Tesla Model 3, running costs

[OIGMatt]

So a month or so in, around 1500 miles, 'fuel' costs so far are £8: a mixture of solar charging from the Zappi, off peak charging at home and (mainly) charging at work for free.

Generally, the car is very easy to live with. I find the 'adaptive cruise' (I'm sure that's not what it's called) to be pretty poor. The Golf had radar cruise and it was fantastic, the Tesla seems to be constantly bamboozled and I find the car slowing down because there's a cone in the central reservation or similar. Anyway, that's a minor complaint.

The one thing that's driving me insane is the corrective steering (emergency lane departure avoidance). Does anyone know if there's a way to permanently switch that off? I have to remember to turn it off before each drive (shown in pic) and even then it sometimes intervenes by 'grabbing' the steering wheel if I'm making progress (seems to be almost exclusively roundabouts), very disconcerting!

[gotoPzero]

Its weird sometimes if I am pushing on it is not bothered about me going offside at all, but the time I get a really nice view into a long sweeping bend and get full offside it goes totally mental on me.

I just put it down to "one of those things".

There is one b road in particular that I take regularly early doors and I just signal right... seems to not be bothered then

[Gone fishing]

Annoys me too, the car certainly doesn’t understand advanced driving and using the full width of the road to afford better visibility when situations allow. Even driving in Lane 3 on the M5 north near the top in the twisty bends can cause it to have a melt down.

The cheap costs of course are a characteristic of all EVs, within reason, some are a more efficient that others but when the bill is relatively small, even 50% worse efficiency isn’t a hard pill to swallow

[LordGrover]

Hmmm... Model 3 now 0% apr pcp
Tempting

[James6112]

LordGrover said:

Hmmm... Model 3 now 0% apr pcp
Tempting

I’d noticed that too
Polestar have been 0% for a while, I guess comedy interest rates were denting sales!

Quick question
Do EVs over 40k attract the premium car tax hike the same as ice cars?
Looks like that comes in April 2025, so should be ok (only the white model 3 is under 40k) so getting a colour now seems ok!

Edited by James6112 on Saturday 6th July 07:16

[Maracus]

James6112 said:

LordGrover said:

Hmmm... Model 3 now 0% apr pcp
Tempting

I’d noticed that too
Polestar have been 0% for a while, I guess comedy interest rates were denting sales!

Quick question
Do EVs over 40k attract the premium car tax hike the same as ice cars?
Looks like that comes in April 2025, so should be ok (only the white model 3 is under 40k) so getting a colour now seems ok!

Edited by James6112 on Saturday 6th July 07:16

It did, then it didn't! It will in April 2025.

[Zcd1]

OIGMatt said:

The one thing that's driving me insane is the corrective steering (emergency lane departure avoidance). Does anyone know if there's a way to permanently switch that off?

Yes, just switch it off in the “Autopilot” screen.

Edited by Zcd1 on Sunday 7th July 15:01

[OIGMatt]

Zcd1 said:

Yes, just switch it off in the “Autopilot” screen.

Edited by Zcd1 on Sunday 7th July 15:01

On my car, it reverts to 'on' every time you start the car. You have to switch it off each time you drive the car. I guess that's a safety feature, though I was hoping there was a way to change that?

[Tindersticks]

I don't think you can and AFAIK it's a legislative thing on cars now.

[573]

It becomes part of your muscle memory when you get in. After a while you won't notice you're clicking through the menu, it only takes a few seconds. Agree, it's annoying though.

[Zcd1]

OIGMatt said:

On my car, it reverts to 'on' every time you start the car. You have to switch it off each time you drive the car. I guess that's a safety feature, though I was hoping there was a way to change that?

That would indeed be annoying...sorry to hear it

(not an issue for us on the other side of the pond)

[OIGMatt]

573 said:

It becomes part of your muscle memory when you get in. After a while you won't notice you're clicking through the menu, it only takes a few seconds. Agree, it's annoying though.

I'll just get used to doing that then, just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing a better solution.

Do you find that, even with the system off, it grabs the steering wheel occasionally? It did it to me on Saturday and even my passenger was quite surprised with how aggressively the car intervened, as we exited a roundabout and onto a turn.

[573]

I did at first but it's not something I've noticed for a while. Is the car on the latest software release? I've found things like that have improved markedly over the period I've had mine.

[OIGMatt]

573 said:

I did at first but it's not something I've noticed for a while. Is the car on the latest software release? I've found things like that have improved markedly over the period I've had mine.

I think so, in the sense that there's not any pending according to the car. Anyway to check or is my assumption correct?

[Zcd1]

OIGMatt said:

I think so, in the sense that there's not any pending according to the car. Anyway to check or is my assumption correct?

If an update is pending download, a small yellow "down arrow" appears at the top of the display. The car must be connected to a WiFi network to download the update, and then once downloaded, you can choose to install the update immediately or schedule the installation to happen overnight or when the car won't be needed for 30 minutes or so...