$35,000 Tesla Model III Is Coming In 2017

[NutBucket]

Great, street racing Teslas.... just what we really were looking for.

 

[aigomorla]

Great, street racing Teslas.... just what we really were looking for.

its a very quiet race which ends pretty quickly.... considering it takes me less then 2 seconds to break the speed limit, and m3 probably 3.

And of course this is so cali, so theres always a Prius following us pretending its a sports car.

 

[bigi]

...
And they think they are faster then my p100d or that im running fake badges, for some reason, so i have to humble them each time one tries to creep ahead of me on a stop light.

How similar is this to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWeqH4tnxF4

 

[aigomorla]

How similar is this to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWeqH4tnxF4

its actually worse, because the ones that seem to creep up against me are the regular Long Range Edition.

 

[ponyo]

https://3.tesla.com/model3/design?#battery

Interesting. Tesla website is now showing Mid-range rear wheel drive for $45,000 before tax credit. The mid-range battery has 260 mile range. The Long range rear wheel drive option has disappeared! It still lists standard battery model as 4-6 months away. And $3k FSD option has disappeared and only enhanced autopilot for $5k is available as option. This is all very interesting.

 

[bigi]

Still waiting for 35K version. Might not happen, like Model S 40. In any case, this will be so different in 2-5 years.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm really not a huge fan of the battery change on the RWD Model 3. At least in my opinion, 260 miles range is right at the bottom of acceptable range to hopefully not induce range anxiety. However, a lot of that depends on where you are and where you're traveling. If you're unlucky enough for your destination to not have a lot of superchargers on the way, you may find it problematic. It's sort of like when my friend had a loaner X P100D with the huge wheels and about 260 miles of range. He had issues going on a trip due to there being a long stretch without a supercharger. (There is one planned for that stretch, but it doesn't exist yet.) His actual X has longer range, and he hasn't had an issue yet.

I'd normally recommend the RWD model to most people as it offered the same Tesla experience with the same range at a decent starting price; however, I wouldn't do that at this range.

EDIT:

On another note, I've found an interesting spot where my car consistently slows down excessively when using TACC. I tried it today when no one was behind me, and I went from 70 MPH all the way down to 45 MPH before I took over and forced the car to accelerate. It's pretty awkward that instead of keeping my foot on the brake while using cruise control, I have to keep it on the accelerator due to the car randomly slowing down.

This concrete overpass is where it slows down consistently. Oddly enough, there's an overpass right before it that is also constructed the same, and it has no effect.

 

[aigomorla]

On another note, I've found an interesting spot where my car consistently slows down excessively when using TACC.

This is actually a rant with a lot of people in regards to V9 update we got.

I am not liking V9 update that much.
Its limited out control display.
Sure it maybe good on a M3 but on a MS with a portrait screen, it feels like those 2 in 1 tablets with very limited tent mode features.

 

[Aikouka]

This is actually a rant with a lot of people in regards to V9 update we got.

I am not liking V9 update that much.
Its limited out control display.
Sure it maybe good on a M3 but on a MS with a portrait screen, it feels like those 2 in 1 tablets with very limited tent mode features.

I think I may have found out the issue or at least part of what's causing it... or at least a common denominator. It seems to be related to seams in the road. There's a seam in the area that I mentioned before, and I ran into another situation where it started slowing down, and it happened right as the car approached a seam. On a related note, TACC definitely also gets confused about the position of vehicles on turns or when changing lanes. There's a part on the interstate where I can make TACC slow down by simply someone being in bit ahead of me in the lane to the right. My guess is that TACC gets confused, because I'm exiting a turn and the other car has already exited, and their vehicle is technically in my line of sight.

Also, I'm pretty sure TACC has a serious issue with stopping behind cars while going down a hill. I first noticed it when coming up behind a car stopped at a traffic light, and yes, TACC started slowing down like usual, but the problem is that it wasn't slowing down fast enough. At one point, I was going about... 10-15 MPH and in my opinion, if I didn't take over and hit the brakes, TACC would've had me rear-end the car. Its usual gingerly pace of slowing down just wasn't nearly enough to stop the car. Now, I would've considered that a one-off mistake, but it happened again less than an hour later very close to the previous incident. I was yet again stopping behind a car at a stop light, and it seemed like TACC wasn't slowing down fast enough, and I ended up having to take over.

Unfortunately, the car keeps corrupting my thumb drive, so I didn't have my drive in to activate the dash cam recording. (There's a bug where it corrupts the drive and you have to put it in a computer to "fix" it, and I keep forgetting to put it back.) All in all, one huge thing for me while driving is safety. I'd say about 98% of the time, TACC and Autosteer work well and I have no problem with them, but honestly, I don't think it's scaremongering to say that other 2% of the time is enough to cause an accident. Given that... I still feel uneasy about using the feature as I feel like I am putting others on the road at unnecessary risk due to laziness on my part.

My friend hasn't complained to me about how V9 works in his X. Although, maybe he was just happy to finally get V9 after seeing all the posts on Reddit about the cool stuff it does.

 

[Kaido]

My state (CT) must be on the shipment list for October because I've seen half a dozen 3's in the last week out of nowhere.

I'm jelly

 

[Kaido]

I'd say about 98% of the time, TACC and Autosteer work well and I have no problem with them, but honestly, I don't think it's scaremongering to say that other 2% of the time is enough to cause an accident.

See, this is what bothers me the most about Autopilot...you get into the very human habit of relying on it, but then there's certain situations where you're like OH CRAP and if you're not paying attention, you could die. That guy in California who died in that terrible road barrier accident...that should have never happened. I wouldn't have any issues with driving a car in Autopilot myself, but I wouldn't consider it quite family-ready because of exactly that 2% you pointed out.

 

[Aikouka]

See, this is what bothers me the most about Autopilot...you get into the very human habit of relying on it, but then there's certain situations where you're like OH CRAP and if you're not paying attention, you could die. That guy in California who died in that terrible road barrier accident...that should have never happened. I wouldn't have any issues with driving a car in Autopilot myself, but I wouldn't consider it quite family-ready because of exactly that 2% you pointed out.

I agree. Driving is a pretty serious thing. We're in cars weighing about two tons or more traveling at high speeds; it's no joke.

I made a post on Reddit that pretty much covered the idea of a "Tesla Purchasing Postmortem". In other words, now that you've purchased, received, and used your car for a while, if you had the chance to go back and change things, is there anything that you regret getting... or regret not getting? In my case, I would drop EAP in a heartbeat. Consequently, I would also not get FSD since EAP is required. The biggest reason why I got FSD is due to the absolutely huge mark-up on the feature if you purchase it post-delivery where EAP goes from $5000 to $6000 (+20%) and FSD goes from $3000 to $5000 (+%66). As a bit of a rant, I don't think there should be an increase in cost for a feature that literally does nothing. I could see them institute the price increase about a month prior to introducing the first FSD feature, but that's about it. Anyway, going back to the "postmortem", I've wondered if my initial configuration that I talked about on here (Performance with no packages) would've made me happier... or maybe if RWD with no features would've been the best option.

 

[Kaido]

I agree. Driving is a pretty serious thing. We're in cars weighing about two tons or more traveling at high speeds; it's no joke.

I made a post on Reddit that pretty much covered the idea of a "Tesla Purchasing Postmortem". In other words, now that you've purchased, received, and used your car for a while, if you had the chance to go back and change things, is there anything that you regret getting... or regret not getting? In my case, I would drop EAP in a heartbeat. Consequently, I would also not get FSD since EAP is required. The biggest reason why I got FSD is due to the absolutely huge mark-up on the feature if you purchase it post-delivery where EAP goes from $5000 to $6000 (+20%) and FSD goes from $3000 to $5000 (+%66). As a bit of a rant, I don't think there should be an increase in cost for a feature that literally does nothing. I could see them institute the price increase about a month prior to introducing the first FSD feature, but that's about it. Anyway, going back to the "postmortem", I've wondered if my initial configuration that I talked about on here (Performance with no packages) would've made me happier... or maybe if RWD with no features would've been the best option.

tbh, what's a big reason why I replaced my Jeep with a Mustang...I love love love the idea of what Tesla's doing, but I want to get what I buy. Number one, I want them to figure out the self-driving thing, no crazy stuff like running into cop cars & fire trucks & highway barriers if you get lulled into a false sense of security, and number two, I'm really more interested in the Model Y, so hopefully in a couple years, once they get production going on that model, FSD will be figured out & be a solid feature.

Software aside, how are you liking it as a DD? i.e. how do you like it as a car?

 

[Aikouka]

Software aside, how are you liking it as a DD? i.e. how do you like it as a car?

If we ignore my messed up turn signal and the software, I've had a fairly good time overall. The car handles well, it's still peppy even in the LR RWD configuration (I have to specify that now ), and it works fairly well outside of the aforementioned things. I do wish there was something like an option to have LTE through Verizon instead of AT&T. AT&T isn't as good in my area... I've had issues with tower hand-off in the car, and I had the same problem with my phone before I switched to Verizon. Also, it's great when we have spats with Middle-Eastern countries and they threaten to drive up oil prices, and you can just say "Bring it!" Although, now whenever we're going to lunch, they always say I get to drive since I don't have to pay for gas.

As a related thing, I tried to setup a Shortcut on my iPhone to open the frunk, and awkwardly, my watch always hears anything but "frunk"... "Sorry, I didn't find an app named Frank on your phone." I think I just need to change it to "Open the front trunk" so it stops messing up. Although, probably the most awkward thing about using the car is that you're supposed to close the frunk with both hands... so if you just pulled out groceries, you have to either set them down and close the frunk, or take care of them and come back to close the frunk.

EDIT:

Actually, scratch that... I think the most awkward thing is when people see your hood up and say in a sort of gleeful way, "Oh, is your car broken already?", and then they see that you're just getting bags out of the frunk. Super. Awkward.

 

[ponyo]

https://3.tesla.com/model3/design#battery

Tesla just dropped the $5k extra charge Performance Upgrade option on the P3D+ and made it standard. I don't know for how long but for right now on Tesla website, the 20" performance wheels and brakes are now included with P3D+. With $7.5k federal tax credit and $5k off on Performance Upgrade option, that's $12.5k savings. This is really tempting now and might push me over the edge to order now even though I don't need the car. I'm seriously thinking about trading in or selling my '07 Corvette with 10k miles to get P3D+ with white interior now instead of waiting. I'm going to sleep on it tonight and think about it over the weekend. I'm leaning 60/40 towards ordering it.

 

[Kaido]

I'm seriously thinking about trading in or selling my '07 Corvette with 10k miles to get P3D+ with white interior now instead of waiting. I'm going to sleep on it tonight and think about it over the weekend. I'm leaning 60/40 towards ordering it.

White interior dropped from $1,500 to $1,000 FYI.

Also, the white interior not only looks great, but holds up well over time:

 

[Kaido]

https://3.tesla.com/model3/design#battery

Tesla just dropped the $5k extra charge Performance Upgrade option on the P3D+ and made it standard. I don't know for how long but for right now on Tesla website, the 20" performance wheels and brakes are now included with P3D+. With $7.5k federal tax credit and $5k off on Performance Upgrade option, that's $12.5k savings. This is really tempting now and might push me over the edge to order now even though I don't need the car.

The drop is tempting...$7.5k Federal, plus my state drops another $3k, plus the $5k off from Tesla, so that's $15.5k off the top-end model. Fully-loaded with every currently-available top-end option (red paint, AWD, performance, white seats, etc.) that works out to $57k...for an AWD car with a 310-mile electric range that goes zero to 60 in 3.3 seconds. That's...pretty bananas.

FS: One-month old Mustang I wish

 

[Kaido]

Interestingly enough, they pulled the Full Self-Driving option from the order page: (which is part of the reason for the lower overall price, fully-loaded)

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/1...lf-driving-option-heres-what-customers-think/

The "Hardware 3" upgrade chip is going to be available in an estimated 6 months from now, which has like 10x the image processing performance of the second-gen stuff in the cars now:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/16/17982690/tesla-hardware-3-ai-chip-2019-release-6-months

tbh, I don't really care about the Autopilot delays...I'd rather have them do it right, than rush it. Looks like it's still available upon request as an off-menu item, anyway:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elo...-confused-about-self-driving-hardware-2018-10

"People didn't understand the difference between enhanced Autopilot and full self-driving," Musk said. "But anyone who asks for it can certainly get it, and it really ends up being a discount on future capability."

 

[Kaido]

imo they offered the price-drop too early...they should have done that on like the day they announce the Model Y release date. A lot of people are pretty unhappy about it, seeing as how their brand-new cars that they waited years for just got $5,000 knocked off the car's value:

https://electrek.co/2018/10/26/tesla-model-3-performance-price-punish-reservation-holders/

However, it looks like Tesla will reimburse you $5,000, if you want to give up your Lifetime Supercharging option. Previously, lifetime was transferable with the car, but the last batch of cars, from referrals etc., had this in fine print: "Free unlimited Supercharging will only apply to the original vehicle owner and only for the duration of original vehicle ownership."

From what I've read on various forums, most people only use maybe in the hundreds of dollars per year, with a few outliers really taking full advantage where they're exceeding the thousand-dollar mark annually. So there is the possibility of payback over time, just depends on how much you personally use it. If they were offering it as an option still, it'd definitely be something I'd get as an option, just to have it...be able to plug in at any Supercharger & not think about it! But it sounds like that's never coming back - the referral system only gives you like a 6-month free pass these days.

 

[ponyo]

imo they offered the price-drop too early...they should have done that on like the day they announce the Model Y release date. A lot of people are pretty unhappy about it, seeing as how their brand-new cars that they waited years for just got $5,000 knocked off the car's value:

https://electrek.co/2018/10/26/tesla-model-3-performance-price-punish-reservation-holders/

However, it looks like Tesla will reimburse you $5,000, if you want to give up your Lifetime Supercharging option. Previously, lifetime was transferable with the car, but the last batch of cars, from referrals etc., had this in fine print: "Free unlimited Supercharging will only apply to the original vehicle owner and only for the duration of original vehicle ownership."

From what I've read on various forums, most people only use maybe in the hundreds of dollars per year, with a few outliers really taking full advantage where they're exceeding the thousand-dollar mark annually. So there is the possibility of payback over time, just depends on how much you personally use it. If they were offering it as an option still, it'd definitely be something I'd get as an option, just to have it...be able to plug in at any Supercharger & not think about it! But it sounds like that's never coming back - the referral system only gives you like a 6-month free pass these days.

As Tesla shareholder, I'm not happy how this all played out. I don't believe Fred and others who took delivery 2 months ago should be given back $5k. They were early adopters and they chose to buy the highest option and the most expensive Model 3 so they could be the first ones on their block with one. At the time, they were more than happy with the price and signed the dotted line to be the first ones to get it. And up to yesterday, he was happy with the deal. It's the same as when someone buys a top of the line video card. They're happy to buy it and be one of the first ones with one. When the price on that video card drops 40-50% after 6 months, you don't ask for the difference back. I remember when I bought my Sienna van, less than a month later Toyota offered $2,000 manufacturer rebate on the van that wasn't available when I bought it. I didn't go back to the dealer or Toyota asking for $2k refund on my purchase. I signed the contract and took delivery. I wasn't happy but I just caulked it up to bad timing and moved on.

I think the only people who should be given refund are the people who purchased but have yet to take delivery. Giving people like Fred who took delivery over 2 months ago refund sets very bad precedence. Tesla didn't do a good job of executing this price drop but they need to have the flexibility to drop or raise prices with demand. This debacle is going to hurt their ability to do that going forward and hurt their earnings and their mission since they might now have to reinstate the 3rd quarter earnings since the refund will likely be $25-40 million. And they'll have less flexibility to drop prices going forward since everyone will bitch and ask for refund on prior purchases. This will hurt their future sales and mission.

And after thinking about the price drop on the P3M+ this weekend, I've decided not to buy. I thought this price drop might be temporary but now it looks like permanent since people will bitch if Tesla change back the price. I'm going to stay disciplined and wait until I have the need and not just want.

 

[Red Storm]

Ordered a Model 3 on 11/30. Mid range RWD. Delivered to our house on 12/15. Absolutely love this thing! ICE cars have been ruined for me, never going back.

Interesting note about my commute home from work. It's 10 miles, but takes around 45 minutes due to traffic. This was not great for gas mileage when I had a Civic, but with the Model 3 I'm actually averaging 167 Wh/Mile, which is 133.5% efficiency. If I'm doing the math right that means driving that way I could go over 400 miles on a single charge.

 

[Kaido]

Ordered a Model 3 on 11/30. Mid range RWD. Delivered to our house on 12/15. Absolutely love this thing! ICE cars have been ruined for me, never going back.

Awesome! What color did you go with?

I just went to a test-drive event & took out an AWD Model 3...anyone who thinks electric isn't fun is missing out! It really does ruin ICE cars for you...I got back in my Mustang & it felt a little bit archaic tbh, lol

 

[Red Storm]

Awesome! What color did you go with?

I just went to a test-drive event & took out an AWD Model 3...anyone who thinks electric isn't fun is missing out! It really does ruin ICE cars for you...I got back in my Mustang & it felt a little bit archaic tbh, lol

The wife chose the color (I got it for her, but I'm "test driving" it right now to make sure all is good...), black on black. If the colors were priced the same I'd probably go red, but it was a $1500 increase for that so we went with black. The aero wheels look pretty nice with a black exterior.

Archaic is definitely the right word to describe how it feels to get back into an ICE after driving the Model 3.

 

[Kaido]

The wife chose the color (I got it for her, but I'm "test driving" it right now to make sure all is good...), black on black. If the colors were priced the same I'd probably go red, but it was a $1500 increase for that so we went with black. The aero wheels look pretty nice with a black exterior.

Archaic is definitely the right word to describe how it feels to get back into an ICE after driving the Model 3.

Nice!

It's funny because my Ecoboost Mustang is the best hillclimber I've ever driven, just a blast to down-shift & tear up the New England hills...then you get in the Model 3 & its like it doesn't even realize that it's on an incline, just instant torque all the way up, no questions asked lol.

Sigh.

 

[ultimatebob]

Nice!

It's funny because my Ecoboost Mustang is the best hillclimber I've ever driven, just a blast to down-shift & tear up the New England hills...then you get in the Model 3 & its like it doesn't even realize that it's on an incline, just instant torque all the way up, no questions asked lol.

Sigh.

See, there's your problem.... You got the wrong motor for your Mustang! The 5 liter V8 on the GT just laughs at hills. Maybe you'll get a little extra engine growl if you're climbing a steep one, but if you're losing any speed at all you're just doing it wrong