daveo4porsche

Just got my 2018 Tesla Model 3 Performance - it's good, it's very very good - haven't tracked it yet - we'll see - but if you want a small compact (BMW 3 series) daily driver it's hard to go wrong. It's a tight wonderful little car that's fun to drive and has plenty of oomph - the center stack screen is a non-issue, and the fit/finish upon delivery was excellent - vin #084xxx - white with black interior - the seats are super comfy and the center console has lots of storage and is well laid out. The phone being your car-key is a nice feature and extra RFID credit cards are $10/pair if want to liberally distribute car keys around the world.

I highly recommend the Model 3 if you want a BMW 3 series class full electric.

it was super fun on Hwy 17 (north and south) and like all electric cars hill climbs are a joy with plenty of instance torque - if you consider yourself a car person you have to at least test drive one - I think you'll be surprised

for the $$% it's a way way way better car than the BMW i3…I think even the RWD or AWD non-performance version is going to be a great car.

I still can't wait for my Taycan but it will have to be better than my 3 to get to my swap.

LOL - I had an order for a Model 3, but showed up unannounced at the Fremont delivery center and said - "I know it's the end of the quarter and you guys are trying to push a lot cars out by the 30th (ya'know before Elon goes to jail), find me a black interior performance version and I'll give you money - 2 hours later they had set me up with a white Model 3 performance - and I drove it off the lot…Tesla may have competition coming, but it certainly isn't here now.

if you want a 200 mile pure EV today - you have 3 choices: Tesla, Bolt, Leaf (150 mile)…of hte 3 Tesla is clearly the best and the Bolt is a good middle of the road choice…

Tesla now has my P85D and hopefully they will find it a good home

I'm not giving up my GT3 any time soon - but as a daily driver w/car pool sticker this car is a very very strong competitor - combine that with the constant improvements via OTA software updates, and the best in class existing fast charger network and this is a strong car, with strong abilities that is great as a DD and the occasional road trip.

whiz944

Congrats! And nice strategy. That is one busy place. The day we picked up mine I bet they were moving 2-300 cars a day through there.

Petevb

Had you mentioned it I could have come out to meet you. That delivery center uses our lot, I could have looked out the window and waved as you drove by.

They're stretching the limits of the direct to consumer model- huge numbers of cars going through there now, a constant state of mild chaos.

earl pottinger

Did I read that right? You wanted a Black interior and they sold you a White one?

I thought Tesla did not use salespeople! Or did you mean only the exterior was White.

Earl Colby Pottinger (Tesla and Bollinger fan)

PS. Can't wait for you to do a review of this verses a Taycan on both the road and track. Fun times ahead.

whiz944

Sounds like white exterior and black interior. "Stormtrooper" version.

They don't have dealerships and don't have salesmen (or women). They do have company-owned showrooms sprinkled around where you can see the cars, ask questions, and take test drives. But you actually order the car on-line. Kind of an expensive "buy it now" - but that is the way it is. Things like financing and trade-in valuation are handled on-line. So when you go to the delivery center to pick up your car, basically the delivery person takes your money (and if needed, the keys and title to the trade-in), has you sign a few pieces of already negotiated paperwork, and gives you a short intro to your car. Then you drive away.

A friend of mine just took delivery of his TM3D a few days ago and managed to get "home delivery". A guy drove the car over to his house and went through the same steps. Then drove his trade-in back to the delivery center. If there wasn't a trade-in he would have simply taken an uber ride.

I hadn't heard of anyone jumping the line like DaveO did - showing up at the delivery center at the end of the quarter waving cash. But hey - it worked! Probably helped that he was already a Tesla owner. Also the Fremont delivery center is exactly across the "road" (Interstate 880) from the Fremont manufacturing plant. There are nearby parking lots filled to the brim with literally thousands of cars waiting for delivery to various locations around the country. Not surprising they managed to shake one free.

The whole dealership vs factory direct thing has been fairly controversial. But I truly think that if Tesla had tried selling the Roadster through existing car dealers 10 years ago, they would have been out of business 9.5 years ago. Even today most dealerships, at least those outside California, seem to have no clue how to sell electrified vehicles. Nor the desire to do so.

daveo4porsche

earl pottinger

Just read this review https://www.motortrend.com/cars/alfa...-romeo-giulia/ but I got the impression the test driver did not use one pedal driving properly in either the Tesla or the I-Pace.

Do you find you have to do a major adjustment of your reflexes to drive at high speed?

Note: I do not drive fast or on race tracks so I can not judge myself. In-fact I really thought the I-Pace was not pushed to it's limits, they had already assumed it would be in third place. That can affect your testing from the start.

Earl Colby Pottinger (Tesla and Bollinger fan)

cometguy

daveo4porsche, thanks for all your interesting posts about EVs ... I'm not going to buy a Tesla, but I'm eager to hear about them and the technology, the pros and cons. The Taycan interests me greatly, though I doubt I'd get one unless it looks like the Cross Turismo concept car. For now, I'm a very satisfied 2018 E-Hybrid owner, though I saw the news story that the EU car companies are evidently putting plug-in hybrids on hold in terms of manufacturing because of the new EU emissions rules that went into effect on Sept. 1. It seems that the manufacturers are being pressed to make plug-in hybrids with better range (larger battery capacity).

wogamax

Street car owners frequently turn regen down, or off, to slow battery heating. So, endurance is at least one of the reasons reflexes aren't a big deal.

whiz944

Battery heating during regen isn't an issue - at least if you have a car that has a decent thermal management system for the battery. It is more a question of what driving style you are familiar with and what you want to adapt to.

I've found that around town and/or in high traffic, lots of regen on the go pedal (e.g., "Standard" in the Tesla, "L" in the Volt) is exactly what one wants. It allows almost "one pedal" driving. When cruising down the highway, a lower regen setting (e.g., "Low" in the Tesla, "D" in the Volt) can be useful to make the go pedal less touchy. Though with adaptive cruise control in the mix, it probably doesn't matter much either way.

Atlantan

Thanks much Pete and Dave...enjoyed reading the postings, from a driver's perspective.

Enjoy the M3D and M3P
Cheers

Jason Zhang

Going from a Macan S to a model 3 RWD my biggest disappointment is the steering of Tesla, and two other small ones are the lack of traction in Tesla and you can't turn off the traction control in model 3. I think it would have been way more fun if I can turn off the traction control (then I can slide around a bit when I wish). I once tried to corner at a relatively fast speed and then in the middle of the corner give it some "gas", then the rear wheel surprisingly managed to lose traction and the car started to go sideways for like half a second. Next, the traction control fixed it. I was very surprised that the model 3 has enough power for the rear wheels to lose traction, and I wasn't even going full throttle when it happened.

Jason Zhang

How do you feel about the steering of the performance version? The steering of my RWD is way worse than the Macan S. And it is funny that the model 3 has a super low center of gravity (even lower than GT3 I think I saw it in a youtube video) and it should be able to corner fairly well compared to other gas sedans, but the steering really disappoints me and I feel like it doesn't pair with the potential of the car. And I don't think model 3s come with very sporty tires.

Petevb

Are you on the stock 18s?

Jason Zhang

yea, i think it is some sort of high-efficiency tires with the model 3s come with.