Same (from the cheap self to the car specs). Picked it up yesterday. Very happy so far.
After a month of delays, and a change in VIN, I finally took delivery today. Such a sweet ride!
Woo-hoo! How many members of the SDMB TM3 owner’s club do we have now? By my count, 5:
YamatoTwinkie
echoreply
cardinal_fang
USCDiver
Dr. Strangelove
Plus CrimeThink, soon. And another who shall remain anonymous. That’s a pretty good group we have going, and that’s not counting previous Tesla owners like Bone and zwede.
The Model 3 really does sell itself. I have two friends who have ordered in the past couple of days. One of them had a Dieselgate Passat and was going to use the trade-in value for a new one. She hadn’t really been considering a Tesla, but just a few days ago I gave her a ride in mine and a basic rundown of the features. She’s been asking endless questions since then, and then yesterday went to a Tesla store for a test drive. Today she’s ordered one.
The Model 3 was definitely a step up for her price-wise, and she wouldn’t have done it without the rebates. But obviously it left a pretty positive impression. VW’s handling of Dieselgate may have put a thumb on the balance as well.
I got one. White with the dual range. Apparently mine was one of the first batch to have the “dual motor” badge on the back, which is… okay? The test drive pretty much sold me. I told my wife it was like driving an iPhone. Like when the iPhone first came out and how it was so revolutionary feeling compared to the standard phones I was using at the time. It has its quirks, and it definitely take some getting used to, but I’m loving it.
I took delivery on Wednesday. LR, Dual Motor, Midnight Silver, Aero wheels. I did not purchase Autopilot for now, but I have started exploring this capability with the 30-day trial.
I haven’t put many miles on it yet, so most of the neat things I’m discovering about it have been through the old fashioned method of RTFM. I am convinced that this car represents the future of personal transport, and possibly the Rise of The Machines.
I’m still in the process of trying to get them to credit a referral code to someone, both so that they can get queued up for some good swag, and so that I can take advantage of the six months SuperCharging. My salesperson has forwarded my request to the correct authorities, but I’ve seen no change in status. Public Service Announcement - if you have a referral code you’d like to use, click on it BEFORE you start configuring your order.
So, Tesla owners, I’m very tentatively toying with the idea of getting a Model 3. Two questions:
(1) Is there another tax rebate about to expire? Is it known when that will happen?
(2) Has someone done the math about savings per mile of electricity vs gas?
thanks!
Add me to the list! I was a Tesla skeptic for years (including in some posts in this very thread!) but I rented a Model 3 out of curiosity over the summer and was blown away. Tesla is innovating in every area and they’re at least two generations (i.e. 10 years) ahead of the rest of the industry, maybe more.
Mine is a Deep Blue Metallic, Long Range, Dual Motor, with white interior and 19" wheels. Picked it up a few weeks ago. I love it.
Yes, the tax rebate is currently $7,500 if you take delivery this year, and then it drops to $3,750 on January 1. It goes away entirely on July 1 IIRC. Depending on where in the country you live and what Model 3 you want, you can probably still take delivery in time to qualify for the full amount.
The math is simple. For a gas car, divide the cost of gasoline in dollars per gallon, by the efficiency of your car in miles per gallon. That gives you a cost in dollars per mile. So, a 35 mpg car burning $3 / gallon gasoline costs about 3 / 35 = $0.085 / mile.
For the Tesla, take your cost of electricity in dollars per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and multiply it by 0.3. This gives the cost of the Tesla in $ / mile. So, if your electricity costs $0.15 / kWh, the Tesla will cost about $0.045 / mile to drive. This assumes an efficiency of about 300 Wh / mi, which is actually slightly less efficient than the official EPA numbers for the Model 3.
EDIT: Oh, you live in Santa Clara! Almost certainly you can take delivery before the end of the year if you put the order in quickly. I live in Sunnyvale and my car was delivered in less than a week from ordering it.
Same for two people I know, one in San Jose and the other in Sacramento. The one in Sacramento got a delivery time of 3 days. That was so quick that she had to extend it.
My average efficiency is around 250 Wh/mi. I can get that even lower if I’m taking it easy. Short trips in cool weather seems to have the most impact, since it has to heat the cabin but that goes to waste if the trip is just a few miles.
There are a few savings with an EV over a gas car. Oil changes are an obvious one, but brake pads also last much longer. I’m hoping the drivetrain will need less maintenance but that remains to be seen (Tesla says they’ve built a “million mile” drivetrain, but we’ll have to see how that plays out).
If you need a referral code let me know by PM and I can give you mine.
I don’t get much from it but you’ll get six months of free supercharging.
Am I wrong in assuming that there is still oil in the diffs and other fluids like coolant that need replacing at some point? If so, what is the schedule on those?
Are Tesla prices locked in? Or do you have to haggle with the dealers?
Prices are locked, no haggling. When I did it, the sales person basically used a terminal in the showroom and went to the public website to order one.
Not sure about the timing of fluid replacement. The coolant is in a sealed system so there isn’t a regular replacement/change.
Beyond replacing tires, brake pads, and windshield wipers, I think the only items with a listed schedule are:
Brake Fluid: 2 yrs/25,000 miles
Battery Coolant: 4yrs/50,000 miles
I think there’s a small oil filter on the gearbox with an unknown replacement interval.
Maintenance Schedule: pg 127 of the manual (pdf warning) https://www.tesla.com/content/dam/tesla/Ownership/Own/Model%203%20Owners%20Manual.pdf
My understanding is that it isn’t intended to be replaced. It’s there to catch debris from the initial break-in period, but there’s no expected degradation after that point. IIRC, the Model S and X had gearbox fluid replacement on their early service schedule, but not on an ongoing basis. With the 3 they just installed a filter to achieve the same effect.
That’s not too bad at all. I do find it fairly funny that changing brake fluid and coolant is a “take it to a Tesla tech” only deal when it’s something I routinely do on every car I’ve owned over the years. I suppose that’s no different than any other manufacturer though.
Thanks for the link, YT, that answers a few of my other questions as well. My pervious Subaru had a lifetime filter for the transmission but I replaced it when I changed the trans fluid. I figure filters are cheap insurance, even for something sealed like a gearbox.
saw a local guy bought a model 3 and it died 1 hour after he got it. So it’s not surprising Consumer reports gave Tesla a very low scored on reliability.
My average efficiency is 238 Wh/mi. I’ve found what really drags efficiency is highway speeds (70mph+) and running the cabin heater in cold weather. With flat terrain, moderate weather, and with cruise control set to 50, I can get down to a constant 175 Wh/mi. When it’s cold out, seat heaters also seem to be much better on overall efficiency than keeping the cabin heater set to a “normal” temperature.
Elon has no idea when the standard range Model 3 will come out. Maybe six months from now, “But that’s just a guess.” He explains that he doesn’t really have any means of knowing what he’s doing, since he hasn’t done this before.
I mean, we can’t expect him to hire people who have worked in the automotive industry before to advise him on how to make cars. Right?