Traded in my 2018 LR RWD for AWD: Observations

[Big Dog]

Ya know... I am not convinced that's a bad thing. I have HomeLink with my M3 but it only works on arrival. On departure it works maybe MAYBE 20% of the time, likely closer to 10%. I've fiddled with the distance to no avail. There was another owner on here that expressed the exact same phenomenon, leaving the garage it generally won't close the garage door even though it is solid on opening the door. So, one either has to stop and reach over to hit the little green icon then the door icon or have their garage door opener readily available. In the later case HomeLink is irrelevant. Maybe it works better in a gated community opening and closing the gate.

you should have a SC or Mobile guy check it out. My homelink works correctly 99+% of the time, both leaving and returning.

 

[SDKoala]

1. Obviously, the AWD is faster on a straight line.
2. Can feel the added weight on the front of car. Steering is less direct. RWD was more nimble. From pure driving perspective RWD is more pleasant to drive.
3. Surprisingly, Insurance for AWD is $200 less/year.
4. Pissed with fake leather steering wheel.
5. Missing FSD I got on RWD model for $2k. Current $6k is no go for me.
6. HW3 AP feel is the same as HW2.5
7. Removing garage door opener was a cheap move from Tesla.
8. Came with odd 2019.27.103 version and old maps and will not update.
9. The new one has small and incremental improvements here and there. Same car overall.
10. Fit and finish at delivery still lacking. Few minor paint issues here and there which SC should be able to address.

Thanks for the post. I've been toying with the idea of going from the same car (2018 LR RWD) to AWD (performance) but have a hard time justifying it to be able to accelerate faster in a straight line. My daily drive is full of bends and S-curves and I'd hate to go to a car that feels more sluggish in the corners.

 

[DopeGhoti]

My daily drive is full of bends and S-curves and I'd hate to go to a car that feels more sluggish in the corners.

Granted, I am coming from the perspective of a freshly-former ICE driver, but the last adjective I would put upon the LR AWD's performance - be it on bends or straights - would be 'sluggish'. Sure, the guy who came in #2 in the Olympiad hundred meter dash was not the fastest, but would you call him 'sluggish'?

 

[No42]

Btw, checked AP HW today, I think it is HW3 based on 1462554-00-H part number I got.

 

[holmgang]

Granted, I am coming from the perspective of a freshly-former ICE driver, but the last adjective I would put upon the LR AWD's performance - be it on bends or straights - would be 'sluggish'. Sure, the guy who came in #2 in the Olympiad hundred meter dash was not the fastest, but would you call him 'sluggish'?

Point to point speed is one thing. How it does it is another. Assuming a course where a Nissan GTR laps the same as a GT3RS, you wouldn't call the Nissan lithe and nippy

 

[MountainRatMat]

Yes, I was describing the forward pull in scenario, not reversing into a garage. I still have the same thing happen on 32.2.2. I am at 100% auto close since I stopped using the camera for positioning. I tested it twice since my first post in this thread and at 0% auto close if I pull in forward, put it in reverse and move a couple inches, park, exit, let it lock itself then get in the car and reverse out of the garage.

Why don't you turn on the rear camera without reversing? Just hit the little circle below the car animation on the screen.

 

[Skryll]

Actually, not true since the front motor is only used under heavy acceleration or in low traction scenarios. Otherwise, it is just along for the ride. The only thing that the AWD has going for it is a little more front weight bias.

So how do you explain the tire rotation schedule difference between RWD and AWD then?

Also at least for my driving style, RWD 18" aero with Michelin Primacy MXM4 barely last 10k miles.

 

[Occhis]

Regarding insurance pay, in my case my insurance agreed to pay me directly the loss.
The tradein value of the car as is was $39k -$2k for the damage.
Tradein sales tax rules are different in each state, in WA you do not pay sales tax on trade in portion.

if the damage was $13k, why did they only deduct $2k? Doesn’t look like $13k damage to me. I’ll bet that’s what you told your wife so you could get a new one!

 

[Bill47888]

This was my issue (though not as bad) along with the fact that HomeLink can't tell if the garage is open or not. So if my wife and I were both arriving home at the same time (but she got there first), I had my car close the garage onto her car or come close multiple times. If I had homelink on my M3, I would disable the location based opening/closing just for this reason.

Raise your light beam higher so it can’t close when a car is breaking the beam.

 

[wcorey]

Just as another option for you, I went with this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F6DNMQ

I liked the two bump system, felt more reassuring to me.

Ya know, I went to the amazon page and I liked the cradle system better. It looks like far less chance of being 'pushed' forward. I am thinking about the ultrasonic one that measures distance. Being in NE CT we will get snow brought in during the winter and my experience with dbl sided tape is not good. Again though, thank!

 

[wcorey]

you should have a SC or Mobile guy check it out. My homelink works correctly 99+% of the time, both leaving and returning.

After the other guy, sorry don't remember your 'handle', said never put the car in reverse once you are in the garage, I am 100%. So, yes, this is, what I'd consider, a software bug in the Tesla having nothing to do with HomeLink. Our garage is not THAT deep and with the offset door into the kitchen and trash bins on the back wall the clearance on the car is basically very shortly after the rear bumper clears the garage door. In one sense, it would almost be easier to leave the garage door opener in the cup holder. It's far more effort to get HomeLink ala Tesla working, what I'd consider, properly. If I need the garage door opening for closing as I exit, I might as well use it to open maybe. The M3 is a fair degree wider than the Prius so it'll be a reach to hit it on the passenger visor. Yeah, I know, I could put it on the driver's visor.

 

[bijan]

So how do you explain the tire rotation schedule difference between RWD and AWD then?

Also at least for my driving style, RWD 18" aero with Michelin Primacy MXM4 barely last 10k miles.

It is the acceleration difference (even if the front power mostly comes in under heavy acceleration that's likely what wears out the tires most) and also regen probably happens front and back on AWD.

At least that's what I think.

 

[Skryll]

After the other guy, sorry don't remember your 'handle', said never put the car in reverse once you are in the garage, I am 100%. So, yes, this is, what I'd consider, a software bug in the Tesla having nothing to do with HomeLink. Our garage is not THAT deep and with the offset door into the kitchen and trash bins on the back wall the clearance on the car is basically very shortly after the rear bumper clears the garage door. In one sense, it would almost be easier to leave the garage door opener in the cup holder. It's far more effort to get HomeLink ala Tesla working, what I'd consider, properly. If I need the garage door opening for closing as I exit, I might as well use it to open maybe. The M3 is a fair degree wider than the Prius so it'll be a reach to hit it on the passenger visor. Yeah, I know, I could put it on the driver's visor.

Just to clarify, homelink was super easy to setup on my 2018 Model 3 RWD LR, with one minor configuration change to the distance at which it should auto-open at. I rely on auto-open and it works 100% of the time. I do not use auto-close, but I do use the green icon on the model3 screen that pops up to initiate the close and watch in the rear view mirror until I know the cat didnt make it go back up. I do not even have the remote control in my car, just use the in-car onscreen controls, and, when I am outside of the closed garage coming back from a walk, I do open the garage door from the tesla phone app while I walk towards it.

So if you have issues with yours, it could be that the garage door opener product you are using is not as good a match as mine, or that you have not configured the distances appropriately. I also had to make changes to the summon parameters to allow summoning the car out of the garage because of the scary tight space it is in.

 

[SDKoala]

Granted, I am coming from the perspective of a freshly-former ICE driver, but the last adjective I would put upon the LR AWD's performance - be it on bends or straights - would be 'sluggish'. Sure, the guy who came in #2 in the Olympiad hundred meter dash was not the fastest, but would you call him 'sluggish'?

No, but I'm looking specifically at the difference going from a LR RWD to an AWD. Whatever word you decide to use, if an AWD doesn't feel as nimble through the corners as the RWD (which I've been used to driving for 18 months), it'd be something that I'd take into account in deciding to upgrade.

 

[Nocturnal]

I wonder if insurance is less just due to their being far more on the road to use for assessing risk.

 

[VT_EE]

However your tires will likely wear out much faster in the RWD because you don't get the even wear on the AWD.

Amazingly I don’t find this to be the case. The front and back wear pretty evenly unless you hammer the accelerator a lot. I thought the same thing until it was time to rotate the wheels this past weekend after 7500miles . I measured the tread depth, and all tires were the same. Just left them as is for now.

 

[VT_EE]

So how do you explain the tire rotation schedule difference between RWD and AWD then?

Also at least for my driving style, RWD 18" aero with Michelin Primacy MXM4 barely last 10k miles.

Wow. I’ve got 23k on my RWD and still have plenty of tread. I don’t beat the car to death, but I also don’t baby it. Is your alignment off (toe)? I’ve seen people on here who have shredded their tires due to a toe problem.

 

[TyH2009]

IMO, the RWD would feel more "nimble" but the AWD can accelerate through/out of the corners and you wouldn't possible spin the rear around like on the RWD model.

The pros of the AWD outweigh the cons IMO.

 

[derkan]

4.) Yes car no longer comes with the phone charging cables. Think most are opting for Wireless Charging options like the one sold in the Tesla store so they did away with the cables to save a couple of bucks.

5.) The white interior is said to be a little more pillow like than black. Even on the Telsa website they hint at that.

Congrats on the upgrade!

Huh ? Can you elaborate or send link to the wireless charging option sold in Tesla store? Is this some sort of retrofit kit that goes nicely where the old charging cables would have poked out in the center console?

 

[derkan]

Now that IS informative as I do generally do exactly that. I have a piece of painter's tape on the floor that should just appear in the backup camera to indicate I've pulled forward enough but not too much. As I said in another post, I do have obstacles in from of the car (garbage bins) and the door to the house is offset from the back of the garage by about 5'. If I pull too far forward I create an obstacle course for my wife often with groceries as she manuevers around riding mowers, my car's front etc getting to the steps. Further, that take helps in centering the car. It is much wider than the Prius it replaced and, as it is the collision sensors often goes off upon entering. The car does fit but it's a close fit. Also, I don't pull forward enough for homelink to close the door after me nor do I expect it to open the door as I back out. With the manual door to the house switch I open the door upon entry to the garage and close the door upon exit from the garage into the house.

I bought this and my wife loves it. Found it cheaper on shopping websites and there are different brands too.