One year with my 3

[+SpiceWare]

Thursday May 30th was the 1 year anniversary of when I took delivery of Talith¹, my Model 3.

 

Long story short - this is a game changer, after a year of ownership I will never again own a gas vehicle. When it's time, will I buy another Tesla? Yes.
 

Talith has taken me 14,000 miles in that time. Quite a bit more than my S2000, which averaged just under 10,000 miles a year.  Main reason for the difference is Talith has become our preferred road trip car (over my folks' VW Passat) such as when we went to Fort Benning for my nephew's graduation from Basic Training.  Some people may find that surprising because "it takes sooo looong to charge an EV", but the reality is with over 300 miles of range the charging stops tend to correspond to meal breaks, and we've found Talith is usually ready to resume to trip before we've even paid for the meal.  Autopilot and the quieter ride, due to lack of engine noise, are big factors as well. In my folks' car we'd swap drivers about every 2 hours, with autopilot there's a lot less stress and we can now drive 4 hours before needing to swap drivers.

 

It's less than $9 to charge at home² for over 300 miles of range. When traveling it's about $12 for 300 miles at the Superchargers. Assuming half was at the Supercharger³ that works out to $500 of "fuel" a year, or $42 a month. NOTE: Other EVs cost quite a bit more to charge during road trips, see follow up comment below.
 
My last gasoline purchase was $31.05 on May 28, 2018 at a Buc-ee's⁴. That amount in my S2000 would have taken me about 220 miles, extrapolated out to $1975 a year, or $165 a month. So it costs 4 times as much to use gas in Texas, where gas is cheap⁵, than it does to drive using electricity.

 

One thing I hear a lot is "doesn't it take a long time to charge".  Yes, at home it can take hours to charge, but the reality is it takes me 3 seconds to plug in when I get home, and when I next leave it's full, so the actual charging time is irrelevant.  Also it only needs to charge back up what was used during the day - if you drove 30 miles it'll be back to full in an hour⁶. On road trips Superchargers will have you on your way in 30 minutes or so (nice time for a meal break), while Destination Charging covers you once you've arrived - think hotels with EV charging that'll completely refill your car while you sleep.

 

There have been some hiccups along the way, though I was expecting as much since I was buying a first-run vehicle. The biggest was a few days after I picked up Talith the screen went black.  The car still drove, and I was near one of the two Tesla Service Centers in Houston when it occurred, so Tech Support had me take it in. They ended up replacing the computer (I suspect the integrated video card went bad, a victim of "Infant Mortality").  This occurred right before a a planned road trip to Wisconsin.  Tesla gave me a Model S 100D as a loaner and said to take it on the trip if they weren't done with my car on time.  They weren't, so we did which was a nice compensation for my troubles as the Model S had free Supercharging (would have cost about $100 for the 2800 mile round trip in my Model 3).  It also allowed us to compare the S with my 3, and we found we preferred the 3 due to more comfortable seats, better headroom⁷, and cupholders of all things.  
 
All the other issues were minor:

• Steering wheel not straight⁸
• Glove box opens on its own
• Back passenger exterior door handle slow to retract
• Cover on Gear Selector stalk⁸ was loose
• When opening the frunk⁹ the safety latch would sometimes lock too quickly, preventing you from raising the lid
• piece fell off charge port door, used for the "tap-to-open" feature that I seldom use
• light guide¹⁰ in headlight was put together incorrectly
• chrome on side camera¹¹ was loose

The steering wheel, headlight, and side camera were fixed at the Tesla Service Center, the rest were fixed in my garage by Tesla's Mobile Service. All repairs were covered under warranty.
 
In the year I've had Talith Tesla has issued numerous software updates which improve Autopilot, fix bugs, and even add new features.

 

I've noticed a lot of people who don't have experience with Autopilot are confused about its capabilities. The term comes from flying where the autopilot keeps the plane on course, but still requires a vigilant pilot.  Autopilot in a Tesla is the same, it's basically a glorified cruise control which:

1. keeps your speed
2. automatically adjusts speed based on vehicle ahead of you, including coming to a full stop and resuming motion (awesome for rush hour traffic)
3. keeps you in your lane
4. changes lanes when you signal it to do so

 

The new features I use most are:

• dash cam
• sentry mode - 360° recording when parked
• dog mode¹² - keeps your AC/heater running with info on screen so people won't break your window and rescue your dog

 

 

If you have any questions, feel free to post them!

 

 

¹ Yes, there's a place to name your car. Talith is named after a blue dragon from the Pern series. He and his rider searched (recruited) many of the dragon riders, I'm hoping to do the same for future Tesla Drivers 😁

 

  

 

² it's actually less than that now that Talith's charged by my solar panels.

 

³ which it wasn't, so this estimate is high.

 

⁴ Texas sized gas station/convenience store chain. Here's a video tour if you've never experienced one.


 

⁵ Over 45% of US oil refinery capacity is found along the Gulf Coast., which means lower shipping costs to get the finished product to the local gas stations.

 

⁶ actual charge time depends on the outlet used.  A standard household outlet charges at 5mph, dryer outlet at 22mph, electric stove outlet 30mph, etc.  See my Model 3 Handout for more info.

⁷ my nephew Zander was already in Wisconsin and returned home to Texas with us.  He's quite tall and had to hunch over in the back of the S. In my 3 he was able to sit upright.
 

⁸ steering wheel not straight (driving straight, but can see more of the left stalk behind the wheel than the right) and cover on gear selector stalk (the RND cover on the right)

⁹ Teslas have a Front Truck, known as a frunk. It's become common to post pictures of pets in the frunk for #FrunkPuppyFriday.  My folks' dog Spicey has been involved, such as this photo from her birthday

 

 

 

¹⁰ the light guide on the passenger side wasn't correct

 

 

driver side for comparison

 

 

 

¹¹ loose chrome on side camera

 

 

¹² my folks' dog Spicey chilling out

 

[Flojomojo]

That's very cool. I have a coworker with one of those, with a long commute. It's well loved. 

 

My current car is probably one third to halfway thru its life -- I'll probably want to jump when the main hybrid battery gives out, though maybe if that happens before the 10 year warranty I'll get a freebie?

 

The thing holding me back from the plug-ins is range, but if I really look at my behavior, 97% of my driving is just local, stop-n-go stuff in heavy traffic. I've only gone 35,000 in the past nearly 5 years. 

 

A Tesla 3 would be great for me. 

 

Maybe next time around, when it's new car time, I'll jump in. Til then I'm going to continue to follow you and your enthusiastic posts like this, they're fun. 

[+SpiceWare]

Even if you mostly do local driving, if you take any road trips the more range the better.  

 

Using A Better Route Planner, trip to my brother's place in Wisconsin in my Long Range Model 3:

 

 

Standard Range would take 2+ hours longer and charging is almost twice as expensive:

 

 

Just for fun, Audi E-Tron about 4 hours longer and 8 times more expensive (more expensive than gas!):

 

 

Chevy Bolt would take 7 hours longer and cost 3 times as much (close in price to gas):

 

 

Jaguar I-Pace 6 hours longer and 7 times as much (also more expensive than gas)

 

 

[jd_1138]

I am glad the Model 3 has been a great experience.  Plus the long term reliability and ROI should be high since it's a lot simpler of a vehicle than an ICE with thousands of moving parts, and with its superior energy costs as compared to buying gas.

 

I was listening to a tech podcast -- All About Android, and they were talking about Android Auto that people use on their smart phones while driving.  And they were talking about it being illegal to interact with a phone more than 2 button presses (California).  Then one of them said and I am summarizing here: "What about Teslas? The entire car is ran off a touchscreen, and they get to push it all they want?  That's not fair."  The other 2 agreed. 

 

You'd think of all people, people who cover tech for a living would realize that the screen in a Tesla is a large purpose built interface that is right in the middle of the dash, shows up nice and big, specifically designed UI for driving, etc..  And because of the screen, they don't have to remember where all the little buttons and controls are like on a regular car (scattered about everywhere).  Whereas a phone is a tiny device that is harder to interact with (and unnecessary to mess with while driving).

 

I am starting to see more and more Teslas (Model 3's) around here -- even in the armpit of Ohio.  I see some S models too but mostly Model 3's.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I am a fan of touchscreens, but replacing e.g. the radio volume and air condition temperature rotary knobs in a car with touch is IMO a major step backwards in usability.

[+SpiceWare]

I thought the same, that physical controls were ideal, then I had a rental while my 3 was getting some damage repaired.  I felt overwhelmed.

 

 

 

 

 

For volume control I use the left steering wheel scroll button. While driving I use the right one to control speed and following distance for both TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control) and Autopilot.

 

 

 

For AC temperature the auto setting works so well that I seldom need to adjust it.  When I do, a touch-slide does the trick.

 

 

 

 

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I think going to extremes is wrong in both directions. Also the UI has to be structured very well.

 

I have seen cars where you have to navigate through 3, 4 or even 5 levels just to change the radio channel.

 

[+SpiceWare]

Agreed.  

 

I haven't listened to the radio in years though, in my S2000 I had an iPod interface that faked out the radio to think an iPod was a Honda CD Changer.
 

With my 3 it'd be 2 taps and a swipe to change the radio station as I usually have the "mini" the music interface showing:

1. tap once to expand view
2. tap a favorited radio station
3. swipe view down to shrink back to "mini"

If I used the "medium" sized music interface it'd just be a tap on the station, but I prefer to see more of the map.

 

However, like in my S2000, I seldom listen to the radio.  I've switched to the included streaming music, if I want to hear a different type of music I press the left steering wheel button and say something like "Play The Cars" or "Play KMFDM" and it creates a "radio station" that plays that group and related music.  If a song comes up that I don't like I use the right steering wheel button to skip it.

 

I do have a USB stick connected that holds most of my music, but I find the interface for that to be clunky so seldom use it. I could also listen to music on my iPhone via Bluetooth, but never do so don't even know if it's clunky like USB or more streamlined like streaming.

[Albert]

Great report on your Model 3, thanks!  Very interesting about the various issues you've had with your car.  I've had my Model 3 since November, and besides a few paint issues (which I didn't bother getting fixed, even though Tesla offered to do so, and now the car is covered in film and a ceramic coating), the only other items  were two doors that weren't aligned very well.  I brought the car into the service center and they took care of that right away.  Still waiting on my rear badge and spoiler, though!  I need to drop by the service center again..

 

I haven't had any other problems, though, and the car has been perfect outside of what I described above.  I've yet to take it on any long road trips, but I have gone to Dallas and San Antonio.  I used the updated Supercharger in San Marcos two weeks ago, and damn was it fast, especially compared to the Model S I was driving previously.  I wasn't there long at all before I continued back up to Austin.

 

I did several long road trips in my Model S, to Portland, California, Florida, and Michigan (and some of these more than once!)  Even with the first version of Autopilot, it made the driving immensely less tiring, both physically and mentally.  I found I could easily drive longer distances than in a typical car.  And the Supercharger stops were nice, as they allow you to get out and stretch, use the bathroom, and get food if you're hungry.  With the Model 3 and the faster Supercharging, these stops can be even shorter now. 

 

There's no way I'd go back to an ICE vehicle at this point. 

 

 ..Al

[+SpiceWare]

Did my first full charge^* in a long time - after 4+ years, and 43,625 miles, Talith now has 93% of the original range of 310 miles.

 

 

^* For day to day use charging is limited to 50-90% as sitting at 100% is bad for the battery used in my Tesla. Some Teslas now use LFP batteries, which Tesla recommends keeping charged to 100%.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

How many miles so far?

[+SpiceWare]

11 minutes ago, Thomas Jentzsch said:

How many miles so far?

 

Added

[+SpiceWare]

Time flies, just a few more weeks and it'll be 5 years of owning an EV! My final car payment is on the 15th.

 

Decided to recalibrate the battery so let the car down below 10%, sit for an hour while keeping it awake, then charged to 100%.

 

I now have 288 miles of range, down 7.1% from the original 310. Cumulative mileage is 46,419.

 

Instructions suggest doing this twice in a row, so I'm going to skip charging until I get it below 10% then do another 100% charge.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Sounds like a typical, average loss of capacity, no?

[+SpiceWare]

Seems to be typical, with more degradation in the earlier years before slowing down, as I lost 21 miles of range as of June 2022 and only 1 additional mile since then.

[+SpiceWare]

2nd time made no difference, still 288 mile range.

 

 

I covered the service I've had done in the first year in the first post of this topic.  This is the service I've had done since:

 

 

 

June 28, 2019 cost $0

• replaced passenger side headlight
• replaced camera assembly due to chrome coming off

 

NOTE: this was already covered in 1st post

 

March 25, 2020 cost $0

• FSD (full self driving) Computer retrofit. Tesla upgraded the car's computer to a faster one required for FSD software.
• Replace charge port pin deadfronts

 

June 29, 2020 cost $143

• clean AC evaporator
• replace cabin filters

 

This was due to AC getting musty smelling.  I've done this myself 1 time since then, in October 2021, as well as 1 time for my folks which was much easier as Tesla had redesigned the access door to the filters.  Will be doing this again soon as I'm starting to get faint whiffs of the musty smell. Filters and cleaner are $45.

 

November 10, 2021 cost $0

• Replace 12V battery
• Repair glove box - was no longer opening smoothly/slowly, just abruptly dropping down and spilling its contents on the passenger

 

Yes, there's still a 12V lead acid battery in there that has to be periodically replaced just like with a gas car. Tesla has since switched to a 12V lithium battery, which should last longer.  If you're interested, this article goes into detail on why Tesla still uses a 12V battery. 

 

February 28, 2022 cost $0

• Reseal front upper control arm ball joints
• replaced driver side headlight - developed same issue that the passenger side was replaced for (see pictures in first post)

 

Yesterday, June 4th, the control arms started making noise so I guess the reseal just delayed an issue.  I'm scheduled for service on the 15th, which will include fixing some recall issues.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I was surprised about is the service is scheduled at the Richmond Service Center:

 

 

Which I was unaware of.  It's so new it's not even on Tesla's Find Us page - I put an X where it's at:

 

 

 

[+SpiceWare]

Besides the above, I've also replaced the tires twice:

• April 2019 $1330
• June 2021 $780

[+SpiceWare]

The estimate was off - they forgot to enter the parts, the $107.50 was just the labor.  Total came to $302.52.

 

Pickup was super easy - you now pay for service via the Tesla App, which also tells you which parking spot your car was left in. So once I got there I just got into my car and drove off.

 

[+SpiceWare]

On 5/7/2023 at 11:34 AM, SpiceWare said:

I now have 288 miles of range, down 7.1% from the original 310. Cumulative mileage is 46,419.

 

My most recent update included a change to the Estimated Battery Range:

 

 

My car just finished charging and is at 80% with 235 miles of range, which extrapolates to 294 miles at 100%. That's 5.2% down from the original 310 miles of range. Cumulative milage is 50,151.

[+SpiceWare]

On 4/5/2024 at 2:40 PM, SpiceWare said:

extrapolates to 294 miles at 100%

 

294 miles of range confirmed. Didn't check it earlier as we were heading out of town that night for the eclipse in my folks' Model Y and it's not good to leave the battery sitting at 100%.

 

 

The new V3 Superchargers that went online 5 months ago in Luling, TX made a big difference for the trip - plug in, walk in to use restrooms & get drinks, walk back to car, unplug, resume trip.

 

 

In past trips to Bandera the older V2 Superchargers in Flatonia would require additional time, so we'd use the stop as a meal break even though the food options weren't the best.