Why the Model 3

And always nice to hear from a climate denier

 

Any golfers in the owners group?

I have a cart bag and I know the rear seats fold down so I know one would fit But often we have 3 or 4 of us going to the course. All equipped the same. How would this work (or would it)?

First ride in a model 3 today, what a rocket! Impressive even with the tight back seat. Just exploring the feasibility.

 

You may have better luck here: Golf Clubs | Tesla Motors Club

Sounds like the best you could hope for is three with half the back seat folded down and three passengers. It depends how much your cart adds to the size needed.

 

Almost had a chance to see how a 3 holds up in a crash today. An 18 footer slammed on his brakes, about 3 car lengths ahead of me and a 3 comes shooting past the front of it, making a left turn through a stop sign.

 

Hi all... I thought I might revitalize this thread....I am so tempted to pull the trigger on a Model 3 AWD LR, trading in my 2017 Prius Prime. What do you guys think?

I was thinking of it because my Prius brakes are wearing every 20k or so...the regen just stinks on the Prius, even versus the Pacifica Hybrid I'm done doing maintenance...

Someone can talk me out of it though!

 

You must be hitting your brakes pretty hard because ours were looking nearly-new - even at 100K miles. That said, most all electric cars have serious regen.
.

 

I find a lot more utility in the Prius - Prime or otherwise.

Also, I wouldn't trade in a 2-year old car; I'd wait until it's 5-7 years old. By that time, mark my words, by that time the choice of EV's is going to be 10 times wider. For example, the Model Y should be around, which promises to be a whole lot better car than the TM3.

I don't know what to say about the brakes going bad in 20K miles - shouldn't be happening.

 

Why would we? Go for it!

 

lol. That's what I say!

I totally appreciate the community here and I plan on staying, reading and what not...Hopefully participating.

Here's the thing. My work is 50 miles away, it's hilly and there's a steep grade in which I run in 'b' mode (and switched off to braking every now and again). The dealership say I really wear my brakes organically because I press them alot. What I figure is that there's a max regen factor before the brakes kick in. Because our Pacifica Hybrid is at 32k with fine brakes and the vehicle is like twice as heavy. However, I notice with 'L' mode and braking on the Pacifica is that -52kw can be regen to the batteries as it slows down, so it takes in more. I think I read somewhere the Prime tops at 15kw or something of brake regen...so that must be why.

Anyway, a couple of things led to my pain. Brakes plus rotors. Oil fill-up or full changes every 5k (I go by the dealership recommendations). Then Entune stopped working because it was no longer supported. Some apps even stopped working. And then I fell in love with Android Auto...it was the way to go. Regardless I was tired of the maintenance so during an routine maintenance I ask about the new Prime. It has CarPlay but no Android Auto? I started envisioning a large screen, fully based on the phone, touch screen, full screen waze, "Ok Google" wow...But they said Android Auto wasn't supported, we tried CarPlay and HALF the screen was rendered while the bottom half was large icons, slow response on the HVAC system.

Granted, the heat pump is amazing and now it's a 5 passenger vehicle, there was no additional range the lack of Android Auto (and the lack of utilizing the whole screen) was disappointing.

I drive my Prime gingerly but not too slow. I get ~5-6 miles per kwh. But after sitting in a Tesla, the constant updates, the efficiency of the Model 3 (which is less than what I get but then again I'm not 100% EV and I switch between gas) definitely perked me. And the fact I get free charging where I park. I was just done with maintenance, brake work and the lack of innovation. I mean come on, no Android Auto? That was a deal breaker. Android Auto for the full screen...Imagine that! Now if only Tesla would allow that with their overlay control icons...WOW...

The only thing I might be disappointed in (and maybe Bob can answer)...I've heard the range decreases is quite significant when the car sits parked without charging. That I don't ever remember having an issue with my Prime or Pacifica Hybrid...And they've sat for 3 weeks. What would I expect for the Model 3 sitting for 3 weeks?

And I looked at the Model Y (on the site) but I don't want bigger. I have the Prius mindset, I want efficiency...and wow does the 3 have that opportunity PLUS the opportunity to go very fast!

 

No reason to talk you out of it.
I got my Plug-in Prius in 2012 and really liked it. I got my Model 3 about 16 months ago. I really like the M3 and won't go back. My wife drives the PIP daily, so I drive it every so often. The M3 is a couple of notches better in almost every way.

Mike

 

Mike - what about in parked car battery degradation?

I didn't think the Pip lost much range at all.

 

The Model 3 has a lot of systems running at all times. As such there is some loss of range even if the car is not in active use.
Our Model 3 looses about 1% of range each day.

This will go up if you have Sentry Mode on (cameras record anytime there is motion detected).
It will go up a lot if you have Pet Mode on (sets and maintains a given temperature) or if you have Overheat Protection on (Will run the AC to keep interior temp below 105 degrees).

For me, it has never been a concern.
If the car is parked for days, the car will start to go into a deeper 'sleep' mode.

Oh, and if you use any third party monitoring softer (I don't) that software may 'wake up' the car every time it queries the car's data, leading to larger losses.

In general, I always leave my car plugged in. On my last airport stay, the car sat for 10 days and lost about 5% of it's range.

 

Thanks for info! At most I'd be out 3 weeks without a charge and I'd hope I would have at least 50 percent of range. I would probably not be able to help myself and check the car from an app.

I'm glad this forums have a slew of knowledgeable people on all sorts of cars!

Where's my manors. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving if you celebrate it.

 

i must say, if your dealership is recommending oil every 5k, they might be cheating you on the brake work as well.

 

It's always been the case especially with my old pip. They say 5k is fill up brake check fluids etc. 10k tire rotation oil fill etc... With the prime it was like 25k front brakes and rotors. They showed me the damage... Tires are ok at 53k miles..

 

our Teslas had a feature that you could charge them really slow .... so slow that it would charge at less than 1kW if you wanted it to. Most people don't see any reason to charge that extremely slow but if we wanted to leave the cars with lots of features running, or capable of running - that means the car could literally remain charging for days & days while we were away. So .... if we were away for vacation - weeks & weeks - and even if we set the charger to stop at 90%, when we got back, we would still have well over a 75% charge. Plus, we could start or stop or restart charging remotely if we had a notion to. Bottom line, you would never come home discharged any more than a level that you might want it at .... AND best of all, you would come back without any concern of your traction battery being extremely cold soaked, or left extreamly hot for weeks & weeks.

.