EV newbie with Teslaesque questions

[TJ313]

Welcome, TJ!

I'm a pretty early Model 3 buyer - one of the first dual motor cars back in the summer of 2018. Phone Key was occasionally problematic early-on, but all of those issues have been resolved. I can't remember the last time I had a problem with it. Even then, I was never locked out of the car, and simply waking the phone up usually solved the problem.

Fast forward to today, it has 160,000 miles and is still going strong. I'm impressed with the build quality and how the interior materials have held up. No, the build quality isn't as nice as a top trim Audi, but it gets the job done and I find it comfortable, reliable, and intuitive.

Road trips are a breeze, in part because the Supercharger network is remarkably robust, and because the Tesla navigation provides you with excellent information. Between unreliable public charging networks and rudimentary infotainment, both of these points are severely lacking in many other EVs.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is range reduction in cold weather. Cabin heating takes a lot of energy, although less so on newer models due to the new heat pump system. If you travel regularly in the winter, I recommend buying the longest-range model you can afford. If you're more of a local traveler and/or you don't take long trips in the winter, a standard-range car might meet your needs just fine.

As for your delivery timeline, I see no reason why Tesla wouldn't be able to meet the estimate they provided you. Best of luck!

I quoted Earl here, but this is a thank you to everyone who has replied and been generous with their time, thank you. I very much appreciate the help!

 

[Big Earl]

Hey Big Earl - a couple questions on your 160K mile 3. Have you had any out-of-pocket repairs other than wear items? If you're on the original HV battery, how much degradation have you seen? TIA.

Original battery - no major out of pocket expenses. The minor ones include a replacement front upper control arm ($600), a windshield ($950), replacement DC fast charging contactors ($600), and several sets of tires.

Current battery health is 270 - 280 miles of rated range at 100%, which represents 10 - 12% degradation from new. This is in line with what others are seeing on vehicles of similar age, but lower miles. Supercharging speed hasn't declined at all, equaling or outperforming the new models.

 

[Marty3SR+]

FWIW, I've had my SR+ for 1 1/2 years, 18,000 miles. Only service was a tire rotation. No problems, and phone key works 99%. Occasionally, it didn't seem to want to unlock automatically using the bluetooth, but unlocking from the app worked fine - that uses the internet. Phone key has had slight problems a couple of times in the past, forcing use of card key. The car comes with 2 car keys, but they are not very expensive to buy more - 2 for $35. I have one for each member of my family, and one extra as a valet key. Each card can be matched to a different driver profile, like the phones.

My wife mainly uses the car for commuting 25 miles to work. She is totally non-technical, and English is not even her primary language, but she loves the car and has never had any problems once she got used to it. Early on, she got stuck in a parking lot exit, but it was driver error. Somehow, when stopping, she had managed to take the car out of drive mode, and didn't realize it, so the car would not go.

By the way, we don't have FSD, and we don't even use auto-pilot usually. She does love the TACC and the way it stops and goes by itself in freeway traffic.

 

[TJ313]

FWIW, I've had my SR+ for 1 1/2 years, 18,000 miles. Only service was a tire rotation. No problems, and phone key works 99%. Occasionally, it didn't seem to want to unlock automatically using the bluetooth, but unlocking from the app worked fine - that uses the internet. Phone key has had slight problems a couple of times in the past, forcing use of card key. The car comes with 2 car keys, but they are not very expensive to buy more - 2 for $35. I have one for each member of my family, and one extra as a valet key. Each card can be matched to a different driver profile, like the phones.

My wife mainly uses the car for commuting 25 miles to work. She is totally non-technical, and English is not even her primary language, but she loves the car and has never had any problems once she got used to it. Early on, she got stuck in a parking lot exit, but it was driver error. Somehow, when stopping, she had managed to take the car out of drive mode, and didn't realize it, so the car would not go.

By the way, we don't have FSD, and we don't even use auto-pilot usually. She does love the TACC and the way it stops and goes by itself in freeway traffic.

thanks for the post! Had to smile a little bit about the car not being in drive for her. Lol, did you have to drive out there to help her? I bet she was like "oh geeeez"

 

[euro.r]

2) What about the car do you wish you had known before purchase?

- The insurance costs. I was shellshocked.

 

[jjrandorin]

2) What about the car do you wish you had known before purchase?

- The insurance costs. I was shellshocked.

There are DEFINITELY some insurance companies that basically dont want to insure teslas, and price their coverage as such. I had been a AAA insurance customer (home, auto, umbrella) for like 12 years, with brand new BMWs every 3 years, with "lease level" full coverage, and when I bought my model 3 in 2018 it was several hundred dollars a year more than the BMW 435 it replaced, with no other changes other than just replacing the vehicle.

I paid the extra for a couple of years because I didnt want to change my entire insurance profile, but then decided I had enough and shopped around. Lets say that I found that unlike normally, when the same general coverage from insurance companies tends to be "around" the same price for the same vehicle, in the case of Teslas there was a wide / marked difference. One definitely will need to shop around, and if a person is not already used to paying insurance costs on vehicles in this class (say they are coming from a volt or prius or something, vs an audi / bmw / porsche) they are likely in for a fairly rude awakening.

 

[FLMan]

I would echo jj's insurance note above. Maybe it's a Hawaii thing from the other post, but I had no trouble insuring the Tesla in FL for roughly the same as what I had previously.

The thing you can't really impress on people is the convenience of the supercharger network. "Someday" this could be opened up to everyone, but I had a Chevy Bolt prior to the Tesla and the non-Tesla charging network is a mess. There are times that I'd roll up to a station and it would be out of order or full (or both). The Superchargers show up on the main screen and show how many open stalls there are as well as other stats. Plus, Tesla kicks you off when you have enough, whereas you can have people on the other chargers sitting there trying to get to 100% like a gas car.

 

[3sr+buyer]

2) What about the car do you wish you had known before purchase?

- The insurance costs. I was shellshocked.

It is always a good idea to check insurance prices before buying a car (any car), to avoid surprises, and to be able to check different insurance companies if your current one has a high price for the prospective car.

Note also that the trim level (RWD vs LR vs P) affects insurance prices.

Insurance losses by make and model can give you a general idea of insurance losses and costs by vehicle model. Driver demographics are likely a big factor in insurance losses. I.e. it is no surprise that BMWs tend to have higher insurance losses than Acuras, Buicks, Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Volvos.

 

[deuskid]

I have owned a 2019 Tesla SR over two years. Sold it for a profit and in Dec purchased a 2022 M3P

I have NEVER had a problem getting into either cars. I use my cell as the main "key" to open the car and if anything happens to the phone, I wear a special ring that opens the car.

The ONLY problem I have had getting the car going was about 6 weeks after purchasing in 2019. I was away from home. Opened the car to get in and the screen was frozen. It did not function. I could not turn the car on. I was stuck and didn't know what to do.

While sitting and trying to figure out what to do, I remembered something I read in this forum. When the screen freezes, push and hold both the left and right scrolls on the steering wheel until the screen goes blank and then release the scrolls and wait. It seemed like and eternity but all of a sudden the Tesla logo comes on and then the entire screen and you're back on the road. I was sure lucky I remembered what to do. I have had to use the reboot a few times but it always works.

This alone is worth the price of admission.

Where did you get the ring?

 

[JssonB]

2) What about the car do you wish you had known before purchase?

- The insurance costs. I was shellshocked.

First check with Tesla for insurance. I was with the lizard insurance and they were twice as much than my Prius i had prior. I went with Tesla with glass coverage and it was $7 more a month.
As for road noise, have you driven in a Prius? It was a decible lower than my motorcycle.

I can't comment on durability since ive only owned mine for 4 months, but my wife and i liked our first one so much, we bought a second one.

 

[JimShaw]

This alone is worth the price of admission.

Where did you get the ring?

I actually have two in case something happened to the one I wear.

Mine is my wedding band made of wood (Ebony and Redwood). Engraved inside is our wedding date (so I won't forget)

CNICK
Here's the web site

CNICK® - Tesla Key Ring

Tesla Key Ring enables lock, unlock and start of Tesla model 3, model Y, model X 2021+ and Model S 2021+

teslaring.com

 

[stopcrazypp]

I have never owned an EV before, but I have driven a few, including a Polestar 2. I really love that car, and I have one on order. The thing is, a number of people have had issues with getting locked out of the car, the key not being recognized, and/or not being able to drive the car. Not a lot, but it's an issue. The nearest service center to me is in Minneapolis, which is four hours away.

I got my SR+ at end of 2020, and with my Android phone I haven't come up to a situation I had to use my keycard. Phone as a key is fairly reliable, and only occasionally I had to pull out my phone and toggle the bluetooth on and off or the Tesla app (either because car was asleep or phone), but haven't come to a situation where phone can't unlock at all. As others mentioned, the phone key has multiple redundancies. Not only can it open via bluetooth (as default), you can also remote unlock/start car using LTE connection of car, and if you have a phone with NFC, you can also unlock and start car using your phone like a keycard.

The keycard also is very convenient to carry in a wallet, so I just carry it always just in case.

Edit, looked up the Polestar lockout failures, it requires 12V battery disconnect to reset. Looks like a very serious failure that I haven't heard of happening to Teslas in my experience in these forums. Much was made by some that about how the established automakers would fully test their software (saying Tesla does not), but it seems a lot of them have even more serious software bugs than Teslas.
Locked out of car failure and then very glitchy going home

 

[Shelburne]

Hi, thanks for having me here!My questions are below, but this is my situation:

I have never owned an EV before, but I have driven a few, including a Polestar 2. I really love that car, and I have one on order. The thing is, a number of people have had issues with getting locked out of the car, the key not being recognized, and/or not being able to drive the car. Not a lot, but it's an issue. The nearest service center to me is in Minneapolis, which is four hours away.

This has me worried, so I’m going to monitor that situation for the next couple months and see if they get it sorted out. Given the wait time for an EV these days, I decided to also put an order in on a Tesla model 3. I honestly love both vehicles and would feel happy with either of them.

Questions:

1) I haven’t heard anything bad about Tesla, as far as people getting stranded and not being able to drive the car, but what issues would you say are the most common with the Tesla 3?

2) What about the car do you wish you had known before purchase?

3) It says my car will be delivered between October and January. Should I expect this date to be accurate, or will it likely get pushed back further?

Thanks for reading all of this, and have a good day!

I've owned a M3LR for nearly two years now. It's been perfect. I've never had any issues with being locked out of it. My only problem was when the left front fender camera stopped working 3 weeks after I brought the car home. Tesla's mobile service came to my house and fixed it in 20 minutes. A cable connection had come loose.
I tend to research any major purchase extensively, so I had no unpleasant surprises with the car - lots of pleasant ones though.
I have no idea about the accuracy of Polestar's estimate.

Only you can decide. But, the Polestar 2's range is about 80 miles less than a M3 LR. And, as with all EV's that range is considerably reduced in cold weather, so in the winter you can expect a range closer to 200 miles than to 270. If you do much distance driving I'd opt for the M3LR. But it does cost more. Another reason to go with a Tesla is the network of superchargers

 

[alangold]

Wow what a great response you got from TMC - sorry but the polestar looks like it was beat with “the ugly stick “ - I drove into the dealer but never drove it / the Tesla has a modern design -

 

[T4M3]

FWIW, I had maybe three instances (since I got my M3LR in late February 2022) where I could not enter with my iPhone 11 Pro.

Simply disabling and enabling bluetooth setting on the phone resolved the issue.

Other than that, very happy with the purchase though one thing that I do not like anymore is the glass roof which can get pretty hot. I would have preferred a solid roof if it were available on the Model 3.

 

[scarpiamod3]

(Off topic)

Please do NOT buy a Chinese Volvo (Polestar) - they require you to drive 10 under in the HOV lane at all times, or at least that is what all the owners of Polestar in Vancouver do.

(On Topic)

The charging infrastructure is not there. The Polestar owners that I yell at for going 10 under in the HOV lane tell me they are out of charge and can't find a charging station. (seriously I have already seen 2 stranded)

 

[euro.r]

I would echo jj's insurance note above. Maybe it's a Hawaii thing from the other post, but I had no trouble insuring the Tesla in FL for roughly the same as what I had previously.

The thing you can't really impress on people is the convenience of the supercharger network. "Someday" this could be opened up to everyone, but I had a Chevy Bolt prior to the Tesla and the non-Tesla charging network is a mess. There are times that I'd roll up to a station and it would be out of order or full (or both). The Superchargers show up on the main screen and show how many open stalls there are as well as other stats. Plus, Tesla kicks you off when you have enough, whereas you can have people on the other chargers sitting there trying to get to 100% like a gas car.

Normally, I would do such a thing. It just slipped my mind this time for some reason. Ultimately, I got the insurance down to a reasonable amount by bundling it with my home insurance which is something I also should've done years prior but just never got around to doing.

 

[TJ313]

Wow what a great response you got from TMC - sorry but the polestar looks like it was beat with “the ugly stick “ - I drove into the dealer but never drove it / the Tesla has a modern design -

Tons of super helpful replies, a big thank you to everyone who posted. I feel like I learned a lot! I do think the PoleStar is pretty darn sexy though In all likelihood, the Tesla is in my future, however. Their nearest service center is only an hour from me, as opposed to four hours away for the PoleStar. That’s probably going to be the biggest deciding factor for me.

 

[MentalNomad]

I'm also a summer-2018 purchaser.

I've never had a key card fail, nor heard of them failing.

Phone as key is completely reliable in recent years if you allow for occasionally needing to kill/re-enable Bluetooth. It's rare and usually when the phone has been on for a long time, talking to multiple Bluetooth accessories... If the car can't get a response, I just kill Bluetooth, turn it on, and I'm fine. Once every couple of months.

The one thing I wish I knew in advance is that very low temps affect things much more than I previously thought. Would not change my purchase; would happily do things they same way I ended up doing them - but would have been good to know.

 

[Marty3SR+]

thanks for the post! Had to smile a little bit about the car not being in drive for her. Lol, did you have to drive out there to help her? I bet she was like "oh geeeez"

Actually, she called me while stuck and while the parking lot attendant was interrupting her to ask if she needed help pushing it out of the way. I told her to tell the attendant to shut up for a while. Fortunately, I was able to tell her what to do to get going.