Featured Model 3 doesn't get CU recomendation

I suspect you meant 'practical' but only in highway mode, ~15-20% of the annual miles. The Tesla can meet our distance requirement but it adds 2-4 hours. The Prime is fasted at ~10 hours for a real world trip we take.

In City driving, 80-85%, the Model 3 fits between our BMW i3-REx and Prius Prime.

Bob Wilson

 

Bob, timewise, if the i3 only holds 2 gallons of gas, wouldn't that be roughly as many slowing/stop&gas/back up to speed time length activities as the model 3's less frequent recharging requirements?
- and yes, the southern area of a nation (& especially pro-oil oklahoma) are sorely lacking in superchargers. I suspect that area will not be filled in to the "every 70 miles" level of infrastructure - the way many parts of the West Coast are, for quite some time.
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I used 65 mph for the station-to-station speed and not the true 70 mph, the REx sustained cruise speed. I’ve coded the tank for 2.3 gal which could reduce fuel stops to 9 from 10. It is also coded to middle mode that softens acceleration and improves climate control.

Bob Wilson

 

I was a bit harsh in my earlier post. I've read that Musk is open to criticism and promises to improve shortcomings in Model 3 soon. I like the Model 3 and I hope Tesla becomes profitable ASAP. If I needed another car, I wouldn't be able to play in the Model 3 price range. Accord is the go to car for me.

I'm bit scared off by the potential cost of hybrid repair out of warranty. Honda service says hybrid batteries and eCVTs would be very costly to replace. Year to year I only drive 8 or 9k miles. Seems hybrid not really needed for low miles like that. But, equivalent hybrid Accord only $1450 more than non. Easy to save $300 a year on gas, could earn diff back within powertrain warranty.

 

I also wish Tesla the best. I am really glad that there is much needed disruptive competition to Detroit in this country. Having said that I stand by my criticism of Model 3's lack of tactile controls and most things hidden in menus on the touch screen. That is simply bad, bad, bad design for an automobile that is not meant to be self-driving.

 

I hear this a lot.. in fact, my boss loves to tell me the interior of the Model 3 sucks and its ugly . So I think I'm in a good position to address some of your points :

If your wipers are set to auto, it doesnt require a whole lot of constant attention or input from the driver. I will admit that the initial auto wiper implementation was a little lacking. But with the latest update (and first chance to test them since it rained today), I believe they have been improved. And for the times when you feel the auto wipers arent doing a sufficient job, there's always the button on the end of the left stalk that you can press to trigger a single wipe.

Horn is where you expect the horn to be.

Lights are also on auto. And a first for me.. if the wipers come on, so do the headlights, as required by law in CA at least.

Speedometer in the field of view? I thought the same when I got my Prius. But having driven a PiP for over 6 years, it wasn't much of a leap to see it on the top left corner of the screen. In fact, its kind of weird.. but I catch myself looking through the steering wheel sometimes looking for a speedometer.

Window controls are where you expect them to be, on the doors.

Mirror controls are accessed through the touch screen and adjusted with one of the steering wheel 'trackballs', I can see if you're the type to constantly adjust your side view mirrors, this would be a pain.. But during my delivery process, I set my side view mirrors, saved them to my profile, and have never adjusted them since (although, admittedly, I've only had my car for 4 weeks). Additionally, my wife adjusted the mirrors and seats for her driving position and saved it to her profile. So everything goes back to where I wanted it when I'm back in the car (although this is not automatic and I must select my profile, the popular belief is this will be enabled via OTA in the future).

Steering wheel is also adjusted and saved to your profile, same as the side view mirrors. But again, I've never changed it aside from the day I picked it up.

The glove box.. hahah.. yeah.. I thought that was weird too. But the idea is because its controlled by the computer, you can prevent access to it without physically locking it with a key. When its in valet mode, the frunk, glove box, and I believe truck, are all off-limits (although I suppose you could crawl into the trunk from the folded down rear seats)

One thing you didnt mention but I hear a lot of is the AC vents.. those are controlled on the screen too. But to be honest, I like it much better since I can either change it to a single flow of air or split it, and control a left and right flow of air all from one spot. But I'm also not really the type to adjust my vents too much. But one cool thing is you can have air blowing directly at your face through the steering wheel. I dont think that's possible on any other car.

I get that the interior of the car is polarizing. Some people honestly love it and some people totally hate it. I was a little surprised to see it when it was initially revealed. I would've bet money that they would've changed it by the time the car was actually released. But I've come to appreciate it.

I will tell you though.. coming from a Plug-in Prius (which is going to my daughter), I'm getting pretty good efficiency in the Model 3.

For the PiP folks, I used to drive to work on a full charge, 12.8 miles with a net decrease in elevation of about 600ft, and I'd make it to work with a few 1/10ths of a mile to spare. 6 years in, my PiP takes about 2.5-2.6kwh of juice on a full charge. So if we call it 2.4kwh over 13 miles, that's about 184Wh/mi.

In the Model 3, my best so far was 129Wh/mi and I'm pretty sure I'm driving a bit faster than I used to in the PiP.

Anyhow, not trying to convince anyone of anything. Just wanted to point out some things which you guys may not know about the car.

 

but you must be sick of the low quality workmanship and constant returns to the dealer for repairs.

 

Hahah.. yeah, I get that a lot from everyone (my dad, friends, people at work..). I cant blame them since all headlines about the Model 3 are all doom and gloom.

But before I picked up my car, I was very worried that I would have some/all of the issues I've read about on the forums and in the news. On some levels, I even expected to have issues and thought about how I'd deal with them if that were the case.

But luckily, my experience doesnt resemble any of those stories you hear about. I think my biggest issue so far has been with bluetooth phone calls. But I've gotten 3 firmware updates since I picked up my car and phone calls have been trouble free for the past 3 weeks. I was concerned with paint issues, but I didnt have any paint issues. I havent had any error messages or anything like that. Lots of people complain about the phone-as-a-key, but I've had no issues at all using my phone as a key (but I still keep the key card in my wallet).

I do believe many of the issues were with earlier production cars. Just based on my time spent on the forums, I'd say a lot of complaints started to slow down around March or so. I also believe my car was built around the time when Elon first started sleeping at the factory, so maybe that helped too .

I think one of the main reasons everyone is exposed to all the horror stories is because no one ever writes about their experience when they dont have any issues. To be honest, its just plain boring.. hahah.

 

RATS! And I was going to make an offer. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson

 

perhaps it is some media, blowing it out of proportion.

 

While Tesla may not be the best in the field in terms of issues per car, the Model 3 is also a first year car. Those will always have issues, and the amount can be high no matter who the manufacturer is. I remember an old(20yrs?) article in CR on this topic, and their example of how far a new design can fall from the previous generation or manufacturer was the gen2 Rav4.

 

What about voice controls? I would expect this to be easier than touch screen.

Amazing that you see 129wh/mi.
Is this shown on a display in the car? Or are you calculating including charging losses?

Mike

 

When did Tesla move to using dealers? This is the first I’ve heard of it.

 

it happened while you were away.

 

Frankly, the battery tech and charging tech just isn't 'there yet' to make me excited about all-electric vehicles. As an 'extra' car maybe...but nothing other than that. Especially for a long road trip 'enthusiast' like me.

 

You can fix mechanicals, but it takes time to change design. I'll pass on the 3 'cause I just can't get past the instrument panel look.

 

i would jump on one at 35k - 10k credits net 25k, despite any issues. but that is likely a ways off.

heck, i'm already driving an uglymobile for the tech, and it cost me 30k 6 years ago. model 3 can only be a step up.

 

i think he's referencing KW's. The display shows instantaneous kW's, which tapers down during the last 20%. Best we've seen is 105kW's peak. Sometimes the fluctuation can be a product of even the littlest things, such as supercharger nozzle maintenance or outside temperatures.
Figure the 3 gets about 4 miles per kwh & you can estimate its charge speed in mph. 100kW inflow would be recovering range @ 400mph - but for the taper effect. For example, by the time we fill to 90% we are averaging only a 200-mph overall recharge - because of the tapering charge.
Oh - and the display actually DOES show the average mph in its charging speed readout, so that 200mph final average for us, shows over 300 mph when the charge 1st starts .... which means towards the end of charge, we might only be charging at an actual speed in mph of about 100 mph - but the display only shows the overall. So - if we had stopped charging at the 80% mark, our average mph charge speed would have been much higher .... around 250mph average charge speed.
You can actually get down the road much faster by not charging as full, & making more frequent stops, presuming you were actually driving 1,000s of miles across the nation -
In fact, that's the technique that these guys used record-breaking the run from east to west coast in a measly 50 hours in a model 3.
Tesla Model 3 driven from LA to New York in 50 hours - The Verge
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Poor Consumer Reports .... they must get really frustrated when owner satisfaction surveys so completely fly in the face of their so-called 'findings'.

Consider for example - 2017/2018 Owner's satisfaction survey of the top 30 brands



So ... what does CR say to help readers understand the rationale & huge differences of opinions ... seems like there's a complete disconnect between the two entities - owners vs article writers/bloggers.

Makes one wonder ... if you cornered one of these article writers, & ask them "why the huge difference of opinion", would they just ignore you? Keep on walking?

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