Three weeks of driving a Peugeot 208 GT (ICE); what do I miss now I have my Tesla back?

[Peter 224]

I can live with the less than perfect headlights and wipers. I've mostly given up using the autopilot.
The M3 LR is a cheap performance saloon. Why do I say that?
To get the same level of performance from an ICE or Hybrid and "stuff" like power/memory seats, heated seats, good audio, etc, etc the answer is something from one of the usual 3 German suspects and pay from 50% 10 100% more.

Elon ploughs his own furrow, I suspect all the irritating features are because he doesn't source from the 2 or 3 firms that most other companies use, but Tesla developed. .
Having said that there are "German Traces", the gear selector works exactly as in all recent Mercedes cars and the seat movement and lumbar support controls are common to other cars!

If you want German perfection buy the BMW i4-360, £64k without a glass sunroof! Top of the range is £72k.

 

[Artiste]

Mine has only one saving grace……it was free so no hire car costs. I do have to mix with peasants down at the local filling station though……

You’re not guaranteed to get a better class of person at a supercharger. Have you seen the amount of litter that’s dropped at some supercharger sites? In my not so humble opinion anyone who drops litter is a complete peasant.

 

[Mr H]

You’re not guaranteed to get a better class of person at a supercharger. Have you seen the amount of litter that’s dropped at some supercharger sites? In my not so humble opinion anyone who drops litter is a complete peasant.

My comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek in reference to buying dinosaur juice V leccy

 

[Artiste]

My comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek in reference to buying dinosaur juice V leccy

And you do have a point. Had to get petrol for my lawnmower last week and it wasn’t a pleasant experience. Partly because I couldn’t remember how to work the damn pump!!

 

[SR-Plus]

Not got my car yet…..however:

I’ve never used auto-high beam assist, so not bothered about that.

I don’t think you can manually switch on the high beam without using the touchscreen in a M3? I haven’t driven much in the night to try this so I could be wrong.

 

[Neilman]

I don’t think you can manually switch on the high beam without using the touchscreen in a M3? I haven’t driven much in the night to try this so I could be wrong.

For high beam use left stalk - push forward to toggle high/low beam**, pull back to flash main beam.
** only works if auto high beam mode is not selected.

 

[chamshaw]

Agree somewhat re headlights (set low) but wipers are (so far) good, precise. Stopped at a roadworks light and received a beautiful full-colour picture of the barrier of red light and cones. High art! Front cameras seem to be slow to register things; possibly a measure of pixel rate or something?

 

[Somex]

Auto wipers are still kind of bad.

My auto wipers are still the kind of bad that I call very very (bad)

 

[Durzel]

I'm pretty much in total agreement with @Zigway (I don't care for CarPlay, even though I've got several Apple things).

Got an Peugeot e-2008 GT on subscription from Onto, as a test. User interface (UI) wise it's not a patch on Tesla. Even though traditional automakers are adding bigger screens to their cars, the user experience (UX) leaves a lot to be desired. From experiencing this car, and seeing others, they all have their peculiarities, irritations and things that are either unintuitive, clunky or conspicuously missing. The Peugeot's biggest problem is that the responsiveness is lacking, button presses are laboured affairs, etc. One thing Tesla has nailed in my opinion is the UX - particularly how snappy it is (I realise older MCU1 cars are not as performant).

I should say also that I really like the minimalist interior of the Tesla, particularly the older piano black ones like mine where it looks totally innovative (the newer ones do too, but they have more traditional cues imo).

That being said, the interior of the Peugeot is nice. As @Zigway said the seats are a revelation compared to the Model 3. They're more supportive, which sounds ridiculous when you consider its probably at least twice if not three times as slow 0-60 as my car is. The Model 3 seats - particularly in a P - are pretty crap if I'm honest. The best thing you can say about them is that they're comfortable, but I've had other cars with more supportive seats that have been just as comfortable.

The biggest revelation for me, similar to @Zigway, has been just how well the auto main beam and wipers work. You forget how well these systems can work when you've been driving a Tesla for a while. I don't do many miles so I haven't got to a point where it has seriously annoyed me, but the times I have driven it in variable conditions it has been fairly inconsistent. Auto main beams are just not fit for purpose - they don't turn off for distant rear lights, they're very slow to react to oncoming ones, and they turn off on reflections on signs, etc. The Peugeot, by comparison, works damn near flawlessly. It reacts fast enough to oncoming lights that I haven't once been flashed, and it turns off properly in areas of sufficient ambient lighting, etc. I haven't seen it react incorrectly thus far.

Likewise auto wipers work excellently, night and day, in variable rain conditions. Once activated (my only complaint is that you have to reactivate it every time you drive the car by pressing the stalk down) it just works.

I did an hour and a half journey yesterday in a mixture of drizzle, light and heavier rain and when it progressed from dusk to dark over the course of the journey, and both auto main beam and auto wipers worked absolutely flawlessly.

Tesla really need to get this basic stuff sorted out. It is beyond embarassing that a car at this level, the gold standard of autonomy (apparently), gets this basic stuff so wrong.

 

[HenryT]

The biggest revelation for me, similar to @Zigway, has been just how well the auto main beam and wipers work. You forget how well these systems can work when you've been driving a Tesla for a while. I don't do many miles so I haven't got to a point where it has seriously annoyed me, but the times I have driven it in variable conditions it has been fairly inconsistent. Auto main beams are just not fit for purpose - they don't turn off for distant rear lights, they're very slow to react to oncoming ones, and they turn off on reflections on signs, etc. The Peugeot, by comparison, works damn near flawlessly. It reacts fast enough to oncoming lights that I haven't once been flashed, and it turns off properly in areas of sufficient ambient lighting, etc. I haven't seen it react incorrectly thus far.

Likewise auto wipers work excellently, night and day, in variable rain conditions. Once activated (my only complaint is that you have to reactivate it every time you drive the car by pressing the stalk down) it just works.

I did an hour and a half journey yesterday in a mixture of drizzle, light and heavier rain and when it progressed from dusk to dark over the course of the journey, and both auto main beam and auto wipers worked absolutely flawlessly.

Tesla really need to get this basic stuff sorted out. It is beyond embarassing that a car at this level, the gold standard of autonomy (apparently), gets this basic stuff so wrong.

All very commendable but can it fart on demand?

(Still makes me cringe when people ask 'is yours one of those cars that can fart?')

 

[Durzel]

Joking aside one thing Tesla have done remarkably well, it seems, is convincing outsiders to the brand that the car fully drives itself around, picks you up, etc.

The girls where I work earnestly asked if "it" could drive them home after a night out, etc. Naturally I said it could, but "UK laws don't really allow it", so I couldn't oblige. They asked me if I was ever scared while it drove me around, etc, to which I said "yeah sometimes, I don't always let it do it".

 

[HenryT]

The girls where I work earnestly asked if "it" could drive them home after a night out, etc. Naturally I said it could, but "UK laws don't really allow it", so I couldn't oblige. They asked me if I was ever scared while it drove me around, etc, to which I said "yeah sometimes, I don't always let it do it".

"Nah, doesn't worry me, I'm usually asleep in the back"

 

[Dilly]

Joking aside one thing Tesla have done remarkably well, it seems, is convincing outsiders to the brand that the car fully drives itself around, picks you up, etc.

The girls where I work earnestly asked if "it" could drive them home after a night out, etc. Naturally I said it could, but "UK laws don't really allow it", so I couldn't oblige. They asked me if I was ever scared while it drove me around, etc, to which I said "yeah sometimes, I don't always let it do it".

You should tell them that the cabin camera is watching them!

 

[Yachtsman]

I thought I had it bad driving around in my wife’s wee Audi A1.

I feel similar when I drive the wife’s BMW 220 manual. Thankfully rarely since having the m3lr