EV ordered

[DMZ]

Yes it facilitates illegal stuff but I think you can sort of work around it. I’m sure we all break the rules every day of the week by speeding so I’m assuming we’re not here to suggest that cars should not be able to exceed the speed limit or do lots of other things that are strictly speaking illegal?

But even apart from this, autopilot (and equivalents from other manufacturers) significantly reduce tiredness and frustration in my experience which is good. I appreciate that in EVs tiredness is not hugely problematic as you need to stop every couple of hours anyhow and the frustrations may come when you’re stopped but I think there’s value there.

[djc206]

Don’t all car infotainment systems facilitate illegal behaviour? Hell you could argue that a tape player, CD player or radio in a car does the same if you try hard enough

[Zoon]

Order66 said:

(I'm looking for a genuine 300 miles while sitting at 85-90)

Bloody hell where do you go? Edinburgh to Leicester everyday?
How do you cope with the average speed cameras?

[Byker28i]

DMZ said:

Maybe the motivation was to simply have a tech differentiator but I think Tesla is on the money when it comes to the self driving tech. It’s not unique to Tesla or EVs of course but I do think this is where it makes the most sense and I must say where I actually enjoy “driving” our EV. It’s great to have the car happily doing its thing and you the occupier of the driver’s seat can focus on important things like the stereo, finding some a/c setting buried in the infotainment somewhere, catching up on WhatsApp, or whatever football game is on. You stop getting annoyed with other drivers or in fact much anything. Admittedly in a diesel but I have done 300-400 mile schleps with lane keep assist in heavy bank holiday traffic and it’s very relaxing.

I’m surprised this isn’t part of car reviews instead of meaningless stuff like drag races or the obligatory 0-60 pinned to the seat test. Can it drive itself? Is the stereo good? Is it quiet? Do I look successful in it? Do I get some nice tax rebates with it?

Are you on the right site?
Well I guess it was 2014 when Speed Matters disappeared from the logo. EV's gadgets matters

[768]

Zoon said:

Order66 said:

(I'm looking for a genuine 300 miles while sitting at 85-90)

Bloody hell where do you go? Edinburgh to Leicester everyday?
How do you cope with the average speed cameras?

I'd certainly be surprised if someone was going Edinburgh to Leicester every day without ever driving back.

I do Birmingham-ish to London and back in a day occasionally, or did do pre-covid. That's probably in the 250-300 mile ballpark. Little in the way of average speed cameras.

[Zoon]

768 said:

I'd certainly be surprised if someone was going Edinburgh to Leicester every day without ever driving back.

At 80 miles an hour a return would be 7.5 hours of driving with no traffic.
Can't see many folk doing that without stopping at all

[LordFlathead]

page3 said:

The reviews seem to be oblivious to real world usage. Until they give honest feedback Tesla won't be encouraged to improve things.

Off the top of my head, compared to CarPlay supported vehicles I lose:

• Ability to use the navigation software of my choice
• no 3D map view
• no speed camera alerts
• no waypoints
• no non-Tesla charger info
• no alternative routes
• no ability to have media volume reduce during spoken navigation
• no ability to have media pause during spoken navigation (for audiobooks)
• limited choice of streaming services (ie: Apple Music etc...)
• no Audible
• no PlexAmp
• no Prologue (audiobooks)
• No iMessage dictation
• no HiFi Spotify (low bitrate only)
• no USB audio input for high quality
• limited phone control
• poor USB media navigation / support

All things I used regularly, but hey it looks pretty and runs games / youtube.

Ah yes you bought the peasants edition SR+ which lacks most of the decent multi-amp, multi speaker sound system that the LR and Performance enjoys.

Spotify Premium runs at 256bit which is not the low quality you speak of.

USB works just fine with FLAC lossless.. if you are trying to be smart about audio quality then I doubt you can hear the difference between 256 and 320kbs. It is a car not a music studio and even I find it hard to tell the difference when I am in the studio and I have spent most of my life in various studios.

Waze maps work on the internet browser for speed detection.

The satnav uses live Google maps which not only shows traffic queues in real time but is way better than any gimmicky 3D crap.

[ZesPak]

Zoon said:

At 80 miles an hour a return would be 7.5 hours of driving with no traffic.
Can't see many folk doing that without stopping at all

That's not the point, right? The point is pointing out that they could now, not that they ever would.

[McAndy]

jason61c said:

I'm mentally separating it as a white goods choice.

I find myself in a simliar position, very seriously considering a new MG ZS EV as a private buyer. No way I can justify it with the heart, so I'm doing my "washing machine" maths on it: price, features, ability, reliability, review results. Sigh.

I'm very interested to read your updates through ownership, if you'd be so kind to provide them. Many cars get panned in the press on first drive, but are then missed when they leave fleets after an extended period. (Audi TT RS in evo, as an example). As another said earlier in the thread, the fun-and-games of a single magazine test drive are often so very unrepresentative of buyers' daily usage cases!

For the sake of your own peace of mind if nothing else, I hope your experience does prove to be enjoyable!

[page3]

LordFlathead said:

page3 said:

The reviews seem to be oblivious to real world usage. Until they give honest feedback Tesla won't be encouraged to improve things.

Off the top of my head, compared to CarPlay supported vehicles I lose:

• Ability to use the navigation software of my choice
• no 3D map view
• no speed camera alerts
• no waypoints
• no non-Tesla charger info
• no alternative routes
• no ability to have media volume reduce during spoken navigation
• no ability to have media pause during spoken navigation (for audiobooks)
• limited choice of streaming services (ie: Apple Music etc...)
• no Audible
• no PlexAmp
• no Prologue (audiobooks)
• No iMessage dictation
• no HiFi Spotify (low bitrate only)
• no USB audio input for high quality
• limited phone control
• poor USB media navigation / support

All things I used regularly, but hey it looks pretty and runs games / youtube.

Ah yes you bought the peasants edition SR+ which lacks most of the decent multi-amp, multi speaker sound system that the LR and Performance enjoys.

Spotify Premium runs at 256bit which is not the low quality you speak of.

USB works just fine with FLAC lossless.. if you are trying to be smart about audio quality then I doubt you can hear the difference between 256 and 320kbs. It is a car not a music studio and even I find it hard to tell the difference when I am in the studio and I have spent most of my life in various studios.

Waze maps work on the internet browser for speed detection.

The satnav uses live Google maps which not only shows traffic queues in real time but is way better than any gimmicky 3D crap.

The audio quality in the SR+ is just fine. In fact it's pretty good. Not as good as the LR but there isn't a lot in it, especially given the compromised nature of being in a car. It's the low resolution sources that make more difference. Spotify in the Tesla is limited to 96 kbps unfortunately.

USB is buggy and feature-starved compared to others cars.

Built-in sat nav is "ok" but lets not pretend there isn't far better out there.

Even so, loving my SR+. It is significantly more refined, better handling, better built and simply an all round better experience than my Mercedes was.

[Order66]

Zoon said:

Bloody hell where do you go? Edinburgh to Leicester everyday?
How do you cope with the average speed cameras?

I regularly do Glasgow-London. With the Tesla that requires around 1.5hrs charging en-route. The same journey I could do in my old diesel in a single tank, and get half way back before a 5 minute fill-up. A genuine 300 mile motorway range would leave a single tolerable 30-min charge needed to make the journey.

Even over the last year and 18k miles I've done in the Tesla the supercharger network has become increasingly congested. Last september I never had to wait for a charger - these days its commonplace to either wait, or further compromise your range to top-up at a charger that has availability. Even when you get a space, most chargers are still split-circuit, so when busy you'll be lucky to get much above 60kw rate, which turns that 40min charge into over an hour. So this means your 1.5hr of actual charge time can turn into 2hrs quite easily. The supercharger network is nowhere close to keeping up with sales volume and will become almost unusable in the near future unless a massive rollout is undertaken. At that point Tesla's USP disappears.

What used to be roughly 6hr drive is now 8hr+. I'm fine with that at present due to the cost break, but if the costs start to equalise and the charge time increases then I'm out of the EV game. I suspect I'm not alone.

[Discombobulate]

We are lucky enough to have more than one car and off road parking/charging. We bought a cheaper EV to dip our toes into the market - i3 - and it has become the car of choice for daily driving. So much so that our big powerful ICE car has only done 3k this year (we only use it for long trips). I have never used a public charger and don't anticipate doing so. So, as a second car, BEVs are perfect. I would not want to be without the ICE though. And understand not everyone is so fortunate, however if you are looking for a second car think BEV would be my advice.

[ZesPak]

Order66 said:

I regularly do Glasgow-London. With the Tesla that requires around 1.5hrs charging en-route. The same journey I could do in my old diesel in a single tank, and get half way back before a 5 minute fill-up. A genuine 300 mile motorway range would leave a single tolerable 30-min charge needed to make the journey.

1.5h?
How do you figure that?

[Order66]

ZesPak said:

1.5h?
How do you figure that?

440 miles. The northern section over some significant hills which obliterates range. On the way south I need to charge at Tebay - will take 45mins, then another charge of the same time will see me into London with somewhere around 40% remaining to head back the next morning with enough range to get to the supercharger at Oxford services. No, I don't have a decent charging facility in the city.

On the way north you won't get from Charnock Richard to Glasgow on a single charge, not with those hills in-between. So you need to stop at either Tebay (pain as its at the southbound services), Gretna (always a wait to charge there, only 4 split-circuit chargers, so you can't count on them) or Abington which can be a stretch from Charnock Richard in the winter with lights, wiper, heater etc. In any case you're talking 3 stops on the return journey which will take easily over 1.5hrs total.

My Model 3 performance will average 1% battery for every 2 miles at motorway speeds. Charging 20%-90% will take 40 to 45mins at most superchargers and will give you <150miles between stops. It's 2 long stops however you look at it (minimum). Sure, I could drive (significantly) slower and stop less, but any time I gain in charge time is more than lost on time on the road. When it comes down to it, the journey is around 2hrs longer because EV.

[SWoll]

Order66 said:

ZesPak said:

1.5h?
How do you figure that?

440 miles. The northern section over some significant hills which obliterates range. On the way south I need to charge at Tebay - will take 45mins, then another charge of the same time will see me into London with somewhere around 40% remaining to head back the next morning with enough range to get to the supercharger at Oxford services. No, I don't have a decent charging facility in the city.

On the way north you won't get from Charnock Richard to Glasgow on a single charge, not with those hills in-between. So you need to stop at either Tebay (pain as its at the southbound services), Gretna (always a wait to charge there, only 4 split-circuit chargers, so you can't count on them) or Abington which can be a stretch from Charnock Richard in the winter with lights, wiper, heater etc. In any case you're talking 3 stops on the return journey which will take easily over 1.5hrs total.

My Model 3 performance will average 1% battery for every 2 miles at motorway speeds. Charging 20%-90% will take 40 to 45mins at most superchargers and will give you <150miles between stops. It's 2 long stops however you look at it (minimum). Sure, I could drive (significantly) slower and stop less, but any time I gain in charge time is more than lost on time on the road. When it comes down to it, the journey is around 2hrs longer because EV.

Yep, wouldn't even consider an EV if that was my regular routine. Must be soul destroying.

[ajap1979]

Indeed, surely a train is the answer.

[gangzoom]

SWoll said:

Yep, wouldn't even consider an EV if that was my regular routine. Must be soul destroying.

It does seem like a whole load of people that cannot stand Tesla's, cannot make EVs them for what ever reason are coming to get them anyways on the basis that they are on the company car scheme.

Surely if you hate something so much, and it doesn't work for you its far better to take the cash option and use that to run/fund a car that you enjoy?

I'm still really puzzled why the OP has ordered a Tesla when there is so much other choice around, even a cheapo used 320d am will bring the OP more joy, not to mention cash back in their pocket?

[SWoll]

ajap1979 said:

Indeed, surely a train is the answer.

4.5 hours and £200 a time, I'm not so sure..

[dmsims]

SWoll said:

4.5 hours and £200 a time, I'm not so sure..

Fly 1.25 hours and cheaper

[Order66]

dmsims said:

Fly 1.25 hours and cheaper

End to end flying is closer to 5 hours. Frequently more than 1 person in car. Cost of both rail and flying stupid.