Pre Purchase Battery Question - 75 vs 90

[Hoot]

Evening all. Would love some input on a buying decision.

I was set on a Model S current inventory which has the spec I like in a 90D battery with just over 2000 miles on it. However the finance company has decided they won't finance anything older than 3 months.

Now I was all set to get a nice discount of around £11,000 by taking that 90D from current inventory because it had been used by the dealership, which I thought was great.

To go for an inventory 90D that is under 3 months is around £13000 more than I was going to pay for the original one they found me, and quite a lot more than I want to spend.

I can build a brand new car in the exact spec I was looking for but it would have a 75D battery and come to the price I was going to pay for the used inventory 90D.

I would love some input from you guys on whether you think this is the best way forward, or if maybe I should continue to check inventory or make the stretch up to a 90D.

I live in the UK and my average journey is about 20 miles to work, other than that I don't really go too far, small journeys around town.

The nearest supercharger is about 26 miles away or 30 minutes, I would be able to charge the car at work for free.

In my head I don't see any reason why the 75 shouldn't work but wanted to check with owners and others more in the know than I if I'm doing anything wrong here. Are the real life miles of a 75 sufficiently low that it becomes a nuisance? Just wondering about things like that really.

This is a dream car purchase for me and one I never thought I'd make so trying to get it right.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Hoot]

Just to add, I do like to know I'm getting good value when I make a purchase and getting around £11,000 off for a dealership car with around 2k miles on the clock did seem like great value as I felt I was effectively getting a free upgrade to the 90D battery.

Taking the new 75D doesn't offer any extra value but conversely it would be a brand new one and not previously driven. Not sure how to proceed.

 

[M4guy]

First off it sounds like a 75D is more than enough for you. Unless you do big journeys often (weekends away?) and would prefer to stop less often to charge.

Secondly, if your heart was set on that 90D I’d just try other finance companies. You can arrange your own finance, I very nearly did recently but ended up going with the 4.9%APR that Tesla offered (Used Car) although zuto matched that.

 

[JonG]

You can search inventory on my site including many more Tesla owned cars than Tesla list.

A 75 is not far behind a 90 in terms of real world range, much close than the numbers suggest.

The discount - was that your calculation or theirs? I used to publish the discounts Tesla were reporting but stopped as they’re a bit misleading - Tesla quote the price difference to the list price at the time the car was built but because options have been combined and bits have become standard, or in the case of the MX spec today is now higher like folding seats, the same car today would now be less. Just looking Tesla have 50ish new inventory 90Ds with a 20k spread from about 77 to 97k. Don’t go for Tan interior though, resale they’re hard to shift.

I think there are two ways to buy, new if you can use Tesla finance with guaranteed buy back price and low interest or find a car that’s slightly older and a lot less as there are plenty for sale.

 

[WannabeOwner]

the finance company has decided they won't finance anything older than 3 months.

Is that common? Sounds like you have a restriction to using just that one finance company perhaps?

Seems odd, Tesla has a very long warranty ... that might be something that the Finance company's "bog standard formula" is not aware of? Although trying to get them to understand that will probably be like pushing the proverbial rock uphill ...

The nearest supercharger is about 26 miles away

Not sure that's relevant. Going from home to Supercharger would only be relevant if you have no other form of charging. Fastest charging is when the battery is empty, so you wouldn't want to charge "on your way out", but it would definitely be handy on the way home, when you are running a bit low, to splash-and-dash to get home or, if you can't charge at home, to arrive home with enough charge to then go to e.g. work

Are the real life miles of a 75 sufficiently low that it becomes a nuisance

The things I think that you might want to consider:

Knock 20 miles off max-range for "just in case". Plus day-to-day you would charge to 90%, not 100% (best to drive very soon after charging to 100% so that you don't leave the battery in that state)

You obviously have to charge sooner in the small battery, but you also Supercharge slower. All batteries Supercharge from 10% to 70% - 80% in the same time (give or take), so you get more miles in that time, pro rata, with bigger battery (regular charging e.g. At Home will be same MPH regardless of battery size)

Unless you frequently have a journey that can be done with bigger battery, or requires fewer stops with bigger battery, then the 75 will be fine.

Up-side is that you can use the time when you stop productively. Filling up an ICE means stand-and-pump and then queue-to-pay, none of that at Supercharger - plug in and then do whatever you want - doze, emails, wander off have a pee and get a coffee - the APP on the phone will tell you when the car is charged. So if you do your emails while charging, rather than as soon as you get home, its much of a muchness.

Also worth figuring out where you can charge. Plenty of car parks etc. have slow charging, so maybe on trips where the return-journey would be "tight" in a 75 you can find charging at destination - in which case its a non-issue.

Plugshare and ZapMap have good databases of all the public chargers if you want to research your routes. (Public chargers are a bit of a nightmare, for the life of me I don't understand why you can't just rock up, stuff a credit card in, and "fill up" ... you need the APP - probably have to download that before leaving home, and you may have had to deposit money too ... and their state of repair is nothing like as reliable as Tesla Superchargers, but provided you are not "empty" you would be able to drive to another nearby). Even a 13 AMP plug will give you 5MPH charge rate, so fine if you are stopping somewhere for several hours.

You could also try some routes on an EV route planning site e.g. A Better Routeplanner (i.e. comparing journey time for various models)

Range Anxiety is well managed by Tesla:

Put your destination into SatNav. If you don't have enough juice SatNav will route you via Supercharger.

Once you set off the Energy screen has a TRIP tab. That shows a graph of battery discharge to destination - showing the battery percentage on arrival. As you drive it will show an Actual line too, so you can see if you are going to make it ... or not! If not then just slow down until the graph improves, and chances are that you will get stuck in traffic or roadworks, at 50 MPH which solves the problem too.

 

[Hoot]

First off it sounds like a 75D is more than enough for you. Unless you do big journeys often (weekends away?) and would prefer to stop less often to charge.

Secondly, if your heart was set on that 90D I’d just try other finance companies. You can arrange your own finance, I very nearly did recently but ended up going with the 4.9%APR that Tesla offered (Used Car) although zuto matched that.

I agree, I think it would be sufficient. There's a better APR deal on the larger batteries right now which is why they originally sourced me a new inventory 90. I then became used to the idea. But you can get 1.8% on a new order just now through Black Horse.

You can search inventory on my site including many more Tesla owned cars than Tesla list.

A 75 is not far behind a 90 in terms of real world range, much close than the numbers suggest.

The discount - was that your calculation or theirs? I used to publish the discounts Tesla were reporting but stopped as they’re a bit misleading - Tesla quote the price difference to the list price at the time the car was built but because options have been combined and bits have become standard, or in the case of the MX spec today is now higher like folding seats, the same car today would now be less. Just looking Tesla have 50ish new inventory 90Ds with a 20k spread from about 77 to 97k. Don’t go for Tan interior though, resale they’re hard to shift.

I think there are two ways to buy, new if you can use Tesla finance with guaranteed buy back price and low interest or find a car that’s slightly older and a lot less as there are plenty for sale.

The discounts are there numbers based on the emails they sent me containing the PDFs of the cars. Thanks for the tip on Tan, my preference was black but the one I was going to take has white and I was flexible there. I wouldn't have gone for Tan though

I see what you mean about the discount figures, your site is great by the way!

The current deal with Tesla is 1.8% and does have the guaranteed future value.

Is that common? Sounds like you have a restriction to using just that one finance company perhaps?

Seems odd, Tesla has a very long warranty ... that might be something that the Finance company's "bog standard formula" is not aware of? Although trying to get them to understand that will probably be like pushing the proverbial rock uphill ...

Yes correct, I was only given the option of Black Horse, Barclays did not want to finance me which is strange because my credit file is spotless. Black Horse will but are being strangely awkward about which car, there's one there I'm happy with and at a price both parties have agreed too. Quite frustrating! I'm not sure why they would to force me to spend a lot more money. I thought the same about warranty as you, it shouldn't matter if it's over 3 months old at all.

Not sure that's relevant. Going from home to Supercharger would only be relevant if you have no other form of charging. Fastest charging is when the battery is empty, so you wouldn't want to charge "on your way out", but it would definitely be handy on the way home, when you are running a bit low, to splash-and-dash to get home or, if you can't charge at home, to arrive home with enough charge to then go to e.g. work

This is a really good tip, I had been thinking I'd be so excited to drive it I'd just have jaunts out to the charger but I suppose I'd be wasting some getting home again.

The things I think that you might want to consider:

Knock 20 miles off max-range for "just in case". Plus day-to-day you would charge to 90%, not 100% (best to drive very soon after charging to 100% so that you don't leave the battery in that state)

You obviously have to charge sooner in the small battery, but you also Supercharge slower. All batteries Supercharge from 10% to 70% - 80% in the same time (give or take), so you get more miles in that time, pro rata, with bigger battery (regular charging e.g. At Home will be same MPH regardless of battery size)

Unless you frequently have a journey that can be done with bigger battery, or requires fewer stops with bigger battery, then the 75 will be fine.

Up-side is that you can use the time when you stop productively. Filling up an ICE means stand-and-pump and then queue-to-pay, none of that at Supercharger - plug in and then do whatever you want - doze, emails, wander off have a pee and get a coffee - the APP on the phone will tell you when the car is charged. So if you do your emails while charging, rather than as soon as you get home, its much of a muchness.

Also worth figuring out where you can charge. Plenty of car parks etc. have slow charging, so maybe on trips where the return-journey would be "tight" in a 75 you can find charging at destination - in which case its a non-issue.

Plugshare and ZapMap have good databases of all the public chargers if you want to research your routes. (Public chargers are a bit of a nightmare, for the life of me I don't understand why you can't just rock up, stuff a credit card in, and "fill up" ... you need the APP - probably have to download that before leaving home, and you may have had to deposit money too ... and their state of repair is nothing like as reliable as Tesla Superchargers, but provided you are not "empty" you would be able to drive to another nearby). Even a 13 AMP plug will give you 5MPH charge rate, so fine if you are stopping somewhere for several hours.

You could also try some routes on an EV route planning site e.g. A Better Routeplanner (i.e. comparing journey time for various models)

Range Anxiety is well managed by Tesla:

Put your destination into SatNav. If you don't have enough juice SatNav will route you via Supercharger.

Once you set off the Energy screen has a TRIP tab. That shows a graph of battery discharge to destination - showing the battery percentage on arrival. As you drive it will show an Actual line too, so you can see if you are going to make it ... or not! If not then just slow down until the graph improves, and chances are that you will get stuck in traffic or roadworks, at 50 MPH which solves the problem too.

These are all really helpful replies thanks so much guys.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I'd be so excited to drive it I'd just have jaunts out to the charger

Nought wrong with that, but that particular exhilaration will wear off so not necessary in justification for the car (well ... unless it helps the Man Maths ...)

Barclays did not want to finance me

Was with Sharkleys for three generations, they had all private and business accounts over that time. Shafted me (and everyone else) after 2008 when their liquidity was tight, I moved to Handelsbanken and have never looked back (in fact I had to make that move in order to realise just how Shite Sharkleys Service had become). Proper old-fashioned, "bank manager's opinion is sufficient", no call centres (just call the branch, they will know who you are and sort the problem out - when they get to the point that they don't know everyone: they open another branch).

 

[Krash]

Get a new drive unit 75 (built after June 2017). Or save for a 100. The 90 is currently orphaned in the uncorking. If there is a future second uncorking (performance upgrade) for the new drive units, a 90 is likely to be orphaned again.

If you can find a 75 with a BTX8 battery in the UK even better. Those are from the former P85 and have exceptional max power performance and high speed passing, especially in lower State of charge as well as better battery wear even if Tesla never unlocks the extra 10kWh.

Unfortunately both of the cars I see available now with BTX8 are old drive unit cars...

Inventory | Tesla

and

Inventory | Tesla

You could never order the BTX8 battery. It was randomly assigned.

 

[DJP31]

I'd agree with all the others have said, and based on your driving profile I don't think you'd even notice the difference between the 75D and the 90D. My daily commute is 4 miles each way and with daily pottering I don't do more than 30 miles a day, unless I'm out business in which case a round trip of 100 miles is the typical maximum. I have one regular round trip journey of 225 ish miles and I went to the Supercharger sites I'd use before ordering, and also looked at all "one offs" I'd done in recent times.

For me the 75D (actually it was a software capped 60D at the time) was the ideal car - the money I saved on the smaller battery was "reallocated" to Premium Upgrade and AWD. Paying the extra for the battery would have been at the expense of the options and wouldn't have made any difference to how often or not I would need to visit a Supercharger. I suspect you would be the same.

If you order a new build now, irrespective of what the Tesla design site might say, you may just about get it for the end of March. The quarter end is manic for Tesla as they are the only dates that they publish their delivery achievements.

I don't think anyone has mentioned using a referral code, they get you free Supercharging rather than the capped annual allowance. Possibly not a big deal but it costs you nothing, benefits the person whose code you use, and you may as well have it as not. If you don't have one then private message someone on here and they will give you theirs. Forum rules say the codes shouldn't be published on the forum.

Oh, and if you are getting indicative insurance quotes, double what you normally say for mileage as you will drive more, that's a promise

 

[Hoot]

Get a new drive unit 75 (built after June 2017). Or save for a 100. The 90 is currently orphaned in the uncorking. If there is a future second uncorking (performance upgrade) for the new drive units, a 90 is likely to be orphaned again.

If you can find a 75 with a BTX8 battery in the UK even better. Those are from the former P85 and have exceptional max power performance and high speed passing, especially in lower State of charge as well as better battery wear even if Tesla never unlocks the extra 10kWh.

Unfortunately both of the cars I see available now with BTX8 are old drive unit cars...

Inventory | Tesla

and

Inventory | Tesla

You could never order the BTX8 battery. It was randomly assigned.

Would you mind explaining what you mean by orphaned and uncorking? Sorry, I'm still early days here and don't understand a lot of terms you used.

How do you tell which are BTX8, are you going by the 0-60 times on the Tesla pages you linked? Also, how do you tell what the drive unit is, or is that the part given away in the 0-60 time?

Thank you for your helpful reply!

 

[Hoot]

I'd agree with all the others have said, and based on your driving profile I don't think you'd even notice the difference between the 75D and the 90D. My daily commute is 4 miles each way and with daily pottering I don't do more than 30 miles a day, unless I'm out business in which case a round trip of 100 miles is the typical maximum. I have one regular round trip journey of 225 ish miles and I went to the Supercharger sites I'd use before ordering, and also looked at all "one offs" I'd done in recent times.

For me the 75D (actually it was a software capped 60D at the time) was the ideal car - the money I saved on the smaller battery was "reallocated" to Premium Upgrade and AWD. Paying the extra for the battery would have been at the expense of the options and wouldn't have made any difference to how often or not I would need to visit a Supercharger. I suspect you would be the same.

If you order a new build now, irrespective of what the Tesla design site might say, you may just about get it for the end of March. The quarter end is manic for Tesla as they are the only dates that they publish their delivery achievements.

I don't think anyone has mentioned using a referral code, they get you free Supercharging rather than the capped annual allowance. Possibly not a big deal but it costs you nothing, benefits the person whose code you use, and you may as well have it as not. If you don't have one then private message someone on here and they will give you theirs. Forum rules say the codes shouldn't be published on the forum.

Oh, and if you are getting indicative insurance quotes, double what you normally say for mileage as you will drive more, that's a promise

I did give a referral code when I went to accept the inital P90 that I can't have now, they came back it was invalid so I'll be sure to get another one. Your battery advice sounds spot on to be honest, I can charge at work and do 12 hour shifts so to be honest it shouldn't be an issue. For the rare long distance drives I do, maybe 3 annually, stopping off at services and supercharges would be fun.

A while back I read a comment on here saying don't buy end of quarter because they rush even more and the build quality can be even worse, do you believe there's any substance to that? You used the word manic and it really concerns me. I was initially going to spend about £40k and get an SUV like a Discovery Sport and that would have been a very nice treat for me, doubling the budget to 80k and then to get a car with misaligned panels or any of the other scary faults I've been reading about, well it just wouldn't be acceptable to be honest.

 

[WannabeOwner]

uncorking

Like a bottle of wine ... actually maybe "Champers" would be better analogy

... Tesla decided that the hardware used on the 75 (non-P) was capable of taking more current than original designed, and they issued a (free) firmware update that lowered the 0-60 time from 5s to 4s - not exactly insignificant! There have been quite a few upgrades like that over time. But the back-office management of it was, as seems to be all too frequent with Tesla, a complete nightmare. This update (unusually) had to be done at Service Centre (OTA updates are common and frequent), Service Centres said that some cars could not be uncorked, then later that they could - usually only if owners were persistent, asked different service centres, escalated to Head Office, etc. Once the USA was sorted out the rest of the world was still being told "Not possible", then gradually some could ... and then eventually (pretty much) all of the fleet. So happy ending, but complete shambles as well.

The quarter end is manic for Tesla

don't buy end of quarter because they rush even more and the build quality can be even worse, do you believe there's any substance to that?

I don't know if build quality is worse (no personal experience), but if delivery date is critical (e.g. for UK tax year) then you might find that Tesla favour delivery to USA customers, because the delivery time is shorter and they can convert cars-to-cash more quickly, so risk that UK delivery is delayed at that time.

then to get a car with misaligned panels

If that is import for you then Tesla might not be the car for you. I'm sure you'll enjoy your test drive, and indeed owning one, but people who are used to fit and finish of high end Mercs and the like are very likely to find fault with Tesla. Although not every delivery obviously ...

... my car had been fine, but some twit bumped the door recently. The damage was minor, but required a replacement door. Its come back with unbelievable wind noise at 40 MPH, let alone 80 MPH. Clearly the person that took it for the test drive, and the person who delivered it back to me (a couple of hours) thought it was fine <sigh>

I expect they will get it fixed, but the ensuing hassle is a complete PITA. I've got a list of such things ... Love the car; Hate their Back Office incompetence.

 

[JonG]

I did give a referral code when I went to accept the inital P90 that I can't have now, they came back it was invalid so I'll be sure to get another one. Your battery advice sounds spot on to be honest, I can charge at work and do 12 hour shifts so to be honest it shouldn't be an issue. For the rare long distance drives I do, maybe 3 annually, stopping off at services and supercharges would be fun.

A while back I read a comment on here saying don't buy end of quarter because they rush even more and the build quality can be even worse, do you believe there's any substance to that? You used the word manic and it really concerns me. I was initially going to spend about £40k and get an SUV like a Discovery Sport and that would have been a very nice treat for me, doubling the budget to 80k and then to get a car with misaligned panels or any of the other scary faults I've been reading about, well it just wouldn't be acceptable to be honest.

Anyone with a Tesla will have a code, ask whoever helps you the most because you are in fact rewarding them with £300+ of goodies and potentially a lot more.

End of quarter is to be avoided for delivery, the MS and MX production is fairly steady out the factory, they just try and push out the door the built ones leading to short cuts on pre delivery inspection etc. resulting in you finding the issues, that said they’re not great at the best of times. They are American cars and so not built to German precision, and the design allows for greater tolerances. Issues will get sorted, some have even had complete resprays the orange peel on the paint was that bad. It’s not ideal, but it can be over stated too, it all depends on your personal benchmark. The charms of the car and the smoothness of the power delivery overcome the shortcomings for most.

It’s also not as much a technofest as you might imagine. The sat nav is not google (just the displayed map is), routing is poor at times, although a new one is promised soon via a software update, there’s no surround view despite the cameras, there aren’t even autowipers on AP2 cars. Bluetooth is passable but no control of Bluetooth streamed music, no CarPlay, in many respects you’d get better tech in a modern bmw, Audi or Porsche.

They’re just very different.

 

[Galve2000]

It’s also not as much a technofest as you might imagine. The sat nav is not google (just the displayed map is), routing is poor at times, although a new one is promised soon via a software update, there’s no surround view despite the cameras, there aren’t even autowipers on AP2 cars. Bluetooth is passable but no control of Bluetooth streamed music, no CarPlay, in many respects you’d get better tech in a modern bmw, Audi or Porsche.

I had not really thought of this until I read it but you are spot on... besides the beautiful center screen, the "tech" in a Model S and X is starting to feel kind of dated. This has more to do with the speed at which technology "moves" (or changes) but it's true that some of the tech "comforts" available in Tesla vehicles can be had in entry level new cars that cost 1/4th of what a Model S does.

Then again.. I know of no other manufacturer who has matched AutoPilot 1.0 (I have not tried 2.0 but I understand it remains a work in progress to this day) so it a big plus for Tesla, but that really shines during road trips..still,i'd rather have it than not. and I would argue it is the biggest "comfort" tech of them all and Tesla does it best.

 

[Hoot]

Like a bottle of wine ... actually maybe "Champers" would be better analogy

... Tesla decided that the hardware used on the 75 (non-P) was capable of taking more current than original designed, and they issued a (free) firmware update that lowered the 0-60 time from 5s to 4s - not exactly insignificant! There have been quite a few upgrades like that over time. But the back-office management of it was, as seems to be all too frequent with Tesla, a complete nightmare. This update (unusually) had to be done at Service Centre (OTA updates are common and frequent), Service Centres said that some cars could not be uncorked, then later that they could - usually only if owners were persistent, asked different service centres, escalated to Head Office, etc. Once the USA was sorted out the rest of the world was still being told "Not possible", then gradually some could ... and then eventually (pretty much) all of the fleet. So happy ending, but complete shambles as well.





I don't know if build quality is worse (no personal experience), but if delivery date is critical (e.g. for UK tax year) then you might find that Tesla favour delivery to USA customers, because the delivery time is shorter and they can convert cars-to-cash more quickly, so risk that UK delivery is delayed at that time.



If that is import for you then Tesla might not be the car for you. I'm sure you'll enjoy your test drive, and indeed owning one, but people who are used to fit and finish of high end Mercs and the like are very likely to find fault with Tesla. Although not every delivery obviously ...

... my car had been fine, but some twit bumped the door recently. The damage was minor, but required a replacement door. Its come back with unbelievable wind noise at 40 MPH, let alone 80 MPH. Clearly the person that took it for the test drive, and the person who delivered it back to me (a couple of hours) thought it was fine <sigh>

I expect they will get it fixed, but the ensuing hassle is a complete PITA. I've got a list of such things ... Love the car; Hate their Back Office incompetence.

That it interesting and good to know regarding the performance updates - I hadn't come across that in all my reading. Sorry to hear about your door, it seems that the service centre inspections leave a lot to be desired, I've seen this theme echoed time and again in my research.

 

[Hoot]

Anyone with a Tesla will have a code, ask whoever helps you the most because you are in fact rewarding them with £300+ of goodies and potentially a lot more.

End of quarter is to be avoided for delivery, the MS and MX production is fairly steady out the factory, they just try and push out the door the built ones leading to short cuts on pre delivery inspection etc. resulting in you finding the issues, that said they’re not great at the best of times. They are American cars and so not built to German precision, and the design allows for greater tolerances. Issues will get sorted, some have even had complete resprays the orange peel on the paint was that bad. It’s not ideal, but it can be over stated too, it all depends on your personal benchmark. The charms of the car and the smoothness of the power delivery overcome the shortcomings for most.

It’s also not as much a technofest as you might imagine. The sat nav is not google (just the displayed map is), routing is poor at times, although a new one is promised soon via a software update, there’s no surround view despite the cameras, there aren’t even autowipers on AP2 cars. Bluetooth is passable but no control of Bluetooth streamed music, no CarPlay, in many respects you’d get better tech in a modern bmw, Audi or Porsche.

They’re just very different.

What you say about technofest there, really hit home with me, I read your entire website earlier and noticed that theme. Thing is, that's why I'm mainly going for Tesla, I love the tech stuff and use all the convenience features. It's why I started looking at Tesla over Land Rover Discovery and the like, because the queue assist and assisted cruise on a lot of expensive manufacturers just seemed so far behind.

As daft as it may sound when spending this much, the user experience from the screens and the audio system mean equally as much to me if not more than the actual driving part. I care about economy, tech and good looks hence started looking at Tesla but it really is double the cost of what I could be happy with elsewhere if I were to forego some of the fancy features and Autopilot. To hear the tech isn't all that makes me take a step back and reassess.

To pay that money and have shortcoming on features like auto wipers seems a bit ridiculous. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

You guys are awesome this has been very helpful indeed. A lot to think about.

I never thought I'd spent that much on a car, but to spend that much and still be making concessions seems a bit silly actually.

 

[JonG]

The tech isn’t that bad, I’m just a big believer in being as balanced as I can be. These things are relative, auto pilot is pretty cool, and it’s getting better, but my last bmw could read motorway speed limits more reliablybut then it couldn’t steer. Air suspension changes the ride height but not the ride like variable suspension you can get on other cars. I don’t want to put you off completely! Go and try one.

 

[Krash]

Would you mind explaining what you mean by orphaned and uncorking? Sorry, I'm still early days here and don't understand a lot of terms you used.

How do you tell which are BTX8, are you going by the 0-60 times on the Tesla pages you linked? Also, how do you tell what the drive unit is, or is that the part given away in the 0-60 time?

Thank you for your helpful reply!

The rest of the responses on this are spot on. Unlike most tech companies, Tesla is great about finding future ways to give more back to customers through (usually over the wire) firmware updates. But like most tech companies they focus on the easiest and most popular cars, so at the last uncorking and dot one the 90s got excluded.

The new drive unit cars and the old are tuned the same, which makes it really easy for Tesla to sell old inventory and CPO vehicles, but at some point in the future Tesla may uncork dot two the new drive units. No one has documented how the drive units are different but I find it unlikely Tesla made a full revision simply to save on inverter costs. I think there is some secret sauce involved.

To find BTX8 cars I simply selected Europe (slider) and then Great Britain in the Advanced tab then BTX8 on the Features tab in EV-CPO dot com. One can also select DU00 for new drive unit. Those two codes are in the Tesla URL before it is delivered. That is how the third party sites scrape them. After delivery you need a third party app or site that accesses the API to see the codes.

As for the audio system, many of us find it glitchy, although I understand you have Spotify on yours in the UK which is begged for here in the states over Slacker. The model 3 uses a much more recent UI processor. There is rumor of an interior refresh (which I think is not needed) as well as bringing the 3 processor to the S/X which I would applaud.

 

[JonG]

The battery and motor are on the pull down on my site for a given car or can be turned on by clicking battery in the column list which also enables seaching

 

[DJP31]

My learned friends have again covered all the points in a balanced and accurate way. I came from Lexus to Tesla so you can imagine the sleepless nights I had worrying about build quality and reliability. I too spent considerably more than I ever have on a car.

I’ve had mine since 1st March 17 and it’s going in for its first service at 12.5k miles next month. I have not had a single solitary problem with it and every single mile has been a joy. I would not have any other car for all the tea in China. The fit and finish is about as good as American build quality gets, but it’s not up to European/Japanese standards.

The tech is great, and Autopilot works well - most of the time. Elon Musk decided the traditional rain sensor wasn’t required as all the fancy cameras could do the job. So far they can’t but we are promised it’s on its way....

The over the air updates are unique too. Someone tweeted Elon Musk saying an easy exit feature would be good. A few months later we have it, put the car in park and the seat goes back and the steering lifts so it’s easier to get out. It was commented that that wasn’t perfect (I agree) as often you would put the car in park when picking someone up and don’t want the easy exit features to kick in. Next update, the easy exit feature operates when you unfasten the seatbelt. Much better.

The quarter end thing is more about timing your pick up. The difference in the PDI can be marked, so my advice would be try and engineer delivery to be after a quarter end rather than just before it.

As others have said the car isn’t perfect, and certainly their comms (or lack of) can be frustrating in the extreme, but when all’s said and done there just isn’t a car on the market to touch it.