Maybe it's me but, the more I read about Tesla the less I like them. 
Happy Easter..........
Happy Easter..........
Tesla clandestinely downgrades performance brakes, adds cover to hide it
- Thread starter 97prizm
- Start date
I occasionally "give it the beans" (as one auto reviewer would say) just to feel that acceleration. And I have the base Model 3, which has plenty of "beans".
I even have to be careful when passing - I had a tendency to accelerate as I was changing lanes to pass, and a Tesla accelerates harder than you expect.
I will never do a 0 to 60 run. Unless I get the Performance of course.
I will merge onto freeways, change lanes, etc. all the time. The "right now" torque never gets old.
You can kill the Porsches, etc with the immeadiate acceleration; make them look funny.
Probably the best is letting an ICE driver drive the car. Start with no key; the car is on. Then tell them to give it about an inch of throttle. The look on their face and as they grip the steering wheel never gets old. "Whoa!" Eyes wide open. I laugh.
When you visit CA, stop by for a spin in the Tesla. You just might change your mind. One way to find out, right?Maybe it's me but, the more I read about Tesla the less I like them.
EVs are far, far less demanding on braking - since 90+% of the braking is done via regen or dynamic from the motors, serving as either a generator or a retarder. It’s not uncommon to see brakes go for nearly 200K on an hybrid.
Thanks for the offer . Sorry to say I have zero interest in driving one. I will however continue to read up on them. I might just live long enough to have no choice in owning an EV.
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Performance cars also need to stop. Going forward is just part of equation.
I had 2 people who were determined to not like EVs drive/ride in my base Model 3. (One drove, the other only wanted a ride.)
One said he had spent his career in oil and gas and it would be disloyal to buy an EV. Their family drives his and hers BMWs. Afterwards he admitted he really liked the car, the acceleration and the one pedal driving.
The other just wanted a ride. But when we got home he asked to take his wife for a second ride because he had been really impressed.
It's dangerous to test drive a Tesla. Even though I thought I knew a lot about them, it only took a 20 minute drive to decide to buy one. I was in the market for a replacement for my '00 BMW at the time and had been test driving some very nice Lexus products a couple of days earlier. A Tesla isn't as fancy but I preferred driving the Tesla (and a Model 3 is cheaper too).
My ex boss, who I've known for many years, relocated from England to Silicon Valley. He asked to try our Model 3 in early 2019, we brought along my other boss. Took a spin from Mt View up 280 to Palo Alto; my other boss drove back to work.
They both bought Model 3s and 2nd boss bought another, a Model Y for his wife when they were released.
About 2 years ago, our next door neighbors asked about our car but did not drive it. A black basic Model 3 soon showed up.
The cars are addicting, so much fun.
Christian von Koenigsegg: The Model 3 is "the best contemporary 'normal' daily driver around."
No one here is more qualified to make this statement.
They're worse for street driving compared to traditional steel rotors, fragile , and cost an arm and a leg.
Brake feel can be indistinguishable by bigger piston or different pad compound. Overall, I don't see a problem except maybe for repeated stops from highway speeds on purpose. In that case, Tesla will advertise their acceleration time all over the place but I would assume most general customers don't understand that 2+tons is hard to stop repeatedly; marketing and advertisement department definitely took control of this.
For comparison, a Chevy Blazer weights less and has a 20ft+ braking distance. A CX5 does 60-0 in 132ft.
In one way it's lame to downgrade the brakes and put a cover on them. On the other hand, if they knocked down the price to compensate then I'm fine with that. Increased pad wear from smaller pads will be a factor or not considering in most cases, the car barely needs to use the brakes.
4WD
$50 site donor 2024
C’mon man … Jeff is !!!
I can assure you, you could give me one to drive for a year and I won't want it. There is nothing at all that appeals to me about the vehicle. It would be like offering me a glass of wine, I don't like wine, I wouldn't drink it. I'm not a fan of cars either, I gave up on them in 2008, currently no desire for me or my wife to own one. I gassed up today, in under 5 minutes, more like three. Cash and credit cards were the same price, I didn't have to walk the 20 yards to hand the guy cash. I put enough gas in my gas Jeep to drive about 300 miles. I like that a lot, and at the moment nothing has to be done at my house to accomplish that.
As I said earlier, if I'm around long enough and still driving I might have no choice. I guess birds of a feather flock together, every friend and family member in my circle feels the same way, maybe it's a regional thing.
Opinions will vary, as it stands now the EV is still a hard no. FTR my wife shares the same opinion of them, and she recently road in a co-worker friend of hers Tesla. Her friend wouldn't buy another one, she's no longer a fan. I'll keep my political commentary out. Happy Easter!
4WD
$50 site donor 2024
Well … for one thing you are not on the “solar coast” - you are on the “wind coast” … IMO - The solar guys have better odds with EV …I can assure you, you could give me one to drive for a year and I won't want it. There is nothing at all that appeals to me about the vehicle. It would be like offering me a glass of wine, I don't like wine, I wouldn't drink it. I'm not a fan of cars either, I gave up on them in 2008, currently no desire for me or my wife to own one. I gassed up today, in under 5 minutes, more like three. Cash and credit cards were the same price, I didn't have to walk the 20 yards to hand the guy cash. I put enough gas in my gas Jeep to drive about 300 miles. I like that a lot, and at the moment nothing has to be done at my house to accomplish that.
As I said earlier, if I'm around long enough and still driving I might have no choice. I guess birds of a feather flock together, every friend and family member in my circle feels the same way, maybe it's a regional thing.
I've found that even among technically-aware EV owners that fact is not widely known. Due to that missing feature, one-pedal is the only practical operating mode. I believe the Mini-E is the only other BEV missing that, while even GM's EV1 had it.
The problem is that the fail-safe mode for those systems are conventional brakes and so their role can't be compromised despite that they are hardly ever used in normal conditions.
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I think the reason for drums is also about disk rusting being a common problem in Germany, especially on the rear. The Ioniq 5 and EV6 have a little-known feature where foot-brake blended regen is temporarily disabled for at least 10 braking cycles when the selected regen mode is Level 0, which is essentially just coasting. It's in the owner's manual but few seem to notice it.
How many performance SUV's ever get used on track? other than media days? 1 in 10000? 100000, 1,000,000? In N.A. you can't run any SUV at autocross even, and most people and places holding lapping days don't want the interruption of a rolled "performance" SUV.
I'm sure even the smaller brakes are good for a stop from a 1/4 mile run and if you are on public roads driving hard enough to get the battery hot enough to quit regenerative braking probably you should be arrested.
I assume the brakes should also be good enough for a 130mph to 60 scrub on the autobahn as well, even if going that fast does heat the battery up to non-regenerative braking mode.
I'm sure the vast majority of the buyers of a model Y performance have no complaints with the brakes, so Tesla saves some money with smaller rear brakes... Almost every other normal car on the road can overheat its stock brakes on the track too, but no one cares because they aren't on the track....
I'm sure even the smaller brakes are good for a stop from a 1/4 mile run and if you are on public roads driving hard enough to get the battery hot enough to quit regenerative braking probably you should be arrested.
I assume the brakes should also be good enough for a 130mph to 60 scrub on the autobahn as well, even if going that fast does heat the battery up to non-regenerative braking mode.
I'm sure the vast majority of the buyers of a model Y performance have no complaints with the brakes, so Tesla saves some money with smaller rear brakes... Almost every other normal car on the road can overheat its stock brakes on the track too, but no one cares because they aren't on the track....
Pretty sure they got blended braking last year with V16?
I read they did something. Last drove a Tesla about 2 months ago and it still had one pedal driving. Maybe they are allowing some regen to occur while braking, but I think you would still be at 100% of the cars capacity for regen and then add friction brakes on top of that. Porsche with blended braking is much different. It will have very little or no regen off throttle, depending on set up. It will only do any significant regeneration if you hit the brake pedal. It will not use the friction brakes until you are putting something like 290kw (or whatever the battery will allow) into the battery. All of this is seamless. I don’t see how you can have blended braking and one pedal driving at the same time. They seem mutually exclusive by definition.
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