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1.#Model3 is a nice car. My family liked it. Accelerates well. Quiet, Seems well built. Some oddities--the lack of a dashboard display, always having to look to the center touchscreen even for small things like the directional indicator.../1
...the push-to-Park steering wheel stalk with PRND "shifter" very Benz-like. The touchscreen is used for everything including adjusting side mirrors, steering wheel position/telescope, and OPENING THE FREAKING GLOVEBOX. If that one display fails, no zoom, no drive. /2
2. Even without the fully autonomous self-drive autopilot, the regular autopilot is quite impressive. It is a dream on the highway.
3. Would I want to drive this car? Yes, why not. /3
3. Would I want to drive this car? Yes, why not. /3
4. Negatives: no in-car wifi hotspot, $100/year after first year for data service that's kind of required to drive the car. The car requires a hotspot or WiFi to download OTA software. Tiny, cheap rear view mirror... /4
...sales guy kept bringing up the rear-view camera on the touch display while I'm driving. That's very distracting and not a good look. Cheap sun visors. Cheap construction of semi-opaque/transparent roof--it's just caulked like a windshield, and if it fails, you are soaked. /5
5. This is no Model S or Model X. It's a stripped down version using the same battery tech and computer platform. But still stripped down. Like I said a nice car all the same. /6
7. @Tesla's website is full of small and annoying false advertising and barely disclosed semi-facts and misleading numbers. The prices on the cars are modified to apply "savings" based on assumptions. Getting a cash price requires clicking on "cash" tab. /7
8. Only Tesla employees can look at availability of the #Model3, and even then it's not accurate, as units "in transit" show up as in local inventory. They have to physically check to really know. /8
9. Returned vehicles, according to employees, "go away" into some unknown place. But I'm assured the company never tries to sell a returned vehicle as a new one to another customer. Because...ahem...that would be illegal. /9
10. The lease money factor, etc. are on the screen for Tesla employees, who scrolled through it, but I can't find it on the website. No matter, @Tesla wants you to pay all the sales tax, delivery, first month lease, acquisition fee in addition to down payment at delivery... /10
...So at delivery, I'd have to pay at least $6000-6500 minus the $2500 order down payment, due when I clicked the order. Tesla wants their upfront cash even for a lease WITH NO RESIDUAL BUY OPTION. It's an expensive lease. /11
11. In the end, is it worth it? My plan was to sell my wife's Subaru Outback in which we had some good equity, and use that equity to pay the down amount on the Tesla. I'd commute gas-free in the Tesla and let my wife have my 2019 Subaru Forester. /12
12. So all that was necessary was to keep the monthly lease payment within striking range of the current loan payment on the Outback plus my monthly fuel budget. It was really close, if I bought the Standard Plus Model 3 with zero options. Basically a swap out. /13
13. I'd have had to install a 40-amp NEMA 14-50 plug in the garage, easy since the panel lives there and there's spare slots for breakers. But an additional expense just the same. /14
14. Then I looked at insurance. The Tesla is simply way more expensive to repair (when parts are even available) after any kind of accident, even a small one, than a Subaru. At $500 deductible, my monthly insurance payment would go up $100.... /15
...so I asked for quotes with deductibles of $1k, $2k and $5k. Still more than my Outback at $500, by hundreds a year. And Tesla requires $2500 anyway. That's $400 extra dollars a year. /16
15. It was even money after fuel savings and selling the Outback before factoring in insurance. I live in Atlanta metro. It's nearly impossible to survive 3 years with a car and no dings or scratches or dents. And a bona-fide accident is always a real possibility... /17
...I don't want a $2500 deductible when I know for a fact Tesla parts are expensive and hard to come by. It's a bet I don't want to make. The lease was more than just about money. It was that I don't want to OWN a Tesla given that company's... /18
financial position and risk. A lease is the best way to hedge the risk there won't be a Tesla within the next 3 years, and all those people who scraped up $5000+ and a 72-month loan would be screwed. /19
16. So after, doing the math, it's not worth me spending a ton of money, investing all the equity in my Outback, risking $2500 in any accident, breaking even on fuel and lease, plus spending $40-50 extra a month in insurance just to drive an EV. /20
17. As I said, the #Model3 is a nice car, albeit stripped down with some super-cheap parts. But it's not quite nice enough to buy, or to lease, right now. Not for me. Maybe one day it will be. /END
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