$35,000 Tesla Model III Is Coming In 2017

[TXHokie]

That's a big reason I'm holding out for the 500-mile Cybertruck. I figure if I aim for a 400-mile realistic range, I'll be alright, haha.

Although...that electric Hummer might not be too bad...haha!

I rode in my friend's Tesla and wanted one. But I am also holding out for the Tesla truck. I live in FL and that would make the perfect evac vehicle to get me out of the cone without worrying about running out of gas.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

As for charging, Tesla’s fast charge network needs the same EU stomping that they are doing with charging cable standards. It’s a waste of space and infrastructure to have fast chargers that can only fast charge one brand. It’s not good for the environment and it pushes against the very important part of fueling proliferation. We have to be able to fast charge everywhere, not just at home and not just along major corridors and hubs. We need charging stations everywhere like you can go to a one stoplight town and still find a gas station. Luckily, the model 3 is now coming equipped with CCS, and so their charge stations should accept it too. But the universal standard where all vehicles can be fast charged should be universal. So here I applaud Ford for using a company following the standard to support all the EVs in the road and not just a subset.

Tesla will continue to be the defacto e-car, especially those that lean toward viewing cars as appliances and don’t enjoy driving. Porsche and Ford are not trying to be Tesla with these cars, they are trying to get the drivers that won’t drive an appliance.

Adding a bit to this, the story behind the Tesla Connector is one of many examples of Tesla shouldering nearly 100% of the risk. Remember that Tesla went to the other auto manufacturers offering this connector standard. The only caveat was that, as you would expect, the other manufacturers would be expected to invest in building out the supercharger network. Of course, just as history as shown, Short-term thinking prevailed, and no one joined. So Tesla did it anyways.

Since 2012 when Superchargers started popping up, the landscape has changed, mostly in Europe, where the CCS Type 2 connector has become fairly popular. Tesla moved their Superchargers and cars to accommodate this standard in 2019.

The US has not been nearly as coherent. With no other manufacturers really investing in EVs with fast charging capability aside from Nissan, Tesla's Supercharger network (invested in entirely by Tesla) is the only network that seems to have gotten any build out. There's tons of J1772 based chargers out there, which is fine, it's the DC Fast Charging that's in low availability. In my area, I can either go to a single CHAdeMO stall, 4 CCS stalls (50kW tops), and pay disgusting per-minute (vs. per kwH) prices, or 11 Supercharger stalls (150kW). It's really no contest. In the US, Tesla was the only one who showed up. It's worth remembering that the CCS implementation didn't even start showing up until 2013, a year after Tesla was already rolling out Superchargers. This is complicated by the fact that North American only uses CCS Type 1, and Europe only uses Type 2, which further complicates the standards.

In North America, the CCS Combo Type 1 will likely be the eventual winner. Tesla has offered the Supercharger Network to other manufacturers, with the stipulation being that they pay their fair share of the investment Tesla has made into the network. Not a surprise to anyone, no one has taken up Tesla on that.

Once car manufacturers in North America get on gear and begin to, in earnest begin building out 150kW+ DC Fast Chargers with CCS Combo Type 1 connectors, and cars to support them then I can see the .gov stepping in and establishing a charge standard. But until the other manufacturers put skin in the game, I don't know why Tesla would give up their own Supercharger standard for a sub-standard 50kW implementations. Eventually, like in Europe, I see Tesla leveraging their v3 Supercharger system to host both types of cables (or a unified cable as they've done now) to allow their cars access to either type.

 

[Aikouka]

I will say that based on an 8 hour work day with Sentry Mode, and a 70 mile round trip commute, I'm using about 140 miles of range once the temp gets below 10 degrees. This pretty visible on the Energy Consumption meter, as the car's heating system ends up using a little bit less than as much energy as the car consumes driving.

Yesterday hit 48 degrees and was the first time I saw the car in line with the Rated Range. The stated range obviously isn't smoke and mirrors. But highway driving (with both motors in the AWD Model 3 going) + cold winters means that for us northerners planning for the EV future, a 50% range reduction is currently worth at least entertaining for purposes of planning.

On the bright side, the instantaneous, satisfying heat a Model 3 generates in even sub-zero conditions is a dream compared to waiting forever for the ICE to warm up.

There's a bit of an amusing anecdote about how much the cold weather surprised me. I picked up my car in mid-September, so I only had a month or two before the weather started getting consistently cold in the South. It was maybe only in the 50's, but I was shocked at the much higher Wh/m rating that I was getting, and I didn't even suspect that it could've been 50-degree weather. "Could it be the headlights? We did just have DST! That's the only thing I can think of!" I knew that batteries don't perform as well when cold (or hot), but I didn't think 50F was "cold".

But anyway, I agree that it's important for anyone going into buying an EV -- of any kind, not just Tesla -- to realize that the cars will perform worse in cold or really hot weather. Albeit, even though I've seen 100F weather, I haven't had any instance in which the car reported that the batteries were too hot, but I've certainly hit the maximum reduction in regenerative braking at temperatures of about 45F. Also, as you mentioned, you will see additional energy usage from amenities like the heater or the AC. You know it's a bit awkward when people have to suggest to turn your seat heaters on instead of the actual heater, because the radiant heating from the seats is more efficient.

 

[Muadib]

I'm not sure what to make of this story: Has anyone here bought a used Tesla?

Tesla accused of abruptly pulling self-driving from a used Model S

Tesla's much-vaunted ability to add features to its cars over the air has turned into a real inconvenience for some drivers. An extensive Jalopnik report details an (anonymous) person who bought a second-hand Model S 75D with both Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving (FSD) as listed...

www.engadget.com

 

[Kaido]

I'm not sure what to make of this story: Has anyone here bought a used Tesla?

Tesla accused of abruptly pulling self-driving from a used Model S

Tesla's much-vaunted ability to add features to its cars over the air has turned into a real inconvenience for some drivers. An extensive Jalopnik report details an (anonymous) person who bought a second-hand Model S 75D with both Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving (FSD) as listed...

www.engadget.com

I call theft on Tesla's part, 100%. The car had a feature & it was taken away. It was listed on the Monroney sticker: (fun backstory on the sticker)

Check out the update from the dealer who sold it to the guy:

I sell dozens of Teslas a year, and sold my father in law a Model X P90D with ludicrous speed package. 60 days after the purchase of the car, Tesla removed his ludicrous speed package. Upon complaints to them they said he never paid for it. We have video evidence and multiple pictures of the vehicle with it. They even removed the line under the P90D. I am still shocked at these acts.

So Tesla basically has 3 options:

1. Sell upgrades to the buyer, belong to the car for the lifetime of the car (as it should be, per the Monroney sticker)
2. Sell upgrades to the buyer, which belongs to the buyer & follows them to their next car
3. Sell upgrades to the buyer, which only belongs to the car while the buyer owns the car

This DLC-revoke methodology needs to be fixed ASAP. Like the article said, imagine if you bought Honda Sense or Subaru EyeSight & they yanked it when you sold the car - not cool! And I strongly suspect, not legal at all...the car was sold with EA & FSD, per the sticker above. I'm not 100% sure how enforceable that is for a used vehicle sale, as I don't know if software features are covered or not. imo, if you pay for a feature on the car, it now belongs to the car for the lifetime, unless it's a service package, such as Satellite Radio or OnStar, which requires a subscription fee.

 

[repoman0]

What a great feature OTA updates are turning out to be. I’m really glad my 2001 and 2005 vehicles are connected to absolutely nothing.

 

[KentState]

That makes me question buying something like FSD. If it comes later during ownership, you get very little use and provides no resale advantage. Basically, a car with or without it is worth the same price used at this point.

 

[Zorba]

It seems like they could make the AC run in a heat pump mode to get heat, as opposed to using resistance heating. Heat pump are substantially more efficient than resistance heating. Especially if they could use the motors as a heat source.

 

[KentState]

It seems like they could make the AC run in a heat pump mode to get heat, as opposed to using resistance heating. Heat pump are substantially more efficient than resistance heating. Especially if they could use the motors as a heat source.

I wonder how efficient a heat pump would be in a car. I have one at home and it can operate only to a certain point and then the secondary heating kicks in which is resistance heating. I believe the cutoff I have set right now is 25F or so and a certain run time without temp gain.

 

[ponyo]

It seems like they could make the AC run in a heat pump mode to get heat, as opposed to using resistance heating. Heat pump are substantially more efficient than resistance heating. Especially if they could use the motors as a heat source.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/all-engineering-topics-out-of-main.181423/page-4

KarenRei thinks the Model Y is going to have heat pump as well as resistive heating. Go down to post #68 on page 4 and read her response. I don't have the technical knowledge on this subject so no comment from me. But Karen is crazy smart and her response sounds reasonable.

 

[Viper GTS]

Heat pumps would make a big difference. Hyundai for comparison:

Hyundai begins rollout of Ioniq Hybrid, PHEV and EV; most efficient non-plug vehicle, most efficient EV in US; powertrain discussion

Hyundai has begun the US sales rollout of its Ioniq line of electrified vehicles, which come in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric variants. (Earlier post.) At a media preview in Santa Barbara this week, Hyundai executives said the the hybrid will be moving into showrooms shortly, the...

www.greencarcongress.com

Viper GTS

 

[manly]

I call theft on Tesla's part, 100%. The car had a feature & it was taken away. It was listed on the Monroney sticker: (fun backstory on the sticker)

Strange article about the sticker; it's informative but seems to end abruptly making me wonder where the rest of it is!

 

[Zorba]

I wonder how efficient a heat pump would be in a car. I have one at home and it can operate only to a certain point and then the secondary heating kicks in which is resistance heating. I believe the cutoff I have set right now is 25F or so and a certain run time without temp gain.

Yeah, due to freezing of air moisture on the coils, heat pumps can't go to really low temperatures and they lose some efficiency the colder it gets. But there are a lot of situations they work really well for. So the 50 degree case a PP mentioned, it'd heat the car using similar or less energy than it'd take to cool the car in 90 degrees.

 

[ponyo]

I just watched this interview with Jim Keller. Wow, he blew me away with his clear thoughts and amazing perspectives. Jim Keller is the legendary chip designer who designed the hardware 3 computer for Elon Musk and Tesla. He led the chip design teams at AMD, Broadcom, Apple, and Tesla. After he finished the Tesla hardware 3 computer project, he left Tesla to go work at Intel. I guess he's looking for his next challenge.

After watching this video and also hearing Elon talk, I'm now 100% convinced Tesla will solve full self driving in the next couple of years and by the end of this decade it will be perfected. I love his line. "Progress disappoints in a short run and surprises in a long run."

 

[Kaido]

New Tesla S & X options:

Tesla releases 'Long Range Plus' Model S/X with 390/351 mile range, new wheels

Tesla has updated their Model S and X offerings with ever-higher range numbers. The cars now have a listed 390-...

electrek.co

390-mile range S
351-mile range X
Unlimited Free Supercharging on both
New rims on the S

https://twitter.com/x/status/1228541579679322112

 

[Aikouka]

Hm, I still think we need to see a heavy push in either capacity, efficiency, or charge rate. Personally, I'd rather see the first two given that most at-home solutions can't handle the latter. (Albeit, at-home charging doesn't really need to be fast... that's more for supercharging.) My work commute is only about 12 miles and tack on another 3 or so for a lunch trip. Although, while I start at about 248 in the morning, I'm usually down to about 200 by the end of the day due to inefficiency and non-driving power usage. That's a +60% usage over where it should be. This isn't a huge deal in the aforementioned use case as I have another "200 miles" in the "tank", but I will still attest that it is not great for long trips.

I call theft on Tesla's part, 100%. The car had a feature & it was taken away. It was listed on the Monroney sticker: (fun backstory on the sticker)

I had heard about this issue before, and the biggest thing is that no one ever posted the car's inventory sheet. Is that the actual inventory sheet for the car? I'm curious because Tesla ran into this problem before with having to abide by inventory sheets. Back in the day, when they offered free supercharging to people as a perk for buying the car, they used to list it on the sheet. Unfortunately, they didn't realize that it meant that used car buyers were able to receive that perk as well... even though it was intended as a perk for buying the new car from Tesla. Now, if you purchase a car with the free supercharging perk, it is no longer a line item on the inventory, but rather a personal owner's perk.

 

[Aikouka]

I think I may just have really bad luck when it comes to my car, as it seems that I can rarely go any bit of time without having some sort of problem. (Of course, this is ignoring my persistent camera issues as those are still a constantly reoccurring issue.) This morning, I was switching lanes on the interstate when they car decided that was dangerous, it warned me that it was performing "obstacle avoidance" as it forced me back into my original lane. Here's the thing... the lane that I was moving into was empty (hence why I was moving back to the right). I took a quick look at the screen and saw that there was a red flashing van being shown be side me, which indicated that the car thought there was a van beside me. After some choice words for my car, I moved into the intended lane without any problems.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all. About 2-3 minutes later, the song that I was listening to via USB ended, and it switched to the next song. I wanted to listen to the previous song again, so I hit back... but I didn't hear anything. I looked at the screen to see that the next song was stuck at 100% playback and any previous/forward actions resulted in a spinning wheel and no change. After fiddling with the USB drive and trying it in both USB ports (while stopped!), nothing fixed the issue. Of course, at that point, there's really just one potential fallback solution... reboot the car. That worked just fine.

I'll admit... I'm just getting tired of dealing with this car. I have to make more calls just to get someone to come out and look at the cameras AGAIN. I'm at that point in my life where there are certain things that I just want to work. For example, I don't want to have to worry about whether my phone or my car will work when I go to use it. (Of course, my phone matters more given its also my main key and my only wireless key.) I kind of miss my '07 Altima at this point. It pretty much gave me no trouble at all.

 

[Kaido]

I think I may just have really bad luck when it comes to my car, as it seems that I can rarely go any bit of time without having some sort of problem. (Of course, this is ignoring my persistent camera issues as those are still a constantly reoccurring issue.) This morning, I was switching lanes on the interstate when they car decided that was dangerous, it warned me that it was performing "obstacle avoidance" as it forced me back into my original lane. Here's the thing... the lane that I was moving into was empty (hence why I was moving back to the right). I took a quick look at the screen and saw that there was a red flashing van being shown be side me, which indicated that the car thought there was a van beside me. After some choice words for my car, I moved into the intended lane without any problems.

Unfortunately, that wasn't all. About 2-3 minutes later, the song that I was listening to via USB ended, and it switched to the next song. I wanted to listen to the previous song again, so I hit back... but I didn't hear anything. I looked at the screen to see that the next song was stuck at 100% playback and any previous/forward actions resulted in a spinning wheel and no change. After fiddling with the USB drive and trying it in both USB ports (while stopped!), nothing fixed the issue. Of course, at that point, there's really just one potential fallback solution... reboot the car. That worked just fine.

I'll admit... I'm just getting tired of dealing with this car. I have to make more calls just to get someone to come out and look at the cameras AGAIN. I'm at that point in my life where there are certain things that I just want to work. For example, I don't want to have to worry about whether my phone or my car will work when I go to use it. (Of course, my phone matters more given its also my main key and my only wireless key.) I kind of miss my '07 Altima at this point. It pretty much gave me no trouble at all.

Ugh! So sorry to hear that man. I went through the same thing with my Jeep...you just get fed up with it at some point. I can't imagine having to go through that with Tesla, where you can't even get a human on the line most of the time. I mean, I considered getting a later-model Renegade (nearly zero issues as compared to the first few years) & a stick-shift (no 9-speed wonky transmission), but between how Jeep treated me & the whole experience with having to deal with an unreliable car in general just gave me too many trust issues. Do you think you would consider another Tesla in the future after this?

 

[Aikouka]

Ugh! So sorry to hear that man. I went through the same thing with my Jeep...you just get fed up with it at some point. I can't imagine having to go through that with Tesla, where you can't even get a human on the line most of the time. I mean, I considered getting a later-model Renegade (nearly zero issues as compared to the first few years) & a stick-shift (no 9-speed wonky transmission), but between how Jeep treated me & the whole experience with having to deal with an unreliable car in general just gave me too many trust issues. Do you think you would consider another Tesla in the future after this?

Would I buy another Tesla? No, but I should clarify that I'd probably just avoid all EVs for about 5-10 years. As I've noted, I think EVs are fine for your average commute, but they just aren't great for longer travel... yet. Tesla's Supercharger network is good... when it's working. I think that in 5-10 years, we'll see more boosts in efficiency and capacity as well as a larger build-out of the charging infrastructure. Although, if everyone waits to buy one... there's no point in building out a network that will largely go unused.

I should also note that I was a bit hesitant on the Model 3's spartan design philosophy prior to buying it, and as is usual, I really should've listened to myself. I know that Musk's idea was that you didn't need all the controls because the car would drive itself, but we're still not there yet. In the mean time, the users have to deal with the annoyances caused by that such as the lackluster auto rain-sensing wipers and no physical controls to set the wipers manually. I guess it feels like Tesla is willing to make some bullish decisions, but is rarely willing to call themselves out on things that just don't work well. (That's especially since the Model Y is going to be very similar.)

Also, speaking of the rain, I still have no idea how the car will ever be able to drive itself in the rain. It has been raining a lot around here lately, and I get tons of "____ camera is obscured" messages during heavy rain. Even the front camera, which has the wipers to keep it clean, has problems during heavy rain. You can tell that it isn't working well, because the traffic picture displayed on the screen will start to fade out and disappear.

Overall, I think one problem is kind of a mental thing. The Model 3 was my most expensive car yet, and it's like ordering a $100 steak and not finding it much better than a $50 steak. It doesn't mean the $100 steak is bad, but it also doesn't feel worth it.

 

[Aikouka]

I've pretty much gotten to the point where I'm looking at various replacement options so I can trade in my Model 3. To be honest, there are good things about the car (who doesn't enjoy the acceleration and no fill-ups?), but I'm just so tired of the vehicle thinking it knows more than I do when driving when its picture is rudimentary at best. Tesla has a bad habit of tacking features onto the car using whatever tool they have available that fits. I'm sure they think it's revolutionary, but in reality, they're really just poor imitations. Things like the rain-sensing wipers just don't work at all during nighttime and fails to notice rain regardless of ambient light if the rain isn't in front of the forward-facing camera. The blind spot indicator was added to the cars as an item visible on the center screen -- one of the places you shouldn't be looking at when trying to change lanes -- where other manufacturers build it into the side mirror, which is where you should be looking. It reminds me of what my dad would always tell me... "You don't half-ass things." Tesla half-asses so many features on their car.

It's not even just that though... I've also run into another problem with the car recently. (Is my car just cursed or something?) The problem seems to be with side obstacle avoidance, which, to my knowledge, does not have an option to turn it off. The worst example of it failing was when I was going to change lanes, and when I was halfway into the other lane, the car jerked me back into the original lane. It popped up a warning telling me that an obstacle was detected and that corrective steering was applied. There was nothing in the other lane, and making an errant maneuver like that can cause a dangerous situation. I've had similar errors pop up rather recently -- like this past Thursday -- when the car displayed the same warning when on a narrow road that had no obstacles.

I'm just tired of dealing with it. It's about the car equivalent of that one guy that thinks they know everything and always chimes in regardless of whether they're right.

 

[Muadib]

I've pretty much gotten to the point where I'm looking at various replacement options so I can trade in my Model 3. To be honest, there are good things about the car (who doesn't enjoy the acceleration and no fill-ups?), but I'm just so tired of the vehicle thinking it knows more than I do when driving when its picture is rudimentary at best. Tesla has a bad habit of tacking features onto the car using whatever tool they have available that fits. I'm sure they think it's revolutionary, but in reality, they're really just poor imitations. Things like the rain-sensing wipers just don't work at all during nighttime and fails to notice rain regardless of ambient light if the rain isn't in front of the forward-facing camera. The blind spot indicator was added to the cars as an item visible on the center screen -- one of the places you shouldn't be looking at when trying to change lanes -- where other manufacturers build it into the side mirror, which is where you should be looking. It reminds me of what my dad would always tell me... "You don't half-ass things." Tesla half-asses so many features on their car.

It's not even just that though... I've also run into another problem with the car recently. (Is my car just cursed or something?) The problem seems to be with side obstacle avoidance, which, to my knowledge, does not have an option to turn it off. The worst example of it failing was when I was going to change lanes, and when I was halfway into the other lane, the car jerked me back into the original lane. It popped up a warning telling me that an obstacle was detected and that corrective steering was applied. There was nothing in the other lane, and making an errant maneuver like that can cause a dangerous situation. I've had similar errors pop up rather recently -- like this past Thursday -- when the car displayed the same warning when on a narrow road that had no obstacles.

I'm just tired of dealing with it. It's about the car equivalent of that one guy that thinks they know everything and always chimes in regardless of whether they're right.

Can these things like the rain sensing wipers & the blind spot warning be turned off? They both can be on my Explorer.

 

[cytg111]

I am going for a 3 in ... 3 years give or take.. But what Aikouka describes is exactly the kind of shit that gets under my nerves in 0.5 seconds flat... They have 3 years to improve, see by then.

 

[Kaido]

Would I buy another Tesla? No, but I should clarify that I'd probably just avoid all EVs for about 5-10 years. As I've noted, I think EVs are fine for your average commute, but they just aren't great for longer travel... yet. Tesla's Supercharger network is good... when it's working. I think that in 5-10 years, we'll see more boosts in efficiency and capacity as well as a larger build-out of the charging infrastructure. Although, if everyone waits to buy one... there's no point in building out a network that will largely go unused.

I should also note that I was a bit hesitant on the Model 3's spartan design philosophy prior to buying it, and as is usual, I really should've listened to myself. I know that Musk's idea was that you didn't need all the controls because the car would drive itself, but we're still not there yet. In the mean time, the users have to deal with the annoyances caused by that such as the lackluster auto rain-sensing wipers and no physical controls to set the wipers manually. I guess it feels like Tesla is willing to make some bullish decisions, but is rarely willing to call themselves out on things that just don't work well. (That's especially since the Model Y is going to be very similar.)

Also, speaking of the rain, I still have no idea how the car will ever be able to drive itself in the rain. It has been raining a lot around here lately, and I get tons of "____ camera is obscured" messages during heavy rain. Even the front camera, which has the wipers to keep it clean, has problems during heavy rain. You can tell that it isn't working well, because the traffic picture displayed on the screen will start to fade out and disappear.

Overall, I think one problem is kind of a mental thing. The Model 3 was my most expensive car yet, and it's like ordering a $100 steak and not finding it much better than a $50 steak. It doesn't mean the $100 steak is bad, but it also doesn't feel worth it.

I've pretty much gotten to the point where I'm looking at various replacement options so I can trade in my Model 3. To be honest, there are good things about the car (who doesn't enjoy the acceleration and no fill-ups?), but I'm just so tired of the vehicle thinking it knows more than I do when driving when its picture is rudimentary at best. Tesla has a bad habit of tacking features onto the car using whatever tool they have available that fits. I'm sure they think it's revolutionary, but in reality, they're really just poor imitations. Things like the rain-sensing wipers just don't work at all during nighttime and fails to notice rain regardless of ambient light if the rain isn't in front of the forward-facing camera. The blind spot indicator was added to the cars as an item visible on the center screen -- one of the places you shouldn't be looking at when trying to change lanes -- where other manufacturers build it into the side mirror, which is where you should be looking. It reminds me of what my dad would always tell me... "You don't half-ass things." Tesla half-asses so many features on their car.

It's not even just that though... I've also run into another problem with the car recently. (Is my car just cursed or something?) The problem seems to be with side obstacle avoidance, which, to my knowledge, does not have an option to turn it off. The worst example of it failing was when I was going to change lanes, and when I was halfway into the other lane, the car jerked me back into the original lane. It popped up a warning telling me that an obstacle was detected and that corrective steering was applied. There was nothing in the other lane, and making an errant maneuver like that can cause a dangerous situation. I've had similar errors pop up rather recently -- like this past Thursday -- when the car displayed the same warning when on a narrow road that had no obstacles.

I'm just tired of dealing with it. It's about the car equivalent of that one guy that thinks they know everything and always chimes in regardless of whether they're right.

That whole support thing is one of my biggest reservations right now. Super excited as a Tesla fanboy, but nervous as a practical consumer. I use my car six days a week for work. I heavily, heavily rely on it to ferry me & my gear around. I had endless problems with my lemon Renegade & less-than-stellar support from Jeep as a company, and it left a sour taste in my mouth against the brand. Those issues caused me a lot of downtime, lost money, and frustration; it was not a pleasant experience, and I don't have the free time available to monkey around with something that I need to rely on.

The Y looks like the perfect interim model until the Cybertruck comes out ($200+ just in gas savings alone for me!), but from what I've seen regarding getting spare parts, getting your vehicle worked on, and even reaching a human being on the phone...it all seems pretty iffy right now. Most of my clients have put in electric charging points over the past six months (iirc there's some kind of government incentive for doing so), so not having a charger at home isn't such a big deal for me anymore. But man, if something breaks or you get in a fender bender or anything, it seems like a real hassle to deal with....

 

[Kaido]

Would I buy another Tesla? No, but I should clarify that I'd probably just avoid all EVs for about 5-10 years.

What are you looking at to replace it?

 

[Aikouka]

Can these things like the rain sensing wipers & the blind spot warning be turned off? They both can be on my Explorer.

Yes, but there's a "but". Back with my Ford Taurus, I'd usually leave the wipers on Auto until I thought it wasn't reacting well enough, and I'd manually change it. You can disable it on the Tesla, but on the Model 3, the controls for the wipers are on the touch screen. There is a handier way to bring the control up, which is by pressing the single wipe button, but you still have to look down to see where the corresponding wiper levels are. It's just really obtuse and arguably dangerous to do while it's raining heavily compared to just spinning a dial on your stalk.

I am going for a 3 in ... 3 years give or take.. But what Aikouka describes is exactly the kind of shit that gets under my nerves in 0.5 seconds flat... They have 3 years to improve, see by then.

I do hope that they eventually come out with a second revision that fixes a few things. Fortunately, we can see some of it changing in the Model Y such as the use of a heat pump for improving winter efficiency. Unfortunately, they still haven't considered changing anything else... and a good number of the options that I've mentioned could at least be a software option if a hardware option isn't available (e.g. a toggle for standard cruise vs. TACC).

I get the feeling that Elon Musk has a good mission, but maybe a bit too much arrogance/hubris to admit when certain things just weren't a good idea.

That whole support thing is one of my biggest reservations right now. Super excited as a Tesla fanboy, but nervous as a practical consumer. I use my car six days a week for work. I heavily, heavily rely on it to ferry me & my gear around. I had endless problems with my lemon Renegade & less-than-stellar support from Jeep as a company, and it left a sour taste in my mouth against the brand. Those issues caused me a lot of downtime, lost money, and frustration; it was not a pleasant experience, and I don't have the free time available to monkey around with something that I need to rely on.

I like the overall goal of Tesla as well. I think they're doing something quite good by pushing electric vehicles to the forefront, and while it took some time, other manufacturers seem to be finally making their own push. I think you could sum up my complaints with a nerdy analogy... it's about the equivalent of a complex piece of software being developed solely by engineers. Sure, it works and it's likely fully functional, but the user experience is so unintuitive that it ends up frustrating.

Most of my clients have put in electric charging points over the past six months (iirc there's some kind of government incentive for doing so), so not having a charger at home isn't such a big deal for me anymore.

Would they be able to charge you quickly enough? I'm not sure how long you'd spend at the chargers and the overall wattage.

What are you looking at to replace it?

That's been the toughest part so far as I'm not entirely sure. Over the years, the car that I liked the most was arguably my '07 Altima 3.5 SL. It was a naturally aspirated V6 so it felt like it had a good amount of power while getting modest gas mileage. (Plus, I like naturally aspirated due to it having less parts to break/malfunction.) It used Nissan's chain-based CVT, which always felt quite smooth to me. (I think Nissan has the patent on that type of CVT?) Although, I was thinking of maybe going a little more "premium" than that with something like an Infiniti. I was looking at the Infiniti Q50, but it seems like it just uses a normal automatic? I did consider something like a cross-over due to how it can sometimes be hard to sit behind me in a car because of how far back my seat is.

Overall, I think something like...

• Sedan (with decent leg room)
• V6+ (hated the I4T in my Ford Fusion)
• Decent infotainment screen size
• Apple CarPlay integration
• Decent audio
• Good USB playback implementation
• Leather
• Good headlights (my Altima was so much better than my Ford in this regard)
• Can disable driver aids