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The Tesla just crossed 26k miles this weekend on a roadtrip up to NY. No issues with the drive, charging was quick/painless, and the range was actually pretty damn good all things considered. So far my maintenance costs are:
The Tesla just crossed 26k miles this weekend on a roadtrip up to NY. No issues with the drive, charging was quick/painless, and the range was actually pretty damn good all things considered. So far my maintenance costs are:
maintenance cost is like $1k on a set of tires plus another $200 using the tire warranty to replace two of said tires.
And $2k for the extended warranty.
warranty work: charging core, computer, and tpms sensors. Oh and the steering wheel for bubbling “leather”
I put the tires and wheels on the car around 4k miles I think, so they've got ~22k on them now. They're still looking good and I hope to get another 10-20k out of them.
Thankfully the only repair mine needed was replacing the rear spoiler, which they did at home in my driveway while I worked. I did have a weird issue about 2 months ago where the dome lights and hazard button stopped working. I set up an appointment, but I decided to pull the frunk a few days before that to clean out the radiator. When reinstalling the frunk, the alarm went off. When I got back in the car, the dome lights and hazard button were working again.
I put the tires and wheels on the car around 4k miles I think, so they've got ~22k on them now. They're still looking good and I hope to get another 10-20k out of them.
Thankfully the only repair mine needed was replacing the rear spoiler, which they did at home in my driveway while I worked. I did have a weird issue about 2 months ago where the dome lights and hazard button stopped working. I set up an appointment, but I decided to pull the frunk a few days before that to clean out the radiator. When reinstalling the frunk, the alarm went off. When I got back in the car, the dome lights and hazard button were working again.
maintenance cost is like $1k on a set of tires plus another $200 using the tire warranty to replace two of said tires.
And $2k for the extended warranty.
warranty work: charging core, computer, and tpms sensors. Oh and the steering wheel for bubbling “leather”
I'm at 20k miles and almost two years of ownership for the Rivian and the only issues I've had was when the rear axle and axle disconnect left the chat at about 400 miles. They fixed that in a day and we're all good. The other issue was the key situation, that was fixed by doing a hard reset on all modules which is apparently something only the service center can do. Been fine ever since. Aside from that, it has been rock solid. I will need some new tires soon though...that's going to hurt. I'll update all this when I get to 2 years in my own thread lol.
got an error this morning. Looks like I have to have the batteries replaced.
currently in a model x loaner. Older one with the vertical screen
Hopefully it's under warranty?
Also, Morgan Earp shot while playing pool. They have a diorama of the "history" of the gunfight naratted by Vincent Price in Tombstone, this part is hilarious when the little model plops down on the table.
Last edited by e30cabrio; Oct 14, 2024 at 01:11 PM.
Morg! You're famous!
Love the updates...you have put a lot of love into this thing...it'll pay off and it feels so good to right the wrongs of the previous owner's neglect and shortcuts. Well done, my friend.
Inaccurate - I still have the 3. However it is for sale, if you'd like to purchase it
Update:
I've had the 3 for a little over 3 years now, which is usually when I get the itch for something new. This time was no different. I've been looking on and off for the past few months and thought for sure I'd end up in a BMW i4, but the lease deals weren't fantastic and dealers weren't really negotiating on the m50 models. I checked out the Acura ZDX and the new Audi Q6 Etron in the beginning of March. I loved the Etron. They seemed to fix most of the issues I had with the previous models. It rode well, the throttle mapping was perfect, and the fit and finish were great - as expected. While it felt like it was worth the $70k MSRP, it did not feel worth the nearly $1,300 monthly lease payment for a Premium Plus Quattro with no add ons. Nice car, but the lack of incentives took it out of the running for me.
I was poking around Lease Hacker and saw all of the incentives Acura was putting on the ZDX leases ($26k off an A-Spec before negotiations). I reached out to a broker and had an A-Spec reserved that would be delivered in late April/early May. A few days later I thought maybe I'l lowball the local dealer and see what happens. I reached out to the salesman again in mid-March and gave him my number and terms, but, on a Type S, just for shits and grins. They said no, not going to happen, ever. So I said, ok, I'm not interested. Then I waited.
I kept an eye on their inventory throughout the month. They had 17 ZDXs - ten AWD A Specs, six Type S's, and one Type S with performance tires. Five of the seven Type S's had been on their lot since September and October of 2024. The other two were from December/January. Over the course of 3 weeks, they sold (or traded to another dealer) one ZDX - an A Spec. So last Thursday I reached out to two other dealers in the state, simply stating the following:
I'm interested in a ZDX Type S lease, 36 months, 10k miles a year. I want to pay $xxx/mo with first month payment due at signing, everything else is capitalized. I qualify for conquest and tier 1 credit through HFS. My zip is ##### for tax purposes. If you can make that happen, I will be there today to sign.
Both dealers came in higher (by about $3k over the lease term). Again, I said no. This is my number. Both dealers said they'd talk to the sales manager and call me back. Both dealers ended up agreeing to my terms. The downside - they were 2 hours away. I called the local dealership again around 5pm Friday and spoke with the same salesperson I had been working with previously. I told him that I'm getting ready to drive to dealer x to sign on a Type S for this amount. Am I driving there or am I driving to you? He said he'd speak with the sales manager again, and I got a call back 3 minutes later saying we have a deal.
All in all I got a Type S for $240 less per month than I'm paying on the Tesla (it's actually less than what I was paying for the Golf R), and insurance is about $300 less per year.
Last edited by civicdrivr; Apr 4, 2025 at 12:36 PM.
For those that may not know, the ZDX (and the Honda Prologue) is a Chevy - it's basically the same underpinnings as the Blazer and Cadillac Lyriq, but with Acura's design language and (thankfully) their UI. Unfortunately it did retain that annoying Chevy door chime.
It has ventilated seats, which work really well. There's glass in the roof, and it opens! It even has a built in sunshade for it! It has a heads up display which is surprisingly visible when I'm wearing polarized sunglasses (Dear BMW, find out what GM did to make that work, kthx). Speaking of displays, there's one in front of the driver! And it shows the important stuff, like, your speed and odometer! Or if you left your blinker on! It has Android Auto and CarPlay (which the Chevy and Cadillac variants do not have). The whole infotainment system is built on Android, and it's very responsive. However, the settings are not laid out particularly well. But, there are buttons! And knobs for the volume and temperature! And you can control the wipers easily, via a clearly marked switch!
Sarcasm aside, it does have nice features, and I appreciate that they took their time to make it look and feel like a car. Not an iPhone. While I did get used to most of the Tesla's design features, some things were infuriating throughout my ownership (like the wipers and HVAC controls).
The fit and finish is not on par with other $60k-75k cars. However, neither is Tesla's (well, before the price cuts). At least the ZDX has real leather seats, unlike the "vegan-leather" aka vinyl in the Tesla. The interior uses quite a bit of hard plastic, but at presents nicely, especially with the layout. I do wish there was usable under floor storage in the cargo area, and I really wish there was a frunk for the occasional road trip. However, I do have a roof box that will likely be put to use if the need arises, I just need to pick up cross bars.
I've tried Super Cruise (I forget what Acura branded it as), and it works decently well, but I haven't used it extensively. I do like all of the cameras though. They're placed well, and when parking, give you plenty of options to see if you're about to fuck up one of those shiny new 22" wheels.
It's easier to load my kid into the back seat since I don't have a sloping roof in the way. And the back seat is huge. I'm sure they could've pushed the back seat forward slightly to squeeze a third row in there, but I'm glad they didn't. On the topic of seats, one of the main reasons I went for the Type S over the cheaper A Spec were the seats (the air ride and steering rack were the others). They have adjustable thigh and bolster supports, and that makes them much more comfortable to me than the A-Spec seats.
As far as driving is concerned - it's very comfortable. It may have a Type S badge on it, but it has no sporting aspirations, whatsoever. As mentioned above, the Type S has air suspension, which can firm up a bit in Sport mode, but it's still a 6k pound SUV, and you feel every bit of that. That weight rears it's ugly head with acceleration as well - the Type S has 499hp and 544lb-ft of torque (9hp and 107lb-ft more than the ASpec). It will move out decently well for its size (one of the magazines says low 4s range to 60), but it's definitely a step back in performance compared to my Model 3. But, and I'm rationalizing here, it's an SUV. And it's inexpensive, which is kind of the theme here. Admittedly, the A-Spec suspension felt less floaty and better tuned. But the wider steering ratio sucked, and the seats weren't as comfortable.
Charging hasn't been an issue. It has a J1772/CCS port, so I did have to buy an adapter. But I am able to charge at home using the Tesla wall charger without issue. I used a Chargepoint charger this past weekend when we went somewhere for a birthday party and even that was seamless. I plugged in at 65% and $2.30 later it was sitting at 90.
Now for the one item that is proving to be a pain in my ass - Customer/Technical Support.
When you buy/lease a ZDX, Acura gives you three options for charging - package A, they give you a wall charger, an install credit, and $100 of EVgo charging credit. Package B, they give you a mobile charger and $300 in EVgo charging credit. Or package C, $750 in EVgo charging credit. I opted for package B. According to the dealer, Acura mails you a mobile charger, you don't get it at the dealership. And for the EVgo charging credits, the salesperson filled out a form for it and submitted it to corporate, but then...who knows? It just kinda disappears into the ether. So here I am nearly a week later, and I still don't have my mobile charger or charging credits.
On top of that, I can't get the Acura EV app setup. At first I was receiving a system error when inputting the VIN, forcing me to call tech support. So I did that Monday morning, they said it looked like the dealer set up the app originally, so support submitted a request to have it removed and reset. Two days later I get a confirmation that that was done and I can proceed. Now it accepts the VIN but says I need to contact the dealer to have them guide me through the AcuraLink/OnStar setup - except that's been setup already. So I reached out to support and they say that the setup file was corrupt, so they reset it. In doing so that wiped all of my settings on the car too, which was baffling when it happened about 15 hours after I had talked to them. When the app still didn't work, they said I needed to contact OnStart to setup the connection - again - which I did this morning. The app still doesn't work. And now, the WiFi hotspot in the car is no longer sharing it's connection
Bottom line, the car itself is great. The integration with GMs systems is proving to be a pain in the ass, as is the communication from Acura themselves. But it's still early and I'm willing to look past those issues if they correct them quickly.
Last edited by civicdrivr; Apr 4, 2025 at 12:40 PM.
@Yumcha - Can you rename this thread "civicdrivr's Z3 thread" or something like that? I figure any ZDX updates will be slim and likely go in the ZDX section instead.
Last edited by civicdrivr; Apr 4, 2025 at 01:14 PM.
I wish I was as tenacious and well read as you are.
I get all ADD and just end up buying more old shitty cars instead of something nice and new for cheap like this.
