I Have Questions For the Single Person Who Bought a New BMW i3 Last Quarter

The i3 is a fascinating little hatchback. Following the often-forgotten, low-production 1 Series ActiveE, it was the BMW brand’s first real foray into the electric car space, with floor-mounted batteries, a carbon fiber monocoque, and rear-wheel drive. The i3 was sold as an EREV (extended-range electric vehicle), too, with some trims offered with a bike engine in the trunk area to recharge the battery.

Though its looks have never really grown on me, I appreciate the i3’s quirkiness. Those pencil-thin tires and rear-hinged back doors make the car incredibly charming, as do the very low prices for used models on Facebook Marketplace (you can easily buy a nice i3 for under 10 grand these days). Our very own David Tracy had one for a couple of years and called it one of the greatest cars he’s ever owned.

Because i3s are so cheap on the used market, I was fairly shocked to see BMW had actually sold one new example sometime in the third quarter of 2025. As a reminder, the i3 has been out of production since 2022 and hasn’t been sold new in the United States since 2021. That means the i3 in question has likely been sitting on a dealer lot for years.

At face value, a purchase like this makes no sense at all. Before the i3 left production, it had a starting MSRP of $45,445. But used models with the same battery size and under 20,000 miles on the clock could be had for half that price, or cheaper. So why buy new? Well, it’s entirely possible that whichever dealer had this i3 in stock heavily discounted the car to move it off the lot—it’s tough to know for sure without info from the dealer or the buyer (a BMW spokesperson couldn’t provide any additional info when I reached out via email).

The singular i3 wasn’t the only zombie car to find a new owner at BMW. Someone also bought a single 6 Series sometime in the last three months. That car has been out of sale in the U.S. even longer, having last been offered for the 2019 model year in an unsightly Gran Turismo hatchback form (BMW sold this car for a few more years overseas, but it was eventually discontinued globally in 2023).

Weirdly, this buy makes a bit more sense. The internet loves to hate on the 5 and 6 Series Gran Turismos, and they didn’t sell well. As a result, they’re incredibly rare cars (there are only 41 used examples for sale nationwide on Cars.com right now). So it’s possible someone just wanted to snag one of the last new models available, rather than going used. Of course, this is just speculation. It’s equally possible that whichever dealer had this 6 Series GT simply pawned it off to a growing family looking for a big hatchback to move their 2.5 kids around.

BMW couldn’t tell me whether this i3 and 6 Series were the last such new examples sitting on dealer lots, so we might very well see more zombie cars appear as time goes on.

If you were the buyer of either of these cars, please reach out to me. I have several questions. How do you find it? Was the dealer local to you? Did your salesperson give you a sweet discount for taking it off their hands? Or was it just like any other sale to them? Was the car actually new, or did it have some miles on the clock? The world needs to know. These are the most important questions of our time.

Top graphic image: BMW

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