My dad has an E39 5-series with 190k on it, and he’s owned the car since new. Sure, it runs ok-ish, but it’s a pretty tired car at this point. Most of the dot matrix display pixels are burned out, making the radio display basically unreadable, the headliner is falling off, a bunch of plastic bits are broken, and so on.
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Sure, but the Bolt is not anywhere close to as nice as the Model 3 inside. You’re not just paying for the battery in a Model 3, you’re paying for a “sport luxury” car in the same vein as a BMW 3-series or an Audi A4, and I can definitely say the Model 3 is as nice as any 3-series or A4 inside, and the Bolt most…
I generally agree, although my coworkers who own Teslas have been satisfied with Tesla reliability and service too, for whatever that’s worth. Still, there’s a Chevy dealer on every block, which Tesla will never beat.
The driver was trying to recreate the fatal Model X, and just showed how it might have occurred.
Except it’s not. The Bolt starts at $37,500 for 240 miles of EPA estimated range.
The Long Range Model 3 being shipped today is 310 miles of EPA range for $49k ($5k of that is the Premium package you’re forced to include right now).
Oh please. The fact that GM got off their ass and produced the Bolt so quickly is a genuinely great thing, and props to them for that, but GM is a worldwide company with massive infrastructures and manufacturing plants all over the world.
This story could have been written in 2011, and it would read the same. Everyone (myself included) thought that the Roadster would be only car Tesla ever makes, the mythical Model S was vaporware, and the company would die a quick death by 2012.
I don’t get your point. Tesla is the only automaker out there with OTA updates, and yes, even the very first Model S cars shipped in 2012 continue to get OTA updates today. Granted, those cars don’t have AutoPilot hardware, and I’m sure there will be better hardware than the AutoPilot 2 system currently installed on…
Well, there’s the $5000 initial cost to active AutoPilot software yes, but after that, all over the air updates are free.
Thanks! I’m a big fan of Tesla, but I tried to be as objective as I could. I really did like the car, but $50k is a crowded pricepoint for cars, so it would be daft of me to ignore the very serious non-EV competition out there.
Yes, I think they were Michelin Primacy eco tires, and they were definitely chosen for range. The fact they’re at 45 psi, making the tires look almost stretched probably didn’t help either.
The HVAC wasn’t annoying to me, as all of the controls are located on the touch screen about where they would be on a car with buttons/knobs, so that wasn’t bad. Plus, I never needed to move it from the “Auto” HVAC setting, as that kept me plenty comfortable without blasting the fan at full power.
On very wet/cold roads, you can step out the back end a little bit upon hard acceleration. I didn’t push the car to the limits in the corners, but it felt very neutral to me (I daily drive a Subaru, so I know what understeer feels like).
Have you driven one?
Not on the one I drove. The build quality was on par with other luxury makes of the same price range: BMW 3-series, Audi A4, Mercedes C-class, etc.
It depends what the owner wants to do. In my case, he didn’t care if I used the Supercharger, and just absorbed that cost. The owners can set the rental pricing, so I assume he just factored in some charging cost to the daily rental.
The thing I don’t like about Supercruise is it only works on supported highways, and there are only two freeways in my area (Portland, OR) that support it. It also requires a monthly OnStar subscription.
I think the car will be fine, although the passengers probably won’t enjoy it much. I drove over a lot of old potholed roads in it, and it wasn’t comfortable, but nothing rattled in the car.