Help! My wife wants my Model 3.

[puckpurnell]

selling Subaru and invest in Tesla stock since you guys just need one car most of time. save the money and buy a long range cybertruck in the future for long trip once it is released.

We did invest in Tesla stock. It's been a wonderful ride.

 

[Electric700]

Picked up our M3 in June and my wife, who does not normally like new technology, fell in love with it. She has been driving a 2015 Subaru Outback - very nice car, well-made and safe -- but now she thinks it is too big. During the pandemic, with both of us working from home, we usually take the M3 and leave the Outback in the garage.

Been thinking of trading in the Outback for a BMW i3. The used price appears to be comparable and we really only need the second car for small trips around town. Our neighbor loved her i3 until it was totaled a couple of days after we came home with our M3. (No one was injured.) The neighbor liked the M3 so much she bought it to replace her i3 but she is still a big fan of her old car.

I can't afford another Tesla but I could afford a trade for an i3. What are the pros and cons? How can I charge two electric cars at the same time without installing new electric service? The i3 will be used for in town driving but I do not want to sacrifice safety.

Thoughts?

What about a used Tesla? There are some listed on Tesla's site here:

New & Used Electric Cars | Tesla

Stay away from Nissan Leafs since they don't have liquid battery cooling or good battery management.

Also as another member suggested, a new or used Chevrolet Bolt might be a good choice too. It has a range of 238 miles and a liquid cooled battery (like Teslas and BMW i3s). You can get the Premium version and make sure it has collision alert and a surround camera view (this is one I wish Tesla would start putting on their cars). Also, it has a Hilltop Reserve Mode / Target Charge Level you can enable. This is good for battery longevity when you set it to 80 - 90%

Check out Cars.com or Carvana.com too for availability.

As for charging, you can use the standard EVSE that comes with either a Tesla or Bolt and plug it into a 120 V wall outlet, or get a separate charging station / adapter. You may need to change out a circuit breaker or make sure the charging station and car are set to a lower amperage. Consult an electrician. If you do want to make circuit changes, you should also invest in a whole house surge protector if you don't already have one. Here are some:

GE Whole Home Surge Protection Unit-Panel Mount-THQLSURGE - The Home Depot

Square D QO 22.5 kA 2-Pole Surgebreaker Surge Protective Device-QO2175SB - The Home Depot

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Funny, my long-time girlfriend had the same idea. She bought a Tesla Model 3 LR AWD after experiencing my P3D- for a while.

If you don't need much range, the BMW i3 is a nice car, and one very unique thing about it is that it's SMALL. I love small cars, but there aren't many small BEVs with any decent range. I know there's a smart electric, FIAT 500e electric, Honda e (which we cannot get in the States), and the BMW i3, so I consider this a fun selling point. As mentioned in this thread, Tesla has their own 25k car coming at some point in the near future. Will this be a hot hatch of some sort? Remains to be seen, but it's gonna be great and I hope it's nice and small and with good range.

However, the i3 is fairly expensive. I think you *could* afford a Model 3 more than you realize, especially by the time you get through a few options with the i3. I priced out some trims on the i3 and it got expensive quickly, but I too have a soft spot for that car.

If you're open to a Model 3 refreshed SR+, I think you might be able to swing it with the Subaru trade-in, and your wife could drive that. The refreshed Model 3 has 263 miles of range, and its no-nonsense pricing (before rebates and electric savings over gas) is $37,990. Plus you'd get that beautiful M3 styling.

I'd also look a Tesla Wall Connector since you have a garage. This would be ideal for two Teslas. It's less ideal for a Tesla and an i3 but you could always just go with a generic L2 charger from another company such as Chargepoint or Clipper Creek once you have your charger installed. Then, either of you could use it without an issue as long as there's a J1772 connector—you with the adapter that came with your Tesla and she could plug in to the i3 without any adapter.

i3 is a car that gets some good lease deals. So if mileage requirements are low, it's not necessarily going to be that expensive.