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Two days with Model 3 impressions/review- This is not a mini model S
- Thread starter onautopilot
- Start date
I'm not sure this is fair. With the caveat that I don't yet own a 3 and may be totally off-base about the level of PITA involved in the doors, I think it's likely that the exterior portion was made this way for defensible reasons. Namely, Tesla needed the aerodynamic benefit of flat door panels to meet their efficiency goals, and they didn't want motorized handles like the S has. Likely for multiple reasons--reliability (don't want to be replacing these on a cheaper vehicle) and keeping the 'coolness' separation b/t the 3 and S.
The interior manual pull being where many folks would expect the 'normal' opener to be, I got nothin' on that one.
suwaneedad
Member
Yet at an avg speed of just 25mph (20mi in 48 min). Tough for me to get excited about that efficiency, then. This is on par with my 2012 Nissan Leaf.
Our running lifetime average on a very mixed (lots of very short trips + a few medium to long highway drives at 70+mph) set of driving is 240 Wh/Mile right now. Oh: 18's with the aero caps.
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CuriousG
Active Member
19s. I would say 95% was freeway driving. According to Teslafi average speed was 43MPH, elevation change was +18.4ft, average outside temperature 50.9F, max speed 76MPH. This was my destination stats with 94 miles driven.
T34ME
Active Member
I was concerned about the exterior door handles because of arthritis in my hands. I had the opportunity to play with @dturkes beautiful car last Saturday. The exterior door handles are absolutely no problem for me to operate. They really make a lot of sense and operate smoothly - push on the rear of the handle with thumb and the door pops open and pull on the exposed handle to open it completely. Interior button works equally well. The button is located right where you would grab the assist pull and the door pops open. The emergency release is almost invisible and I doubt people will become confused.
This design is a departure from the norm, so you may need to explain the procedure to some people, ONCE. Then it's cool and feels like a spaceship!
CuriousG
Active Member
I had one person sit in my car yesterday to show and he pulled the emergency release. So I'm certain the person taking his Model 3 cross country and into Canada now has had it opened countless times.
T34ME
Active Member
jerjozwik
Active Member
sure, but my S does the same route and speed at 340Wh/mi
Yes, but it’s not a 2012 leaf.
Yes, he has - frequently. Apparently, it became enough of a problem that he put duct tape over the emergency release to prevent people from using it. Some have still tried. When You You stopped in St. Louis on Sunday night, he had the entire crowd pledge in unison that they would only open the door using the button.
CuriousG
Active Member
Maybe 6. But only about 3 of which sat in the front seats with the door closed. And I may have mentioned how to get out or they were already aware of how to open the door. This is the first person that wasn't immediate family member but was somewhat familiar with some Model 3 inner workings.
Not much to them. And the inside mechanism is literally a pushbutton.
insaneoctane
Well-Known Member
Someone help me out here.... So what if someone uses the emergency release? If the car knows that it was used, instead of barking at you on the screen, why not just lower the window as if you had pushed the proper release?? It is in a common place and people will use it, so drop the window either way???
Then how does the car know that you used it to tell you to not do that? (Does it have a sensor on the emergency release handle or does it just use the door ajar sensor?)
Given that they put a sensor on the center console lid covering the phone dock I can't see why they would have skimped on a sensor on the emergency release handle...
insaneoctane
Well-Known Member
That's OK. If the car knows that the entirely mechanical opener was used, it can still drop the window a tad. My experience with other frameless doors is the issue of dropping the window a tad and raising are compatible with mechanical door releases (think anyone but Tesla)....
- You open the door (mechanically)
- Car senses that the door was opened
- Car slightly lowers window
- You close door
- Car raises window
CuriousG
Active Member
Actual parts required to fix them are $5-35 assuming you can do the labor yourself.
If that's all there is to it, no reason that can't be done in a firmware update.
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