Potential Owner with questions....

[Proflig8tor]

Jonquillo,

Missed your last post. The sales process is easy, just different than we are used to. Order it on your phone, then relax. You will get a call and an email. Change what you need to. Show up and take delivery of your car.

There will be times when you feel there is something missing. That "something" is the dealership's finance department trying to upsell you (but they do a great job at the paperwork, typically). Tesla gets the paperwork done too, but the pace is different. The 15 minute of high-pressure sales is replaced by an almost "meh" level of enthusiasm and a 24 to 48 hour turn time on emails.

 

[eustachio]

OP, you get used to the acceleration and regen.

When my wife and kids are in the car, I can drive it like an old slow pussycat, the pedal is very easy to control once you get used to it, both for go and stop. Regen can be very gentle, you just have to drive like that.

First few weeks I was flooring it everywhere, but now I can dial it up or down with full control. It's one of the things I like best about the car, full control. One pedal driving is awesome too.

My wife and I are sensitive to seat comfort, it's up there with the best of them for us.

 

[jonquiljo]

Jonquillo,

A couple of points. First, I have an E320 Wagon. Just measured the seat and the Model 3 and the E320 are the same height. Measured 21 inches in the Benz and 20 and 1/2 in the Model 3. That is easily within the range of adjustment.

The W210 has an amazingly compliant suspension that the Model 3 does not have. My wagon just wafts down the road (has the hydraulic rear). However, the Mercedes seats are church pews or park benches compared to the extremely well-padded seats in the Model 3. Tesla is one of the very few (4 or so) manufacturers who actually build their own seats, as opposed to outsourcing the work.

Both cars are very comfortable and have plenty of room. But they are comfortable in different ways. Autopilot use is relaxing for the driver and the Tesla seats are better than those in Gulfstream business jets.

You can return the Tesla within 7 days, no questions, no excuses. I do not know anyone who has returned their cars. If you are on the North side of Atlanta GA just PM me and we can bring mine over to see what your wife thinks. I think she will love it.

Thanks very much for your good advice and kind offer. Its good to know that the M3 seats are better than MB seats. Our E320 is older (2005) with only 80K miles on it. My wife does not want anything else as she hates technology in cars. I did notice on my test drive that the M3 was comfortable - at least to me.

I will day that the Tesla outdrives (an older)MB E-class by a mile. I am tempted to just get the thing. I really appreciate the feedback here and from all people posting. From what I am realizing I think I had a lousy sales person. He spent more time trying to sell me solar panels for my house than he spent trying to sell me the car. In fact he didn’t really try to sell me the car.

Well, the people here make me think to just go for it. With a little practice I’ll learn to drive it properly. Thanks again very much!

 

[jonquiljo]

Jonquillo,

Missed your last post. The sales process is easy, just different than we are used to. Order it on your phone, then relax. You will get a call and an email. Change what you need to. Show up and take delivery of your car.

There will be times when you feel there is something missing. That "something" is the dealership's finance department trying to upsell you (but they do a great job at the paperwork, typically). Tesla gets the paperwork done too, but the pace is different. The 15 minute of high-pressure sales is replaced by an almost "meh" level of enthusiasm and a 24 to 48 hour turn time on emails.

Thanks. Will do. I don’t need up-sell. Then again, I’m not in the mood for solar panels yet. Long story.
So do you mean order at the Tesla.com website? I always assumed that ordering it at the store was faster. If not ... then my mistake and I will order online.

 

[jonquiljo]

OP, you get used to the acceleration and regen.

When my wife and kids are in the car, I can drive it like an old slow pussycat, the pedal is very easy to control once you get used to it, both for go and stop. Regen can be very gentle, you just have to drive like that.

First few weeks I was flooring it everywhere, but now I can dial it up or down with full control. It's one of the things I like best about the car, full control. One pedal driving is awesome too.

My wife and I are sensitive to seat comfort, it's up there with the best of them for us.

Thanks to you too. Will the regen resistance bring the car to complete stop in absence of acceleration? That sounds great. One pedal driving sounds great. Maybe I’ll get up the courage for auto-pilot. Self driving sounds too good to be true. Again, thanks very much.
Oh .. and a question for you and everyone is whether the 18” aero wheels are better to drive? It seems like the 19’s will give stiffer ride and not much more.

Now I have the fun of trying to get an electrician out here to add a 240V outlet. I have 200A service, but use lots of it with 2 large A/C units and electrical appliances. Since the North SFBay area wildfires 2 years ago, it is next to impossible to get any work done on your house. Everyone is working on rebuilding thousands of homes. I’ll get someone! Thanks.

 

[eustachio]

Thanks to you too. Will the regen resistance bring the car to complete stop in absence of acceleration? That sounds great. One pedal driving sounds great. Maybe I’ll get up the courage for auto-pilot. Self driving sounds too good to be true. Again, thanks very much.
Oh .. and a question for you and everyone is whether the 18” aero wheels are better to drive? It seems like the 19’s will give stiffer ride and not much more.

Now I have the fun of trying to get an electrician out here to add a 240V outlet. I have 200A service, but use lots of it with 2 large A/C units and electrical appliances. Since the North SFBay area wildfires 2 years ago, it is next to impossible to get any work done on your house. Everyone is working on rebuilding thousands of homes. I’ll get someone! Thanks.

Regen slows you to about 5mph, if you need to come to a complete stop, braking is needed for the last few mph. You can just let the car slow to a stop but requires more time.

Autopilot is awesome on a highway imo, ie used as intended.

 

[Proflig8tor]

Thanks. Will do. I don’t need up-sell. Then again, I’m not in the mood for solar panels yet. Long story.
So do you mean order at the Tesla.com website? I always assumed that ordering it at the store was faster. If not ... then my mistake and I will order online.

Phone, website, store ... does not matter. At the store they just log you in to your phone or web site.

Once your order is placed they will typically do a search of inventory cars to see if they have anything that closely matches your desired configuration. It is at this stage that people have scored some very sweet deals by being flexible. But it hard (nearly impossible) to anticipate what might fall into inventory. Also the crazy good deals tend to last for mere minutes before getting snapped up. I tried to save a couple thousand by getting three demo cars and in every case they were gone before I could pull the trigger. ... Ended up with exactly what I ordered and am happy with it (and wanting another now because two Teslas is even better than one)

As for driving, I ordered mine with the 19 inch wheels as a compromise between the 18 and 20 inch wheels. The 18 inch wheels look great, handle great, are more efficient with the covers on and ride a bit smoother. The 19th are slightly more harsh, but not much. My odd-ball opinion is that the M3 pretty closely approximates the handling of the somewhat unloved 996 generation 911 (but this is a sedan with room and efficiency). My business partner has a 996 turbo and I would like to drive them back to back. I've owned a 73 911 RS and 84 911 SC. The Tesla is definitely heavier but if you really hustle the RWD SR+ it with all the traction controls off, it is a lot like a 911 at the limit with some lift off oversteer and the same power correction required to get it back. On the 19's it scratches the performance car itch.

On 18's I'd think it more suited to cruising. I can feel the mass of the dual motor and it does change the character of the car a bit. Not in a bad way. In fact, if you like the traction of a Subaru WRX you're going to love the dual motor.

I wish I had ordered a LR RWD to get the premium interior. I ordered during the couple of weeks that the LRRWD was being made with the HW3.0. First time in my life I have ever wished I had spent more for the car to get the premium interior.

 

[MoHazee4]

Tlr

 

[Az_Rael]

With a little practice I’ll learn to drive it properly

In the interim with the wife in the car, just set regen to low and turn creep and chill on. It will drive more like a regular car. You can save those settings as a separate profile and just select that when you are with her.

I will say it does take a significant amount of muscle memory unlearning to fully drive smoothly with regen. You can never quickly lift your foot from the pedal even to adjust your foot position. I managed it, but my husband never did. Even after years of his S, he will still pull his foot off the accelerator to adjust is foot position and cause the car to jerk on a regular basis.

 

[Manitoba Keith]

Here is a thought. You can have multiple "driver" settings. There is also one for easy entry where you can raise the seat and move it back etc., if you want it. I would suggest you use a setting for when your wife is with you - name it appropriately. Save it with all the settings described above like chill and low regeneration. When you take your wife out in it, just select that setting. If your wife is driving, then you can set it for her desired seating and driving. When you are driving, have the settings you want & once you get used to the regeneration and the accelerator pedal usage, it works great & I suspect you will use full regeneration. I am not sure if the passenger seat is retained by the "driver" settings. The dual lumbar is not retained on either side, but easily set although it has been posted that it is not described correctly in the manual.
It is a FANTASTIC car, once you get used to it, and from my experience, I smile every time I get in it and drive. It did take a bit of driving to get used to the FSD and the TACC but well worth it IMHO. I certain do not regret purchasing it.

 

[SalisburySam]

My opinion: you and your wife need to make this decision based on actually trying it out as others have said, either by a Turo rental, test drive, or buy-and-return. I find the 3 difficult to get into and out of in the base case, and when I had one knee replaced it was an impossibility until well through the therapy several months later. We used our LEAF during that period exclusively, a vehicle that is much, much easier to enter and exit. The driving jerkiness can be ameliorated with driving style for the most part, except for the harsh, sudden, and totally unexpected phantom braking. Lots of threads on that.

Without your wife testing it, my recommendation would be to consider a different vehicle for her sake. If she tests it and can do it, there’s your answer.

 

[OCR1]

If you are ready to buy this weekend I would ask the sales rep if they have any white exterior, black interior, 18” wheel cars in stock. If they don’t you might score a free upgrade.

 

[jonquiljo]

In the interim with the wife in the car, just set regen to low and turn creep and chill on. It will drive more like a regular car. You can save those settings as a separate profile and just select that when you are with her.

I will say it does take a significant amount of muscle memory unlearning to fully drive smoothly with regen. You can never quickly lift your foot from the pedal even to adjust your foot position. I managed it, but my husband never did. Even after years of his S, he will still pull his foot off the accelerator to adjust is foot position and cause the car to jerk on a regular basis.

Thanks. Yes, I do not have age on my side. I am far from a millennial!

i am curious - does regen really save that much power? I don’t remember if you can set it to low or to “off.”

 

[jonquiljo]

If you are ready to buy this weekend I would ask the sales rep if they have any white exterior, black interior, 18” wheel cars in stock. If they don’t you might score a free upgrade.

Free upgrade? I don’t understand. I thought all they give out are supercharger coupons -and the nearest station to me is about 20 minutes away with mild traffic.

 

[Az_Rael]

Thanks. Yes, I do not have age on my side. I am far from a millennial!

i am curious - does regen really save that much power? I don’t remember if you can set it to low or to “off.”

You can only set it to low, not off. Off would actually be more free coasting than an ICE car since the motor has less friction, you probably wouldn’t actually want that.

Not sure how much range/efficiency you lose. But depending on your daily driving scenario and your electricity rates, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. Remember if you have home charging you will be getting up every day with a full “tank”. Long road trips are where you will see it, and the trip planner in the car is pretty good at estimating your range based on your current driving habits. Just always leave a 20% buffer or so to get to the next Supercharger until you are more comfortable with how the trip planner works.

 

[jonquiljo]

My opinion: you and your wife need to make this decision based on actually trying it out as others have said, either by a Turo rental, test drive, or buy-and-return. I find the 3 difficult to get into and out of in the base case, and when I had one knee replaced it was an impossibility until well through the therapy several months later. We used our LEAF during that period exclusively, a vehicle that is much, much easier to enter and exit. The driving jerkiness can be ameliorated with driving style for the most part, except for the harsh, sudden, and totally unexpected phantom braking. Lots of threads on that.

Without your wife testing it, my recommendation would be to consider a different vehicle for her sake. If she tests it and can do it, there’s your answer.

Why is it hard to get into?

My wife has had a hip and a knee done, and going to get her 2nd knee done around December. When she had her first knee done, she left the hospital the same day and walked without assistance two weeks later.

If it is a problem, we can always use our Mercedes E - series. I kind of assumed that we’d use that for a while at that time anyway.

Well, now I’m back on hesitancy mode. Most people have reported to me that it was easy.

I really wish that Tesla would let me have a car for 1 1/2 hours to settle this once and for all. I am going to buy a Tesla, but would prefer a Model 3. If not a 3, it will be an S or X. But with the sales people continually ignoring my requests for an extended drive - what can I do? I checked Turo all next week - and there are lots of Model S’s but no 3’s.

I mean they mostly draw in people from a local mall. They walk in (mostly with kids), ask about the cars, and then walk out. I’m ready to buy whatever is most appropriate, and they won’t accommodate my wife’s disability.

I guess I need to ask — is the Model 3 hard to get into. - and why? Thanks!

 

[Az_Rael]

If not a 3, it will be an S or X

The S is harder to get in and out of than the 3. It has a very low slung A pillar and that makes it more difficult. The X is the easiest of them all as it is higher off the ground. If an X is in the cards, that one would probably work best, honestly.

 

[jonquiljo]

You can only set it to low, not off. Off would actually be more free coasting than an ICE car since the motor has less friction, you probably wouldn’t actually want that.

Not sure how much range/efficiency you lose. But depending on your daily driving scenario and your electricity rates, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. Remember if you have home charging you will be getting up every day with a full “tank”. Long road trips are where you will see it, and the trip planner in the car is pretty good at estimating your range based on your current driving habits. Just always leave a 20% buffer or so to get to the next Supercharger until you are more comfortable with how the trip planner works.

Thanks ... road trips are out of the question for me - I tend to snooze at the wheel. Always have. 100 miles in any direction (and back) is more than what I can handle. For some reason, superchargers N of San Francisco are rare or in congested areas. I can charge easily at home (hopefully don't need 400A) service.

Power company PG&E takes people to the cleaners. A/C in the house pretty much throws us into tier 3. I always get nasty letters telling me I am an electricity hog! Can’t avoid it in hot summers. But given how little overall I drive (relative to most), the cost is not important.

the LR dual motor gives me all the range I need.

I was going to order one online today, but a recent post gives me pause. If the car can be hard to get into - then it is a PITA that Tesla is too busy to sell me a car. The order was going to be simple, M3 LR - dual motor - red - with aero wheels. About $51K plus tax and reg fees.

Do you think Teslas Q3 end is screwing them up? My Q3 end is important to me, but I generally know how to deal with numbers long before.

I think the sales person they assigned to me is a loser. Will they release his hold on me? I’ve got to get a young millennial trying to make a sale. They had tons of surplus cars at the showroom. I just need one for 1 1/2 hours. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[vickh]

Thanks ... road trips are out of the question for me - I tend to snooze at the wheel. Always have. 100 miles in any direction (and back) is more than what I can handle. For some reason, superchargers N of San Francisco are rare or in congested areas. I can charge easily at home (hopefully don't need 400A) service.

Power company PG&E takes people to the cleaners. A/C in the house pretty much throws us into tier 3. I always get nasty letters telling me I am an electricity hog! Can’t avoid it in hot summers. But given how little overall I drive (relative to most), the cost is not important.

the LR dual motor gives me all the range I need.

I was going to order one online today, but a recent post gives me pause. If the car can be hard to get into - then it is a PITA that Tesla is too busy to sell me a car. The order was going to be simple, M3 LR - dual motor - red - with aero wheels. About $51K plus tax and reg fees.

Do you think Teslas Q3 end is screwing them up? My Q3 end is important to me, but I generally know how to deal with numbers long before.

I think the sales person they assigned to me is a loser. Will they release his hold on me? I’ve got to get a young millennial trying to make a sale. They had tons of surplus cars at the showroom. I just need one for 1 1/2 hours. Any suggestions? Thanks.

I would call and ask for another sales guy or a manager. They're more approachable on phone.

 

[Az_Rael]

Thanks ... road trips are out of the question for me - I tend to snooze at the wheel. Always have. 100 miles in any direction (and back) is more than what I can handle. For some reason, superchargers N of San Francisco are rare or in congested areas. I can charge easily at home (hopefully don't need 400A) service.

Power company PG&E takes people to the cleaners. A/C in the house pretty much throws us into tier 3. I always get nasty letters telling me I am an electricity hog! Can’t avoid it in hot summers. But given how little overall I drive (relative to most), the cost is not important.

the LR dual motor gives me all the range I need.

I was going to order one online today, but a recent post gives me pause. If the car can be hard to get into - then it is a PITA that Tesla is too busy to sell me a car. The order was going to be simple, M3 LR - dual motor - red - with aero wheels. About $51K plus tax and reg fees.

Do you think Teslas Q3 end is screwing them up? My Q3 end is important to me, but I generally know how to deal with numbers long before.

I think the sales person they assigned to me is a loser. Will they release his hold on me? I’ve got to get a young millennial trying to make a sale. They had tons of surplus cars at the showroom. I just need one for 1 1/2 hours. Any suggestions? Thanks.

If you are still on a Tier plan and are already hitting Tier 3, adding an EV may be expensive. We would get into Tier 4 with my Volt before we switched to time of use. However, if people are at home during the day, the time of use plans might be an issue as well.


as far as the sale goes, you are experiencing typical too-busy Tesla customer service, unfortunately. The poor communication does extend to the experience with service so be aware of that. Best way to get an extended test drive if you can’t get them on the phone is going to be going in person to the store and setting it up there.