Journey to 500,000 Miles: 3 Month Update
It’s been three months since we took ownership of our first Tesla. Thus far, we have traveled 2077 miles. Overall the car has been fantastic, and I have been thrilled with it. It’s still super fun to drive, comfortable, and has saved us money on fuel. Below are few thoughts after the first three months.
The Good
As mentioned above, the quick and instant acceleration is very fun. Beyond that, though, acceleration has been useful for getting onto the freeway or moving into other lanes when needed. I don’t think the car needs to be any faster than it is, and the new Model S Plaid is downright insane, as you can see in the video below. I don’t think anyone needs that type of acceleration, and I hope no one gets hurt while people try it for themselves. It’s super cool that an electric car is that fast, though.
I also have to say that I have really enjoyed the ride quality and comfort of the Model 3 so far too. I was a little concerned it wouldn’t be as comfortable as our Santa Fe, but it’s really comfortable on our drives everywhere we have gone.
I would add that charging at our apartment has been awesome too. We charge before we know we need to take a longer trip, and we have never been concerned about the range yet.
Lastly, I have really come to like Autopilot and Autosteer. I was not in love with how Autosteer disengages early on, but once I learned that you only have to tap the stalk to turn on Autopilot/Autosteer, this became a non-issue. Autopilot is a much better experience than my previous vehicles, and I love that it’s only going to get better over time.
I’m even more excited about the upcoming subscription-based Full Self-Driving. I plan to turn that one for our trip back to Wisconsin. I’m also interested in testing the fully camera-based Autopilot. My car has the radar sensors in it, but they’ll soon be turned off in an update.
The Not So Good
There are a few areas that can be improved, or I’ll need service to fix. There is a recall for a squeaky sound due to a control arm issue, and I think my Model 3 might be part of that. The squeak developed in the last couple of weeks for us, so I’m going to have that checked out. Also, I think we have a loose fastener in the B-Pillar that needs to be secured. On certain rougher roads, especially you can hear that loose fastener. This should give me a good indication of Tesla’s service, though. I had a question about how that worked, and now I’ll be able to answer that better.
The other area that is hit or miss is driver profiles and phone as a key. Misty, my wife, didn’t understand that she had to buckle her safety belt or put the car in gear first to get the profile to activate from Easy Entry (moves the seat and steering wheel to make it easy to get in/out). She’s going to try that next time she drives. However, even though I have my profile set to primary, Misty’s profile often gets activated for me while I’m driving.
I think this might be related to the fact that my iPhone 12 Pro has sometimes seemed not to be recognized by the car. I have had to unlock my phone to get the doors to open on a handful of occasions. I’m not sure if that’s my phone, the car, or something that can even really be fixed. I have always been able to get into the car and drive it after unlocking my phone.
That’s my quick three-month update. The last thing I would add is that I have saved about $230 on electric vs. gas over the three months. Below is a breakdown of the total cost to own and a gas/electric comparison between the Model 3 and our previous 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe.
Total Cost of Ownership: $52,944.56
Distance Traveled: 2077
Avg Price per Gallon Gas: $4.24
The above is an average of the monthly averages of gas prices over the past three months.
Santa Fe Gas Mileage: 26
Total Gas Cost: $ 338.71
Total Charging Cost: $107.98
Total Saved:$230.73
As always, if you have any questions or want to know more about something, please let me know!
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