I’ve never been what you’d call a “car person.” My driving history has been more about practicality than passion: an old Volvo with floorboards so worn I could see the pavement beneath me, followed by a VW Golf, and then a sensible Mazda SUV that I drove for more than a decade. Cars, for me, have always been about function—reliable, sturdy, and unremarkable.
That’s why leasing the BMW i4 felt like a bold new chapter. For once, I wanted a car that wasn’t just useful but exciting. I was drawn to the i4 because it doesn’t scream “spaceship” the way some electric cars do. Its design is classic, understated, and refreshingly normal in a world where EVs often look like gadgets on wheels. In Northern California, Teslas dominate the roads, but the i4 stood out with its range of colors—“Brooklyn Gray” was my favorite, far more appealing than Tesla’s limited palette.
I’d read about potential software glitches plaguing early adopters, but optimism got the better of me. The first few months felt like a dream. The car looked sharp, drove like butter, and carried that unmistakable BMW polish. I finally had a vehicle that felt like a little luxury.
But nearly two years later, I’m counting the days until my lease ends. Beneath the sleek design is a car so riddled with software problems that I sometimes miss my clunky old Volvo.
When Technology Gets in the Way
The headaches started with something simple: getting into the car. The much-touted BMW Digital Key on my phone would often fail, leaving me stranded outside juggling bags of groceries. A minor inconvenience, sure, but one that becomes maddening when it happens repeatedly. BMW owners have even created their own online communities devoted to workarounds, which says a lot about how “normal” these failures are.
User profiles are another mess. Whenever I tried to set up a guest profile, the system would reshuffle the driver hierarchy, creating confusion the next time someone else got behind the wheel. What should be a straightforward process feels like wrestling with unnecessary complexity.
Then there’s CarPlay. At best, the integration is clunky; at worst, it’s outright broken. Updates to the iDrive infotainment system regularly cause crashes, forcing reboots mid-drive. The reverse camera has its own quirks—switching from reverse to drive sometimes hijacks the navigation system entirely, and the camera itself is practically useless at night. Add in an overheating screen, and it feels like a comedy of digital errors.
Even the exterior lights have a mind of their own. If I don’t manually lock the car every time, the lights stay on, slowly draining the battery. This isn’t me forgetting to push a button—it’s the way the system was designed, entering a bizarre “pseudo-sleep mode” that keeps lights and electronics humming long after the car should be at rest.
The Serious Side: Recalls and Risks
Annoyances are one thing, but safety is another. The 2022 i4 faced multiple recalls in its first year, including a particularly alarming one about fire risks. Others dealt with sudden power loss linked to battery control issues. It’s unsettling to drive a car that makes you wonder not just whether your music app will crash, but whether the engine might cut out at highway speeds.
BMW does release software updates every few months, but they often create more problems than they solve. Services like traffic updates and remote parking sometimes vanish after an update, and on more than one occasion I’ve had to trek to the dealership just to get the latest patch manually installed. For a “premium” car, this is a decidedly un-premium experience.
A Premium Price, a Flawed Experience
And that’s what stings the most. The i4 isn’t cheap—the base price is over $50,000, with higher trims pushing well beyond $70,000. For that kind of money, I expected refinement. Instead, I find myself envious of friends with Hyundais and Lexuses, whose infotainment systems run circles around mine with zero drama.
I don’t know if BMW rushed the i4 to market or simply underestimated the complexity of building a truly software-driven car, but the end result feels unfinished. My husband, who usually blames “user error” whenever I complain about tech, once had to sit in silence to “meditate” after his own encounter with one of the car’s glitches. That, more than anything, told me it wasn’t just me.
The End of the Road
I wanted so badly to love this car. And in some ways, I still do. It’s stunning to look at, a joy to drive, and proof that BMW knows how to build a chassis. But all of that is overshadowed by the daily frustrations of dealing with unreliable software. Owning a car shouldn’t feel like running beta tests for a tech company.
So yes, BMW, I’m done. The i4 may have the looks and the performance of a luxury car, but its digital shortcomings have drained away any joy. When my lease is up, I’ll be handing back the keys with relief, not regret.