I Traded My Tesla For The Model 3 Performance - Regret Buying Mid-Range

okay so from a dead stop here we go oh my goodness Wow Wow Wow Jason your vocabulary is impressive this thing oh why hello everyone and welcome I am sitting inside of my Tesla Model 3 performance and now you're thinking wait a minute what I thought you bought the mid-range so here's the thing usually if you buy something and you regret doing it you either do something about it or you don't either way you don't have to tell two million people that you feel like you made a mistake so anyways here we are I feel like I regretted buying the mid-range and so I did something about it now I'm not gonna just moan about first world problems in this video it is going to be educational it is going to be engineering explained we are going to learn cool stuff about the Tesla Model 3 but I can already feel that the tone of the video is a little too serious and so I'm going to push this button something about it Tesla has released port mode so you can just press this button on your steering wheel and make these noises I'm not doing any video editing this is truly the car itself making these noises and it reminds us something as humans you don't have to take life so dang seriously it's okay to make mistakes it's okay to be silly it's okay to have fun that is what you know I as a human have learned from Tesla's fart mode it's something we can all learn to appreciate this to just be less serious because here we have you know real core and this company decided that it was worth releasing this fake feature to absolutely everyone so we're gonna be answering a ton of questions about the core keeping it educational it's not gonna be that vlog style so two questions that I do feel are gonna get brought up but I'll simply just answer in the video description or how much did this whole ordeal cost and then also did I get special treatment from Tesla and the answer to that question is absolutely not but I'll explain the reasoning behind how I know I didn't get special treatment from Tesla in the video description and also how much it costs to trade in the old car and then buy the new core all that information I'll break it all down in the video description if you're curious about it the three questions I want to talk about in this video is why did I trade in for the model 3 performance what are the differences between the two cars and then finally you know what's the condition that this car arrived in as many of you have watched in the previous video the model 3 min range that I got had quite a few scratches and things on it so I'm going to get into the condition of this car as well just kind of brief overview of the condition that it arrived in so first off why did I trade in my mid-range for the model 3 performance and if you heard my logic in the first video I wanted something that was lower weight rear-wheel drive and I think those things are very cool the thing that I didn't do which I recommend to absolutely everyone who's asking me on advice about buying a car is go test drive that car you have to go test drive that car and see how you personally feel about it and I didn't do that and there's not a great reason why I didn't the reason why I didn't test drive the car before buying it was because I had driven almost all of the electric cars out there previously I knew that I liked all of them so I figured if I was gonna buy the Tesla Model 3 mid-range which was more powerful and rear-wheel drive I assumed I would absolutely love it and there are three things about it that I wasn't really stoked on and that's we're gonna get into in this video and why and talk about how these motors work in the Tesla Model 3 with the mid-range with the rear motor so for the Model 3 all of the variants have a new-style motor in the back so Tesla uses an induction motor in the Model S and in the Model X in the rear motor for the Tesla Model 3 in order to bring down costs they're using a permanent magnet motor and so tesla calls it a three-phase 6-pole permanent magnet motor and then up front it does have an induction motor if you have the all-wheel-drive so if you just have the mid-range it is that permanent magnet motor now it has been heavily speculated and I have heard from a Tesla employee that this is referred to as APM SRM permanent magnet switched reluctance motor that is used in the back and it's done so because it has increased efficiency and because it cost less so what is a reluctance motor so reluctance is two magnets what resistance is to electrical circuits so in an electrical circuit the current wants to take the path of least resistance with a magnet the magnetic flux wants to take the path of least reluctance and so this is the print on which a reluctance motor operates so with an induction motor you have a stator the stationary portion and a rotor the portion that rotates both of these you're inducing a current in order to create a magnet so you're you have electromagnets that you're using current to create in both the stator and in the rotor with a reluctance motor the stator you will induce a current you will have those electric motors but the rotor of that reluctance motor it's just a solid piece of steel something that can be attracted by a magnet and so what you have in an induction motor using one magnet and then you can use the forces of that magnet to attract another magnet with a reluctance motor you're using one magnet and you're pulling along a little piece of steel and you're using that force of attraction in order to make the car move now this is cheaper because you don't have to have that copper rotor and it's also more efficient because you don't have the induction losses from inducing that current into the rotor that I r-squared losses that are associated with it you don't have those losses in the rotor itself so it's more efficient and it's more cost effective however there is a downside to it and so based on the research that I've done one of the problems that reluctance motors suffer from is called torque ripple so what the heck is torque ripple well torque ripple it means where when you put your foot down if you're a floor it for example you're gonna have that torque spike because you're asking for torque so if you look at time versus torque it's gonna spike and then you're gonna have a little ripple you're gonna have oscillating torque so it's not going to be a steady torque curve that's applied instead it's going to kind of bounce around so as that rotor is one full rotation of that rotor it has an uneven distribution of torque it's not a constant linear torque line so if you floor it you don't get that instant response because you do in this model three performance we'll get into why in a second but you don't get that instant response because let's say your torque curve of that reluctance motor is going to look like this well if you keep it under that curve if you slow down how quickly you gain in torque you can avoid that torque ripple and so by doing so you have a smooth acceleration it feels good to the driver the unfortunate part is you lose that punchiness so part of what I said in my Tesla Model 3 mid-range review was that I was a little disappointed in the fact that when you floor it you don't get that instant response that electric cars are you know they're exciting it's it's what makes them so special you put your foot down and you get immediate response and I mentioned that that model three mid-range didn't quite have that and part of why I believe that is is because of this reluctance motor and they're trying to avoid torque Ripple now torque ripple starts to go away as the inertia of that motor gets higher and higher so as you start to travel faster and faster you don't have the effects as noticeable of torque ripple so you'll notice in my review I was talking about I was driving you know around 35 miles an hour and I'd floor it and there'd be a little delay and when power was applied but after I filmed that video I came to a complete stop and I floored it and you noticed a significant delay in peak torque it's not until maybe 15 20 miles an hour that you actually feel peak torque from a dead stop so it eases into it quite gradually which is quite different than other electric vehicles usually they're just very punchy right off the line you floor it you get immediate 100% torque and I didn't notice that in the model three mid-range so two of my major complaints with the mid-range the first one being that you know if you floor it from a stop you don't get that instant response that's so awesome that makes electric cars so cool and the second thing you know once you're even up to you know 35 miles per hour there's still a little bit of a delay in there now part of me believes that this isn't all purely the motor part of me believes it's in fact Tesla tuning and differentiating between the mid-range and you know the performance and the all-wheel-drive version so I believe they're building in an additional delay just because you know you didn't pay for the top model but I can't say for certain which one place the bigger role is that the reluctance motor or is it Tesla building in a delay either way there is a noticeable delay between when you put your foot down and when you get full torque and so that was one of the things I found it disappointing about the model 3 min range my third complaint with the model 3 mid-range was that there is no way to just fully disable traction and stability control and you know plenty of carts do this but I was a bit disappointed and that you know this very high torque very powerful electric car wasn't able to fully disable traction control and so you have something called slip start which you can use which is for like a snow so if you need those wheels to spin you can have that happen but one of the things I did after I'd film that review I was driving through you know a sharp corner area and so I was taking a right turn on a very sharp corner and I just floored it with it in that slip mode and nothing happened the the tires did not break traction whatsoever now that could be for multiple reasons it could be that tuned in preventing the torque from being there immediately with this reluctance style motor or it could also be that they're not allowing you to put down full torque through the traction control system so you know if you're going around a short corner and you floor it it's not going to spin out on you even if you put it on the mode where you're saying hey I want it to spin out on me and it's not that it should you know like you shouldn't just spin out on every corner but the option to do it the ability to do it I think should be included in course if you want to be an idiot and get yourself in a wreck you know on your own time on a track something like that then you should be able to do it and the core was preventing that so I think that was a bit silly so the three major complaints the lack of response once you're up to speed and getting full torque the lack of response from 0 miles per hour and flooring it and getting up to speed and then finally not being able to fully disable traction control so why is the model 3 performance the solution to all three of those well the great news about the model 3 performance is that the front motor is an induction motor and so it has that instant response the second you put your foot down you get that instant peak torque boom it is awesome so they fill in that gap that that rear motor cannot provide with the front induction motor and so you got that insane pull right when you put your foot down that instant response that makes electric cars so cool you have it in the model 3 performance and I think that is just so awesome so from a standstill you get plenty of torque zero to 60 in three point three seconds versus five point six in the mid-range and once you're up to speed 35 miles per hour as you can see I punch it and it pulls quite hard so it is super exciting I love this thing it is quite cool the difference that that motor makes and also you know they're giving you sport mode so they're taking out some of that tune delay with this sport mode in the Tesla Model 3 performance so that covers the first two complaints the final complaint was about traction control and of course the model 3 performance with the performance package you get track mode and so track mode enables you to take off some of those nannies that are gonna say you know what you shouldn't get dumb you shouldn't be sideways in a car ever so track mode allows you to get sideways it plays with the fact that it has two motors to work with so it can help you get out of an oversteer situation using the front motors it can help you get out of a understeer situation using that rear motor and so it makes the car much more playful allows for a wheel slip allows the traction control to back off a bit and let you have some fun so quite cool that the model 3 performance comes with that track mode so as I mentioned those are the three main reasons that kind of convinced me you know I should have gone with this one from the start you know the mid-range price-wise is about halfway between the base model 3 if it ever comes out at $35,000 and the model 3 performance which is now listed at 62 thousand dollars so the mid-range is about halfway there but yet it still has the performance and the driving characteristics of that base model 3 and I think that's a little bit disappointing so you know the fact that I was already spending the money up to the mid range to me it seemed justified in going a little bit further and you know getting all of the cool performance benefits it feels like something that I'll actually want to keep for a very long amount of time the mid-range I was kind of already questioning it once I started driving it you know is this something that I want to own long term and this definitely is it is very cool I absolutely love it it's a great daily driver that has all kinds of crazy response and I'm super excited about it alright so what are the mechanical differences between the model 3 men range and the model 3 performance so the mid-range is coming with 258 horsepower the model 3 performance is at 450 horsepower 471 pound-feet of torque thanks to the additional motor up front now one of the things I was surprised by and one of the reasons why I like the idea of the mid-range was that it is significantly lighter according to Tesla it's about 400 pounds lighter the mid range weighing about 3,700 pound the model 3 performance weighing 40 100 pounds however on my bill of origin for the model 3 s for both of them it has a weight listed for the shipping weight of the vehicle and the weight listed for the model 3 mid-range was significantly higher than tesla lists versus the model 3 performance was only a couple pounds higher than what tesla lists so i think the real difference rather than about 400 pounds according to my bill of origins for both of my vehicles the actual weight for the model 3 performance is only about 250 pounds versus 400 pounds heavier than the mid-range the battery packs are of course different also so the mid-range was about 264 miles of range the model 3 performance with 310 thanks to a 75 kilowatt hour battery pack versus a low 60s kilowatt hour battery pack in the model 3 mid range the model 3 also comes with 20 inch wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires so you get better tires on the model 3 performance and the largest wheels that you can get on the model 3 you also have a lowered suspension versus the mid-range it does come with a carbon fiber spoiler which you won't see on my car because it doesn't actually come with it from the factory at some point I guess Tesla's gonna come to my house and install it I believe that's what's happening strange I guess they ran out of parts so they're shipping them without the carbon fiber spoiler you also get significantly larger brakes with the model 3 performance with the performance package which now comes standard with it so larger brakes up front over like an inch and a half larger I believe it is quite a big difference and you also have significantly larger brake pads on them so a much thicker brake pad so if you were to take it to a track day or something like that you don't have to worry about those brake pads wearing down all the way you've got plenty of pad on there too for a couple you know Trek sessions and of course with the performance package you get track mode and so all the benefits that come along with track mode and you also have a raised top speed of 155 miles per hour so aside from being heavier and I think the weight difference is less than what Tesla claims aside from being heavier the model 3 performance is better and pretty much everyone and it just has that incredible thing that electric cars do in that you put your foot down and it's all there immediately 100% of the power right there right then just incredible let's bring the truth let's bring the tongue down a little bit and in a couple of its couple noises yeah and you know here's the thing like Detroit Auto Show they just unveiled the Shelby gt500 and that car I have just been so excited about when I saw that unveiling but but electric cars can still be incredible to me the GT 350 is one of my favorite cars I've ever driven and yet this thing just makes me equally as happy it doesn't sound the same but it's got this sound instead but man this thing just put your foot down it is unreal how quick this car is 103 what is that dude I'm gonna give a peace sign he waved right on all right so I'm happy about it okay let's get into the defects that came with this course so you know this is again leaving into that discussion about did I receive a special treatment from Tesla I absolutely did not now this car came out so much better than my mid-range it didn't have any paint scratches on it which I was very excited to see and all of the panel gaps like literally all of them are so much better than they were on my mid-range so I will include the numbers in comparison and show you the difference between the mid-range panel gaps and this one and also thank you guys for all your tips on how to use calipers I took what you said to heart and you know I was able to actually use calipers the right way they never taught me that when I was getting my engineering degree so thank you all so much for your feedback okay just a real moment for for a second if I were to actually dig in the other side of the calipers into the panel gaps and measure them that way I would have gotten so much crap from you guys about scratching up the paint so you can't win on YouTube I like that there's a random nature and to me saying that you can't win on YouTube and then just having this noise afterwards you can't win on YouTube so anyways the panel gaps are so much better on this one and I actually had an employee of Tesla who worked in paint repair so if a car fails quality control then it goes to this paint repair center and this technician actually reached out to me to talk about some of the issues I saw on my model three mid-range and he actually said that speck of dust that I saw should have failed QC and it should have gone to him to be fixed that the speck was actually larger than half a millimeter and that would require it to actually be fixed so what have I seen on this model three performance well it wasn't as bad as the mid-range but it still did have a few things so first of all there was a pretty sizable dent in the front fender behind the driver's side front tire so there was a decent dent there also the middle pane of glass on the roof had two pretty decent cracks in it one on each side so I'm not sure if this is somehow when they're placing the glass onto the core if that's when it happens perhaps too much pressure being applied to it but either way there's a couple cracks in the glass on this middle pane of glass and then there also were more of those little dust specks underneath the paint this time they weren't in very noticeable areas most of them were kind of in the door jams where you will never see them so I'm happy about that you're not going to see them not a big deal in my opinion based on where they are but they do still exist and again the ones on this car we're much smaller not nearly as sizable as the one that I saw on my mid-range so not perfect but exterior wise I'm very pleased with it because the core looks a lot better it doesn't have any of those scratches and it is now covered completely and expel so I am protecting it from future scratches very excited about that and yeah that pretty much covers it so thank you guys so much for watching if you have any questions or comments of course feel free to leave those below and I am quite looking forward to spending some more time in this model 3 performance this thing is just so much fun to drive coming out of a corner here and put your foot down boom oh man it is quick

Channel: Engineering Explained

Views: 713,117

Rating: 4.7079091 out of 5

Keywords: tesla, tesla model 3, tesla model 3 performance, tesla model 3 awd, tesla model 3 long range, tesla model 3 mid-range, tesla model 3 review, model 3, model x, model s, model y, tesla model s, model s p100d, ludicrous mode, track mode, engineering explained, buy a new car, new car, used car, car price

Id: XzspO4-T7t4

Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 20 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Bitboyben]

I was a bit surprised he didn't get the P3D+ to start with. Now I'm super happy for him, and learned quite a bit about the difference between the two motor types.

[u/kenriko]

I went from RWD LR to P3D+ it's a massive difference and I can only imagine the MR to P3D+ since that's even more drastic.

I do think that Tesla nerfed the MR past just the motor differences because when I first got my LR which has a 71xx VIN it was sub 5s 0-60 and they released an update about a month later that nerfed it right back to 5.1s as advertised (if you check those early cars were running 4.6s in 0-60) it lost a lot of the off the line (0-30mph) punch with the update

Let hope for an uncorking at some time in the future.

[u/gotrice1111]

This video has raised enough questions about the MR‘s performance that I feel like I’d need to test drive again (drove a LR, non-AWD for comparison). Can someone with a MR chime in?

[u/croy_00]

I have to say, I'm still pretty disappointed at the paint/glass issues he experienced on his P3D. I really hope they get this all sorted out eventually, but it doesn't give me much confidence when my piece of shit cheap little GM product came with a flawless paint job on a car that didn't even cost $20K new. Albeit my red is much darker and probably isn't as high quality, but the car is almost 9 years old and still looks new after a good wash.

[u/vegeto079]

So his points were a delay on getting to full torque (either from full stop or mid-speed) and the inabililty to disable traction control to spin out.

For what it's worth, I have a LR RWD and don't notice any delay, but that could just be lack of knowing anything better. And the second point surely doesn't apply to 99% of people.

[u/grumpydubaian]

I didn't understand the part about torque ripple.

[u/rlovepalomar]

Ahhh got it, thank you! I wish there was an easier way to trade in and upgrade for a P3D. I feel like I am missing out a lot on the amazing driving experience of the performance model 🤦🏻‍♂️

[u/bittabet]

Interestingly he says they never titled the original so he didn't have to pay sales taxes on it, but he can still claim the tax credit? Is that actually accurate if a car was never titled?