
Originally Posted by
Long duc dong
So I have two months with a Tesla 3. It is the all-wheel drive long range model. Here are a few thoughts:
It drives a bit like a golf cart. It slows down very quickly once you take your foot off the accelerator, which is something to get used to. It's not a big deal, it has a slightly different feel. It absolutely flies when you hit the accelerator. It is not even the performance model but it does 0-60 in 4.4. The performance model is supposedly 3.2, which is far more than I need. We also have a Maserati Ghibli, the poor man's Maserati, and I would say the Tesla feels faster.
With the seats folded down it is pretty easy to fit quite a bit of stuff. I can fit multiple pairs of 185 Armada JJs or 186 4frnt EHPs in there. You could easily fit 193 size 115 waist fat skis. I can fit a 7'6" fun board without too much trouble, no roof rack needed. Obviously a 6'4" fishy type board fits without a problem. You could fit multiple boards in the 6'6" and under range pretty easily. All of these are with the back seats folded down. It does a 2/3 fold down thing too. It's an easy car to travel with two people and lots of toys, if you wanted to fit a family of four and a bunch of skis and boot bags that would be tough. My first Mammoth trip of the winter, when I drop most of our stuff off at the ski lease, will be a bit tight, but it should not be a problem. I don't the room as all THAT much less than my old Ford Escape. The frunk is small, but it does add a bit of storage space. Our other trips usually just have a small bag of clothes and our boot bags, so no big deal. This season might take a bit of planning, but we don't need to bring EVERYTHING up to the ski lease the first trip, things like the DVD collection and some of the extra clothes we keep up there can wait. Overall I would say the space in the car is much better than I thought it would be, I don't see it as being an issue. It is not quite as convenient as an SUV in terms of space, but it definitely gets the job done. Weekends when we don't go to Mammoth and hit Baldy or Summit/Bear won't be a problem, there is plenty of room for two pairs of skis and two boot bags. We could probably fit a third person and their skis is we were strategic. For a family of four skiing every weekend and lugging stuff back and forth this would not be ideal, but for a couple with no human children it works just fine.
The rear camera is really great for parallel parking in Newport or Huntington on crowded weekends. It has a camera, and it also gives you the exact distance between your front bumper and the car in front of you, and the same for the back. This makes parallel parking in tight spots MUCH easier. I absolutely love this feature. For someone who surfs on weekend mornings in a crowded beach town regularly the parallel parking ease is awesome. It does give me pause about getting a Cybertruck or Rivian, as even with a camera the added size would make it a nuisance. The model 3 is not all that long, which I'm finding I really like. It has proven to be a very convenient car for me this summer.
I have done lots of research on A Better Route planner in regards to charging on the way to Mammoth. We usually leave around 4 am, so we should not have an issue finding charging space. It will take an extra 20 minutes or so over driving in an ICE, which is not a big deal. I might end up leaving 15 minutes earlier in the morning to compensate, but it's not THAT big of a deal. One nice thing about the 3 is that the 320 mile range is generated the a 75 Kw battery, meaning slightly more than 4 miles per Kw. This is nice because it adds mileage more quickly while charging. A car with a higher range but a larger battery pack will go farther, but take longer to recharge. We never leave for Mammoth after around 230 on Friday afternoon, it is just not worth it, but I can see there being some issues with finding a charging spot in Lone Pine, Mojave or Inyokern on those trips. That is not a huge deal, if it adds 40 minutes to the drive on Friday and don't really care, we can combine it with a meal. Getting to Mammoth at 930 is really no different from getting there are 845 for afternoon to evening trips.
We are getting a charger put in within the next couple of months. We will need it before the winter. We have solar panels, and we budgeted 10k miles when we got our panels put in, so we want to be able to access that. I have been slow to get that done because I'm not driving much right now. Getting the charger put in should cost 1k, but it will be nice to access the energy we are generating. I see it as a minor expense. Overall this car would be cheaper to fuel than an ICE, even if we didn't have solar.
I have been charging at the public chargers so far. I typically use the one on Michelson in Irvine, which is a slower supercharger, 72 kw. You don't charge quite as quickly when there are other cars around, sometimes you get a 50 kw stream which would be around 200 miles charged in an hour. The charging definitely slows down as the battery gets full, so it definitely makes more sense to charge from 10 to 80 percent. The chargers tend to be in areas with shopping, so you can get some errands done. When I surf down in San Clemente I tend to use the 150kw supercharger down there. I ate lunch, but I looked at the display for a few minutes to get a feel for the charging rate. I was getting a rate of 96 kw, which would add about 399 miles over the course of an hour. In 40 minutes I added about 240 miles of range. It will be nice to be able to charge at home. Obviously it is not as convenient as an ICE in regards to fueling. We have all gotten used to just getting gas when we want. When you have to charge it requires a bit of planning. But it is definitely worth it. Honestly charging has not ever really been an issue, I have just had lunch or gotten groceries while the car charges. It is not a big deal, luckily there are lots of chargers in California, it just takes a bit of planning. I'm sure there will be a few times it will be a nuisance, but overall it is manageable if one has a few brain cells. It has not been a hassle yet. Orange County could use a few more chargers, but there are a number that are close to me. There are a bunch more that are listed as coming soon. I'm really glad I live in California. It goes without saying that you want to use a 150 kw charger if possible.
The display is cool. It shows you cars in your blind spot. I put most of my music on a flash drive which I keep in the car. It makes it very convenient to play music without really taking your eyes off the road, much better than with an MP3 player or phone. The touch selection on the screen is super easy.
Supposedly you can set it up so that it will read you texts to you, and you can voice narrate texts back. I am not a big texter, I don't look at my phone while I drive and my opinion on texting is I will get to it when it is fucking convenient for me. I am not at your beck and call. I don't have conversations via text message.
I will add more when I get to take it to Mammoth. So far the only car I have like this much was the Pathfinder I got in the summer of 94 that I drove across the country. I think it blows the doors off of our Maserati, and not just for the convenience factor, the Maserati is not meant for skiing and surfing. I now see why Teslas are so popular.
We did take it to the Hard Rock in San Diego a few weeks ago. That is only a two hour trip. The hotel was able to charge it overnight, which was really nice.
I can't stress enough that the acceleration is awesome. It absolutely takes off when you floor it.
Bookmarks