LaCostaRacer

I watched the unveiling last week and put in my reservation along with 175,000 other people that day. I now see there are 325,000 reservations a week later. There's a thread about the Model3 in the TLX forum and I know there are at least two 3G owners who have done reservations. I have since lost interest in the TLX and thought making a thread here might make sense.

Anybody else take the bait? Seems like a no-brainer to have the option to buy a compelling car in a couple of years. I will keep my 3G until then and probably give it to my daughter when the Model3 arrives.

I hope to get a large battery, AWD, with air suspension hopefully and get my Tax credit to offset some of the options. We'll have 2 electric cars and one ICE vehicle when the Tesla arrives in 2018.

sockr1

iTrader: (5)

I did. I'm only 50/50 in actually getting it but since it could be an option for our next car (wife's turn for a new car) and it's fully refundable I said why not. I wanted to make sure I got part of the first 250,000 people so that if I do buy it, I would get the full subsidy. After that number, it drops in half and then further after that. I also figured they won't be available until 2018 at the earliest so I have lots of time to decide haha.

This would be our family car since my wife can't drive my TL (6mt). My only concern is that the inside won't be roomy enough for a family but we'll see when that time comes. My other concern was the range but I looked up the upcoming supercharger build map and it's crazy how available charging stations will be by the time this car is available.

I think it looks ok looks wise but I'm sure it will grow on me more

LaCostaRacer

We own a Leaf so I'm use to the range issue in that you have at max 80 miles with a 2013 Leaf driving in a normal/non-hypermiler manner. With the base M3 having 215 miles and probably more like 250 miles, range is much less of an issue with me. I want to be able to make a round trip to Orange County and back without charging the car. We normally take our Honda Pilot out on road trips, but I see many trips that the future M3 could do easily.

Despite the range limitations of the Leaf we still go all over San Diego with it and find it the go-to vehicle for most trips and has 29K miles on it with 2.5 years of driving. We both have short commutes to work so that's harder to accomplish- I have 79k miles on a 2006 TL so I averge 8k/year and we take that car on long road trips on occasion.


Electric cars drive nice with the instant torque and quietness. Even a Nissan Leaf can smoke a number of cars off the line- the Tesla will be much better on the performance spectrum. The two years wait will allow me to save and figure out all the minor modifications I will do like hardwiring a radar detector and stuff like that.

If you haven't joined in the TeslaMotorsClub forum, I suggest you do. I have the same account name there.

Jackass

My wife asked me about it the other day, but just couldn't commit to it. I will probably need a new car before then ('05 160k miles on original clutch) and we don't have a supercharge station that close to us. I know the I-70 corridor is covered with them so we could easily drive to Denver or to STL with no real worries. But we can't really go anywhere else without being worried about how to charge back up to get home. MO only has three locations.

From a daily perspective, I work from home and usually only drive a few miles a day to daycare. My wife drives my TL these days since it is the beater and she has a 12 mile commute each way. So a hybrid or electric would benefit both of us truthfully.

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Doesn't this belong in Car Talk?

sockr1

iTrader: (5)

this would be our main family car so range is a big thing for me as well as having access to charging stations on trips. i'd like to teach my wife to drive manual so we could use my TL more, but until then our next car would be our family car.

thanks for the suggestion, i just signed up with the same user name as here

on another note, i'm sure we've passed each other at some time in the past, i work in carlsbad/la costa area

yea i see what you mean about not having access to stations and then it doesn't really make sense. but then again the deposit is fully refundable so it wouldn't hurt you at all other than having to pay 1000 off your credit card right now which you could easily get back at any time if money became an issue. have you looked at the charging station maps that they have where they show how many and where they will be? it pretty much doubles by the end of this year

jokerman826

Damn, there are charging stations everywhere. we even have one at the "ghetto" strip mall.

Jackass

I am in Kansas City...there is one about 10 miles from my house in Independence, one in Columbia, and one in St Charles...and roughly the same count if I head West through Kansas. As long as I stay on I-70, I have options. But if I want to shoot South to the Lake or to Branson...I am going to have to park the car for a couple of days to get enough charge to come back home. And that assumes where ever I stay has an outlet I can plug into. It looks like for the most part, the next year brings coverage to I-44 which has little impact to me.

Truthfully, it is a minor issue. This is the life of an electric car. It is meant more to be an in-town type vehicle usually so you are never too far from you primary charging station. Tesla has done a pretty good job of breaking that mold and making their cars able to cross the US....as long as you stick to the Interstates.

thoiboi

DMZ

Consider the fact that by 2018, there will likely be competition to the Tesla Model 3. I'm sure there will be more charging stations around by then, but I'm taking a wait and see approach.

What ever happened to the idea of replaceable battery packs where they could just replace the pack like you go get gas nowadays? I saw that idea on a Discovery Channel documentary a few years ago.
.

Jackass

I think they said they were walking away from that plan...it was cheaper for them to invest in the supercharger network than to build out the battery swap stations.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

I'm going to go one step further and direct everyone to the main Tesla III thread where there is already a lively discussion occurring...

https://acurazine.com/forums/automot...-914504/page6/