These days, it seems like all the desirable, interesting cars are staying expensive instead of getting cheap so they can ruin the finances of normal people willing to roll the dice on maintenance and repairs. Those may be bad decisions, but we at least want the opportunity to make them, dammit. The BMW i8, on the other hand, is getting temptingly cheap, with one blue example showing up in Virginia with 84,450 miles on the clock for just over $35,000.
That’s not exactly peanuts, but that’s also less than you’ll pay for a new Toyota Camry XSE. Sure, the Camry comes with a warranty, twice the cylinders and is reportedly much more fun to drive than its predecessor, but what would you rather spend your money on? A carbon-fiber, mid-engine coupe or a Toyota Camry? Yeah, I’d rather have the BMW, too. Warranties and back seats are overrated, and oh, there’s also the part where the i8 looks like a million bucks, and the Camry looks like a Camry.
While you can apparently get an i8 for about the price of a loaded Camry, you won’t necessarily get supercar performance out of the i8. After all, it’s a hybrid with a three-cylinder Mini engine. On the other hand, it’ll hit 60 mph in the mid-four-second range without launch control according to BMW, and Car and Driver got one there in 3.6 seconds with launch control, so anyone who says these cars are slow can go kick rocks. They might not be as quick as some other cars that have billionaire doors, but it certainly isn’t slow. And the hybrid powertrain makes it completely reasonable for you to use this as your daily driver.
Would it be awesome to own a V12 supercar with a gated manual transmission? Absolutely. As long as you have the gajillion dollars it’ll cost to buy one and keep it on the road. Most people just don’t have that kind of money. If you’re willing to go for something that’s more tech-forward, though, you could have yourself an incredible car that’s also still drop-dead gorgeous even a decade later. And that’s not a bad deal at all.
