As I sit here in Australia waiting for the first of the Model 3's to arrive any day now, the thing I'm looking forward to the most about this car is the lack of a transmission. I've always had manual cars because I love how you can be in the right gear for a corner and then zoom out of it. My current car is an automatic and the only automatic I've owned and, yes you can shift it manually but it doesn't feel as good.
I'm lucky to be in this position of buying a Tesla because a few months ago I was intending to sell my five year old BMW 1 Series auto and buy the same car new but with a manual transmission. I was hoping also to get one of the last rear wheel drive 1 Series before the new front drive models appear later this year. I could not believe it when I found out that it is impossible to buy a new BMW 1 series as a manual. What the? A company that uses the slogan The Ultimate Driving Experience does not sell a manual car in this series?
Anyway the problem with a manual or automatic transmission is that if you suddenly want to accelerate it takes a few seconds. In a manual you have to shift. In an auto when you put your foot down it takes a while for the action to start. I was showing my son this on the way home from school. I said to him I'll tell you when I'm going to put my foot to the floor and we'll see what happens. I put my foot to the floor (we were only doing about 30kmh). Nothing happened for a second while the car though about what to do, then it actually stopped accelerating as it figured out a few gears, then it made a lot of noise and finally it began to get going.
I used to race go-karts and maybe because of this the things I hold highest in a car is the handling, the way it goes around corners, and the transmission. I've had a couple of 4WD's or SUV's in my time and I just can't deal with the way they handle and have to sell them after about a year.
So the thing I'm looking forward to the most is the lack of transmission in a Tesla, the ability to be able to apply the power coming out of a corner or to apply it instantly if needed.
Cheers from Oz.
I'm lucky to be in this position of buying a Tesla because a few months ago I was intending to sell my five year old BMW 1 Series auto and buy the same car new but with a manual transmission. I was hoping also to get one of the last rear wheel drive 1 Series before the new front drive models appear later this year. I could not believe it when I found out that it is impossible to buy a new BMW 1 series as a manual. What the? A company that uses the slogan The Ultimate Driving Experience does not sell a manual car in this series?
Anyway the problem with a manual or automatic transmission is that if you suddenly want to accelerate it takes a few seconds. In a manual you have to shift. In an auto when you put your foot down it takes a while for the action to start. I was showing my son this on the way home from school. I said to him I'll tell you when I'm going to put my foot to the floor and we'll see what happens. I put my foot to the floor (we were only doing about 30kmh). Nothing happened for a second while the car though about what to do, then it actually stopped accelerating as it figured out a few gears, then it made a lot of noise and finally it began to get going.
I used to race go-karts and maybe because of this the things I hold highest in a car is the handling, the way it goes around corners, and the transmission. I've had a couple of 4WD's or SUV's in my time and I just can't deal with the way they handle and have to sell them after about a year.
So the thing I'm looking forward to the most is the lack of transmission in a Tesla, the ability to be able to apply the power coming out of a corner or to apply it instantly if needed.
Cheers from Oz.