The Toyota Prius I had been driving for 10 years was well designed, roomy, fun to drive, and economical to run, but I decided I needed an upgrade. I offered it to my son who was driving a 2001 Mazda with 250000 miles and mainly held together with baling wire and duct tape. He was more than happy to take the Prius, so I put on a new set of tires, new brakes, oil change, and arranged to pass it on to him.
Now to find a replacement. I first looked into plug-in hybrids which were starting to be pushed by the dealers. These were hybrid cars that could be plugged into the grid, charged at night and driven 50 miles or so exclusively on electricity before the batteries ran down and the computer would start the gas engine and the car ran in hybrid mode. I reasoned that If you drove less than 50 miles per day you would never need to buy gas. There were several attractive models available from the big car manufacturers.
Now my thinking took a turn: If I am going to go this route why do I need two complete separate parallel systems, gas and electric, with all of those extra parts, when one system alone will do the job? The more I thought about it, the less sense it made.
I decided to go purely electric, which was the more efficient and cleaner of the two systems. However it was also newer technology, less tested, less range, and somewhat more expensive. I would also not have the choices or support offered by the traditional car companies since they were just barely starting to move on this technology, and if I wanted to buy an electric car and have it delivered in my lifetime I had basically one choice – Tesla.
It was August of 2019 when I decided to place my order, so I logged onto Tesla.com. The website showed 3 different models available: the Model S – a luxury sedan, the Model X – a luxury SUV with gull wing rear doors, and the Model 3 sport sedan. There was also a Model Y on the drawing board – an SUV that looked attractive but wouldn’t be ready for at least another year.
I picked the Model 3 as I was sure it would be more than adequate for my needs. For this model there was a choice of 5 colors, regular or long-range, rear wheel or all wheel drive, several different wheel configurations, black or white interior colors, with standard model, performance package, and full self driving software.
After driving the standard model at Eastlake and since I normally don’t drag race I didn’t think I needed any further performance enhancements. The self-driving software was mostly undeveloped vaporware and added $8000 to the cost so I decided I didn’t need it and could add it later if I changed my mind. (It now costs $15000!). Besides, I just couldn’t see myself feeling comfortable playing games or having dinner while my car was tooling down the freeway at 75mph with me in it. The self-driving package included a feature that would allow you to use an iPhone to “summon” your car from its parking spot and pick you up at the door. I’m sure that would impress my buddies at the Fitworks gym, but then I thought I could find other less expensive ways of showing off. Also it may not impress the police to see a car roaming around the parking lot with no apparent driver.
I ended up ordering the Model 3, midnight silver metallic (fancy name for dark grey), long range, dual motor all wheel drive, with black interior and 18 inch aero wheels. I was not asking for a loan and didn’t have a trade-in so I ponied up the $200 and pushed the “buy” button.
I was informed that my Tesla would arrive in 6 to 8 weeks. No strain, no pain!
Now I had time to prepare a charging station in my garage. I installed a 240 volt 50amp breaker in the service box, ran the appropriate conduit and wiring to a place that would reach the parked car, and installed a 14-50 socket that would fit the car’s charging cable. Goodbye smelly gas stations!
This setup would charge the car at a rate of 30 mph. Thus over night I could load up 300 plus miles of juice – almost the limit of the car’s capacity, and have a “full tank” every morning. If I didn’t have 240v available I could charge the car from a regular outlet but it would only charge at a rate of 3 or 4 mph.
The present (2023) Tesla Superchargers out on the road will do the same thing in one half hour or less. It’s not as fast as filling a gas tank but getting faster every day.
Two weeks later I received a text from Tesla stating that my car was at Eastlake and to come and pick it up – and by the way, be sure to bring your iPhone and the remainder of the money.
The lady at Eastlake Tesla gave me a half hour of instruction, paired my iPhone with the car’s bluetooth so it could be used as an ignition and door key, and installed the Tesla app on my iPhone that allowed it to control several features of the car.
There were also two credit card-sized RFID cards to use in case the phone became lost or discharged.
I had read wild tales about poor fitting doors, extra wide gaps, bad paint jobs, wrinkled upholstery, etc. due to Tesla being new to the car building business, their robots not yet precisely adjusted and their workers not well trained. After giving the car a thorough inspection I saw none of these problems so I signed off and was soon on my way home with my new toy.
My Tesla Model 3
(Notice the orange spot below the headlight which is probably a radar camera)
Next: Electric Car – Features and Problems.