A Drive Around Los Angeles in the BMW i3

But whether you love or hate its looks, it’s difficult not to enjoy driving the i3. A tall, boxy, snub-nose body; tall, narrow tires; and a short wheelbase do not seem to be good ingredients for an ultimate driving machine, but all that custom electric-only-vehicle engineering seems to have paid off in the final product.

First off, it’s a good idea to point out how — other than it is all electric — the i3 is different from most cars on the road. Unlike the majority of the vehicles in the urban and suburban commuters’ fleet, the i3 features body-on-frame construction. An aluminum frame carries the electric motor, batteries and suspension components, and a bubblelike carbon-fiber body shell bolts on top. The result is a car that is light and small, but has a lot of interior room and a low center of gravity.

Oliver Walter, head of product management for the i3, said that BMW wanted to make a car that was short to make city driving easier, but also roomy inside for greater comfort and utility.

“It’s a city car, so it needs to be agile, easier to park,” he said in an interview. “The interior space is supposed to be a relaxing place where you can stretch out.”

So aside from building the car with a cavernous interior, BMW outfitted it with materials Mr. Walter said were meant to soothe: seats clad in fine leather, sustainably harvested bamboo across the dashboard and recycled bottles on the door panels. The owner of an i3 will have reminders that the car is — or is supposed to be, at any rate — less taxing to the environment than the 20-mile-per-gallon S.U.V. he or she has been driving for the last 10 years.

But that soothing feeling can disappear simply by mashing the accelerator pedal to the floor. On a test drive from downtown Los Angeles to the Griffith Observatory in the low mountains to the north, the i3 proved an agile performer, with quick acceleration and lightning-fast steering. At 80 miles per hour on the freeway — a speed the i3 reached and maintained smoothly and without struggle — the car held its tack firmly, slicing easily into the next lane with a slight flick of the steering wheel.

Mr. Walter said the steering was meant to be quick so that motorists driving in a city’s tight quarters could get into and out of tight spots easily. Accordingly, the i3’s turning circle feels tiny. It is one of those cars that can make U-turns on the most impossibly narrow roads. On the narrow, twisty road up to the observatory, the steering system came in handy for flinging the car around turns, while its low center of gravity kept all four wheels planted on the road. The car was able to do that despite its tall, relatively skinny tires, made that way to reduce rolling resistance.

One of the more interesting features on the i3 is its single-pedal driving, which will throw off many drivers (this one included) at first. As with many electric and hybrid cars, the i3 uses electricity generation to slow the car during deceleration. The resistance from power generation slows the car when the driver lets off the accelerator pedal, so there is no coasting. It’s not uncommon for a beginner to stop 30 feet short of a traffic light, but once you get used to the way it works, using one pedal to slow the car comes in handy, particularly on roads with tight curves. There are still a brake pedal and conventional brakes, but you do not have to use them nearly as often as in a typical car.

According to BMW, the i3 will shoot from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 7 seconds (an impressive feat considering that the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454, one of the more formidable entries of the muscle-car era, posted a 0 to 60 time of 6.1 seconds). Mr. Walter said it would go from 0 to 35 in 3.5 to 4 seconds, or “the acceleration you need to go from one traffic light to the next one.”

BMW says that the i3’s electric motor produces 170 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque, and that the car’s battery will charge fully in about three hours. Its range is 80 to 100 miles, depending on driving style, and an optional gasoline-powered range extender — a 650-cubic-centimeter 2-cylinder BMW motorcycle engine that includes a two-gallon gasoline tank mounted in the front of the car — adds another 100 miles or so to that, Mr. Walter said. The small engine is tucked next to the electric motor at the rear of the car.

In short, the i3 seems like a perfectly capable car to use in most urban and suburban areas, particularly those that already have charging infrastructure. With the range extender, even trips into the hinterland will probably go down without incident, and the car’s huge display screens and easy-to-use navigation system will help make sure a driver does not get too lost while looking for a place to plug in when the battery is low. The only thing it seems to need to make it a more fun, practical city car is a front bench seat option, so a driver can slide, ‘50s movie-style, across the front seat and out the passenger-side door when parallel-parked on a busy street.

The i3 is expected to show up in North American dealerships sometime next year, for a starting price of $41,350. That price does not factor in the destination charge, and it also leaves out E.V. tax credits, which vary from state to state.

A Short Drive in the 2015 Audi A3 E-tron

What could possibly make that situation better? If the 2015 Audi A3 E-Tron, a plug-in hybrid that Audi showed off at the Los Angeles Auto Show, has anything to say about it, the answer is batteries. The A3 E-Tron’s electric motor handles the around-town stuff, while its turbocharged 1.4-liter gasoline engine takes care of heavy acceleration and longer distance travel.

I drove one during rush hour, so there wasn’t much opportunity to put the car through its paces. But that experience gave valuable insight into what it would be like to drive one in a crowded metropolitan area.

Sitting at red lights — of which there were many — the engine shut down and the car was quiet. Under normal acceleration, the electric motor, which is sandwiched between the engine and transmission, moved the car silently.

During those brief moments when I saw the road open up ahead and was able to put more pressure on the accelerator pedal, the electric motor twisted the wheels quickly through the low end, leaving the top end of the r.p.m. range to the high-revving turbo gasoline engine. When I floored it, the gas engine kicked in, too, and the A3 E-Tron took off pretty quickly for such a small car.

Audi says that’s because when you mash the go pedal, the car enters “boost” mode, giving the car the full power of both its 148-horsepower gasoline engine and its 55-horsepower electric motor; a combined total of 203 horsepower.

In a couple of instances, the car jerked a little when switching from electric motor to gasoline engine power or vice versa. But for the most part, the only indication that anything was happening was the light buzz the 1.4-liter engine emits at higher r.p.m.

Along with boost mode, the A3 E-Tron has other driving modes, including electric, glide — when the brakes are recovering energy for the battery pack – and hybrid hold, a selectable mode designed to preserve battery charge for later use. In all-electric mode, the E-Tron will reach a top speed of 81 miles per hour. Audi says the car’s 8.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack provides 31 miles of pure electric range and the gasoline engine more than 550 miles of additional range. The automaker claims a zero to 62-mile-per-hour time of 7.6 seconds, which is believable, and fuel economy numbers topping 150 miles per gallon. That figure bears further real world exploration.

Being that this small hybrid wagon was an Audi, it didn’t surprise me that it handled well as I wove in and out of traffic. Its looks didn’t surprise me either. Audi tends to build pretty cars, and the A3 E-Tron is no exception.

A Drive Around Los Angeles in the BMW i3

But whether you love or hate its looks, it’s difficult not to enjoy driving the i3. A tall, boxy, snub-nose body; tall, narrow tires; and a short wheelbase do not seem to be good ingredients for an ultimate driving machine, but all that custom electric-only-vehicle engineering seems to have paid off in the final product.

First off, it’s a good idea to point out how — other than it is all electric — the i3 is different from most cars on the road. Unlike the majority of the vehicles in the urban and suburban commuters’ fleet, the i3 features body-on-frame construction. An aluminum frame carries the electric motor, batteries and suspension components, and a bubblelike carbon-fiber body shell bolts on top. The result is a car that is light and small, but has a lot of interior room and a low center of gravity.

Oliver Walter, head of product management for the i3, said that BMW wanted to make a car that was short to make city driving easier, but also roomy inside for greater comfort and utility.

“It’s a city car, so it needs to be agile, easier to park,” he said in an interview. “The interior space is supposed to be a relaxing place where you can stretch out.”

So aside from building the car with a cavernous interior, BMW outfitted it with materials Mr. Walter said were meant to soothe: seats clad in fine leather, sustainably harvested bamboo across the dashboard and recycled bottles on the door panels. The owner of an i3 will have reminders that the car is — or is supposed to be, at any rate — less taxing to the environment than the 20-mile-per-gallon S.U.V. he or she has been driving for the last 10 years.

But that soothing feeling can disappear simply by mashing the accelerator pedal to the floor. On a test drive from downtown Los Angeles to the Griffith Observatory in the low mountains to the north, the i3 proved an agile performer, with quick acceleration and lightning-fast steering. At 80 miles per hour on the freeway — a speed the i3 reached and maintained smoothly and without struggle — the car held its tack firmly, slicing easily into the next lane with a slight flick of the steering wheel.

Mr. Walter said the steering was meant to be quick so that motorists driving in a city’s tight quarters could get into and out of tight spots easily. Accordingly, the i3’s turning circle feels tiny. It is one of those cars that can make U-turns on the most impossibly narrow roads. On the narrow, twisty road up to the observatory, the steering system came in handy for flinging the car around turns, while its low center of gravity kept all four wheels planted on the road. The car was able to do that despite its tall, relatively skinny tires, made that way to reduce rolling resistance.

One of the more interesting features on the i3 is its single-pedal driving, which will throw off many drivers (this one included) at first. As with many electric and hybrid cars, the i3 uses electricity generation to slow the car during deceleration. The resistance from power generation slows the car when the driver lets off the accelerator pedal, so there is no coasting. It’s not uncommon for a beginner to stop 30 feet short of a traffic light, but once you get used to the way it works, using one pedal to slow the car comes in handy, particularly on roads with tight curves. There are still a brake pedal and conventional brakes, but you do not have to use them nearly as often as in a typical car.

According to BMW, the i3 will shoot from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 7 seconds (an impressive feat considering that the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454, one of the more formidable entries of the muscle-car era, posted a 0 to 60 time of 6.1 seconds). Mr. Walter said it would go from 0 to 35 in 3.5 to 4 seconds, or “the acceleration you need to go from one traffic light to the next one.”

BMW says that the i3’s electric motor produces 170 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque, and that the car’s battery will charge fully in about three hours. Its range is 80 to 100 miles, depending on driving style, and an optional gasoline-powered range extender — a 650-cubic-centimeter 2-cylinder BMW motorcycle engine that includes a two-gallon gasoline tank mounted in the front of the car — adds another 100 miles or so to that, Mr. Walter said. The small engine is tucked next to the electric motor at the rear of the car.

In short, the i3 seems like a perfectly capable car to use in most urban and suburban areas, particularly those that already have charging infrastructure. With the range extender, even trips into the hinterland will probably go down without incident, and the car’s huge display screens and easy-to-use navigation system will help make sure a driver does not get too lost while looking for a place to plug in when the battery is low. The only thing it seems to need to make it a more fun, practical city car is a front bench seat option, so a driver can slide, ‘50s movie-style, across the front seat and out the passenger-side door when parallel-parked on a busy street.

The i3 is expected to show up in North American dealerships sometime next year, for a starting price of $41,350. That price does not factor in the destination charge, and it also leaves out E.V. tax credits, which vary from state to state.

Wheels: The Rich Drive Differently, a Study Suggests

Wheels: If You Drive on the Beach, Reduce the Air in Your Tires

It’s beach season, and in some locales that means beach driving. The video above is a good depiction of why it’s a good idea to air down your tires before driving on sand. Aired-down tires have a wider footprint and float better over soft sand than hard, fully inflated tires. A good place to start is 15 pounds per square inch.

Full disclosure: I used to work as a maintenance ranger (glorified janitor) at False Cape State Park – on Virginia’s Atlantic Coast near the North Carolina border – and later as a surveyor for a company that built storm protection berms along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. So I have a lot of experience driving 4-wheel-drive trucks in all sorts of sandy conditions

It goes without saying that a 4-wheel-drive vehicle with fairly high ground clearance is a good idea if you’re going to be driving on soft sand, but common sense goes a long way, too. Here are a few tips to observe to make sure your beach driving experience doesn’t end in disaster:

1. Try to keep your speed constant. You don’t need to drive fast if your tires are deflated properly, but stopping and starting suddenly can cause your vehicle to bog down in soft sand.

2. Know the conditions before you go, like tides, soft spots and how much room there is to turn around. Don’t leave your vehicle parked below the high tide line for longer than a few minutes. If the tide comes in suddenly and swamps your vehicle with saltwater, you will be most unhappy. In general, though, low tide is a good time to drive along a beach, as the hard-packed sand that’s usually submerged is often as hard as a paved road surface. This will mean that your vehicle doesn’t have to work as hard, saving gas and reducing the likelihood of overheating.

3. Watch out for pedestrians and wildlife. Driving too fast is against the law and can hurt someone. Driving slowly will help you avoid people who may be sitting on the beach, slightly out of view.

4. You are most likely to run into trouble on entrance and exit ramps, which are often inclined and filled with soft sand. Again, keep your speed constant and make sure the way is clear if you need to increase your speed to get over a dune. Increase and decrease speed gradually to keep from digging your wheels into soft sand.

5. Make sure your coolant is topped off and your vehicle’s cooling system is functional. Have you ever run through soft sand on foot? It’s hard work, so your vehicle will be running a little hotter when you’re driving through it.

6. Bring a shovel and some boards (or pieces of milk crates) for traction in case you get stuck. If you bog down and manage to avoid mashing on the accelerator to get your vehicle unstuck, there’s hope. You can dig out the wheels in the intended direction of travel and put boards under the tires to drive on and gain a little momentum on the way out of the hole. But the closer you come to burying your vehicle up to its frame rails, the more hope of escape diminishes.

7. Remember that in many places, if  your vehicle gets stuck, you’re on your own. Some coastlines are littered with the rusted remains of vehicles that didn’t make it out before the tide came in. That could be your car if you’re not careful, and many states will require you to pay for removal of a disabled vehicle. That can be expensive.

8. Once you leave the beach, reinflate your tires to the proper road pressure and wash sand and salt from the undercarriage. Improperly inflated tires can lead to unsafe handling on paved roads, and sand and salt will rot your vehicle to pieces before you can say Carolina pine forest.

Wheels: Generational Shift: Learning to Drive a Stick

Larry Edsall Tom Jones of Sun City West, Ariz., rides shotgun in his 1960 Ford Galaxie and helps Michelle Mousel learn how to manipulate the classic car’s “three-on-the-tree” gearshift.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Dorrie Sibley’s reason for bringing her son Breslin, 16, to learn how to drive a car equipped with a manual transmission, a so-called stick shift, had nothing to do with the reason the instructional event was being held. But it was a very good reason nonetheless.

“He might be out with a drunk friend one day,” Ms. Sibley said.

Larry Edsall The steering column shifter on Tom Jones’s 1960 Ford Galaxie.

Should that ever happen, Ms. Sibley wants her son to be ready to move into the role of designated driver.

Breslin Sibley and some 40 other young drivers were here last month to participate in the Hagerty Driving Experience, an event designed to introduce young drivers both to enjoyment of driving classic cars and to learning how to drive any car, new or old, with a manual rather than automatic transmission.

Hagerty, the classic car insurer, started this program nearly two years ago in conjunction with the Collector Car Appreciation Day, which has been established by a United States Senate resolution on a yearly basis since 2010.

Hagerty has similar events planned April 13 in Houston, June 7 in Denver, July 12 in Orange County, Calif., Aug. 2 in Toronto and Sept. 21 in Las Vegas.

For each event, Hagerty makes arrangements to use a closed piece of pavement — here, the driveways outside of the Scottsdale International Automobile Museum were used — and persuades several of its local customers to bring their classic cars and to teach young drivers how to start, drive and stop while coordinating not just gas and brake pedals but also a clutch. Ford helps sponsor the event and lends a few new cars. For this event, they were a pair of 2013 Mustang GTs and a Focus ST.

Each session begins with classroom instruction, including an explanation of how a manual transmission and its clutch operate, and then moves outside and under the hood of a new Ford for a quick lesson on vehicle maintenance, such as checking tire pressures and various fluid levels.

Then it’s into the cars, with the car owner or a Hagerty employee driving a lap or two while explaining the nuances of a particular car and its clutch before turning over the driver’s seat to the student.

Jim Bauder of Scottsdale, who brought his immaculate 1968 Triumph TR250, admitted to having a lot of hesitation about turning over his baby to young, inexperienced strangers. But, he said, “I taught my three children to drive a stick and had only one failure,” when his daughter burned out the clutch on her first try. But she tried again after the clutch was replaced, Mr. Bauder said, and mastered the skill to the point that she bought a Honda Civic with a manual transmission and drove it up and down the hilly streets of San Francisco.

“Somebody taught me to drive stick,” said Mark Esbenshade of Scottsdale, owner of a 1958 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce. Mr. Esbenshade felt he was simply passing the favor along to a new generation.

“It’s the payback,” said Warren Smith of Phoenix, whose 1969 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray was very popular with the young drivers. “Kids learn today to drive in front of the TV, through video games. That’s not right. When I was a kid, I dreamed of having a Corvette. It took a while, but it happened. If I can get one of them interested in classic cars, my job is done.”

Tom Jones of Sun City West brought his 1960 Ford Galaxie with its three-speed manual mounted not on the floor but on the steering column, the famed “three on the tree.”

“I belong to the Automobile Restoration Club of Sun City West,” he said, “and part of our mission statement is to mentor youth.”

Part of that mentoring, he said, is to teach driving and even vehicle restoration skills, “so the art is not lost.” He lamented how mechanics now plug in a computer and read codes instead of “listening to an engine and developing a solution.”

Several young drivers were surprised at how much they enjoyed driving Mr. Jones’s big green Ford. Seventeen-year-old Paul Heinrich of Phoenix had driven A.T.V.s with clutches, but never a car with a manual transmission. “It was amazing,” he said, “I like how you were more involved in the driving experience.”

Many of the young drivers don’t have a stick-shifted car at home, but came to learn so they’d be ready should such a skill ever be needed. An exception was Brittany Fielden, 15, of Tempe. Her family has a Toyota 4Runner with a manual. She said she’s driven it, but never on the street. That will likely change, thanks to her newfound skills.

On the other hand, she may have left the event with other driving goals in mind.

“The Corvette was exciting to drive,” she said, “and I’m looking forward to trying the Mustang.”