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Traded P85D for Chevy Bolt

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eyedrop

eyedrop

Member
Jan 18, 2018
169
160
Prescott AZ
#1
Traded my P85D with 104k on the clock for a Bolt Premier. I did shed a tear, but it was the logical choice.

Model S is still my favorite car. I love the overall engineering and design which lends to tons of space, style, performance. And all the usual things to love like AP, supercharging, performance. It’s a fantastic car to drive and very satisfying with tons of character. I already miss it...

The car spent a long time in service during the 50k miles under warranty... Lots of waiting. Tesla service was always faithful and great, just extremely busy.

While I did enjoy paying $80k to be a beta tester on an awesome car, it grew tiresome and disappointing to see this still happening in 2020.

I considered purchasing another Tesla, but I couldn’t bring myself to trust the quality. People say the Model 3 is improved. But I still hear about issues constantly. It’s not just the youtubers... It’s the local Facebook pages, friends and family, and word of mouth. I’ve seen Tesla part revisions on J,K,L etc and still not right. Model S is 8 years old and still is in beta...

I simply needed a basic car that I didn’t have to think about, baby, or bring to service. The Bolts aren’t clogging the service centers, and GM went conservative with EV design and sales on purpose.

I’ll be waiting around a few years for Tesla to hopefully sort their NVH and reliability out while I enjoy benefits and drawbacks of the very modern build quality and a car design that was finished before it launched...
4B2160D0-189E-4686-B61C-31F6A1F4A367.jpeg
 
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#6
I came from a 2017 Volt, 2d best car I've had. But, I went to a M3 for, range, rwd and faster charging. GM chose not to offer it until the last year they made the best phev on the road. I put 27k miles on it at 82% electric (3 trips to AZ) but it was hard to do with only level 2
 
#7
Cheburashka said:
Did they finally add TACC to the new Bolt or no? When I turned in the Spark I wanted a Bolt but I wasn't going to get a car without basic TACC. No idea why it was left out. I also wanted a sunroof.
Click to expand...

I was surprised to find no TACC. I assumed the car had it, but no. The lane keep assist is a joke. Also no power seats, a crap charging cable, weird cell phone app with some really cool but also some missing features. No navigation unless you use CarPlay. Other weird omissions I can’t think of right now. Especially for a top end Premier trim... And the DC charging has been crap. But this tech is not why I bought the car...

I popped the hood and found everything was extremely accessible, and it felt good to see “AC Delco” knowing I could probably buy parts at a local dealer in a more traditional fashion.

Or knowing GM, maybe autozone and aftermarket will be a thing in the future?

I don’t see that coming with Tesla, especially on the software side of things. I would much rather bring my car to local mechanic with scan tool and parts in stock than deal with the gates of Tesla.
 
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#10
At least it will be easier to park.

Would you mind sharing how much you sold your P85D and how much Tesla would have offer?

Which version did you choose and how much did you pay for it, I noticed than some dealers gives some discounts?

Personally I would I took a Model Y, but I would not mind if the Model 3 had a hatchback and was one or two feet shorter.

I think there is a smaller Tesla Model on design for the Asian and European market. I wonder it it will be available in US?

I don't know, but I never had any problem with my Model 3...

 
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#11
eyedrop said:
I was surprised to find no TACC. I assumed the car had it, but no. The lane keep assist is a joke. Also no power seats, a crap charging cable, weird cell phone app with some really cool but also some missing features. No navigation unless you use CarPlay. Other weird omissions I can’t think of right now. Especially for a top end Premier trim...
Click to expand...
Yep on all of these. Well, you can get some turn by turn directions by paying for Moronstar but I never did and don't care. CarPlay for navigation works fine for me.

Another weird omission is no % state of charge display, only the 20 battery bars (about % each) on the left. You can see 1% increments via goofy the My Chevrolet app. There are numerous other quirks like only 1 trip odometer and IIRC, when you reset the miles/kWh display that resets the trip odo. My '13 Leaf has two separate miles/kWh counters and 2, possibly 3 trip odometers. The two trip odos on the dash don't get reset when you reset either miles/kWh display.

Since you're in AZ, you might find Battery conditioning interesting. When battery thermal management kicks in (e.g. when DC FCing or when you plug it in w/a hot battery), it is very loud to start and (if not charging), will get quieter before stopping. Google makes for a good unit converter (e.g. 27 c in f).

If you bought new and if you haven't already (my sales droid told me to), register at https://www.mychevroletrewards.com/ so that you can get 20K points which you can redeem for stuff like a $100 on accessories. Sometimes they have deals where the points are worth double the typical amount.

You may not want to charge to 100% if you want some regen. On 2019+ Bolts, you can turn down the target charge level.
 
#12
That must be a first


No problems with my 3 in 10 months except for 2 rattles and a creak. I don't consider those problems though. My Tesla ownership is my greatest car experience ever.


Enjoy your Bolt I guess
 
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#13
Mr X said:
That must be a first


No problems with my 3 in 10 months except for 2 rattles and a creak. I don't consider those problems though. My Tesla ownership is my greatest car experience ever.


Enjoy your Bolt I guess
Click to expand...
All 4 of my Model S's required service in the first months after production. Interestingly the oldest (2013) required the least corrections. Back then service was stellar and took care of everything while providing loaner Teslas, it was an acceptable compromise for driving a car nobody else could match. Customer surveys showed 90+% customers were happy back then. Fast forward to today, service is completely overwhelmed and very limited by corporate in what they can do for you due to laser focus on profit, while initial quality didn't seem to improve:
Tesla ranks dead last in latest auto quality survey

Is it possible to get a flawless one, of course. Just like in the 90's you could get a flawless Hyundai (I knew a guy who got one, put over 100K km's on it with nothing but scheduled services), but most people spent a lot of time at service and quality was inconsistent as per consumer surveys, just like Tesla today.
 
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#14
My 2014 leaf is the most reliable car. Just needed new 12V. Easy to replace. Grand total of $1167 in tires, wipers, windshield washer fluid and now a 12V.

Model S since 2016 is similar. Needed service but nothing that big except for a HV failure. Now I'm out of warranty and I'm cautiously optimistic. EV is the only way to go.

Enjoy your new ride! I could never downgrade but I still occasionally drive my leaf and am reminded how awesome my S really is.
 
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#15
whitex said:
All 4 of my Model S's required service in the first months after production. Interestingly the oldest (2013) required the least corrections. Back then service was stellar and took care of everything while providing loaner Teslas, it was an acceptable compromise for driving a car nobody else could match. Customer surveys showed 90+% customers were happy back then. Fast forward to today, service is completely overwhelmed and very limited by corporate in what they can do for you due to laser focus on profit, while initial quality didn't seem to improve:
Tesla ranks dead last in latest auto quality survey

Is it possible to get a flawless one, of course. Just like in the 90's you could get a flawless Hyundai (I knew a guy who got one, put over 100K km's on it with nothing but scheduled services), but most people spent a lot of time at service and quality was inconsistent as per consumer surveys, just like Tesla today.
Click to expand...

Here are a couple posts in case anyone wants to know more about that JD Power survey and how it works.

Tesla got the worst score in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey

Tesla got the worst score in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey
 
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#16
eyedrop said:
I was surprised to find no TACC. I assumed the car had it, but no. The lane keep assist is a joke. Also no power seats, a crap charging cable, weird cell phone app with some really cool but also some missing features. No navigation unless you use CarPlay. Other weird omissions I can’t think of right now. Especially for a top end Premier trim... And the DC charging has been crap. But this tech is not why I bought the car...

I popped the hood and found everything was extremely accessible, and it felt good to see “AC Delco” knowing I could probably buy parts at a local dealer in a more traditional fashion.

Or knowing GM, maybe autozone and aftermarket will be a thing in the future?

I don’t see that coming with Tesla, especially on the software side of things. I would much rather bring my car to local mechanic with scan tool and parts in stock than deal with the gates of Tesla.
Click to expand...


If the Bolt works for you, then great!

Too bad you (and some others) have had such poor luck with Tesla. They have been great for me. And seeing as how I have only used service a couple times in the past 3.5 years, I don’t put that much weight into dealing with service (even if terrible). I’d rather be happy 99% of the time when I’m using the vehicle than 1% while dealing with service. Fortunately I have been happy for that 1% as well. Especially since those service items were either maintenance or minor cosmetic. The only failure I had (which was just a warning), was the 12v battery 10 months into ownership. And even then they came right to my house to fix it. Easy.

My last service appointment was in May and went very well. That was the first time I brought it in for anything. The other time was a ranger.
 
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