Tesla Model 3

[afty]

I purchased a Tesla Model 3 back in March of 2019. I've driven it about 6500 miles and have some thoughts to share. Happy to answer questions as well.

Mine is a long range AWD model, not a performance. It's roughly comparable to an S4 or M340i in performance. Those were the other cars I considered, plus the Stinger and G70. The Tesla was cheaper than the Germans and faster than the Koreans. And I get free charging at work, so I figured why not?

[afty]

Performance

I bought this car because of its performance.  Not because it's an EV, to save the environment, because of Autopilot, etc.

I'm sure you've heard about the instant torque of EVs, but it's a different thing to experience it.  My wife gets queasy when I hit the accelerator hard in the Tesla.  It's hilarious and never gets old. 

Car and Driver measures this via their 5-60 rolling start test.  They recently got a Model 3 identical to mine and measured the 5-60 at only 0.1 second slower than 0-60 (4.1 vs. 4.2).  For comparison a 2020 M340i does 0-60 in 3.8 but 5-60 in 4.7.  https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a30209598/2019-tesla-model-3-reliability-maintenance/

In practice this means I can roll into the throttle from a stop light and still beat pretty much any other car off the line.  And silently, without drawing attention. 

Handling is surprisingly good for such a heavy car (4100 lbs.).  It feels less spirited than my G35 did, a little less eager to turn in, but equally capable.  Mine has all season tires.  I will probably replace them with Pilot Sport 4S summer tires when they wear out.

[afty]

Charging

Charging is a big consideration if you are thinking about buying an EV.  IMO you need a regular, reliable place to charge or it's going to be a PITA.  I have free, plentiful charging at work, but occasionally I need to charge at home.  For example, maybe I drive a bunch on the weekend and won't make it to Monday without a charge.  Or if I'm on a staycation.  What if I want to switch jobs?  I don't want to be blocked on that because I won't be able to charge my car.

I life in a single family home with a garage.  Many people in this situation can use a dryer port as a charger, but my dryer is gas.  I got a quote to install a 240V/50A outlet in my garage, but it was crazy expensive at $1500.  The cost depends on the location of your main breaker box; mine is pretty far away, and they would have to run thick gauge copper wire through our attic into the garage.  So thus far I'm getting by with a 120V/20A port that was already there.  It adds about 2%/hour, which is not great, but has been manageable thus far.  If I do leave my job I will probably bite the bullet and put in a 240V outlet.

Living in the Bay Area, there are chargers all over the place.  So why can't you get by just charging in public?  A number of reasons:
1) High demand.  There are 10 Tesla Superchargers at the local Target.  Every time I'm there there is a line of 3+ Teslas waiting to charge.  I have no interest in sitting in that line to charge. 
2) Often broken.  I see this more with non-Tesla chargers, but they are often broken.  The companies that put them in don't seem to care to repair them.  Not sure why but I've seen this many times. 

[Morris Minor]

Thanks for the write-ups. My son & his wife live & work in San Jose and, when we visit, I'm bowled-over by the number of Teslas on the road. The locality & the state are very friendly to EVs.

Also I take your point about your not owning one primarily because of worthy high-minded environmental motivations. I think that's my primary interest too. I'd like one for the fun factor, the relaxed driving experience, and the cool technology. I love that stuff. Plus the thought of having so few moving parts.

I live in the mountains in N. Georgia & there is almost zero charging infrastructure near me. I could make it to the Atlanta airport and back from a home charge, but leaving the car there for an extended period would be an issue. I don't want to be jet-lagged off a long flight and find there's not enough juice to get me home.

So the current (inadvertent pun) lack of charging infrastructure is a problem. I still want one though. 

[afty]

Thanks for the write-ups. My son & his wife live & work in San Jose and, when we visit, I'm bowled-over by the number of Teslas on the road. The locality & the state are very friendly to EVs.

Also I take your point about your not owning one primarily because of worthy high-minded environmental motivations. I think that's my primary interest too. I'd like one for the fun factor, the relaxed driving experience, and the cool technology. I love that stuff. Plus the thought of having so few moving parts.

I live in the mountains in N. Georgia & there is almost zero charging infrastructure near me. I could make it to the Atlanta airport and back from a home charge, but leaving the car there for an extended period would be an issue. I don't want to be jet-lagged off a long flight and find there's not enough juice to get me home.

So the current (inadvertent pun) lack of charging infrastructure is a problem. I still want one though. 

I really like the car.  It's fun both in a traditional "fun to drive" way and in a technological way, like a new smartphone.  Tesla does a lot of things differently from other manufacturers, and while not everything they do differently is an improvement, a lot of it is.

You mention living in the mountains.  One thing you become aware of with an EV is that elevation changes really impact your range.  Going up you lose about 5-7 miles of range per 1000 feet of elevation, but you get most of it back when you come down.  We saw this on a road trip to Tahoe over the summer.  On the way there we had to stop to charge because you're climbing to 6k feet, but on the way home we made it easily without charging. 

[CaminoRacer]

Very similar purchase reason, experience, and thoughts as me & my Bolt.

You mention living in the mountains.  One thing you become aware of with an EV is that elevation changes really impact your range.  Going up you lose about 5-7 miles of range per 1000 feet of elevation, but you get most of it back when you come down.  We saw this on a road trip to Tahoe over the summer.  On the way there we had to stop to charge because you're climbing to 6k feet, but on the way home we made it easily without charging. 

The torque of an EV is awesome in the mountains. It'll just pull all the way up the hill & doesn't care about altitude. An EV has dominated Pikes Peak lately for a reason!

My last trip to a ski resort, I maxed out the mi/kwh equation on the way down since it was miles of regen.

[Morris Minor]

I'm still thinking of the phantom drain issue when the car is parked for long periods: two or three weeks say in a airport parking deck.
There are free plugin spaces, but I'm reading horror stories about people arriving to find them full, & the slots often occupied by ICE cars.

[afty]

Right, you forget that normal cars lose power at altitude. :)

Phantom drain is a real thing.  From what I read it's more of a problem in Teslas.  I also suspect a lot of Tesla drivers leave Sentry Mode (the cameras record motion while the car is parked) on, which drains the battery faster. Low temperatures also increase phantom drain. FWIW, I've left my car parked for a week in my garage and only lost 1-2% battery with Sentry Mode off.

[Laconian]

A parasitic draw of ~10-50W might be catastrophic for a traditional 12V lead-acid battery, but for ginormous 70+kWh Tesla batteries, that much energy is a drop in the bucket.

[NomisR]

I haven't ran into any issues with the phantom draw on my Bolt when I was on vacation for 3 weeks during the summer. 

But reading your write up makes me interested in a Model 3 again, I almost got one but went with the Bolt because I didn't really want to wait for it, and my carpool sticker would've expired by the end of the year.  Did you add autopilot?  How do you like it, that's one thing i would be most interested in..

[CaminoRacer]

I haven't ran into any issues with the phantom draw on my Bolt when I was on vacation for 3 weeks during the summer. 

Same.

The 12v batteries are the weak point in the Bolt, not the main battery pack. Not sure if other EVs have similar setups.

[mzziaz]

Great choice! I'd also get a 3 if I was in the market for a new sedan.

[CaminoRacer]

What size is your battery pack, Afty? (Do 3's come with different sizes like the S?...)

[veeman]

Thanks for the question and answer service!

I've heard it's not good for the battery if you charge it to 100% and instead it should be charged to 80% or something like that.  Do you purposely not charge it to max available range?

[afty]

Did you add autopilot?  How do you like it, that's one thing i would be most interested in..

I have base Autopilot, which comes with the car, but not the "Full Self Driving" upgrade.  Base Autopilot will stay in your lane and maintain distance from the car in front of you.  Autopilot is great and I'm glad I have it.  It makes highway driving much more pleasant.  You do still have to pay attention, but frankly you don't have to pay that close attention and you don't have to waste energy steering, keeping distance from the car in front of you, etc.  It sounds very minor, but it's actually really helpful. 

I find it most useful in stop-and-go highway driving.  In that case the car pretty much drives itself.  And stop-and-go is the most annoying of all driving.

What size is your battery pack, Afty? (Do 3's come with different sizes like the S?...)

I have the long range pack, which I think is around 75 kWh and is EPA rated for 310 miles of range.  Tesla doesn't specify the actual size, only the range.  There is also a "Standard Range Plus" model with 250 miles of range.

I've heard it's not good for the battery if you charge it to 100% and instead it should be charged to 80% or something like that.  Do you purposely not charge it to max available range?

Yes, that's right.  I charge to 70-80% and only go to 100% before a road trip. 

[CaminoRacer]

Looks like you can get a federal tax credit for installing a 240v charger

https://electrek.co/2019/12/18/us-extends-tax-credits-for-ev-chargers-motorcycles-fuel-cells-again-retroactively/

[afty]

This is pretty cool: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30393484/tesla-model-3-firmware-update-power-performance-test/

[afty]

There's been a lot of talk about Tesla's service woes.  I've had my car in twice and wanted to report my experiences.  TL;DR: They were excellent, no issues.  Tesla makes great use of technology to make the process smoother.

First time: My fault, I hit a curb while I wasn't paying attention.  Yes, I know.  I wanted to get the suspension and alignment checked out, and I figured I'd get my tires rotated at the same time.  You make an appointment through the Tesla app on your phone.  You give a short description of the issue(s) and then book an open appointment.  They confirm with you over email and text, no human interaction required.  Very nice. :)  Since your car is connected and they have all your info from the app, they can see info about your car before the appointment.  In this case, they noted that my car was not due yet for a tire rotation and that they would be canceling that part of the request.  A car dealer that doesn't want to take your money?!  That's a new one.

The actual service experience was easy and short.  Basically they put it up on a lift, confirmed no damage, and sent me on my way. $50.

Second time: There's an annoying rattle coming from the rear passenger side.  I made an appointment through the app and took it in on my appointment date.  The tech drove around with me until we reproduced the problem, and he quickly identified it as a broken clip inside the passenger rear door panel.  They estimated it would take a day to repair and gave me $200 of Uber credits to get around while they were working on it.  About 4 hours later I received a text that my car was ready.  Showed up, picked it up, and the rattle was gone.  No charge for the warranty repair.

[CaminoRacer]

Second time: There's an annoying rattle coming from the rear passenger side.  I made an appointment through the app and took it in on my appointment date.  The tech drove around with me until we reproduced the problem, and he quickly identified it as a broken clip inside the passenger rear door panel.  They estimated it would take a day to repair and gave me $200 of Uber credits to get around while they were working on it.  About 4 hours later I received a text that my car was ready.  Showed up, picked it up, and the rattle was gone.  No charge for the warranty repair.

Driving around with the tech to diagnose a rattle reminds me of the time my motorcycle broke down on the highway and a Utah highway patrolman gave me a ride to a nearby parking lot where the tow truck took the bike. He had a horrible rattle coming from his dash/gear setup. I diagnosed it as a loose nut on his laptop stand and tightened it up for him. I consider that my payment for the free ride.

[afty]

That's a fair trade! Rattles are super annoying.

[veeman]

There's been a lot of talk about Tesla's service woes.  I've had my car in twice and wanted to report my experiences.  TL;DR: They were excellent, no issues.  Tesla makes great use of technology to make the process smoother.

First time: My fault, I hit a curb while I wasn't paying attention.  Yes, I know.  I wanted to get the suspension and alignment checked out, and I figured I'd get my tires rotated at the same time.  You make an appointment through the Tesla app on your phone.  You give a short description of the issue(s) and then book an open appointment.  They confirm with you over email and text, no human interaction required.  Very nice. :)  Since your car is connected and they have all your info from the app, they can see info about your car before the appointment.  In this case, they noted that my car was not due yet for a tire rotation and that they would be canceling that part of the request.  A car dealer that doesn't want to take your money?!  That's a new one.

The actual service experience was easy and short.  Basically they put it up on a lift, confirmed no damage, and sent me on my way. $50.

Second time: There's an annoying rattle coming from the rear passenger side.  I made an appointment through the app and took it in on my appointment date.  The tech drove around with me until we reproduced the problem, and he quickly identified it as a broken clip inside the passenger rear door panel.  They estimated it would take a day to repair and gave me $200 of Uber credits to get around while they were working on it.  About 4 hours later I received a text that my car was ready.  Showed up, picked it up, and the rattle was gone.  No charge for the warranty repair.

That is really good service.  And so easy and painless to schedule.  I've never in 20 something years of owning my own cars had any dealership or independent ever offer to have the tech drive around with me to help diagnose a problem.  I'm surprised they charged you $50 to put the car on the lift and tell you there was no damage.  It's not unreasonable.  $50 is about the cost of a tire rotation. 

[afty]

Freshly washed

[CALL_911]

I'd really like to try one out, they sound promising. They're good looking too

[Laconian]

I'd really like to try one out, they sound promising. They're good looking too

Ignorance is bliss. Everything feels slow after experiencing electric torques. I'm ruined.

[mzziaz]

I'm tempted to get one myself. Great colour!

[afty]

Thanks!  I like the color too.   

[GoCougs]

If I could get a legit 400 miles and if there were superchargers at some of my long range destinations (like my alma mater), I could see myself doing it.

Tesla's blue sure is purty.

[GoCougs]

Tesla Model S P150D!

[Laconian]

Install some gasoline fuel cells in the trunk/frunk and bring a backup generator.

[Char]

This car is the biggest piece of shit out there, right next to the model y.

How do you like the center screen? Have you planned to AutoCross it or track day it?