 000 pounds so in terms of value it's all going to be dependent on what you see or what your priority would be if it's a new car that you're after it's very hard not to give victory here to the mazda with a price from 26 000 pounds but as i say the compelling argument here is you'd be getting the bmw badge and an i3s for a similar type of money so one could argue this section's a draw and of course in terms of competition what does this mean well it opens up the playing field wide wide open because there are a lot of electric cars um you could buy that are on the second hand market for 26 000 pounds the price of a new mx-30 but bear in mind if you still want that new car as i say mazda see the competition for the mx-30 as being the mini electric which interestingly shares a lot of componentry with the i3 good value for money that car you also get the honda e starting around about the twenty six thousand pound bracket and you begin at a mid level so like feet five hundred electric for that sort of level two bear in mind they are smaller cars so that's your sort of trade-off in terms of other new cars at that price level there's the mg5 estate if you need practicality and of course if you're looking on the second-hand market you'd be into a well-specified vauxhall course electric peugeot e208 uh renault zoe can't forget the renault zoe so there is quite a lot out there depending obviously on what your needs are both new and pre-owned so here's what we like and what we don't like about the mazda mx30 we like its styling its interior the innovative use of materials in its cabin it's chassis and its value for money we don't like its limited range the rear seat space feels claustrophobic and its performance trails its main rivals and here's what we like and don't like about the bmw i3s we like its styling its dynamics the interior the use of sustainable materials and innovative construction and its reputation in the marketplace and residual values we don't like the ride can be a bit firm on the s model boot space is very small there's a limited charging rate and the options available can be a bit bewildering on the second hand market you know the more time you spend with these cars the more you realize how similar they are neither of them fall into a particular market sector neither of them can be really pigeon-holed like some other cars out there they both follow their own path if you will and that's a good thing neither might be a particular cup of try but let's be honest there will be a very boring place if we all like the same things in terms of what we set out to prove today however is is it better buying a new mazda mx30 or would you have a secondhand i3s from bmw well for me it's the bmw i've always loved the i3 i think it's a very innovative car it's fun to drive i think it's gonna be an absolute design classic if if i'm not much mistaken i think it's use of innovative construction and sustainable materials make it an absolute winner in terms of its well something fitment into the market what electric cars are designed to do so for me that is what would take my money but if you were to buy an mx30 you wouldn't get any complaints from me because this is an absolute corker of a car if you prefer that new car feel and that's your budget you will not feel shortchanged by having the mazda it is brilliant to drive it really flies under the radar which is a little bit of a shame because it really deserves your attention it's great to drive it's slightly bigger in some respects so you've got a bit more practicality in the car okay the mileage in terms of its range is quite poor but if you need if you don't need much more than that then as mazda say why carry around that heavy battery it's interesting isn't it you know that mazda really have sort of followed bmw's blueprint with the mx-430 that they did with the i3 much like bmw did with the z3 on the original mx-5 you see see how we brought that background thank you for watching as always please remember to like and subscribe to the channel pressing the little bell button down below to receive notification of when our next video goes live and if you haven't been there please please i beg you now the video is over go to auto ev dot co dot uk where you can feast on our back catalogue of road test review videos and written reviews thanks again for watching i'll see you soon so you've watched our video it's now my job to tell you to like and subscribe and press the little bell button to receive notification of when our next video is uploaded [Music] [Music] you

Channel: AutoEV

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Keywords: Electric Vehicles, Electric Cars, EVs, News, Reviews, Magazine, Motoring, Motoring reviews, AutoEV, bmw, bmw i, bmw i3, bmw i3 carwow, bmw i3 review, bmw i3 used, bmw i3 used review, bmw reviews, car review, car reviews, carwow, drivingelectric, electric, electric car, electric car reviews, electric cars, electrifying, electrifying.com, ev, ginny buckley, new car, used electric cars uk, mazda mx-30 electric, new ev cars, used bmw i3, bmw i3s, bmw i3s review, bmw i3s 2021, i3, i3S

Id: 4fjFupkwxpg

Length: 47min 6sec (2826 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 09 2021