i3adSaab

Been driving exclusively Audi's for the past 20 years.....totally enjoyable. My last two were TT's.....an '08 TT with the six cylinder, that puppy growled!....then a '16 TT with all the new technology that comes with the virtual cockpit. But now I'm moving on to the Model 3, no regrets and jumping into the future feet first.

I've had the Tesla for 5 days now.....I have to say it's the most amazing car I've ever driven.....sort of like a go cart on steroids. It honestly makes my TT feel like a donkey cart.... so I felt a need to make one last post on this forum. For those of you still hooked on combustion engines, I would recommend that you take a look at the other side. It's risky, but the future is out there.....the technology is shocking, Audi/Mercedes/BMW are in really deep trouble if this is the competition, make sure you check it out before you buy again.

Best of luck everyone! See you on the other side!

ourlee

ourlee

Huey52

You've certainly earned a break from Audi. Let us know at some point your electrified Winter driving experiences. All the best.

i3adSaab

honestly it's been raining or snowing since I got this beast, car is a mess but will post some pics when I get it cleaned up.

BlackOptic

Have fun! I am hoping to join you soon (with an Audi, of course)... I like very much the look of the e-Tron GT, and will wait.

i3adSaab

I don't want to harp on it too much on the Audi forum, but I really researched this a ton. The issue is Tesla is 10 years ahead of everyone in battery technology, and infrastructure. There are some really good YouTube videos out on the battery technology, comparing the various OEM's and what their strategy is. The Model 3 has Tesla's newest battery design in there (from the Gigafactory)......here's a good one to start with, three part video, each like 15min long if you're interested..... . It's an entirely new way of thinking about a car....instead of miles per gallon, or liters per 100km, you're thinking watt hours per mile. The buying experience and maintenance are just freaky for an old fool like me.....

Consider the buying experience:
I buy the car through my iPhone, paid the downpayment with Apple Pay. No haggling, no negotiation, you see it, you buy it.
The only options added were dual engine (AWD), 19" rims, Long Range Battery (they will have three battery packs, long range is 310 mile, medium is 260 I think, and short range is 230 I think).
To pick up the car, you have your paperwork basically done electronically before you show up. The paperwork signing experience took like 4 minutes, I signed two documents.
There is non of this stuff like, sales guy has to get his manager to agree on price, then they come out while you're getting the car trying to get you to buy all this extra crap like protection plans, maintenance plans, yadda yadda yadda.
I picked up in Mt. Kisco NY,....they are averaging 60 Model 3 deliveries per day......I'm saying 60......can you imagine that type of volume of roughly over $55k cars?? Audi has to be peeing their pants right now.

With respect to maintenance.....here's my maintenance schedule:
Change brake fluid at 25k miles
Change battery cooling water at 50k miles
That's it. With regenerative braking, my pads and discs should last the life of the car.
For the 25k and 50k mile services, I need to go to a service center. Everything else I can schedule remote service, they come to my house. Sweet!

Warranty:
New Car Warranty is 4 years or 50k miles
Battery and Drive Unit is 8 years or 120k miles

Driveability:
Faster and incredibly smooth pickup, no transmission for gear changes, 100% of torque available from start. Get ready for your head to hit the back of the seat type of pick up.
Handling and response in turns honestly makes my '16 TT feel like a model T....I could never go back, you can't imagine how much better this feels and how stable the car is in turns, low center of gravity makes a huge difference.
Really quiet in the cabin, everything sounds better......it makes the stereo sound amazing.....or maybe it just is amazing??

Ecosystem:
Tesla has millions of miles on it's battery and drive systems now, it's pretty well proven. The other OEM's really have nothing in comparison.
From what I've read, Tesla's energy management is way far ahead of the other OEM's.....they use far less watts per mile basically. It's a combination of lots of stuff, but the total package is very efficient.
Tesla owns in partnership with Panasonic, the Gigafactory....so they own the critical battery supply, plus it appears to be the best battery technology and is very simple. The OEM's have basically no battery supply, VW will work with Chinese supplier as I recall.....like yuk!!
90% of my driving is short daily trips less than 50 miles. You bring the car back, plug it in the garage, and I can charge at 40 miles per hour charge rate.....very quick.
For trips, Tesla GPS uses Google Maps/Earth, and is integrated with the SuperCharger network that they own. All chargers are along highway systems, near a place to eat and pee. They charge at a rate of about 180 miles per 30 min......so you drive 3 hours, take a break and grab a bite, and charge.
Tesla treats the car like an iPhone....not necessarily good, but interesting. There are software updates every other week.....sometimes they create another problem, so then they put out a patch to fix it....it's like a phone. But often they add some incredible capability. For instance, all Model 3's come with all the built in cameras and sensors. To activate autonomous driving, it's just a software download. So they had the idea to use the front camera as a dash cam, version 9 of the software downloaded in October included this capability. So I have a flash drive in one USB port, the camera is always recording now and when I want to save the recording, I hit a icon on the screen and it saves the past 10 minutes of driving onto the flash drive. How cool is that?? They are adding stuff like this every month, the car is constantly evolving. There's even an interior camera above the rear view mirror. It's not being used at all right now, they left it in there because they have ideas for the future.
The battery pack support structure below the passenger compartment increases the stability of the interior in accidents. This car is the safest car ever tested.

So when I look at the total package, I'm willing to put up with some things that might break....Basically everything is warrantied, there's little risk from a financial standpoint. Okay, some pics.....

i3adSaab

huh that's weird?....try again with the one pic.....

i3adSaab

funny, yeah I feel like it's the future. My wife is freaked out by all the new technology, she loves her Volvo's......but she took it out alone for the first time this morning to run errands, and now she's hooked. You only have to drive it once, and then you "get it".

BlackOptic

Very cool.