Upgrade from 2003 Honda Accord to a Model 3?

[Maltaltin]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

I've only heard good things about one pedal driving but it's not a feature I've given much thought. It seems too different from my other cars. Is it really that much better? How long do you think it takes to adapt?

I had gotten a great hang of one pedal driving before the end of my 30-40ish minute test drive.

 

[Redding#2]

Welcome to the forum. There have been 101 threads about regenerative braking, and the same discussions about merits of comparative approaches. I’ve witnessed them all, so that made me testy to see another. Unfortunately, the organization, sheer volume, and poor search technology of the forum makes it difficult for new members to find these 101 threads. OTOH, some folks never bother to search, they just start a thread. Which I guess is fine, but in 5 years you’ll maybe be like me.

Found this post when searching for information on one pedal driving. It IS difficult to find relevant information from old threads. Maybe I am bad at using "search"?

Can anyone point me to some good threads about one pedal driving for the Model 3?

Thanks!

 

[electrictorque]

I don't have my Model 3 yet and have not actually driven one. Has anyone here gone from an old Accord (or something similar) to the Model 3?

I am very curious to hear what the experience was like for you. My accord is no frills, utilitarian. No side airbags even!

Thanks for reading.

I still have my old 2007 BMW 335xi with low mileage so still drives like new, and the model 3P is a huge upgrade.

 

[ljbad4life]

I went from a 2002 Nissan Altima to a model 3. It's like night and day. Regen braking enables one pedal driving and that is one of the best parts of driving experience. Add in EAP, rear view camera, ease of use (and so many other little things) are the tech touch that brings the Model 3 far beyond even current cars. My cost of ownership has stayed the same in terms of insurance. In terms of maintenance, it has been zero so far. No oil changes. The cost of tires are exactly in the same range as the altima according to tirerack.

 

[Redding#2]

I went from a 2002 Nissan Altima to a model 3. It's like night and day. Regen braking enables one pedal driving and that is one of the best parts of driving experience. Add in EAP, rear view camera, ease of use (and so many other little things) are the tech touch that brings the Model 3 far beyond even current cars. My cost of ownership has stayed the same in terms of insurance. In terms of maintenance, it has been zero so far. No oil changes. The cost of tires are exactly in the same range as the altima according to tirerack.

Does anyone have an opinion about how long term maintenance could be after the warranties expire?

 

[ljbad4life]

Does anyone have an opinion about how long term maintenance could be after the warranties expire?

This played a large part of in my decision. The LR M3 rwd uses conventional parts on almost all of the wearable parts, Struts, coil springs (no air suspension) 18 inch regular tires, decreased break disc break wear because of regen breaking. I'm gauging under what I paid for my altima over the time I owned it. Accidents maybe another story.

 

[Redding#2]

This played a large part of in my decision. The LR M3 rwd uses conventional parts on almost all of the wearable parts, Struts, coil springs (no air suspension) 18 inch regular tires, decreased break disc break wear because of regen breaking. I'm gauging under what I paid for my altima over the time I owned it. Accidents maybe another story.

My thoughts are similar. Any power-train issues should be corrected within the warranty period and hopefully it can make it another 7 years after that! I am a 15 year car person apparently! I think in the coming years there should be no shortage of salvage parts with the number of cars planned. Parts will probably be able to be sourced cheap that way, and from what I have been told, the Model 3 is easy to work on. Main issue is the software compatibility of swapped parts. Tesla has had it locked down tight historically, but hopefully that will change in 8 years when it is out of warranty for me.

I will have to baby it in the first years I expect, as parts WILL probably be limited and expensive for any damage I cause or isn't specifically in the warranty terms.

 

[DR61]

If you want a similar experience to one-pedal driving, try putting your car in low gear and driving around city streets that way at low speeds. Then subtract the high-reving engine sounds. Also you could go test a new Nissan Leaf or Chevy Bolt at our local dealers; both have strong regen braking.

 

[Shrug]

I don't have my Model 3 yet and have not actually driven one. Has anyone here gone from an old Accord (or something similar) to the Model 3?

I did exactly this; I moved from a 2003 Accord EX V6 to a Model 3 AWD. As has been noted, the biggest change has been driving a car with regeneration, but even there I only needed a short time to adjust. My only other problem is that, at the end of my drive, I occasionally open the door without putting the car in Park. The car complains at me then dutifully engages Park mode for me.

After two weeks of driving only the Model 3, I drove the Accord (just because it needed to be driven). I was astonished at how often I had to use the brakes. I felt that I might as well be driving the Flintstones car!

Edit: I sure hope that the Model 3 turns out to be as reliable as that Accord was.

 

[David L]

I drove mostly mainstream mid-sized cars (cars I owned, family members' cars, and rentals) before I bought the Model 3 about 6 months ago. I've driven the '02/'13 Accord, '09/'16 Altima, '16 Fusion, '18 Camry, and '18 Optima. The Model 3 is a surprisingly soothing and relaxing car to drive as a daily commuter and also lots of fun in spirited driving. I've narrowed this down to a few reasons:

• In stop and go traffic and when accelerating from a red light, you don't hear and feel the harshness of the engine revving through a wide range of RPMs.
• When accelerating at any speed, you don't have to carefully modulate the pedal to coax the automatic transmission or CVT to choose the correct gear. This is especially obvious in mountainous terrain. Since there's no gear shift and instant torque, the accelerator pedal is very linear.
• The steering response is very good, including on-center, so there's no need to make constant, minute adjustments to steer in the desired direction or to drive straight.
• When there's traffic, regenerative braking eliminates the need to repeatedly move your foot between the accelerator and brake pedals.

Having driven the Model 3 for nearly 1/2 year, I now find driving an ICE car to be very frustrating and tiring.

 

[Oceans808]

Lulz at this thread. I went from a 2005 scion tc to the model 3 just today. I was so used to charging/listening to my mp3s with a bunch of different cables, and backing up with no assistance of a camera. And now I'm cable free and can back up safely! Yay!

 

[steelersfannla]

I'm going from a 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 to a AWD Model 3. Delivery was scheduled for today but found out yesterday that it has now been delayed.

 

[Remonster]

Can anyone point me to some good threads about one pedal driving for the Model 3?

Thanks!

Interestingly I find regen braking one of my favorite things

Regen Braking are common keywords.

I upgraded from a 2008 Mazda 3 hatchback and so far the change has been very easy. I can fit plenty of stuff into the Model 3 (bike and camping gear) and it's range is nearly as far as the Mazda, although I rarely charge it beyond 260 miles. Living in the bay makes charging even easier with several superchargers close by.

It's fast, and feels more like an Audi or BMW in terms of quality. With the suade door panels, real wood dash, and aluminium body you'll have to be a little more careful with dings and stuff. It's definitely fancy though. It's feels luxurious.

 

[TurnFast]

I went from a 2001 Subaru imprezza to a awd model 3 and it's such a huge improvement.
I'm glad I saved my money and didn't go performance, the awd is amazingly fast as is and even then I don't often get the chance to use its full acceleration.

Almost everything thing is a massive improvement, but there are a few Cons.

Auto wipers have mostly worked well but it only takes a few instances of them not for you to miss a wiper stalk.

No rear wiper: if your back window is dirty, you're not seeing out of it until you find a place to clean it. Fortunately viewing the rear camera while driving works as a work around. You might need to clean your car more often than your previous car (at least true in my case)

It's wider than I expected, wider than my previous car. It makes me nervous to park my new car in crowded compact spots. I now find myself parking st the back of the parking lot or at the top of the parking structure to get away from other cars that might open their door into mine.

Finally, for a car in this price range with all this technology, I was hoping for better parking assistance. A 360 surround view would have been ideal, but at least displaying the side views when parking would be helpful. Hoping they find a way to address this via software in the future but in my opinion this is the biggest miss on this car.

 

[Skotty]

-Tech, Model 3 really is a smartphone on wheels.
-Acceleration, people talk about it, but it's quite another thing to sit in the driver's seat and feel that instant torque. Once you go instant torque you don't go back.
-No more stopping at gas stations, you have no idea how nice that feels.
-No engine noises, very apparent right away. My drive down pacific coast highway is so much nicer now.
-Autopilot makes driving long distances more relaxing, I had issues driving long distances before, now I don't think about it.
-Visibility is very nice with the way Model 3 is designed, you see so much in front of you, and above.
-The car is just damn s3xy.

The smartphone on wheels is mostly a positive thing, but there is one negative I'll mention. On rare occasion, you might need to reboot the computer, which is an atypical automobile experience, but not surprising if you are used to using computers. Just make sure you know what buttons to press to reboot.

Re: visibility -- I hear visibility out the back is not so good though.

 

[crmatson]

2004 Civic LX to P3D+ here.

You quickly become accustomed to feathering the accelerator and regenerative braking for one pedal driving. TACC is amazing on highways and even stop-and-go traffic.

My 3 is at the detailer for a few days and I have been driving the Civic again. It is painfully slow, unresponsive and noisy. It served me well, but I will be glad to be rid of the Civic.