Tesla Model 3
 

My daughter got her Tesla Model 3 this weekend. It took forever, the delivery process was a complete freak show, and she actually had to refuse to take delivery of the first car because it had so many obvious quality defects. When she handed them the list, they suggested "assigning a different VIN." (Yes, she is an engineer, a perfectionist, and a princess, but she's MY engineer, perfectionist, and princess.) She is composing an appropriate email lashing for Tesla's delivery folks.

So an acceptable example finally got here, and I was hot to drive it. Of course she handed me the keys, uh, no the uh phone, er card—computers suck--whatever--the lights came on.

I have ridden in Teslae before but had not driven one previously. The car has dual motors and AWD, and it is a hoot. Tesla claims the thing goes from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, and will turn 11.8s in the quarter (yowza!!), and I have no doubt that's true. (For comparison, my 414 horsepower BMW M3 turns 12.5s, and the various lesser new Corvettes only turn 12s.) When you hit the throttle, there is no wheel spin--it just hunkers down and scats. But what is weirdest about it is the instant availability of full torque at any engine speed. No matter how fast you are going, pressing further on the throttle delivers an instant full-crack torque-whack in the back. There is no internal combustion engine delay while the revs build, no turbo lag, and of course no internal combustion engine or exhaust noise, so it sounds and feels like nothing I've driven before.

Equally weird is how quickly the car slows when the throttle is released, and the car is at its maximum regeneration setting. It’s like a speed dial, or a game controller. It would take me some time to get used to driving the thing, but it was extremely cool. The steering and brakes seemed great, as did the handling and the feel of solidity and quality--perhaps they keep a few perfect cars on hand for those "special" customers, ahem . . .

Overall a really impressive machine from the very short time I drove it. Our next step will be to take it to the drag strip for a runoff against my E92 M3. My M3 should be meat on the table to her M3, but . . . thats why we run the races!

I have mixed feelings about Elon Musk and Tesla as a company. He's a kook, and a jerk, and has played the government like a fiddle. But who would have thought ANY new car company--much less one requiring a whole new alternative technology that required basic infrastructure to support it--could have been created from scratch? I for one am glad there are still people who can dream big out there.

And, for all of the wonderfulness and speed of the electric cars, when all is said and done, I still prefer the primitive mode of propulsion pioneered by early cavemen, who ignited liquid dinosaurs with sparks caused by striking rocks together in a tiny confined space to make their cars go.

My cheap E-golf has that feature too (level selectable, I always go max). I love it. It's almost one pedal driving in the city. You only need the brakes when actually stopping hard. It's not that weird, it's exactly like being one gear too low on a manual and slowing on compression....

I'm a gearhead, and frankly even that modest VW has me convinced electric cars have a future. "A" future. Not THE future. yet... The instant torque is amazing too, even on my comparatively crappy car. King of 0-40 in the city....

Agree. Electric cars aren't going away.

There's a limited use case for now as long as they are still Tesla-expensive (even the 3 is $60K with required options) or range limited (Golf, nissan, Bolt). But if you happen to fall within those limitations: say <80 mi commute roundtrip or city traffic or both, a home charger, they are fan-tas-tic.

Instant torque, total quiet, the combination of which allows you to drive pretty fast under the radar, my daily 40-50 miles cost me $1.20 of recharge per night, I get tolls at 1/2 price, the car is always "full" of juice every morning, we can drive it anywhere full tilt from the moment it's ON without "warmup", 1/2 a mile drive ? no problem... little wear of parts (or brakes), super reliable, no attitude from annoying "slow down!" neighbors because the quiet ride makes it appear slow... Cheap to own (leasing $140/mo)...

Model 3 is out (and rather ugly I must say), Audi is releasing a nice crossover in 2 weeks (will be 70-100K sadly), give it a couple of years and it will be a viable alternative for a lot of people ! At least as a beater..

So how much did that thing set her back? Not cheap I'm sure.....even if the rest of us are paying a portion.

I don't know. I know she did not get an employee discount--she worked there for 3 years, so she got a preferred place in line, but no discount. I suspect she does rather well, with her M.S. in Engineering from Stanford, but I don't know how well. None of my business.

"A future, not THE future"--I like that. At least I'm fairly confident that fossil fuels will be in use well past the time when my driver's license will be wrested from my cold dead hands.

Electric cars are very cool to me, but they don't have that magic--that soul--that only an IC engine can deliver.

How many regen levels does it have? Our Volt has two, plus a regen paddle on the steering wheel. You can drive all over without using the brakes except below about 3 mph.

I paid 17k out the door for my used 2014 i3. No way I was paying 50k+ for a new one.

We have had it almost a year and I am considering getting one and rigging it up as a "work truck" my wife never buys gas anymore and if she needs a boost she can use the 110 mile gas powered generator range extender.

She commutes 100 miles a day and uses no gas.


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

Sounds like there are a lot of things to like about the car. I imagine the govt will eventually be looking for ways to tax the electricity since they can't nail you for gas tax.

I pity the poor person who doesn't know what to look for and ended up with the car your daughter turned down. If this is how the company handles new car build, how will I trust them when they say "the brakes are fine" or "we checked and there's nothing that would cause a fire"?

My boss just got hers a few weeks ago. Impressive little car IMHO. I wouldn’t mind one as a commuter. Especially in AZ where you get HOV access with it!

I don't know. She said there were several and offered to switch it to "chill" mode which makes it more normal, but I left it in whatever mode it was in, since I didn't want to try to use the touch screen (I hate computers in general and touch screens in particular).

I have a friend with a Volt, her commute is 19 miles. She's had it for I think 5 years (it's whatever the last Gen was), and I bet it's never used more than a couple gallons of gas its whole life. She just plugs it in when she gets home. A nice piece of engineering, and perfect for her.

I had a Ford Fusion Hybrid for my business, which involved a lot of stop and go on our terrible freeways. It was great for what it was, which was a soulless appliance that got almost 40 mpg.

So I have some experience with hybrid, but nothing prepared me for an 11.8 second car that looks like a plain old nice-ish car with kind of an ugly snout. When I was bracket racing 5.0 Mustangs back in the day, I was happy when I got into the low 13s. Cars in the 11.00-11.99 bracket were called "Pro" cars and required a roll bar and fire coat in addition to the helmet.

I've seen a few Model 3's around here. I can't get used to the central touch screen and no gauges in front of the driver (but admittedly I'm an analog gauge junkie and appreciate well-thought-out dashboards).

Ergonomically, did you find that to be a problem while driving?

Did you play with the front ac vents much? I thought that’s a pretty slick set up.

Not really, though I didn't drive it very far or for very long. We were at a family party, and we snuck outside for a test drive. I spent most of the time romping on the accelerator and laughing like a mad man.

Yes--it was really neat.

BTW--Car & Driver kind of trashed it in their recent road test. And after my daughter's poor customer experience, I expected maybe not to like it much. But it exceeded my expectations by a lot.

And--did I mention that it runs the quarter in the 11s?

After yesterday's latest rants I'd be ashamed to be seen in a Tesla- let alone pay over $50K for one.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-brands-british-diver-060310514.html

I'm not sure the company is going to remain viable with that fruitloop at the helm.

He just can't let it go. :rolleyes:

Agree he's pretty nutty.

My Mom used to refuse to ride in German or Japanese cars because of the behavior of those folks during WW2. Never quite got that.

The motorized vents seem interesting at first, but then move over to the gimmicky side for me, unless you can reach up and manually adjust them as well. There are times here in the midwest where you might adjust them a couple times on the way home and it would be much quicker to just reach up and move them.

I like the concept of the car, but with all the issues in QC with Tesla I am not sure I would buy one.