4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

BMW, masters of the overpriced option, has released potentially the most pointless special edition of all time. Can you guess what makes the i8 Protonic Red Edition special? That's right, red paint. Seriously...
4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

When Bentley unveiled the Bentayga late last year, we were left speechless, and not for the reason that you might expect. The 600bhp W12 was certainly impressive, and we loved the sophisticated, yet in your face styling of the 4x4 brute, but the thing that left us gob-smacked was in fact nothing more than an option. Well, a £150,000 option. Basically, for the price of a brand new Porsche 911 GT3 RS, you could have yourself a Breitling Tourbillon incorporated into the dashboard of your already overpriced SUV. Something which, let’s face it, does the same job as a cheap Casio.

4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

Clearly, not wanting to miss out on the action, BMW have set out to beat the chaps from Crewe at the game of most pointless option. How have they done this you might ask? Well, quite simply, BMW has unveiled a new limited run i8, called the Protonic Red Edition, which is basically, yep, you guessed it, an i8, painted in red. To be fair, the car also receives a few new additions like W-spoke alloy wheels, carbon trim and red stitching on the seats, but really, the whole point of this ‘exclusive’ package is that you can now buy your hybrid supercar in Protonic Red. A colour ‘created exclusively’ for the i8. Impressive stuff…

So how much will this, as BMW puts it, ‘individuality’ cost you? Well, once you factor in the new £2500 Government grant which will be applied to hybrid cars from 1 March, the Protonic i8 will cost £110,035. That’s a whopping £7995 premium over the standard £102,040 i8.

Unfortunately, if you’re desperate for a red i8, you’ll have to wait until September 2016, when the Protonic Red Edition officially goes on sale. But this got us thinking. Why not buy the standard car, and then spend the £7995 that you have left over on one of the following options:

BMW E46 £7995

4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

You could get yourself a proper M car. There are plenty of examples for sale which fall under £8000.

1986 Bentley Eight £7993

4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

Your new i8 is all well and good, but what if you need to go on a family road trip? Lope across continents in this luxurious Bentley. Just ignore the maintenance bills…

BMW S1000RR £7800

4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

You already have BMW’s halo car. Why not get the halo bike to match? BMW S1000RRs tend to hold their value, but a few have dropped below £8000.

Breitling For Bentley B06 S Automatic Chronograph £7830

4 Incredible Things You Could Buy For The Price Of The BMW i8’s New Red Paint Scheme

If you’ve just purchased a new BMW i8, you clearly enjoy the finer things in life. Why not treat yourself to a luxury timepiece? And whatever Bentley says, you don’t need to spend £150,000 to get your hands on a beautiful Breitling.

So CTzens, let us know, has BMW come up with the most pointless special edition ever? What would you purchase with the leftover cash? Let us know!

Comments

Willgud

It doesn’t even look that great in red. The blue is much better.

02/13/2016 - 15:07 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

4x Toyota celica t20

02/13/2016 - 15:08 |
1 | 0
Stamatis Kritis

Someone took the “red ones go faster” joke a bit too literally

02/13/2016 - 15:11 |
1 | 0
_tomdudley

Anyone see the irony in the e46 being red? 😂

02/13/2016 - 15:12 |
5 | 0
Anonymous

hey Adnan, or Alex, or Gabz, or Darren, or any CT staff in fact; could you guys make an article about watch & cars? like which watch match a certain car or something. many of my fellow petrolhead friends are also watch enthusiasts (me included). It’ll be interesting to see watch brand’s affiliation with car brands (like McLaren and Tag Heuer, or Rolex’s history with racing). I’m sure a lot of CTzens are also watch enthusiasts!

02/13/2016 - 15:23 |
12 | 1
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Bet you’ve never seen this… The second hand is the MARK V badge, that spins around. It supposedly sold with Diamond Jubilee Editions of the Lincoln Continental Mark V. I have asked many owners of the Diamond Jubilees, and they seem to have never heard of or seen this watch. It is also a watch that needs to be wound daily,as it is not battery powered.

02/13/2016 - 16:30 |
1 | 0
ramses rizal

Someone really need to go to bmw HQ and said “it’s just a red paints with bit stuff there and there”

02/13/2016 - 15:36 |
0 | 0
Mihai-Sebastian Călin

I’d just buy a cheaper E46 Compact with the M-Pack option, the front bumper, fenders, the hood and the headlights from a crashed E46 M3 and do a face-swap (or just the headlights, work with the hood/bumper I’d have and get a the S54 off of a crashed E46)

02/13/2016 - 15:43 |
0 | 0

A compact? Those are the most horrible things that BMW ever made…

02/13/2016 - 15:47 |
3 | 1
Tatsuya Mikkinoppe

I’d take the watch.

02/13/2016 - 15:44 |
1 | 0
Dat muscle guy (Sam Stone)(Camaro Squad)(Die augen leader)(E

I’ll buy a an S2K and a polo and work for CT

02/13/2016 - 15:48 |
0 | 0
enrique3402

They should make an expensive option where the back doesn’t look like it’s giving birth to a porsche 911.

02/13/2016 - 16:01 |
3 | 0

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