First Road Trip

[Cnasty]

I have a 2500 mile roundtrip coming up and I am torn on taking the Model 3 or renting an ICE to reduce mileage on the 3 right off the bat and reduce trip time due to charging.

That being said, I am slapping myself for even thinking of not taking the 3 as that was one of the main selling points of owning a Tesla....ROAD TRIPS!

I didnt want to immediately throw 3k miles on it less than a month of ownership and was more concerned with the 3 being a "beta" car taking it on such a long trip shortly after delivery.

Any road trip feedback or any thoughts on which way I should lean or just shut up and take the Tesla?

Thanks for any input

 

[outdoors]

Hmm. Cars are meant to be driven. Unless you are selling it at some point in the near future I wouldn't understand the concern.

I wanted to put 4k in the first month. Could only do 3k. Drove mine from CA back to MI. Would drive it back again tomorrow if I had time.

It is not a Beta car. It is a production automobile. Enjoy the heck out of it until you get the itch for the next one.

Or you could get a rotating parking pad in your garage. Prop that lawn chair open and just look at the car as it turns. Why drive it? Just stare at it.

 

[benjiejr]

Yeah, I agree with @outdoors, but my wife shares your concerns. I was thinking I would have mine before our spring break road trip, but it's not going to make it in time. I guess she's worried that something might go wrong and she doesn't want to put rock chips on it so quickly (it is officially HER car lol). I think it'd be fun to really learn about the car, get comfortable with it, and have a good basis for comparison with the S.

Either way, enjoy your road trip and your 3 @Cnasty!!

 

[Cnasty]

Screw the trip, now I am going to ask my wife for one of those

 

[Cnasty]

Yeah, I agree with @outdoors, but my wife shares your concerns. I was thinking I would have mine before our spring break road trip, but it's not going to make it in time. I guess she's worried that something might go wrong and she doesn't want to put rock chips on it so quickly (it is officially HER car lol). I think it'd be fun to really learn about the car, get comfortable with it, and have a good basis for comparison with the S.

Either way, enjoy your road trip and your 3 @Cnasty!!

You are me and I am you.

This is my "wife's car" and yea she is concerned about taking it on such a long trip for our family straight from the delivery and being stuck in the middle of nowhere Mississippi. I told her its about the journey especially in a Tesla.

Another big concern is charging when we get there as we are staying with family and we wont get our adapter in time for the dryer charging so 110v it is.

 

[Msjulie]

I went from San Jose to San Diego, and back, just under 2 weeks after I got the car - long weekend road trip. I wanted to see how super charging went (it's nice and quick) and in general see how the car was on such a trip. It was really comfortable and I'm glad I didn't chicken out and take the ICE car.. car performed well and I'd do it again as soon as I can find a worthy trip

 

[xav-]

Hmm. Cars are meant to be driven. Unless you are selling it at some point in the near future I wouldn't understand the concern.

I wanted to put 4k in the first month. Could only do 3k. Drove mine from CA back to MI. Would drive it back again tomorrow if I had time.

It is not a Beta car. It is a production automobile. Enjoy the heck out of it until you get the itch for the next one.

Or you could get a rotating parking pad in your garage. Prop that lawn chair open and just look at the car as it turns. Why drive it? Just stare at it.View attachment 284702

I can understand.. renting cars can come really cheap in the US especially on week ends.. like $10 a day. I have seen $60k SUVs going for $30 a day..

You do the math car maybe will last 120,000 miles so 2.500 miles is like 2 percent of the car... $1,000.

That's actually my co workers main argument against getting the LR... "id rather rent a car during my road trips it's so much cheaper".

 

[Cnasty]

I can understand.. renting cars can come really cheap in the US especially on week ends.. like $10 a day. I have seen $60k SUVs going for $30 a day..

You do the math car maybe will last 120,000 miles so 2.500 miles is like 2 percent of the car... $1,000.

That's actually my co workers main argument against getting the LR... "id rather rent a car during my road trips it's so much cheaper".

$215 for the car for the whole trip (10 days) and then gas at whatever that costs. Super cheap.

 

[lirandy]

You do the math car maybe will last 120,000 miles so 2.500 miles is like 2 percent of the car... $1,000.

That's actually my co workers main argument against getting the LR... "id rather rent a car during my road trips it's so much cheaper".

You can't just divide how many mile you think you car can go to how much you pay for the car. Back to your calculation, your car do have a residual value after 120k miles. You should minus that before calculating how much per mile

 

[Shygar]

I would take it but maybe I would make sure Tesla doesn't have any open items to fix on it. I have seen a few posts where someone took their car in for something and it had to have something else get fixed.

 

[nnick01]

Road trips are awesome in the Tesla. I did a ~2200 mile round trip from SF Bay Area --> Joshua Tree --> Las Vegas --> Zion --> Bryce Canyon --> Death Valley --> Bakersfield --> Home. My wife and two kids LOVED the trip in the Tesla. Here are my tips:

• Use EV Trip Optimizer APP to plan your multi-point trip. It takes a little getting used to, but its pretty great. An alternative: EV Trip Planner
• Find other tasks to do when you are at supercharger stops. For example, we planned our meals, shopped for things we needed for our trip, used restrooms and got coffee, and saw some local site while supercharging. When you do this, your family won't feel like the supercharging caused any real delay.
• Don't worry about the Supercharger stops. You will be amazed how refreshed you feel if you just consider these part of the trip and do the things above.
• When planning your next Supercharger stop, buffer 15% battery.
• Temperature and vehicle load (weight) do affect distance.
• Destination chargers are your friend. Finding hotels/motels that have these are pretty easy. I used this: Destination Charging | Tesla We prioritized hotels/motels that had these. When you can wake up to a full charge it really makes a difference. For example, when we were in Zion/Bryce Canyon we stayed at a place that had a destination charger. We stayed there for 3 days and drove everywhere without needing any other charger.
• There are Superchargers everywhere. Its pretty amazing really.
• I only needed my portable charging cable once. We stopped at a hotel in Death Valley and they had a 50amp which I used to charge the Tesla. I think this is more on the rare side of things.
• Autopilot is a dream for these trips. For me it takes about 85% of the fatigue of driving away. Please keep at least one hand on the wheel, but you can really enjoy the trip more.

Have a great time and report back

 

[outdoors]

Apparently my humor troubled someone. So I must explain or dig a deeper hole. Come on dislike. Give me more.

I don't really look at depreciation when I buy a car. 200-250k is normal for what I put on a car/truck. So my thought is I want to drive my car even if I can save a few $. No shade at those that want to save, but you are saving what exactly if you intend to put significant miles on car? Maybe over the life 20k in miles if on every long trip you rent a car? Then you have to sell the car or trade it in to actually save, but you are still spending by renting.

Not sure that works for me. I would be renting every weekend. Like to fill my car up with soccer/lax gear in my garage and go. Picking up car/delivery. Just a pain. Having some kid check how much of an awesome job I did watching over their Hyundai for the weekend. No thanks. Should never even bought a car. Example. Drove to DE on Wednesday last week and back to MI on Sunday. My enjoyment of my Tesla would be greatly diminished if it was just only a commuter car.

I see a diminished enjoyment suit coming if I was a renter on a regular basis.

Side note. I would have had to spend the night in a hotel if I did not have autopilot on the way home from DE. Left at 1pm. All the savings would have been gone. Echo @nnick01 above last comments.

DYOD Drive Your Own Drive. In a Tesla it is much more fun.

 

[xav-]

You can't just divide how many mile you think you car can go to how much you pay for the car. Back to your calculation, your car do have a residual value after 120k miles. You should minus that before calculating how much per mile

Sure but I also skipped maintenance and potential repairs. Furthermore what's the value gonna be once nothing is covered by warranty (drive units battery etc).. I don't think much personally..

Not disagreeing... putting a number on something like this is going to be difficult no matter what you do... maybe it's $800 instead of $1,000.. that doesn't change my initial point that it's likely far above the cost of renting a car ($200 in OPs case)

 

[xav-]

As a side note my notes were 100 pc from a financial perspective.. doesn't mean that's the right thing to do.

Personally I d prefer OP to drive his/her model 3 and provide feedback on range, autopilot and car overall

 

[Saghost]

The road trip will be safer and more fun in the 3, and you'll learn more about the car and bond with it more. Teslas generally accumulate a lot of miles, and don't seem nearly as affected by them as most other cars. I have to think sooner or later the market will realize that the depreciation rate is different and prices will reflect that.

 

[Shygar]

FYI I rented a Model X a few weekends ago and put about 1000 miles on it in 2 days driving down the coast and back. Had 6 people in the car and completely full of luggage. The supercharger stops were very refreshing, but having only 224 miles to start with gave me slight range anxiety on one of my routes between superchargers. I ended up charging more at the superchargers than recommended, but it worked out most of the time since we just had lunch/dinner at those stops. Highly recommend it!

 

[Shock-On-T]

You are me and I am you.

This is my "wife's car" and yea she is concerned about taking it on such a long trip for our family straight from the delivery and being stuck in the middle of nowhere Mississippi. I told her its about the journey especially in a Tesla.

Another big concern is charging when we get there as we are staying with family and we wont get our adapter in time for the dryer charging so 110v it is.

If you're staying two or more days the UMC should be fine.
And don't worry about breaking down, even if it happens it will just be an interesting story (about the time you spent 9 months in a hill-person's basement before escaping by slowly developing a trust relationship with their mentally retarded man-child).

 

[Beckler]

This site has reached new depths when people have to post about whether to drive their car or not. That garage turntable is useful - you can drive forward both in and out of your driveway. That had been generally considered a logical fallacy by philosophers.

 

[Rogue one]

Funny that is exactly what I hope to do when I get my model 3. We have a 2 thousand mile round trip drive planned for the first month in my revised delivery window... would love to take the model 3 if I have it in time. ( :

 

[Uncle Paul]

Had a friend say that not driving your car to keep from getting miles on it is like saving your hot girlfriend for the next guy.

Your car will have little difference in value if you sell it with 125,000 miles on it vs.128,000 miles on it. That is the real cost difference you will save by using a rental car.

By taking your Model 3 on the road trip, you will learn all it's personality and capabilities. You will become more bonded with the car and the new way of driving on electricity.

The memories you will bring back from this first road trip will be far more than with your econobox cheapie rental.

Take the Tesla.It's fantastic.