Tesla Model 3 Performance "Highland"

[Torrid]

All Teslas are gonna be fast. But the smart buy and best deal is the RWD LR and it qualifies for the tax benefit for those who qualify. MSRP $42,500 or $35,000 with credit. 5 sec 0-60 will take car of most needs. With the Highland upgrades, this is a really nice car.
Here's the website overview. 1.99 loans are free money...
The 2 motor AWD LR will be faster (4.2 sec, 341 EPA range) but is $5K more.

Of course there's no need to tell you to consider your charging requirements; you understand this better than most.

The other consideration is the Model Y; there will likely be more deals as they close out the current car making way for the Juniper. I would 100% wait for the new car. It's better all the way around, starting with the seats.
View attachment 234227

That's the one that started the conversation. I was going to upgrade to the 19" Nova wheels($1000 option) which drops the range to an estimated 322 miles. For the money it's a lot of car. It would make for an excellent daily.

I of course kept going and landed on the M3P as I kept doing research.

 

[JeffKeryk]

That's the one that started the conversation. I was going to upgrade to the 19" Nova wheels($1000 option) which drops the range to an estimated 322 miles. For the money it's a lot of car. It would make for an excellent daily.

I of course kept going and landed on the M3P as I kept doing research.

It depends on your use case, of course. Unfortunately Uber performance seems to be part of that use case, for some reason.
If I understood @JHZR2 post, he is considering a driver. The base single motor is the hot ticket for that scenario. I would use the stock wheels mainly because range is everything. It really is.

You will not find this much fun in a car at this price anywhere.

The best deal of all would be a used Model 3; good used inexpensive Teslas can be found all day long. In the big scheme of things we are in the early stages of EVs as mass produced cars. Today's EVs will not hold their value as newer, cheaper and better ones come out. Likewise traditional ICE business will continue to be affected as well.

Plus Tesla will be belly up any day now, and Elon is wack, so there's that.

 

[Torrid]

It depends on your use case, of course. Unfortunately Uber performance seems to be part of that use case, for some reason.
The best deal of all would be a used Model 3, good used inexpensive Teslas can be found all day long. In the big scheme of things we are in the early stages of EVs as mass produced cars. EVs will not hold their value as newer, cheaper and better ones come out. Likewise traditional ICE business will continue to be affected as well.

Plus Tesla will be belly up any day now, and Elon is wack.

The idiot in me wants the fast one, yet I don’t want to part with my current car and I don’t have good space to park everything at this time. More than the speed I just want something I can play around in. The traction control even in slip start is wildly intrusive in the non performance Tesla models and I think that’s for good reason. VW does something similar for safety. I felt it a bit limiting in the GTI so I bought the programmer to fully disable yaw control and wheel hop control when the traction control button is held down for 5 seconds so now the car is capable of lift off oversteer.

I just have the GTI so well dialed in at this point that the only thing I’ll really gain is is a much faster straight line car. There’s just not enough money, space, and time for every car I’d love to have. I would happily have both.

I really do think the Model 3 LR RWD is the perfect commuter Tesla when it comes to value for money in a new car purchase. If all I wanted to do was to get from A to B cheaply in a nicely equipped vehicle I’d buy it without question and I highly recommend it to people who are interested in EVs.

 

[JHZR2]

All Teslas are gonna be fast. But the smart buy and best deal is the RWD LR and it qualifies for the tax benefit for those who qualify. MSRP $42,500 or $35,000 with credit. 5 sec 0-60 will take car of most needs. With the Highland upgrades, this is a really nice car.
Here's the website overview. 1.99 loans are free money...
The 2 motor AWD LR will be faster (4.2 sec, 341 EPA range) but is $5K more.

Of course there's no need to tell you to consider your charging requirements; you understand this better than most.

The other consideration is the Model Y; there will likely be more deals as they close out the current car making way for the Juniper. I would 100% wait for the new car. It's better all the way around, starting with the seats.
View attachment 234227

All Id care about in this procurement scenario is range and FSD. Just something to eat up miles and make the necessary range. Given that it would be a highway cruiser don’t need a lot of performance. You’re right, plenty fast. But awd for a drive system with such torque at no rpm seems like it would be advantageous.

 

[JeffKeryk]

All Id care about in this procurement scenario is range and FSD. Just something to eat up miles and make the necessary range. Given that it would be a highway cruiser don’t need a lot of performance. You’re right, plenty fast. But awd for a drive system with such torque at no rpm seems like it would be advantageous.

The freeway passing power of the RWD is awesome. Maybe it's time for a couple of test drives. If you spring for FSD, you get your pick of colors at no extra charge. So the $8K hit is more like $7K if you want a color other than Stealth Grey.
Edit: I think the free color option with FSD is only on the M3P.

The electric motor flat torque curve and no trans gear hunting makes the cars really quick on the road.

 

[JHZR2]

The freeway passing power of the RWD is awesome. Maybe it's time for a couple of test drives. If you spring for FSD, you get your pick of colors at no extra charge. So the $8K hit is more like $7K if you want a color other than Stealth Grey.
Edit: I think the free color option with FSD is only on the M3P.

The electric motor flat torque curve and no trans gear hunting makes the cars really quick on the road.

I couldn’t care less about passing power. I don’t need more than 72hp.

I just like the idea of an updated model 3. I do t need to test drive, I’ve had plenty as rentals. I know what I don’t like and what I do about them.

Can you pick one up at the factory? Cross country car buying is my ideal. Like the 190D I bought last year in Redding.

 

[Torrid]

The freeway passing power of the RWD is awesome. Maybe it's time for a couple of test drives. If you spring for FSD, you get your pick of colors at no extra charge. So the $8K hit is more like $7K if you want a color other than Stealth Grey.
Edit: I think the free color option with FSD is only on the M3P.

The electric motor flat torque curve and no trans gear hunting makes the cars really quick on the road.

This for sure. Even our standard RWD which makes a little less power than the LR feels strong and effortless passing. It's literally the perfect EV commuter. 0-60 may be similar between the LR RWD and a DSG GTI, but when you figure in reaction time, the GTI doesn't have a chance off the line. The Tesla is just on while the GTI's clutch is still releasing and that's in launch control holding 4k RPMs while it dumps the clutch releasing the brakes. That's assuming the GTI doesn't just blow the tires off.

All Id care about in this procurement scenario is range and FSD. Just something to eat up miles and make the necessary range. Given that it would be a highway cruiser don’t need a lot of performance. You’re right, plenty fast. But awd for a drive system with such torque at no rpm seems like it would be advantageous.

Just purely on range I'd go with the RWD Long Range. With the AWD you're already halfway to the Performance and that's only $6k. I don't think there is a bad solution here and I like our LFP car, but that's just not the one to buy right now. The Long Range gets the credit, but the LFP doesn't.

 

[Torrid]

I couldn’t care less about passing power. I don’t need more than 72hp.

I just like the idea of an updated model 3. I do t need to test drive, I’ve had plenty as rentals. I know what I don’t like and what I do about them.

Can you pick one up at the factory? Cross country car buying is my ideal. Like the 190D I bought last year in Redding.

I think they only do pickups at service centers, but as long as your near one in a state that allows direct to consumer sales which is 43 of the 50 states, it's just a matter of making the transaction on the website or through the app.

I talked to a Tesla Advisor(the people you talk to that help via chat or phone when buying a car) and they said including the special financing and trading in that if the car is on the lot as inventory at the location you want to pickup the whole process only takes 2-3 days. Sure you're not walking into a dealer and leaving with a car same day like I'm used to doing, but you also don't have to spend a lot of time there either. Everything is online and pickup takes 5 minutes. I've heard trading in only adds another 5 minutes since all of that is done through the app other than physically dropping the car off, but I've never traded a car with Tesla.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I couldn’t care less about passing power. I don’t need more than 72hp.

I just like the idea of an updated model 3. I do t need to test drive, I’ve had plenty as rentals. I know what I don’t like and what I do about them.

Can you pick one up at the factory? Cross country car buying is my ideal. Like the 190D I bought last year in Redding.

Got it; I assumed you were interested in power because you asked about performance.
I 100% agree with getting the refreshed car. I was about to get the M3P almost a year ago and then they announced the refresh, so I waited...

We picked up our new car at the Fremont factory along with many other buyers, but I live close and it was end-of-quarter. They were cranking 'em out!
So it's at least possible; perhaps check with your local store. I don't remember what the original delivery plan was; there are 2 stores near here.

Fly into Mineta San Jose Int and I will drop you in Fremont. 10 miles up the road...

 

[JeffKeryk]

I think they only do pickups at service centers, but as long as your near one in a state that allows direct to consumer sales which is 43 of the 50 states, it's just a matter of making the transaction on the website or through the app.

I talked to a Tesla Advisor(the people you talk to that help via chat or phone when buying a car) and they said including the special financing and trading in that if the car is on the lot as inventory at the location you want to pickup the whole process only takes 2-3 days. Sure you're not walking into a dealer and leaving with a car same day like I'm used to doing, but you also don't have to spend a lot of time there either. Everything is online and pickup takes 5 minutes. I've heard trading in only adds another 5 minutes since all of that is done through the app other than physically dropping the car off, but I've never traded a car with Tesla.

I took 4 pics of our Model 3 and sent them in. Drove to Fremont and parked it. The new purchase and trade in-was on-line plus wifey and I signed a few hard copy pages. I did not sign the pink or anything like that. It was 10 minutes or less. They did not look at the trade-in.

Maybe big brother already knew all about the car?

 

[spasm3]

Maybe big brother already knew all about the car?

You are saying that with all the cameras, maybe they did look at it ?

Does the car have interior cameras ?

 

[JeffKeryk]

You are saying that with all the cameras, maybe they did look at it ?

Does the car have interior cameras ?

It was more of a joke as the car is an iPad on wheels as some have said.
The car sends data back to a database when you are on AutoPilot.

There is one interior camera I know about; it is above the rear view mirror. It was not originally used but is now sometimes used when the driver is on AutoPilot to check he/she is paying attention. You can never trust people to do the right thing, it seems.

 

[Torrid]

I took 4 pics of our Model 3 and sent them in. Drove to Fremont and parked it. The new purchase and trade in-was on-line plus wifey and I signed a few hard copy pages. I did not sign the pink or anything like that. It was 10 minutes or less. They did not look at the trade-in.

Maybe big brother already knew all about the car?

That’s what I heard from online reviews researching my experience if I did trade my car. Glad to hear it is that smooth. From what I heard Tesla doesn’t care. They just want to make the sale and use a third party to deal with used vehicles aside from clean used Teslas. Obviously your car fell into the second one, but lack of hassle definitely keeps people coming back. I really don’t like the typical dealer experience.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Remember I was trad

That’s what I heard from online reviews researching my experience if I did trade my car. Glad to hear it is that smooth. From what I heard Tesla doesn’t care. They just want to make the sale and use a third party to deal with used vehicles aside from clean used Teslas. Obviously your car fell into the second one, but lack of hassle definitely keeps people coming back. I really don’t like the typical dealer experience.

Remember I was trading in another Tesla. I cannot say if another make would follow the same process.

 

[Torrid]

Remember I was trad

Remember I was trading in another Tesla. I cannot say if another make would follow the same process.

I heard that from other vehicles as well. Most attributed that to Tesla using a 3rd party to handle non Tesla trades.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I’m fine with my experience with Tesla. That could be different if it’s my whole garage and I was truly living with one every time I got behind the wheel. The Model 3 Performance isn’t perfect in my eyes. They made some compromises that don’t make sense while not going far enough elsewhere. Yes I’ll say the GTI has a nicer interior with nicer materials.

I don’t understand going so far on the 0-60 while retaining range by not going a square setup on the wheel setup. It should be like the Model Y’s set up where the Performance has all seasons with a square setup. I think that’s where most of the straight line performance improvement came from. The problem the brakes and cooling system aren’t enough, yet they went so far on the wheels.

Am I likely to be inconvenienced by any of this beyond tire life since they can’t be rotated? Probably not, but it’s concerning to have that much power, but not enough brakes and cooling. You just don’t see this from German cars and it doesn’t seem most new American performance cars don’t have this issue.

As far as Teslas go, I love them. I just don’t think they take the performance models seriously enough beyond a 0-60 time. They handle well because the chassis is good, but they hobble it by not doing the right things to round it out. That’s why the Ioniq 5 N is so much more expensive. If I didn’t care about the performance touches at all I would have already bought the Model 3 LR RWD and sold the GTI to skip out on the expensive service costs. The reasonable part of me wants to do exactly that. I may still go that way eventually if all I wanted was cheap per mile driving. The Model 3 is a remarkable daily if all I wanted was an easy to live with A to B. I like the extra stuff way too much. I’ve done a lot of math and it would save me about $1,200 a year just in energy costs and basic maintenance. The GTI feels worth the extra $1,200 a year to keep at this point over buying a much more expensive performance EV. Realistically the 0-60 is similar to the M3LR RWD, but the similarities end there. That was my wife’s intention when she brought it up to me with the current pricing. She didn’t share my excitement for the Performance as the extra cost doesn’t translate to overall savings for the $12,000 higher price out the door. There’s not $12k extra there with the limitations it has performance wise.

Model Y Performance isn’t a square setup, at least my 2023 isn’t. I’m at 19,000 miles on the stock Michelins, we’ll see how long they last.

 

[loneryder]

Not sure how close this is to you, but I'd suggest a test drive to at least compare to the Tesla before pulling the trigger:
https://www.bmwofmadison.com/new-Madison-2024-BMW-i4-M50-WBY33AW07RFS72409

Over 6k pounds…wow.

 

[Torrid]

Model Y Performance isn’t a square setup, at least my 2023 isn’t. I’m at 19,000 miles on the stock Michelins, we’ll see how long they last.

I guess I was wrong on that. I thought they were the same at four corners. They are all season though, right?

 

[RhondaHonda]

I guess I was wrong on that. I thought they were the same at four corners. They are all season though, right?

Correct, the Michelin Pilot A/S.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Correct, the Michelin Pilot A/S.

That's good rubber. Pilot A/S will go on my car when the time comes. I may even pick up a little range over the summer only P-Zeros...