I have an option to make my next car be a 2013 Model S, P85D. Motor was recently replaced, same with MCU this year.
The local dealer doesn't allow for test drives, as far as I can tell. How do they actually drive? My only exprience is a friend who worked as a valet who hates how divorced they feel.
If it's similar to the Model Y they drive pretty good for an EV. They're big and heavy, but you can hustle them around corners pretty well with such a low center of gravity.
Are any available on turo near you that you could rent for a day to see if you like it?
The regenerative braking is VERY aggressive if you're not used to it. If you're accustomed to reading traffic patterns, you'll rarely ever have to touch the actual brake pedal. Steering feel and brake feel are pretty divorced from the act of driving. Torque delivery is RIGHT NOW, which makes passing and stoplight shenanagins pretty fun, but at the expense of depleting the battery. P90 is among the fastest cars I've ever driven.
How can you check if the battery is OK
was this the model that has a $20,000 plus battery ? Do you need to figure that in the price ?
there is one in the neighborhood that sometimes parks in front of my house , neat looking car but you can see this one has lots of miles on it ,
Good luck
By "local dealer", do you mean Tesla? You can definitely test drive a new car. No idea how they deal with the used fleet, the cars may be stored at a regional warehouse or something.
Never driven an S, but it was certainly well received by the press at the time for all of the attributes we've come to expect from EVs. Should be a great mile eater. A lack of engine noise might feel divorced if you're ferrying cars around a parking lot but it's really nice on the interstate :) I believe Adrian has reported they're a bit short on suspension travel, and the original S was more of a hand built car than the 3/Y.
I think you can check battery health from the main screen. Haven't tried, but here's how it's done via the app. You can schedule a service call via the screen so I suspect the same mechanism exists.
To see if your vehicle's range is within normal parameters, open your mobile app and tap on Service, and then 'Request Service. ' Then tap on 'Battery', select 'Range', and type in 'loss of range' when asked to describe the problem. Tap 'Next' and the app will run a self-diagnosis to check on your battery health.
californiamilleghia said:How can you check if the battery is OK
was this the model that has a $20,000 plus battery ? Do you need to figure that in the price ?
there is one in the neighborhood that sometimes parks in front of my house , neat looking car but you can see this one has lots of miles on it ,
Good luck
There's a few ways, but stock they were ~253 miles of range in that year and the seller shows ~235, which is a degradation of 8% over 9 years if my math is good. That alone says that pack is very healthy.
Keith Tanner said:By "local dealer", do you mean Tesla? You can definitely test drive a new car. No idea how they deal with the used fleet, the cars may be stored at a regional warehouse or something.
Never driven an S, but it was certainly well received by the press at the time for all of the attributes we've come to expect from EVs. Should be a great mile eater.
I think you can check battery health from the main screen. Haven't tried, but here's how it's done via the app. You can schedule a service call via the screen so I suspect the same mechanism exists.
To see if your vehicle's range is within normal parameters, open your mobile app and tap on Service, and then 'Request Service. ' Then tap on 'Battery', select 'Range', and type in 'loss of range' when asked to describe the problem. Tap 'Next' and the app will run a self-diagnosis to check on your battery health.
Thanks Kieth! So just show up nicely and ask? Sounds like a plan; I even have an Infiniti I'm driving so I look respectable lmao
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
Showing up and asking nicely is always worth trying in just about any situation :) We were able to test drive a 3 long before ordering by simply walking in and saying "hi!". They want people to experience the cars, because for many it's their first exposure to an EV.
I drove one, I want to say 14-16 model year maybe? It was a while ago, but I remember it being fine. Comical acceleration, decent driving characteristics, quiet. Probably my biggest concern would be how the original tesla build quality holds up over time. I would imagine that interior squeaks and rattles are infinitely more annoying when there's no engine noise to cover them up.
Along the lines of Keith's comment, I'd at least attempt to get a test drive. If you're serious about buying assuming it doesn't suck or have major issues, making that very clear might go a long way. "I'm ready to buy but I'm not buying any used car without being able to check it out first" sort of thing.
I live around the corner from a Tesla showroom. I see them doing test drives all the time.
There's a Tesla owners club near me, might be worth checking to see if there's something similar near you. Tesla guys always seem eager to spread the word of the Church of EV, so they might be willing to let you test drive one. Also, the Turo suggestion is a good one. I forget what city it was, but I looked up one location and it seemed like 5 out of 10 cars were Teslas (and 4 out of the remaining 5 were Priuses.)
About battery health, here's some data sourced from a European owner's club. Expect an initial drop in capacity, then a long tail.
The dealer wont allow a test drive of a used car? If that's the case, I'd shop elsewhere.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Wow that battery curve is much better than I expected ,
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