Last weekend we returned home from our first family road trip in our new (to us) 2021 Model 3 LR. I thought I’d share some information on the experience overall. We travelled from Leeds to North Devon and back, c320mi each way.
The Roof Bars - I was able to get mine a little cheaper than the £368 due a £180 goodwill voucher Tesla gave me for the absolute s**tshow that was the CPO buying experience. Overall, I’m really disappointed in them, these are not £350+ roof bars. a.) the lock broke on one of the bars, meaning I was unable to unlock the nut and adjust it to the recommended torque. I ended have to apply a small amount of force and snap the pathetic little piece of plastic that stops the nut turning, this is hardly going to stop theft. b.) the clip on covers at the front are a nightmare to remove, again I ended up snapping some of the plastic clips that hold them in place, this is in contrast to the rear ones that feel like a fart will blow them off. I realised afterwards that they come off easier from top to bottom if you get your finger under the sponge/foam strip, it would have been helpful if the manual stated this. c.) it’s impossible to tighten the rear nuts to the required torque due to how much the bolt protrudes through the middle, I had to use a washer to raise the rear nuts slightly. Overall, they are just poorly designed and poor quality. Alas, I managed to get them on without cracking my glass and they stayed put for the whole journey with my Hapro Traxer 5.6 box.
The Range - Wow, with a fully loaded car, wife + 2 kiddos and roof box we averaged around 280 Whpm there and back, which was impressive. I don’t think other EV’s can get close to under normal day to day usage, but - we rarely went above 70 on the motorway.
The Charging Network - Plenty of available Superchargers on every stop we made, we played safe and did 2 stops on the way down at Hopwood & Cribbs. On the way back we were a little more confident and did it in one stop ( at Cribbs up to 95%) and arrived home in Leeds with 6%, which certainly raised the heart rate a little as the initial estimate was 20% and we just watched it creep down and down when cruising at 70mph. It feels like that initial estimate uses a best case scenario, rather than the efficiency of your current trip.
Auto Pilot. The car came with EAP, a lot of people really seem to s**t on it, but I have to say I was really impressed. We didn’t try the navigate option, just the cruise / lane keep / lane change stuff. Once I got used to how to rest my hand on the wheel it was a really relaxing way to drive. I like the auto lane change using just the indicator, it also seems very safe as at one point I went to change lane at the same time as a car behind decided to speed up and fly around me. The car spotted the danger and refused the change. One thing I hate though, is that it forces you to have the wipers on the dreaded ‘auto’ mode. So once the sun got low in the sky and we were heading into direct sunlight, I couldn’t use it as the wipers were going crazy. Seems like a real oversight.
The Paint. North Devon coastal roads are a nightmare, single track pretty everywhere with small lay-bys every now and again to cross paths with other vehicles. As a souvenir we have returned with a nice long scratch the full length of the car from a protruding branch. It was only a small branch, one that I feel the paint on my BMW would have come through unscathed. Alas, it may t-cut out, but we’ll see.
Overall, impressed with the car for long road trips, at 6’3 it wasn’t too uncomfortable apart from a bit of right leg ache when using AP, but I guess that’s because by leg wasn’t doing anything!
"Tesla Model 3" by HumDoyle is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
The Roof Bars - I was able to get mine a little cheaper than the £368 due a £180 goodwill voucher Tesla gave me for the absolute s**tshow that was the CPO buying experience. Overall, I’m really disappointed in them, these are not £350+ roof bars. a.) the lock broke on one of the bars, meaning I was unable to unlock the nut and adjust it to the recommended torque. I ended have to apply a small amount of force and snap the pathetic little piece of plastic that stops the nut turning, this is hardly going to stop theft. b.) the clip on covers at the front are a nightmare to remove, again I ended up snapping some of the plastic clips that hold them in place, this is in contrast to the rear ones that feel like a fart will blow them off. I realised afterwards that they come off easier from top to bottom if you get your finger under the sponge/foam strip, it would have been helpful if the manual stated this. c.) it’s impossible to tighten the rear nuts to the required torque due to how much the bolt protrudes through the middle, I had to use a washer to raise the rear nuts slightly. Overall, they are just poorly designed and poor quality. Alas, I managed to get them on without cracking my glass and they stayed put for the whole journey with my Hapro Traxer 5.6 box.
The Range - Wow, with a fully loaded car, wife + 2 kiddos and roof box we averaged around 280 Whpm there and back, which was impressive. I don’t think other EV’s can get close to under normal day to day usage, but - we rarely went above 70 on the motorway.
The Charging Network - Plenty of available Superchargers on every stop we made, we played safe and did 2 stops on the way down at Hopwood & Cribbs. On the way back we were a little more confident and did it in one stop ( at Cribbs up to 95%) and arrived home in Leeds with 6%, which certainly raised the heart rate a little as the initial estimate was 20% and we just watched it creep down and down when cruising at 70mph. It feels like that initial estimate uses a best case scenario, rather than the efficiency of your current trip.
Auto Pilot. The car came with EAP, a lot of people really seem to s**t on it, but I have to say I was really impressed. We didn’t try the navigate option, just the cruise / lane keep / lane change stuff. Once I got used to how to rest my hand on the wheel it was a really relaxing way to drive. I like the auto lane change using just the indicator, it also seems very safe as at one point I went to change lane at the same time as a car behind decided to speed up and fly around me. The car spotted the danger and refused the change. One thing I hate though, is that it forces you to have the wipers on the dreaded ‘auto’ mode. So once the sun got low in the sky and we were heading into direct sunlight, I couldn’t use it as the wipers were going crazy. Seems like a real oversight.
The Paint. North Devon coastal roads are a nightmare, single track pretty everywhere with small lay-bys every now and again to cross paths with other vehicles. As a souvenir we have returned with a nice long scratch the full length of the car from a protruding branch. It was only a small branch, one that I feel the paint on my BMW would have come through unscathed. Alas, it may t-cut out, but we’ll see.
Overall, impressed with the car for long road trips, at 6’3 it wasn’t too uncomfortable apart from a bit of right leg ache when using AP, but I guess that’s because by leg wasn’t doing anything!
"Tesla Model 3" by HumDoyle is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
