Crashnburn80's Tesla Model 3 Performance Longer Range Build

Previous truck builds focused high power, speed and performance with improved off-road capabilities, with my Supercharged 2nd Gen and Supercharged Gladiator Mojave. Unfortunately the Gladiator catastrophically blew the motor in the one year old truck.

Going forward it is impossible to ignore the crushing performance of high performance EVs while side-stepping high gas prices. So I decided to separate the vehicle rolls. Daily driver responsibility will be relegated to a Performance Model 3 Tesla while weekend warrior 4x4 duty goes to a classic 1st Gen DC Tacoma.

The car is due in soon, so I've started this thread to track all the Tesla developments and thoughts.



Tesla Model 3 Performance
450hp, 0-60 3.1s, range 315 miles
Brembo big brake kit with 20" uberturbine wheels

The Performance isn't where I started. I initially ordered the AWD long range version.

Tesla Model 3 Long Range
350hp, 0-60 4.2s, range 358 miles
Standard brakes with 18" aero wheels

For an additional $2k you can purchase speed boost to bump the Long Range to 400hp, 0-60 in 3.7s without affecting the range. Largely regarded as the most balanced option of cost vs performance.

The way the Long Range model gets its extended range is by using smaller lighter wheels, aero wheel covers for reduced drag and low rolling resistance tires.

Tesla Aero wheel cover vs aero cover removed on the aero wheel


Merely changing from the 18" aero wheel to a 19" sport wheel without low rolling resistance tires drops the range from 358 to 334 miles. Logically if you wanted to combine ultimate performance with long range, one would put the OEM light weight aero wheels on the performance model. Except they won't fit the Performance model due to the performance brakes.

Modding EVs
Modding an EV for performance is a little different. Performance is often measured in power/weight ratios. In a conventional ICE vehicle, the focus is typically on adding power with various engine modifications. In an EV power is largely fixed, so instead weight reduction or efficiency improvements are key. If a vehicle is X-amount more efficient, that also means it is using that amount less power for a given speed and therefore has that much more power available on tap.

The key to building a high performance EV is maximizing efficiency for power, performance and range. And if you are stuck in the past thinking efficiency is boring, you should ride in a sub-3 second car. EV mods require far more attention to detail and if you are like me, that makes it all the more interesting.

The stock Performance 20" uberturbine wheels are heavy, not aerodynamically efficient and they also come with summer only tires. Far less than ideal. They were chosen for the low profile giving good cornering on summer performance tires.

Enter the FastEV EV01 flow formed wheels. Aftermarket Aero wheels designed to fit the Performance model while being even lighter than Tesla's aero wheels. 21lbs EV01 vs 23lbs for Tesla Aeros. The EV01 triangular covers are removable, FastEV claims a 4.4% efficiency improvement with the covers, similar to Tesla with the Aero covers. Wheels are also available in solid black. Additional article available here, manufacture site here. Long story short, range losses from the Performance models heavy non-aero wheels can be recovered to some extent with lighter more efficient wheels, which should also translate into even better performance.

EV01s on a Model 3 Performance


Tires
The stock long range 18" wheels ride on 235/45r18 all season Michelin MXM4s tires with additional noise canceling foam inserts in Tesla spec, weighing 25lbs. (Because EVs are quieter, tire noise is more noticeable). The tire is a low rolling resistance, low noise all season that seems to do everything relatively mediocre, but has the best in class low rolling resistance for range. Despite being an older tire design, that is likely why it is still the OEM tire on the Long Range model.

I have many tire thoughts about balancing performance with rolling resistance and range backed by data measurements that I will share in later posts, but this is effectively the baseline.

The headlights
In the 2021 refresh the Model 3 was equipped with Global Matrix LED headlights, previous models were equipped with reflector LED headlights. Matrix LED headlights were not approved by the NHTSA in the US until Feb of 2022. The cars had them prior to approval, but the matrix function was simply not enabled. The cars now just require a software update to enable the functionality. Matrix LED headlights allow full time high beams without blinding other motorists, making it one of the safest headlight technologies to date.

Matrix LED headlights
https://youtu.be/xYSix5r38qY

Mega thread on parts shortage causing the old reflector headlights to be subbed for the newer Matrix LED headlights in new cars.
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/2022-q2-production-model-3-missing-matrix-headlights.265630/

New has matrix projector on the outer edge


Matrix headlight ability. Because.


A couple of better sites for actual Tesla upgrades:
https://unpluggedperformance.com/model-3/
https://www.mountainpassperformance.com/product-category/model3performance/

Then a funny thing happened, I got cold feet/indecisive and cancelled the Tesla order and had this thread deleted. After many months of shopping around daily driver alternatives, I came full circle to the same conclusion this was the right vehicle and re-placed the order. This time instead of the midnight silver metallic, I decided to go with flare and get the red multi-coat. And then had the thread un-deleted.

Model 3 Performance
w/ Autopilot (not Full Self Driving)
Red multi-coat

Delivery on 9/24/22




There are insufficient words to describe the performance of these cars. The performance is on a different planet compared to an ICE vehicle. Often traditionalists will criticize these cars saying they "lack soul". As someone that holds a degree in vehicle design and is a long time automotive enthusiast, IMO once you drive it you realize the car has plenty of soul. It is different and in the form of underdog super car killing kind, it just lacks noise, which just makes it seem more luxurious. But it isn't just acceleration, with the weight all being under the floor between the wheels with dual motor AWD, the car is absurdly responsive. You don't have a very heavy engine in the front of the vehicle affecting the cars ability to rapidly respond to steering input, the front is literally an empty trunk or frunk, with no weight whatsoever, making its nimbleness unrivaled by a front engine ICE vehicle. On top of it all the car has ridiculous storage front and rear while seating 5. Everything from traditional vehicles immediately seems obsolete.

 

Lets talk about charging
This seems like a dumb thing to talk about, but bear with me. One of the things I think can be confusing to new comers is charging with the different connectors and charging standards. It isn't complicated, but there are different options based on preference and the industry hasn't yet consolidated on a single standard. I thought it would be helpful to put this out there for others considering an EV, I would have found it helpful.

Tesla standard - Somewhat obviously a Tesla will plug directly into any Tesla charger. There are a few different types.
1) Tesla Mobile Charger

This kit is designed to be ideally kept in your car and can charge your car from a standard 110v 15A outlet, or a 220v outlet while traveling. Basically plug the car into any standard outlet or dryer outlet. Additionally you can purchase other plugs for higher output if the outlet supports it. My garage has a 20A circuit, so I purchased a 20A plug instead of using the standard 15A plug that came in the kit, giving me a higher charge rate. Lots of plug options available here. Most people are going to use the standard 15A outlet or 220v outlet that comes in the standard kit, as those are the standard outlet types in most residential construction. The 110v is common everywhere, but slower in charging.

2) Tesla Wall Charger
The home wall charger is the highest speed form of at-home charging, permanently installed and mounted on your wall at home. It offers a 48A charge rate if you can have enough breakers in your box to supply it with a 60A circuit, otherwise is able to run at lower current levels. It offers a best in class 44 miles range in one hour of charging.



3) Public Tesla Chargers
There are Tesla Superchargers and Tesla Destination chargers installed in public spaces. A supercharger is for immediate rapid charge and can recharge up to 175 miles in 15 minutes depending on the Supercharger. Tesla has by far the most expansive and advanced high speed charger network. The destination chargers are roughly equivalent to the high speed home chargers (level 2) giving ~44 miles/hr, useful to charge at a destination (like hotel or restaurant), but not fast enough for a quick charge and go.

Then there are public 3rd party chargers
4) The public level 2 industry charging standard connector is SAE J1772. This will not plug into a proprietary Tesla connector. A free adapter for SAE J1772 to Tesla is included with every Tesla as of now. So you can plug your Tesla into almost any public level 2 charger, to get the ~44 miles/hr charing.



5) Public 3rd party high speed charging
There are 3rd party high speed EV charing networks, similar to the Tesla Superchargers but often not quite as fast. These use the CSS combo plug standard. You can buy an aftermarket adapter or an OEM Tesla unit. The price seems high, aftermarket units are not much less. These are capable of 250kw power transfer and self monitor for overheating during the high speed charging.



6) CHAdeMO
Obsolete and being phased out. The charger was used really only by Nissan in the US before Nissan switched to the more common J17772. With Nissan switching, no new vehicles use this charging connector and it is largely uncommon and irrelevant.

Split-Charging
Many public chargers and supercharger stations can charge two vehicles at a time with one charger station. However the charger may have a peak output capacity per station that is shared across both vehicles chargers, meaning if 2 vehicles are plugged in the charge rate is split so that 1/2 capacity is going to each vehicle. Hence proper etiquette is to always use an unused charger station before doubling up with another vehicle.

So you have:
-110v slow home charging (standard outlet)
-Faster 220v level 2 home charger
-Destination Tesla charging (level 2)
-Tesla Supercharging
-Level 2 public charging with included adapter
-Rapid public charging with a CSS adapter

So many options. I ordered the mobile charger and the 220v home charger. Then for maximum road trip versitility I figured the CSS adapter would be good to have on hand. However, in practice, for daily commuting the mobile connector alone is more than enough to have the car topped off every day. Remember, every morning the car leaves with nearly a full charge so unless you drive a crazy amount of miles the car doesn't need to charge that much. I still plan on installing the 48A charger just to have the rapid charge-ability, but the notion of charging being a significant issue is way overplayed.

Finding chargers
Imagine searching for gas stations only by brand alone. Where is the nearest Chevron vs where is the nearest gas station. This is often how it is by charger companies, where is the nearest Tesla charger, or Rivian charger or ChargePoint charger. This is a major misconception. The charge network is so much more drastically vast than most realize.

Bellevue Tesla chargers


Vs Bellevue Gas stations


Vs available Bellevue chargers across brands


Tesla has an exceptional charing network. But if you carry the adapters for the most common connectors (J1772 and CSS) the options are near limitless and charing stations often vastly outnumber gas stations. In nearby Seattle they have 94 gas stations and 724 *public* charging stations. This does not count business private charging stations, which many businesses are rapidly adopting.

The go-to for EV users is the independent PlugShare app/site as it will show all charging options (shown above), including places where you can charge at businesses and even plug in at public/business dedicated wall outlets. If you don't drive an EV, you are likely unaware of just how prevalent the charing network actually is. Chargers don't require massive gas stations that are plainly obvious, it can be something a bit larger than a parking meter in a parking lot that is very discrete.

 

Somewhat off-topic, but I'd be interested to hear your take on why the Gladiator's engine blew. Bad luck, installer error, or fatal design flaw?

Any plans to do a build thread for your 1st gen?

 

I suspect the Gladiator threw a rod due to an engine manufacturing defect that was exacerbated by the supercharger. Plenty of guys running Magnuson's over here without serious issues. Really difficult to say though.

First Gen build thread is here. I put a link in the original post as well.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/crashnburn80s-1st-gen-trd-double-cab-build.762757/

The Tesla’s delivery date was also bumped up and narrowed today.

 

Hells yah! Future car!

We took delivery of a Model Y Long Range today. Test drove one in April, and it was like: this is a no-brainer….order one!

Order date got pushed around a lot but once we got close I pulled the trigger on installing a wall charger. Took about an hour but was straightforward as I put it directly below the panel.

Matrix headlights are wild! Pretty surprised when I saw they were packaged into our build. Was not expecting that.

 

This is a pretty fun read about an aftermarket CFD optimization study on the Model 3, which has the lowest coefficient of drag out of any mass production vehicle, ever.
https://unpluggedperformance.com/aerodynamic-study-of-tesla-model-3/

 

Are the matrix LEDs active? Last thing I heard (it's been awhile), the hardware was there but the software was yet to be released making them just regular headlights.

 

Goodies awaiting install

Ultra efficient Fast EV01 wheels, 11lbs lighter than stock performance wheels (per wheel) and also more aerodynamically efficient with the aero plates installed. The color actually looks better than expected, but I'm going to get them refinished in a dark gunmetal to go with the black filler plates on the black and red themed Tesla.



The latest ultra high performance all season EV tire, Goodyears Electric Drive GT. The tire promises higher performance than the stock long range tires and better all season performance than the stock Performance model summer only tires that may crack under 45 degrees, while offering longer life without adding weight.


The tires also have the OEM style noise reducing foam insulation inside the tire just like the stock long range tires. Because EVs are so quiet, many use OEM tires with road noise suppressing foam insulation. These tires promise all the performance benefits, while maintaining OEM or better design characteristics.


New Mountain Pass Performance 2 piece slotted rotors with aluminum hats. These rotors reduce rotating mass 1.3lb per corner and increase braking capacity by 30% by using directional veins for greater thermal cooling capacity vs the stock straight vein rotor with steel hats. Performance rotors for front and rear, which will also add +4mm offset due to the thicker rotor hat.


Unplugged performance titanium lug nuts. Saves 0.5lb per corner.


Since it isn't practically possible to add power to an EV, the next best thing is to remove weight. Rotating weight is by far the best type for removal, but it is very quickly a diminishing returns game in weight removal vs cost. For wheels, aerodynamic properties also matter if looking at range vs just acceleration.

For the Model 3 Performance specifically, in the case of EV01 wheels, the wheels are different for the Performance model vs other models due to clearances on the brakes. The OEM performance rotors require extra clearance for mounting bolts to clear the wheels, so EV01 makes a high clearance version with more offset. However, if changing out the OEM brake discs later to new units that don't require that clearance and the rotors add even more offset, you may have to buy new wheels to pull them back in again, as you don't want the wheels sticking out in the airstream. Long story short, the brake rotor decision and wheel decision is really a package deal in this case, hence pulling the trigger on both vs staggering them.

 

The matrix features are not yet active for road use. Tesla was installing matrix lights well before matrix functionality was approved for use in the US by the NHSTA, which happened this year. A couple other manufactures did the same. It should just need an over the air update to enable them. I am not aware of any other companies that have them enabled yet in the US either, traditional car companies would likely need to visit a dealer for an ECU update. I'd bet there is some regulatory compliance regulations they are jumping through.

 

Teslas have some quirks. From an engineering standpoint they are often impressively well thought out on par with aerospace tech, but from a practicality standpoint sometimes it gives pause. Case and point, lifting and supporting a Tesla. Being that the underside of the car is completely flat and a giant battery tray, you are only supposed to lift and support from 4 very specific jack points. Traditional jack stands designed for pinch welds are not usable. But this the begs the problem, how are you supposed to lift the car and then place a jack under the car at the exact same point?

Specialty designed collapsible jacks of course. Jack the car up using the crossbar and then add the legs once up to height. Apparently Porsche uses the same ones.



Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pje1TQGJpyw&t=44s

These are not free. There are a couple brands and designs out there, but I found these to be the best price and value IMO and also made in the USA.
https://shop.teslarati.com/products...ABwRNARwJQ0TpsycHUZ0II1DmGCTn_wkaAgwYEALw_wcB

Using a coupon code: I1TESLA also saved me a few dollars. No idea where that is from, just some google-foo.

Of course seems completely ridiculous in cost vs the jack stands I use for my Tacoma. However if you are going to do it, do it right. Don't take shortcuts to save minor amounts of money relative to the risk of damaging your super expensive purchase.

 

The Model 3 with the long range package is my girlfriend's daily driver (replaced a diesel Colorado). I don't drive it a ton, but I've been using it the past couple weeks while she was out of town.

Likes:

• Not a bad looking vehicle.
• Great acceleration.
• Handling's not bad.
• For commute purposes, I never have to stop at a gas station.

Bad:

• I detest the lack of physical switches and keys. Having to either pull out my cellphone or play around with the touchscreen for simple functions (eg: opening the glovebox or unlocking doors) that really don't need to be high tech is frustrating, and I feel like a lot of it is technology for technology's sake.
• The range is a lie. I had 60% charge Tuesday (185 miles) and drove to a pair of job sites (78 miles stop to stop to stop). There was no traffic, and almost all driving was on the freeway within a couple hundred feet of sea level. When I got to the second site, my remaining range was 80 miles. Not an issue, I had a 40-mile drive home on the freeway. Except, on getting home (again, without traffic), I had 20 miles remaining. I didn't climb any mountains, and was keeping a reasonable pace... so where'd that 60 miles of range go?
• Unless I'm missing a lever or something, the headrest isn't adjustable. Not very comfortable.
• The adaptive cruise control is pretty aggressive with slowing you down. In situations where you're in a curve on the highway with a retaining wall to your side (directly ahead of you), it will slam on the brakes to slow you down.
• The hands-on autopilot (in beta, admittedly) seems laggy in curves, and has major logic issues in situations where two lanes merge together, particularly if the merge is after an intersection.
• The touchscreen has locked up several times. While the vehicle continues to work fine otherwise, I shouldn't have to be fumbling with my phone or pull off the highway to shut down and restart the car in order to change the radio station or adjust the temperature.
• No spare tire. Although, based on your post about the jack situation, this makes a bit more sense.
• The plastic aerodynamic wheel covers are extremely noisy. You don't notice it at high speed, but it's very apparent in parking lots.

 

Thoughts on the bad things

Something isn't right. You never need to touch your phone. The car should automatically unlock when you pull the handle if you have your phone on you. It responds far faster if the app is running/open in the background vs closed. IMO this is one of the greatest features of the car. Granted you can also use the credit card keys if needed.

I had the same concerns around the tech and lack of textile controls. But in practice it has never been an issue. With all the storage in the center console I don't use the glove box, and when I do click the right steering wheel button and just say "open glovebox" rather than going through the menu. Agreed that is overly complicated, but I also hardly ever use it, especially with how small the glove box is. I was actually most concerned about wipers. But with the wipers set to auto they just work when they need to and you don't need to do anything.

Manually unlocking the doors is something that has never once occurred to me at all. From the outside if you have your phone they just unlock when you pull the handle. From the inside, when the car is in park the doors unlock, and when it is in drive they lock. So what is the use case for having the doors unlock when in drive? Or maybe the lock settings are set to something non-standard?

What year is the M3LR? Cabin heating/cooling settings can have significant impact on range. In 2021 Tesla switched to a heat pump system, reducing 40% losses in worst case scenarios down to 20%. I've not seen the actual advertised range on my car, but with the destination inputted into the system, it has always been within 1% of the predicted value, but typically spot on for the estimate.

Welcome to the new more active head restraints as required. Most all modern vehicles are like this, including my previous Gladiator which was actually worse. It is so the head rest engages your head earlier in a crash, reducing impact injuries. Yes they are less comfortable.

You can adjust the adaptive braking settings to make it more or less aggressive, but that also doesn't sound right. Mine doesn't do that at all. It shows on the AI map that a wall/obstical is detected there to the side, but doesn't affect driving or autopilot.

Autopilot in beta? It comes with all 2021+ cars not in beta to my knowledge. Or do you mean full self driving beta? Autopilot is intended for highway use. It will be severely flawed on urban streets, for that you need full self driving. It will try to lane center the car. If the lane disappears to the right due to turning into a side street, this poses a logic problem with self centering. The car will correct to the right before figuring out it can't find the lane edge anymore and possibly abort autopilot. Same thing for merging lanes. Basic autopilot is for setting on the highway where you are not going to change lanes. Great in that limited senario. Outside of that it has challenges, but that isn't what it is designed for unless you want to buy premium Full Self Driving.

Maybe file a ticket with Tesla? I've not heard of this happening with any regularity. Tesla can remotely log into the car computer to troubleshoot and often fix it from there.

Many modern vehicles don't carry a spare now, especially performance ones. It is 50+ lbs of dead weight that most will never use. You click the service button on the screen and wait for Tesla to bring you one if needed. Depending on your location it might be a wait. Admittedly does not give warm and fuzzies. There are a few aftermarket spare kit options if it is really important.

Interesting. I have the turbine wheels so they don't have covers but are seemingly silent.

 

My girlfriend has different settings than me on her phone, which result in me not being able to open passenger doors if she gets to the vehicle first and opens the driver door before I open a passenger door. I admittedly need to test this again, now that I also have the app on my phone (I installed the app when she was OOT). Maybe the second phone in the vicinity will override it?

Locking/unlocking with the "credit card" works, but it can be finicky. Gotta do it multiple times sometimes.

Opening the frunk requires touchscreen or app use, if I'm not mistaken.

This is mostly an issue because of the screen locking up, but having tactile buttons/switches for things like door locks and A/C, and a handle for the glove box just seems sensical. In my Tacoma (and my prior vehicles), I don't need to look at a monitor to adjust the temperature or fan speed - I just feel for the dial and rotate it. That being said, I was unaware that I could just say "Open Glovebox." I'll have to try that out.

The manual lock switchology comes into play in the aforementioned use case where I'm standing outside the vehicle trying to put something in the back seat or myself in the front seat, but unable to open the door because of the one-door unlock option.

It was delivered new in mid-June 2022. The A/C likely does have something to do with it, but I feel like it shouldn't drop the mileage that much. I had it set in the upper 60s and it was 80 outside, not 120. My girlfriend thinks the extra draw is from the wireless cellphone charger, which I was using, but I have a hard time believing that charging a Samsung Galaxy from 50% to 100% would eat up that much mileage, either.

Hrm. Good, I guess, but it certainly results in less comfort. I've driven the Tacoma for 12 hours straight (excepting gas/bathroom stops), and it's a non-issue. I can't imagine doing that in the Tesla, but it's also irrelevant due to the amount of time required to charge if I was to drive that far.

I believe I have it set for a 2-car spacing. This is actually for situations where the wall is to the side, but also ahead. It aggressively dropped me from 75 down to 60 on the freeway last night, which resulted in some honks and being passed on the right.

Self-driving is what I meant. We don't have the premium version. We have a lot of expressways here, which is why she was testing it out on those. Anyway, the behavior is wonky enough on the freeway that I disabled it for my profile and don't see myself ever turning it back on unless I was driving something very straight, like I-5.

That's her plan now that she's back home. It's happened to her 4 or 5 times, and to me once. I find it pretty worrisome.

She has to drive a few hours each way into the mountains for meetings once a month, so it's a concern. We're probably going to pick up a spare kit, but the jack issue you mentioned before has me wondering if that would be ill-advised. Luckily she's mostly on the highway with good reception, but it still worries me that she might be sitting out there for hours waiting for a service technician to roll up to Truckee from Sacramento or Reno. Honestly, it's just odd to me that the tires wouldn't be run-flats. Although maybe that foam in there actually does work as such, and they just don't market them that way?

I'll try and remember to record it later. It's loud enough that she was concerned something was broken until I did some Googling and determined it's normal. TBPH, I'd prefer to remove the covers. Better mileage, sure, but they look gross compared to the underlying wheel.

 

I should note that I don't think it's a bad car. It's a pretty perfect complement to the Tacoma for everyday use.

 

Change the door unlock settings to allow unlock of all doors. The alternative setting is to unlock the driver door only, which prevents passenger doors from opening if the driver opens first. Note the card key is not supposed to be used as a primary key, it is a backup key or valet key. The car is designed to be used with the phone key for best experience.

The frunk does require app or touchscreen use, you can also use voice command to open the frunk.

Generally agreed on tactile controls, however for climate control if you set the temp to auto and set your preferred temp, the car is always at that temp and you literally never touch or access the controls because the car is always doing what you told it. If you don't set to auto, then there is far more interactions with the screen that are unnecessary.

Yeah, set the car to unlock all doors in park or unlock, not just the driver, and this problem goes away.

2022 has the new heat pump climate control, which is the most efficient available, 2x more efficient than other EVs. Your main power losses are climate control and driving style. The cars has so much electrical power a phone charge is completely negligible and will make 0% difference in car charge level. Similar to mpg ratings, EVs may not meet their EV ratings in real world use. Note that adding heavier wheels/tires quickly causes significant range loss. Driving slower also extends range as aerodynamic losses are higher at higher speeds.

I'dd suggest adding this to your help ticket. I drive along a wall in long curved roads and the car performs fine on autopilot. I've also seen people say you can click the voice command button and say "report phantom braking" if that is an issue. Hasn't been for me.

Foam is noise suppression only. Agreed that if you are regularly in the mountains, picking up a spare might not be a bad idea for peace of mind. The jack issue isn't an issue for a jack, it is an issue for jack stands when you want to transfer the car off the jack to a jack stand, which you wouldn't do on a roadside tire swap. You will need lift pucks to plug into the jack point to use a standard jack with. I plan on getting a set to keep in the car. The jack point is a hole, you need a puck to inset into the hole and provide a lift puck surface to use as a jack point.

 

Supercharged from low 30’s state of charge to 80% yesterday in ~20 minutes….roughly the time it took me to use the bathroom at a grocery store and grab some snacks for the road. Buying a Tesla as our first EV has been pretty eye opening on the potential for future EV use and their practical applications. We will save, on average, > $300/mo in fuel for our commuting cost alone. I would be hard pressed to purchase another ICE vehicle, especially a new one, going forward.

 

Great thread and beautiful car!

The M3 was the primary alternative I was evaluating when I purchased my Tacoma.

You speak of "soul" but IMHO this was one of my biggest complaints with the Teslas I drove. Others have described it as character and drama, which I find more fitting. Ultimately, for me, although the acceleration was breathtaking I found every other driving situation to be dull. The Tacoma is hardly an exciting vehicle but the stick shift has me engaged in every moment of driving, in the Tesla I felt like the only time I was engaged was when flooring it. The smooth and sedate driving would be amazing for a highway or heavy traffic commuter but I feared I would be immensely disappointed for my semi-rural "backroad" driving.

I do still have a reservation on a cybertruck, a relatively early one at that. I would love the extra space and the much lower operating cost, I do however fear losing the excitement of driving as well as coming across like a major d-bag. It would also likely draw lots of hate in my local jacked-up, diesel, coal rolling, wide tire rural area.

 

For safety purposes, she'd rather not. My main gripe is that sitting down to hit the lock/unlock button on the screen or unlocking the phone, entering the app, and hitting unlock is slow compared to simply hitting the lock/unlock switch on the door of basically any other passenger car made in the past 25 to 30 years.

I'll give that a go next time it does it. Didn't realize you could report errors using the steering wheel voice commands.

Thanks. I'll make sure to pick up some pucks (or find a spare kit that includes them), in that case.

 

Agreed. Unquestionably this is the future.

Nothing will be equal or more engaging than a manual trans. This is actually the first non-manual car I have ever owned, though I have had a few automatic trucks. Character and drama does seem more fitting terminology. But it isn't just straight-line acceleration, the Model 3 pulls nearly 1G on the skid pad, coming close to rivaling the M3 while being substantially faster 0-60 (unless going for the all-out M3 Competition car, which also isn’t available in a manual). Also note that my comments are in regards to the Model 3 Performance trim level.

It is funny how some demographics can feel so threatened by progress.

Agreed. Anything you can do in the cars screen, you can do via voice command. So it might be easier to just hit the button on the wheel and tell the car to unlock the doors vs navigate through the screen.