Signed the offer letter tonight on the new company. Next step is to test drives a bunch of toys and sell the current. To be continued and thanks...
Signed the offer letter tonight on the new company. Next step is to test drives a bunch of toys and sell the current. To be continued and thanks...
Congrats on the new gig!
Thanks sir - psyched to stay in my Engineering Plastics Automotive world and a bit more moola doesn't hurt. Hunting Model 3 performance inventory as I was impressed by the available charging infrastructure on the most recent Detroit run...
So test drove the model 3 performance today. I had some expectation of how different it would be based on discussions and research ahead of the test drive. It is worth a preface that this is not a car. It is a psychotically fast laptop with a futuristic interface.
As expected, acceleration was very impressive. It most closely resembled my friends modded GTR but without all the noise. Handling was surprisingly good and the steering feel felt great. Space and fit and finish of the car was better than expected as I think they have made some pretty impressive quality improvements since the earlier cars. I did a 15 mile loop starting out from 291miles of charge. I hammered it effectively non-stop and returned it with 284miles of charge?
The interface will take some getting used to as the right hand shift stalk is your gear selection amongst other things. It felt pretty intuitive working from the screen but the utter lack of knobs and buttons took a minute to get my head around. Not having to turn it "on" or "off" was maybe the strangest thing as it just lets you in and gets rolling and let's you out and locks up after. I sat in the car for like 5 minutes at the dealer after parking it trying to decide what I ought to do to turn it off and lock it...
Pending the bosses details on how much they cover when I start the role the 28th I am grabbing a new one. No point in used as depreciation is non-existent, which is another selling point for something I'll have to replace frequently.
Researched the power connections and will be adding one of the Tesla wall connectors as I want to keep the spare wire in the trunk at all times (spares are ~300) and the cool wall connect with 18' cord is $500. The wall connect charges 40% faster (~48miles charge/hr) which is the real selling point as I will be driving the crap out of it.
While there are options there aren't many. I don't need to pay 10k for self driving. Unless I find one already optioned more it will simply be me adding the 1K charge to go to the midnight silver. Second color choice is the pearl white which is free.
Two weeks from pulling the trigger. Will report back...
Psychotically fast laptop is not a terrible description.
The whole "I don't have to turn it on" thing is probably the weirdest aspect. First time we test drove one, there was a "okay, now how do we make it do something" moment for sure. Once you spend some time with the owner's manual you'll discover that all the controls you're used to are still there. There's some fine-tuning you can do to the steering and "throttle" behavior as well.
That faster charging from the wall unit isn't as useful as you might think. You're either charging overnight or you're in a hurry. The included "mobile charger" is fast enough to give you a full charge overnight, having the car finish at 1 am instead of 4 am just isn't that much of a benefit. Just an FYI. Or at least the justification for why I use it :) If you want to carry the mobile unit just in case, that makes sense. We haven't come across a situation where that would be necessary or useful, but every use pattern is different.
Keith Tanner said:Psychotically fast laptop is not a terrible description.
The whole "I don't have to turn it on" thing is probably the weirdest aspect. First time we test drove one, there was a "okay, now how do we make it do something" moment for sure. Once you spend some time with the owner's manual you'll discover that all the controls you're used to are still there. There's some fine-tuning you can do to the steering and "throttle" behavior as well.
That faster charging from the wall unit isn't as useful as you might think. You're either charging overnight or you're in a hurry. The included "mobile charger" is fast enough to give you a full charge overnight, having the car finish at 1 am instead of 4 am just isn't that much of a benefit. Just an FYI. Or at least the justification for why I use it :) If you want to carry the mobile unit just in case, that makes sense. We haven't come across a situation where that would be necessary or useful, but every use pattern is different.
I agree with Keith on the mobile charger. It is maxed at 32 amps but even that is enough to charge the car overnight. I have never felt the need for a faster charger. I also almost never take my charger with me. I did when I first bought the car but soon realized that it was unnecessary. I recently brought it with me for the Marriott in Troy which doesn't have a charger but has an unlocked NEMA 240v plug in the parking garage that I appropriated for the evening. You could always buy and additional mobile charger for $300. I also highly recommend the full self driving. There are few sections of highway as completely devoid of anything interesting as the section of 75 from Cincy to Detroit. Autopilot definitely takes the edge off of those long days on the highway.
Interesting points on both the wall charger and what charger cords are attached when you arrive at one. I know that I will be neurotic road tripping it without a cord and adapters in the trunk for at least the first months of ownership. So that leaves me buying a spare cord.
I think I am going to have to run a new outlet in the garage as the Tesla will take Caddy's spot outside alongside of the garage. This means from my current plug to the cars charger port will be ~30'. With an outlet run to the far corner of the garage I should be comfortably within the 18' range of most of the "long" chords.
I think I sold myself on it but want to run the numbers from the boss before I pull the trigger on it. Also have to get a laundry list of items sorted on the V to get her sold off along with the spare LS6 long block and piles of LS hot rod bits.
Ordered a new laptop today. Looking forward to trying out performance ev life.
84FSP said:
...spare LS6 long block and piles of LS hot rod bits.
Umm, what LS hot rod bits might you be getting rid of?
And congrats on the new ride!
Congrats! Janel is jealous of the blacked out trim.
Did you get the hedgehog confirmation screen?
Nice! Be sure to report back on your ownership experience.
eastsideTim said:84FSP said:
...spare LS6 long block and piles of LS hot rod bits.
Umm, what LS hot rod bits might you be getting rid of?
And congrats on the new ride!
Hi Tim,
I have a pretty rowdy LS6 long block that made 378hp thru the crappy ls2 intake and factory manifolds. A 5k mile used but mint howards cam for 48k cars. Cometic thin head gaskets to bump compression by 0.5 points. Oem headbolts. A variety of oil pans and other bits. CTS v gen 1 exhaust manifolds and cats. Likely a bunch of other ish as well. And shortly a very nasty 116k mil 06 CTS V with a recently built nasty LS2 heads, cam, 102 intake and tbody, longtubes, and all the fine bits...
Keith Tanner said:Congrats! Janel is jealous of the blacked out trim.
Did you get the hedgehog confirmation screen?
I did get the funky hedgehog confirmation screen and chuckled. Mrs84FSP was sitting behind and just chuckled about it.
Yep the Tesla dudes are a fun odd bunch. I was working on the "go-go-gadget armrest" for a buddy in their interiors group...
Excited to be picking up the new ride in the am. Have a trip to Detroit Monday evening so will waste no time in trying a long distance run.
Need to hunt for a charge plug adapter for the 220 line currently wired in the garage till the wall charger arrives and gets wired up.
That's pretty quick, it's my understanding that Tesla is backed up on Model 3 orders. Congrats!
You can get adapters for the mobile charger from Tesla. Looks like stock is not complete but a visit to an electrical supply store for an appropriate receptacle will do the trick. You can tell the charger to limit current for the charger in a specific location if you know the circuit isn't quite what it claims to be.
https://shop.tesla.com/product/gen-2-nema-adapters
If you have range anxiety for the first trip, there is a "glide path" display that shows predicted energy usage as well as actual. It may be reassuring :)
This thread is a good read.
Im doing 50K a year too, but can't make the math work on a Tesla. My company doesn't pay a mileage reimbursement, they give me a gas card (and allow all my personal fuel usage). That means I'd get zero reimbursement for fuel if it was electric. That's not good.
Im jealous. Enjoy the ride!
Thanks gents. I'm gonna try hitting the RV supply shop to see if they have an adapter to convert to one of the supplied Tesla plugs.
In reply to 84FSP :
Look again at your outlet in the garage. That's not a 220V plug- it's a 125V plug.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to 84FSP :
Look again at your outlet in the garage. That's not a 220V plug- it's a 125V plug.
I was wondering about that but was assuming I was missing something. It does clearly say 125v on the face.
IIRC, Tesla only supplies the weakest basic plug with the mobile charger. If you want any of the others, you have to purchase separately.
Confused on this point as it is setup on 40amps and is for sure running 220v. Wondering if my electrician buddy used a spare plug/socket setup he had handy.
Well, that outlet is only rated for 20A. You need to swap it.
There are 110V twistlocks that are very similar in size to 220V twistlocks. They can be forced with minimal effort.
That's the wrong outlet.
I worked for an x-ray film processor company and the cord had a 20 amp plug on the end of the 110v processor.
Everyone would complain about our cord or ask why 220v so our manager/salesman had me buy a 20 amp receptacle he included in the parts kit.
Our electrical engineer split a gut - you can't just change it.......we also had a lot of folks take pliers and twist the tab so it would fit a standard 110v, 15amp receptacle.
SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:This thread is a good read.
Im doing 50K a year too, but can't make the math work on a Tesla. My company doesn't pay a mileage reimbursement, they give me a gas card (and allow all my personal fuel usage). That means I'd get zero reimbursement for fuel if it was electric. That's not good.
Im jealous. Enjoy the ride!
Are you writing off the mileage?
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