Featured Model 3 doesn't get CU recomendation

Ford C-Max Energi discontinued, C-Max Hybrid to continue assembly until mid-2018
My wife agrees w/ your list & its descending order - but it may not be what others want/need.
Ford .... can't figure what they're up to ... they're #17 (right behind gm) on the satisfaction survey list - post #40.
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I don't think I'm going out on a limb here to say most people want choices.

Honda's learning the hard way: " And here comes Honda with their touch-screen interface. Mind you, Honda is generally a champ at reinventing things. After all, that carmaker was born from tinkering, rethinking the status quo, and over-engineering stuff. But when they came up with the idea that it was best to re-engineer the ever-so important volume knob on their touch-screen interface, they transformed a system that was originally designed to avoid driver distraction into one of the most frustrating and counter-intuitive infotainment systems offered in today’s automotive industry."

2016 Honda Fit: Where's the Volume Knob Honda?

"If you want to turn the volume up, you swipe your finger up the strip. But one swipe doesn't take you from silence to full blast. To reach what I consider normal listening volume, I have swipe up about three times. Finer adjustments mean you have to carefully slide up or down by very small increments — a task that occupies more of my attention than I prefer while operating a horseless carriage. To lower the volume in a hurry, like if you think you hear distant sirens, it's swipe swipe swipe again.

So here's my fix. It's a knob on a suction cup....."

How I'd Fix the Volume Control - 2016 Honda Civic Long-Term Road Test

 

is the model 3 a sports car, or the next gen camry/accord?

 

The Volt has it, but I keep forgetting to use it.

 

Its segment is the same as the BMW 3 series is in. So compact luxury sports sedan.

Did Musk or Tesla say this?

On another note, your experience is argument for a transmission with more gears.

 

brake fade on an ev - especially those with huge amounts of regenerative capability is really a non-issue. We've driven our EV down some horrendous (long) grades & never even needed to cover the brake pedal, strictly using the one pedal driving method. It almost seems like those huge discs /caliper housings are just for adding a cool red paint color.
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Back to the original subject, Consumer Reports made this YouTube:

One measure of quality is how well the vendor addresses problems. There will be problems but if handled quickly and professionally, that is an important mark of quality.

Bob Wilson

 

this will be a big boost for cr's rep. and many will feel they forced tesla to do something the may not have wanted to do.

 

I don't think cr has a good reputation when it comes to cars or electronics. Tesla is a well managed fast reacting company. Look at how long toyota took to add a brake interlock. Hey a broken digital clock is never right (and never taken for wrong since you know its broken ), but those stopped analog clocks are right twice a day. Seems some software problem, that didn't exist during the car and driver review cropped up on the CR car. Not much more to say.

The cockpit of the model 3 is definitely different. I seem to hear the most complaints from people that would never buy the car. CR probably would have us all driving cars that looked like 1990s corolla's and civics if their reviews were what people wanted in a car. Tesla probably would have done well to plan for 150K cars in 2018 instead of shoot for 400K cars, then fail. Hopefully the initial software problems will be fixed before I get my car. I don't think tesla would have been right to give the car a cockpit like a camry. Still there might be a desire for a couple more buttons or knobs and maybe even a heads up display.

BMW, Lexus, Mercedes all have had more problems with their interface, but Tesla needs to learn from their mistakes.

 

there is more to say, and it has been said by tesla. the brakes were not effective enough, cr caught it, and tesla fixed it. did i miss something?

 

Yeah, the voice commands work well. But I'm comparing to my 2012 Prius and 2011 Sienna (which is worse than the Prius). But I think most voice commands are entertainment center related or navigation related. I dont recall any voice commands for anything car related? But as far as navigation, its been pretty good with the voice recognition. The collective hope is that eventually, you'll be able to tell the car to set your wiper speed, stuff like that.

The 129Wh/mi was displayed on the screen. There are 2 trip meters (Trip A and Trip B, which I renamed to 'Lifetime') and then it shows one trip meter for current trip and one for "since last charge". The 129Wh/mi was from my trip to work from home. From what I've gathered, this number shows all electricity use while in D, but not what is consumed in P? (so if you sit in the car with the AC running for 10m and then leave, that wont count against your drive.. but the AC use while driving will count).

 

Source: Tesla Model 3 Gets CR Recommendation After Braking Update - Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports now recommends the Tesla Model 3, after our testers found that a recent over-the-air (OTA) update improved the car’s braking distance by almost 20 feet.

The software update came a week after Consumer Reports published test results that showed stopping distances for the Model 3 that were significantly longer than any other contemporary car. That braking performance, along with issues with the Model 3’s controls and ride comfort, initially prevented the car from getting a CR recommendation.

Last week, after CR’s road test was published, Tesla CEO Elon Musk vowed that the automaker would get a fix out within days.

Until now, that type of remote improvement to a car’s basic functionality had been unheard of. “I’ve been at CR for 19 years and tested more than 1,000 cars,” says Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, “and I’ve never seen a car that could improve its track performance with an over-the-air update.”​

Excellent results.

Bob Wilson

 

My favorite part;

I'm sure the drama will continue nevertheless. It makes for good blog sales.
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We have some other information too. Perhaps the model 3 should have slightly less range and grippier tires.
Stopping Distance and Grip With 18- and 19-inch Tires - 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Road Test

This was on may 25, which may be before the software update. I'm curious how cr did so much worse than edmunds, motortrend, and car and driver. The continental tires seem to stop and hold better than the michelins that tesla chose.

I'm thinking I'll probably end up with the dual motor at the end of the year, and they will have that sucker handling and braking better, but the performance of even the pre-january rwd cars seems really good, but may need replacement tires to stop and corner faster.

 

There are people who like CR and people who don't. I have been a subscriber for many years and respect their opinion. I respect it but that doesn't mean I have to agree. I feel a lot of the safety features we have in our cars are because of companies like CR. I try to keep an open mind. At one time I wanted a Tesla and as time has went by I have changed my mind. I wish Tesla company well.

 

This is both good and bad news for Tesla.
Good in that they are able to solve a problem like this so quickly via OTA updates.

Bad in that how could something so safety critical, like braking, have been overlooked to this extent if it is so easy to adjust?

Is it that they did something as simple as adjusting the amount of regen vs friction braking?
You would think that they would have had a few dozen safety critical parameters that they spent months tuning properly after the prototypes were shown a year ago.

Mike