Why I nonetheless love my Mannequin 3 after 3.6 years and virtually 100,000 miles.

Taking a look at my Tesla app, my Tesla Mannequin 3 odometer now reads: 99,377 miles. By the point that is revealed, I’ll most likely be over 100,000 miles.

Determine 1: Me, my canine, and my 2019 Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary. Bayfield, Wisconsin — on Lake Superior. September 2, 2020. Picture by Mary Hasler.

I’m an enormous proponent of inexperienced know-how, and specifically electrical automobiles. I’m additionally an enormous Tesla fanboy! I nonetheless get an enormous kick out of my Tesla Mannequin 3 after 3.6 years and practically 100,000 miles. My earlier automobiles have been Toyota Camrys and Nissan Leafs, so my Tesla with twin energy, heated seats, a 12 speaker sound system, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth. feels very very like a luxurious automobile to me.

Tesla has fully rethought how vehicles ought to work, making many issues about working your car higher. My Mannequin 3 accelerates like a rocket, and I really like having my fueling station in my storage and having the ability to completely skip journeys to the fuel station for a smelly refill. I additionally get to skip the journeys to Jiffy Lube and sitting of their smelly ready room for a not so jiffy hour.

Teslas have a beautiful enormous display screen the place a lot of the controls are executed. The Tesla navigation utilizing lovely satellite tv for pc maps on the large display screen is so good I don’t miss Apple CarPlay. The large display screen can also be nice for watching Netflix films and letting my grandkids play video games. The sound system is fabulous, and with the streaming service, I can play virtually any music I can consider.

I really like utilizing my smartphone as a key that unlocks the automobile as I method and locks it as I depart when I’m ~15 ft away. There’s no begin button. As quickly as you contact the brake, your automobile is activated and able to go. With quite a few software program updates over the past 3.6 years, it looks like I’ve a brand new automobile each month or so.

Many Tesla improvements have been completely new to the automotive trade. Many have been copied by different producers by this time, however routinely updating your automobile’s software program remotely such as you do with a pc remains to be a battle for some.

Full Self Driving (Beta)

I’ve the spectacular Full Self Driving (Beta) software program suite, which is able to completely drive my automobile to any location I put within the navigation. Nevertheless, sadly, it nonetheless screws up sometimes, so it’s good to be ready to intervene instantaneously. Additionally, it’s a little bit too timid, so it’s good to give it slightly assist with the accelerator pedal in heavy site visitors. Nevertheless, the steering stays completely computerized.

In rural Northern Wisconsin, the place we spend the summers, I can provide a voice command for any enterprise or different location within the space and simply sit and watch the automobile drive on roads with no yellow or white traces to that location with no intervention. I solely have to torque the steering wheel slightly or twiddle one of many thumb wheels on the steering wheel to let the system know that I’m paying consideration. There may be additionally a digicam over the rear-view mirror watching my face, so I can’t look away from the street, have a look at my telephone, or shut my eyes or the system will complain. It appears to me that the digicam system for figuring out my consideration to the street is way superior to requiring my steering wheel twiddling. I hope that Tesla will take away the requirement to the touch the steering wheel quickly.

Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy-Time period Prices

Please see under my upkeep prices, which haven’t gone up since my report at 90,000 miles.

I do know that in principal EVs are a lot much less complicated than automobiles with inner combustion engines. Inner combustion engine (ICE) substitute value is ~$7000, as an ICE is rather more complicated than an electrical motor — and it seldom runs over 200,000 miles with out a very costly rebuild or substitute. As well as, ICE automobiles have very complicated transmissions (substitute value of ~$5000). You even have exhaust and emission management methods, the radiator/cooling system, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth., many elements which EVs shouldn’t have.

An EV has a really costly battery. Do I have to be anxious about changing it? I’m treating mine with child gloves and anticipate it to final over 10 years and over 500,000 miles. I virtually by no means cost over 80%, and no less than 3/4 of my charging is completed at Stage 2 in my storage. Nevertheless, I’ve used Tesla’s fabulous, sooner Stage 3 Supercharger community typically for lengthy cross-country street journeys. The EPA vary of my automobile was 310 miles when new. When your Tesla is charging, you possibly can set the cost restrict to 100% and your automobile provides you with a battery vary estimate. Mine is studying 278 miles now (310 − 278 = 32 and 32/310 = ~10%), so I’ve seen ~10% battery loss, which isn’t unhealthy for 100,000 miles.

Others have additionally reported that Tesla battery loss is ~10% or so for the primary 100,000 miles, after which the battery degradation slows down after that. Nevertheless, I didn’t do that when my automobile was new and I can’t get EPA to do a brand new vary estimate on my used Mannequin 3, so it’s arduous to get a very correct degradation estimate. My Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary was warrantied fully for 50,000 miles. The drive system and battery guarantee will runout at 130,000 miles. Subsequently, the most costly elements of my automobile are warrantied for one more 30,000 miles.

The quite a few comparisons I’ve seen estimate upkeep and gasoline prices for EVs to be a lot decrease than for ICE automobiles. Nevertheless, the heavy EV battery causes tires to wear down extra shortly than on an ICE car, so that’s an elevated value for EV upkeep.

In just below 100,000 miles, the overall value of the tires and out-of-warranty repairs for my Mannequin 3 have been $5441.42. That is greater than I anticipated, however most likely no more than what I’d have paid driving a fuel automobile with prices for repairs, tires, oil modifications, emission inspections, brakes, different miscellaneous gadgets, and better value for gasoline. The large financial savings will come going ahead the place the fuel automobile will see these prices repeated plus muffler, exhaust, and emission management system substitute and ultimately transmission and engine rebuild. If I dwell lengthy sufficient, I anticipate to drive my Tesla over 500,000 miles. It’s not unrealistic to anticipate the electrical drive system and battery to final that lengthy.

Determine 2: Neighbor’s model new Tesla Mannequin 3 charging at my Storage. Three Lakes, Wisconsin. Might 28, 2023. Picture by Fritz Hasler.

In Determine 2, we see my neighbor’s model new Tesla Mannequin 3 charging in entrance of my storage. I seen him doing gradual 4 miles/hour Stage 1 charging subsequent door and invited him to come back throughout the road for a 28 miles/hour Stage 2 cost at my home.

My Tackle Prolonged Service Warranties

I virtually universally keep away from shopping for prolonged warranties on merchandise that I purchase. That features the ~10 vehicles I’ve owned through the years. I assume that I’ll lower your expenses with self-warranty. Within the circumstances the place the product — like a automobile battery or a set of automobile tires — comes with a guaranty, I’ve by no means collected on one.

I’ve lately been deluged with advertisements from Automobile Protect making an attempt to promote me an prolonged service guarantee on my car. I acquired a quote from Automobile Protect. They need $220/month or $2640/yr with a $100 deductible for every incident. If I had bought a Automobile Protect coverage once I went over 50,000 miles in November 2021, I’d have paid 14 × $220 = $3000 by now. My restore prices over that interval have been $2247 much less the $300 deductible, or $1947. Subsequently, it has been cheaper to date to go with out a Automobile Protect coverage. I’ve advised myself that my EV will likely be so dependable {that a} Automobile Protect coverage can be a waste of cash. Nevertheless, I’m not unaware of the flamboyant pc, show display screen, and electronics in my Tesla in addition to electrical seats and home windows, stereo system, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth., so there are many issues within the automobile that might fail … and now I’m studying about failure modes of issues I by no means thought of. For now, I’m forward and I’m holding my breath and hoping for the perfect for the longer term.

See my itemized service prices in my 90,000 mile article.

Please add your experiences with repairs in your Tesla automobiles within the feedback part under!