Hello all, this is my second post. Same as before, this will be a long read, enjoy it when you can.
So long story short, a guy who has no license or insurance rear-ended my 2018 Model 3 on June 20th. The repair bill came back from a Tesla Authorized body shop with 22k. My insurance totaled it with 30k payment and I got a newer one with 36k on July 22nd.
I had experienced the Tesla accident response, towing a disabled car, Tesla body shop, insurance support, total loss, and buying another Tesla! I'd like to share my experience with everyone, hopefully, you don't need it but I wish you don't make the same mistake I did when you do.
I had a 2018 Model 3 LR AWD which was fully loaded with all options, and I drive about 40k miles a year after I got it in early 2021 if you check my last post about this car. The odo is close to 120k and I was expecting to get 200k on it since it has been absolutely 0 trouble for the last 80k miles! But at the same time, I kinda know it's only a matter of time before something happens to me given I'm driving inside the city of Milwaukee where reckless driving takes place all the time. My dash cam has recorded countless accidents around the car. But I didn't expect to be that day.
I was driving on a normal street, starting as the first one at the green light (27th & Wells if you know MKE). Then I saw the light at the next intersection is turning red (27th & Wisc) so I slowed down after I pass the intersection. Then the only thing I can remember was a loud braking noise, then I only remembered that I was tightly bound to the seat after a crash sound. I don't think the crash was too hard since I was driving at low speed (<30mph), but I didn't recall anything during the hit. I sat in the car for a little bit to catch my breath, the seat belt exploded and kept me on the seat VERY VERY tight. I was talking to myself at this point "Is it the time I'm having an accident?" "Yeah I think I got hit." "Dame I wish the damage was not too bad." "Ah, my beloved Model 3, please don't total it.". I walked out of the car and shoot a video of this old suburban nose in my trunk.
Surprisingly, the guy did run away like most accidents in this area (doubted if he can with his water tank is leaking). I asked him "You have insurance?" "No". At this moment, I can only be wishing my insurance would take care of the rest. So I asked for his ID, took a picture of it, called 911, called my insurance, and called my colleague in the store 2 blocks away (I was that close to make it there safely!) to pick me up.
Police came pretty fast on a bike, went through the case, and then asked to move our cars. Here came the FIRST PROBLEM:
The car sensed the accident so it cut the power from the HV battery, I cannot change gears! And I believe the parking brake was engaged as well. I tried to call Tesla but I kept being interrupted by all kinds of insurance calls. The police officer helped with googling it, we tried the tow mode, not working; car wash mode, not working; restarting the computer, not working either. Then I had to ask for a tow, luckily my insurance told me that their tow will take a long time, and if the police can arrange any tow faster, use it and the insurance will take care of it from the city lot later and cover the cost. So I ask the police to arrange their tow to the city lot. I took all my personal belongings to my colleague's car. Then there came the SECOND PROBLEM and THIRD PROBLEM...
Since the car cut the power from HV battery, everything is running on the 12V battery, and then I got the notice on the app of the 12V battery failure about 3 hours later. And I lost connection to the car until it was brought back to life at the body shop 3 days later. The car was left unlocked for the whole time!
I thought my Tesla should automatically record the accident since it detected it. So I yanked out everything including the hard drive (Samsung T5 1GB SSD) from the car and try to look it up when I'm back home. However, IT WAS NOT RECORDED. I only have the video from 1 minute earlier... What a shame! I googled this problem afterwards and realized that I was not the only one. YOU HAVE TO PRESS THE DASH CAM BUTTON OR ANY WAY TO MANUALLY TRIGGER THE RECORDING TO ENSURE THE CAR SAVES A RECENT CLIP, otherwise, it's a hit or miss based on the time of the incident (Tesla records the dash by minute).
So, if you are in an accident (still hopefully you don't). The first thing you do is voice "record a clip" or press the record button (or by Honk if you set it the way. I didn't but now I do.)
If HV power is disabled, go into the service mode (Google it and get familiar with it) and force the tow mode.
Then before it was towed, turn off the hazard light and lock the car (if you cannot remove your personal belongings in time).
While I was talking to my insurance, I saw the other driver was cuffed and sent to the back seat of the police car... I felt bad for a second for this guy (which I'll discuss about it later). I had no idea of him afterward.
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Then there came the waiting game. My insurance towed my car from the city lot to the Tesla-authorized body shop (Marshal Auto Body) which is 20 miles from MKE per my request. The closest official Tesla body shop is in IL which is about 80 miles away which I didn't bother with.
The body shop had the initial estimate of 11k with 4k parts and 7k labor, and an estimated repair time of 3~4 weeks due to parts shortage... I was doing the math on my side as well. The car at its mileage is about 28k on the market, not to consider the FSD addon... problem is you don't see too many 2018 LR AWD on the market anyway. The residue value of the cosmetic-damaged car on an auction is about 12-15k. The difference is about 12-15k, so I estimated that I could be able to get my car back if the bill is less than 15k. HOWEVER...
It took the body shop more than 2 weeks to dismantle my car and get an accurate estimate, and the final bill came back with 22k! 7k in parts and 15k in labor! I knew what was coming the moment I got the updated bill. And yes, I missed a call with a caller ID "State Farm Total Loss" at work the second day. here came the NEXT PROBLEM (sorry I lost count):
My insurance plan only covers $500 renting with 20% me out of pocket. This will only last about 7-10 days for the cheapest car I can get from a rental company. With the current shortage, nothing can be done in that period of time, and the other side had no insurance so this left me with a very bad situation. Luckily my company has its own delivery team so there are tons of company cars I can use (the boss's not gonna say no to it because I have to be mobile all the time). I will talk about my gas car experience later, I found it very interesting. Please check your insurance coverage, I would say a $1000 benefit is the minimum you need for a rental just in case, expect months-long waiting on any repair job now.
Side story... I was a long-time Rivian reservation holder. The accident was on Thursday, and I was contacted by a Rivian guide on Saturday that they have 2 R1S that I can get now and I have to make a decision asap. WTF timing (sorry for my language)! I have been hoping to get an R1S for too long but this is definitely the worst timing. Yes I don't have a car now, but I don't know if I am going to replace it or repair it. My original plan is to replace my wife's old gas car with R1S to be all EV. This is totally out of my plan. After hours of struggling, I declined the offer, I may have said NO to an opportunity that most of you will feel disappointed, but I just cannot bypass the mentality of not going all EV. I only can keep telling myself that spending 100k on a car is stupid, you can does not mean you should. It still hurts when I think of it now.
3 weeks after the accident I was offered a total of 30k payment for my car. It was a little bit higher than I expected, I was expecting some lowball offer but my insurance has been super supportive throughout the entire process. I need a car immediately, while I was looking at the market for used cars, I just cannot figure out how to price the FSD. All the used market kinda ignored it but it's a fancy function that bothers me with my decision. But to be honest, I hate it more than I love it, so I accepted the offer and start looking for a new one.
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Gas Car experience before we jump into my second EV purchase...
I drove a gas car as my daily for the full 4 weeks after 2 and a half years solely on a Model 3. It was a mind-blowing experience!
I had a 2017 Corolla for the first few days. I drove it very conservatively since I was "new" to a gas car. I expected all the bad experiences with it. However, other than it's slow, I can't really complain... It's efficient, I can easily get 50+mpg. It's easy to use, android auto is plug and play, and I can use Waze again!
Then I drove a 2014 Prius for the rest of 3 weeks. It's slow as hell, but I kept getting 55~58 mpg. I started doing the math again... My time-of-use electricity price just went up this year to 12c per kWh in downtime and 21c per kWh in up time. With my miles per kWh, it's about the same cost of 50mpg on a gas car. Gas car is easy to use, not to worry about the "charging" all the time, and fast to "charge up". I can wait for the last bar and find a gas station in 2 minutes, fill it up in 5 minutes then I'll have another reliable 500 miles range.
LOL, for a second I was questioning my "ALL EV" plan. In thinking of the practicability and cost to own, nowadays gas cars still have their ground. I started looking into some gas cars while I'm shopping. But, when I started looking into cars that either has similar technology or performance, this whole picture changed. Tesla/EVs are not perfect, but it has the best balance between all the factors I list in there. Cheap to own, easy to use, unbeatable performance... I got annoyed thinking that I have to do oil changes again. No, thank you.
BTW, Prius is really slow, in all aspects. If you got passed by a Prius, DO NOT camp on the left lane, shame on you!
EV purchase
I was struggling with this more than deciding between an ICE or EV. I declined the R1S offer, and I'm still in need of a family car in the near future while my wife and I are planning for the second kid. She has a Ford Focus, and My model 3 can only fit a stroller, a car seat, and then we will have a problem with a family Costco trip. We tested Model Y, it was great. The overall quality has improved by a lot from my 2018 Tesla. We were planning to get the 7 seater which is perfect for our need but I finally said no from my rear-end story, not sure how safe it is over there. Safety plays a much more important role when you have a kid... That's why I'm still keeping my EX90 reservation.
Another concern I had is that I drive a lot, so the warranty will be gone in 2 years. Getting a brand new car as my daily is a waste of money on the diminished value even with the 7500 tax credit. And I still want to go full EV, I AM GOING TO GET RID OF THE FOCUS SOON. I was browsing used cars like crazy for a few days until I all of sudden saw a used 2020 Model 3 LR AWD with EAP, AB, and 19-inch wheel for $35900 at 28k miles from Tesla. I look at their used inventory every 15 minutes so I know this is new inventory, highly likely returned lease. The options are worth 10k (2k AB, 6k EAP, and 1K wheel) there, so I paid $500 right away to reserve it. It was manufactured in Sep 2020 and first licensed in Nov 2020. I know I'm missing the heat pump and bigger battery of the 2021 model but the price difference is too big. I still want to save as much as I can for my wife's next EV. I'm stilling getting the current generation of motors so I think the deal is sweet. Plus another 10k and 1 year extended used car warranty from Tesla.
FSD relief.
I wanted the FSD but as I said I hate it more than I love it. I understand the "Self-driving" part but I just cannot adapt to its driving habit. Making unnecessary lane changes, not being flexible enough as a driver in most highway driving, and bad map data. Everyone has his/her own driving style, and the style of FSD is not going to fit all even with whatever level of AI/cloud, this is the nature of human driving. It forces me to use it because I paid for it. It's such a relief not to have the FSD, EAP has been meeting all my needs except for only 5 miles above the local speed limit, not a big deal and I can definitely live with it. The car's behavior is more predictable and reliable on the highway.
Acceleration Boost
Get it if you need speed. It makes a difference! The first moment I drove the car off the lot I notice the faster responsiveness and faster acceleration. I am pretty used to the model 3 speed. But this one with AB still surprises me all the time! And it has a longer range than a P and cheaper tires than a P. Unless you get a very good price on a P, paying for AB is a better buy to me.
Efficiency
Another big difference I notice is the efficiency, especially at highway speed. I'm only 1000k miles on this car so I'm not sure it's from the stock tire vs my previous Pilot Sports AS. But I have been around 250wh/mile for the last 1000 miles including driving 80+ between Chicago and Milwaukee a few times. I don't see this low number on my previous car AT ALL! I know in 2020 they have increased the displayed range. But I think the efficiency has significantly improved from the very first generation. Tesla is making bogus claims on their range, they should have done some great work to further increase it. The bubble should be smaller with newer generations. I'm expecting 250 miles instead of 200 miles in real-life range now.
Car Pick up process
Another reason I choose a car from Tesla is the easy "dealer" experience. I had all kinds of stories of luring pricing like posted for CPO but you will have to pay 2000 more to get the CPO warranty. Absurd document fee, and not to mention the notorious dealer markups...
Buying from tesla is easy, the price listed is the price for the car. I used the app to go through the entire buying process without talking to any human. Went to the SC on time, loaded my profile to the car once they activate the delivery process, and drove out of the lot in 30 minutes (paid in full in the app already). I was not as excited as other buyers since this my second, unexpected, tesla. They only asked for my name, and handed the key card without even checking my app or ID, LOL. I must be the least happy new model 3 owner they had.
WI does not allow direct sales so I choose the Schaumburg location to pick up. Tesla mailed all the documents 1 week later, I filled out the form and mailed to the WI DMV with a check for registration fees and tax. EZPZ. I would still highly recommend this way for a real hassle-free buying experience.
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SC visit.
I visited the MKE SC one time... only for the rear license plate screws... LOL they are not included with a used car
