Considering Cali vs Mas GT vs BMW i8

I saw an i8 yesterday in a dark graphite color. It was seriously stunning in that configuration. I have no experience driving them but I hear they are great fun.

 

Cali much smaller than maser esp back seat. Maser will sound better but cali t wins all other comparisons. Cali t is great gt sports car. Maser getting long in tooth and about to be replaced by alfiere. I8 best looking but from what ive read its definitely a first gen product. Not fast, nimble, or great gas mileage. Claim 75 mpg but reality is 30 which a vette can get. Very striking looks though. Difficult entry and exit esp for daily driver. Forget back seat

Youve got good problem to have. Hows the svr? I have std rrs and like its looks and as a people mover but cant imagine it as a 'sports car'

 

i8 is a great car but its hard to get in and out of- its almost as tricky as an F40- it has a high sill. The others- thats a toss up.

 

I've driven the I8. Not a bad car but not anywhere near in the same class as a Ferrari. If you like starting the car and hearing nothing, and accelerating and hearing nothing, and unfolding yourself like a pretzel to get out of a car then go for the I8. If you want elegance and performance, get the Cali T. If you need the rear seat space the get the Mas. Also a pretty big price difference between the cars. The 18 is about $150K I think; the Mas may be a bit more and a nicely configured Cali T at least $250K

 

I didn't find the Mas GT as sporty to drive as the early-MY Cali. My Cali30 is a lot more engaging than the Mas GT I test drove. The newer Fcar interior style of the Cali is also much more luxurious. The top-down aspect of the hardtop Cali makes it really hard to beat. Drop the top and fly down a country road as you move up and down the gears while you keep engine revs on the boil and the other 2 cars will have no answers.

I put 1000km in an i8. It's a very nice competent car with some useful hi-tech gadgetry and "Lambo doors" for owners who like the attention but it also has awful fake sound, can be jerky to drive in e-mode and the interior is not much better than plainer BMWs. The Cali is faster. The i8 is perhaps the best GT of the 3.

The Mas GT looks better than the Cali, also sounds good but not better than the Cali30, especially top-down. Interior is down market compared to the Cali's. The ragtop version of the Mas GT is good for 4 occupants but does not come across as sporty. The Cali has the tightest back seats of the 3 cars. Mas GT is the slowest of the 3.

Definitely drive all 3 aggressively like you would in your 16M to get a real comparison. Make sure you drop the top on the Cali and go for the Cali30 if it is within your budget.

 

Having had both , I would say the Cali T is a far superior car in every way. The fit and finish to the look and of course the Panasche. The Mas which i had was a GT Cab, i loved it, the sound , the way it could hold 4 adults comfortably, the look, however having the Cali T, I never looked back and regretted selling the car )

 

I still take crap for it, which I find hard to believe working in the entertainment industry. But what are you gonna do? I am so freaking happy I own that car and couldn't imagine having gone through life not having experienced it. So, enjoy, put the top down, drive it proudly and let the guys at work dream.

 

The 2013 and 2014 Cali's were updated with more power and less weight than the previous
2010-2012. About 30 HP increase and 60 pounds less. Well worth any extra cost.
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...love your wheels. Make even the black-on-black look good. LOL.

 

I'd say this is pretty much spot on. Looks being subjective I think it's a toss up between the Ferrari and Maserati. The Ferrari wins in the handling and power department but the Maser has a very useable rear seat. I've got a friend that owns an i8 and he's let me drive it...don't get me wrong, it's a neat car but the ingress/egress and "rear seat" makes this a car I'd never consider for your intended purposes.

 

I did a little photo shoot with the Cali T and an i8

Here is a sample pic ....maybe would help in your desition making process ....
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I looked at the i8 but what put me off was how you have to slide your backside over a 7" door sill, wife was not impressed and finally how high the doors go up in the i8, which is a problem in some garage areas?

 

I guess the Cali is a beautiful supplement for your weekend cars. See the article below.

My daily driver is a Masi Granturismo Sport. Just wonderful, 40 thousand kilometers in a year full of joy. This car has its own unique charm, a car with style. But one thing you have to know, this car is built since 2008, I guess its production is stopped now. The Cali (T) is a modern and latest model.

i8? An overpriced BMW.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll find the right one. Good luck!

Forbes Life

 

How anyone could opt for an i8 over a Cali T is beyond me. Unless of course they couldn't afford a Cali T. There is just no comparison whatsoever.

 

Not sure if you read the min-review I posted on a separate thread about this car but I spent about 3 weeks in one and got to know it fairly well.

If you plan to use it for errands in a DD role, you should use some sort of insulated cooler in the small trunk unless you intend to put heat-perishable shopping items in the passenger compartment. This is because the 3-cylinder engine compartment (in a sealed "sarcophagus") is just forward and adjacent to the small trunk. The trunk gets really hot if you do any amount of driving, especially spirited driving (which activates the petrol motor).

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I was also not 100% convinced of its looks because some of it really does seem like a plastic overlay on a low-slung lambo-doors morph of a 3-series coupe. The car uses a lot of plastic paneling. I did not like the look of the rear... not well-thought-out mishmash.

OTOH, there are good things about the car. Amongst them, I really liked the HUD display of the speedometer and the live updates of posted speed limits. It was quite accurate and made it easy to avoid speeding tickets. Here's a shot of it when I was stopped at a red light. The HUD display is actually bigger than it appears in this photo... one of the problems with phone camera photography distortion.

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The exterior cameras were also neat. I could activate the front or rear cameras at will, unlike most cars. It also appears to have side view cameras that will display the car in an aerial view. It comes in handy when you are parking or maneuvering in tight situations and will even work at night using image enhancement. I discovered the location of the side-looking camera lenses by chance when I was at a drive-thu window one day. They are mounted below the side mirrors. When I retracted the mirrors they got deactivated (notice the first 2 photos below). The elevation of side objects depicted in the display are exaggerated but you're only interested in how close they are to your car, so not a big deal.

The i8 is a nice car but IMO not at all in the same league as a Cali. It's not as much fun, as fast, as visceral or as well-appointed as current Fcars. But it can get you from A-B in quiet comfort riding on a capable chassis and grab people's attention when you arrive... it's a more interesting BMW coupe. I'm 5'7", medium build and didn't have any problems with the doors - enter with bum in first, then legs; exit with left hand down on the sill, then legs, bum out.
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