Feeling pebbles doesnt speak to one's bravery. Feeling boulders and potholes does.
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Model 3's Ride Quality
- Thread starter BobRoberts
- Start date
True, and hopefully seeing and test driving You You's car this week will help, but I really need my wife to be into this car. She could care less about it's EV-ness or how sporty it feels, and is cross shopping it with ICE SUVs. My hail mary combo at the dealership of "I won't drive a V6, let's see what the rumored 4-cylinder 2019 Acura RDX that will be unveiled in Jan looks like" was the only thing that kept us from canceling our 3 reservation and moving forward on a decently optioned, well-priced 2018 RDX a few weeks ago.
Whatever we buy will also be our only car and we have a toddler and another baby on the way, so a super tight suspension will be a big negative for car napping...
Well that's a different situation. It's certainly not an SUV. It's not a big car by any stretch of the imagination. Kind of an apples to oranges decision.
With this background, the odds are not in your favor. Considering Acura dynamic objectives, suspension travel of a taller vehicle, and likely higher profile tires, she will most likely find the Acura more comfortable.
But, she could care less or she couldn't? Maybe it's even more important to her than you think!
It can definitely seem apples to oranges, except in our case we are a 1 car household and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. I've been pushing hard for an EV for years and the Model 3 has been the first car we've been able to see eye-to-eye on from an aesthetic standpoint. However, I wasn't aware that my other half was even considering SUVs as an option until very recently, let alone ones with as horrible of an MPG rating as the 2018 RDX (AWD).
As long as the backseat area can fit 2 rear facing car seats without diminishing front seat leg room and the ride isn't more jarring than that of our ILX, we might be okay... oh, and the 2019 RDX doesn't end up being the most beautiful, fuel efficient ICE car ever created. lol.
insaneoctane
Well-Known Member
You could throw your second hail Mary pass by explaining the vast decrease in maintenance and reliability (and $$ savings) due to the far simpler drivetrain.... Of course you will have to live with the consequences if Tesla do not deliver on that *possibility*
But, Model 3 vs SUV is a bit of a stretch....
Feeling every pebble on the road? I think Volkswagen had a term for that... "Fahrvergnügen"! 
Yes a Porsche Panamera with PASM and AS handles and rides both really well. Basically the handling/stability is as good as possible for a car of that weight/size (better than most smaller cars) and comfort is very good tho not as good as the top luxury sedans. Maybe similarly good or just slightly behind is BMW M5. But ya, we are talking the pinnacle of automotive engineering (and price as even a base Panamera easily goes above 100k with moderate options) to get both firm/sporty suspension at the same time as having a high level luxury/premium ride quality.
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rxlawdude
Active Member
If you were to buy a 3 again with air suspension... you'd have something that's not in existence!
Unfortunately that probably won't apply to us as we've always driven Honda/Acura (reliability has been exceptional) and the service on our ILX has only been wiper and fancy oil changes twice a year for an annual maintenance cost of under $250-300. We only drive like 6k miles per year and still have live 50-60% left on the original tires and brakes.
roblab
Active Member
roblab
Active Member
Well, that didn't work. I was just going to comment on your "6000 miles per year". That was me, six years ago. Then we bought our first S. Somehow it's been 30,000 per year ever since.
That is kind of amazing. Pre-Tesla, the conventional wisdom was that EVs cause "range anxiety" and you would be constrained to driving less, only for short distances. Big battery pack, big range, and supercharging network has sent you in the other direction!
Free supercharging probably helped there as well. Comfortable car helped too I bet.
I doubt Tesla wanted to encourage people to do more driving. Your total energy use for driving probably hasn't improved if you drive 5x more now than you did before...
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gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
Hi @roblab, long time!
Regarding lower $$ for maintenance, I don't know about reduced maintenance costs on Teslas when compared to premium gassy brands like Acura, atleast in the first few years of ownership while in the warranty period in both cases. On the S, there's the annual maintenance cost - $475 for odd years and a whopping $725 for even years. This is outside of the prepaid plan which has never been cheap either (don't know what it costs now). Extended warranty for years 4-8 is $4,250; I remember extended warranty for years 4-7 costing me less than $2k on my erstwhile 2004 Acura TL.
We don't know yet what all these will work out to for the 3. This is one aspect of Tesla ownership that has always left a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth for me, particularly because Elon has always touted the low TCO for Teslas. I've grudgingly paid up so far but at slightly longer maintenance intervals than the annual cycle.
Regarding lower $$ for maintenance, I don't know about reduced maintenance costs on Teslas when compared to premium gassy brands like Acura, atleast in the first few years of ownership while in the warranty period in both cases. On the S, there's the annual maintenance cost - $475 for odd years and a whopping $725 for even years. This is outside of the prepaid plan which has never been cheap either (don't know what it costs now). Extended warranty for years 4-8 is $4,250; I remember extended warranty for years 4-7 costing me less than $2k on my erstwhile 2004 Acura TL.
We don't know yet what all these will work out to for the 3. This is one aspect of Tesla ownership that has always left a somewhat bitter taste in the mouth for me, particularly because Elon has always touted the low TCO for Teslas. I've grudgingly paid up so far but at slightly longer maintenance intervals than the annual cycle.
We live in a major city and I bike to work in any condition that isn't accumulating snow, so this is why our mileage is so low. I'd certainly be into owning a car that'd actually be fun to drive instead of just being a people move, provided that car didn't actively destroy the environment. Hoping that a positive experience in You You's 3 will help me build a "everything will fit fine, it's a comfortable ride" case with my wife.
The RDX we test drove was physically comfortable and has more space than our ILX, but feeling the V6 engine hum when I pressed the accelerator was super uncomfortable for me from an ethical standpoint. The vehicle's computer showed that it was getting 13.6 MPG (test drive route was mainly highway). I just can't comprehend owning a car that consumes so much fossil fuel.
I like the suspension in the 3 way more than the Air suspension on my P85, now since the 3 is my wife's car, she'll likely disagree. I prefer good balanced handling over smoothness, so my priorities may be different than yours.
Going over speed bumps, it's a nice and smooth going over them, on the air suspension there's a rebound and bounce before it settles after each speed bump.
If they were aiming for the BMW 3-series, I think they've done a really good job on the handling. The performance AWD version (assuming they don't force the air suspension on you), should be a blast to drive.
Going over speed bumps, it's a nice and smooth going over them, on the air suspension there's a rebound and bounce before it settles after each speed bump.
If they were aiming for the BMW 3-series, I think they've done a really good job on the handling. The performance AWD version (assuming they don't force the air suspension on you), should be a blast to drive.
T34ME
Active Member
And you will have two young children growing up in that polluted environment if people continue to drive ICE. Life is always about compromises and setting priorities. Good luck with your decisions.
Shock-On-T
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Ah, but I’ve chosen to do road trip holidays where previously I’d have flown halfway round the world
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