Aero1900

Do you really want the Y?

The 3 is the same vehicle mechanically but it's lower, faster and cheaper. Plus I think it looks much better. Do you really get much benefit going from a 3 to a Y??

My old man has a dual motor model 3 performance pack. It rocks! Super fast, quiet and smooth

iaflyer

The Y is a taller car - you have to climb out of the 3 while with the Y you can just step out. And the Y isn't that much more - $3k which I think is well worth it.

GeneralLee

Agree, but the Y is more spacious and better oriented for a family. The 3 is a great car no doubt, but slightly more utility offered in the Y for a very small premium.

sailingfun

I looked at both the 3 and Y. The wife said she did not like the 3 but loved the Y. Pretty much end of discussion at that point since she will be the primary driver. I looked over quite a few Y’s on the lot and the build issues ranged from minor to severe. Seems like a bit of a lottery on what you get but I now understand you can refuse delivery and wait for another one. Big question is go with the AWD Long range or RWD standard range. The RWD is now 39900 minus the 7000 credit. 10,000 more for the LR. The other question is will the credit be retro for the tax year or only apply after passage. I can extend the lease on the current electric car to wait.

gloopy

Go with the AWD. The practical difference in the range is much more than just plotting a radius on a map. First of all they strongly recommend you don't top it above 80% unless you're just about to go on a longer trip. So you can take 20% straight off the top for a large majority of the time. Unless you're like Kramer wanting a rush driving left of the slash, you're going to have to "budget" for a reserve on arrival. 10% is probably the hard deck for around town in good weather. Running it flat is many times worse than a gasoline car. There's no AAA to call to bring a couple gallons real quick; its a brick and its going to be a BFD getting things back to normal by comparison. So a 20% "reserve" is probably very reasonable.

That leaves you about 150 miles of range for most missions. Then consider that odds are you'll want either heating or AC with the fan, nighttime headlights sometimes, radio, seat heating some of the time, plus it loses range when parked and your best "one pedal driving" intentions will always be reduced by other drivers in front of you, so your 150ish range is really just Chuck Yeager test pilot theory.

Is that enough for most missions to the store or whatever local stuff? Sure, most of the time. But the extra cost for the extra range (and motor and performance and AWD) is basically nothing especially considering you'll get almost all of that back at resale anyway.

JMHO

PerfInit

What happens when the Tesla batteries reach their end of useful life? How many years do they last? Can the batteries be safely recycled?

gloopy

End of life for a lot of "green" stuff is sausage making no one wants to talk about, similar to ignoring the environmental, carbon and human costs of getting it to market in the first place. That aside, their warranty is 8 years and 100-150K miles (depending on model) on the bateries and there's examples out there from the originals that are way above that. I think there's even a million miler out there as well and that one has the older less awesome batteries anyway.

Engines and batteries are theoretically replaceable with much less work than an ICE powertrain. And the rate of progress that they are improving means you'll probably not even consider trying to make it a lifer because you'll want the better ones later.

If the test drive doesn't sell you then it wasn't meant to be. If it does, nothing else will come close so might as well go for it.

Seneca Pilot

Never buy a Tesla thinking you are making a green choice. They are anything but green. Fast, nice for commuting, cheap when used for close in trips, but not green.

iaflyer

The battery management system in the Tesla is carefully calibrated to get max life out of the batteries. Since Tesla has only been building cars since 2012, no one really knows but there are plenty of 2012 models working just fine. There was also a taxi service in California called Tesloop that used Teslasand some of their cars are above 400,000 miles and the batteries are fine.

From what I read, the heavy "wear" on the battery is when it's charged above 90% or below 10%. So if you keep your car between those levels, it doesn't wear on the battery much. I never charge mine above 90% unless I need 100% to go somewhere far away. And even on busy day driving around I don't get below 30%.

GeneralLee

The way it reads right now is that it would not be retroactive. It would go from date of effect and add 400k vehicles to Tesla that would get the credit. Use the time hoping quality continues to improve on the Y which it will. New console design is starting to make its way into the Y as well as improved headlights.