[Harshal.Bhosale]

Two important updates that happened recently:

1. I purchased FSD at a discount! (June 2020)
2. I purchased a used set of the OEM 19" Sport Wheels (October 2020)

1. FSD Purchase Story:

Although I was happy with the Enhanced Autopilot functionality that I had received with my car, I kept thinking about FSD as a viable software purchase. Then, on Autonomy Day in 2019, Tesla unveiled the "Full Self Driving Computer", also known as Hardware 3.0 or HW3 computer, and the stage was set for Full Self Driving to make bigger strides. All Tesla vehicles after March or April 2019 come with the FSD Computer pre-installed, and owners of Tesla vehicles built prior to that date, and who have purchased or wish to purchase the FSD software package are given a free retrofit of the HW3 FSD Computer.

Until this point, the Enhanced AutoPilot (EAP) package my car came with was no different to the FSD package being sold for $6000 or $7000, and I didn't see a need to plonk down the dough as an interest free loan to Tesla. Once HW3 was released however, with the neural net computing capabilities built into the chip, Tesla started releasing the new Traffic Light and Stop Sign recognition feature, exclusively for cars with the newer chips. I started feeling left out and felt the need to buy the FSD package, but at $4000 for upgrading from EAP to FSD, the cost was unjustifiably high.

Then, in June 2020, Musk announced that the cost of FSD would be going up by $1000 starting July 1st. Along with this announcement, Musk also announced a limited-time discount on FSD, typical of one of those end-of-quarter fire sales by Tesla to increase demand/revenue. Thus, while the cost of FSD would go up from $7000 --> $8000 for new owners and $4000 --> $5000 for Enhanced Autopilot owners, there would be a limited time discount until June 30th to snag FSD for $3000 if you, like me, already had EAP on your car. (Base Autopilot, worth $3000, was also discounted to $2000 for the same 2-week period as seen below).



Sure enough, in a couple of days, I could see in my Tesla account page and in the Upgrades section of the phone app, the price went down from $4000 to $3000. I even got an email saying the same thing!




After 30th June, 2020, this $3000 would be jumping straight to $5000, and it would keep rising thereafter (or so Mr. Musk promised/threatened!) It was decision time!

After discussing with the Finance Ministry, we decided to take the plunge because

1. We both work in the autonomous vehicles sector (somewhat, me less than her), and we were curious about following along with Tesla's progress in this adventure
2. Whether or not Mr. Musk really followed through on his promised price increases, we did feel that if Tesla somehow cracks self driving cars, the $3000 option would be worth far more in the future when the time comes to find a new owner for Saphira (we do recognize the reality that we are temporary guests in the USA and might have to return home any time, H1B visa notwithstanding).
3. Last but not least, we had earned multiples of the FSD purchase price through our TSLA shares (granted, those are unrealized gains until we actually sell the stock, but still, mentally prepared us to take the final plunge)

With a deja-vu feeling similar to when I was initially booking the vehicle itself, I pressed the PAY NOW button with a heavily beating heart!




With that, it was done! FSD secured!




The vehicle computer displayed this right after the purchase was complete.






Next step in the process was to schedule a service appointment to get a complimentary installation of the FSD HW3 computer. I went into the app and scheduled an appropriate Service appointment, and the following was my conversation with the service team:




Bummer. So that meant I not only had to wait an entire month after I purchased FSD, but I also had to travel 60 miles one way (~1 hour) to Toledo, Ohio, which is the next nearest Tesla service center from where I live. Thus, more than one month after clicking Pay Now button, I was on my way to the service center to finish the FSD hardware installation. Here are a few pictures from the service center visit:







The hardware swap took around 2 hours, during which time I set myself up in one of their waiting rooms (pictured above) and tried to get some work done (it was a working day after all). At the end, they notified me that I was good to go, and I was greeted by this on the car's display:





As I started driving, firstly I had to let the cameras calibrate for the new computer. Once the calibration was complete, I was able to turn on the Full Self Driving Visualization Preview setting. Although this is not a "feature" in itself, I feel that it is very important from an HMI perspective, because it helps the human build confidence in the machine. Being able to see what the car "sees" and understands is a very important step for helping owners get confident in FSD capabilities.

https://youtu.be/VSbA9R33PLA

As I kept driving along, I was able to see more instances of the FSD visualization picking up traffic lights, stop signs, and even road markings on the road surface!

https://youtu.be/ncEENI9jLyw

Here's a picture of how the visualization looks at night.




The car is getting very good at recognizing stop signs in particular, and this goes back to that video of Andrej Karpathy talking about how they trained the neural net to specifically work on identifying all sorts of stop signs - to the extent that it even identifies broken / leaning stop signs! See towards the end of the video below:

https://youtu.be/lAybpHiXAeI

One feature that finally started working for me (it never worked before buying FSD) was a subset of Autopark which I like to call Reverse Summon. Basically, you park close to your final destination and press twice on the Park button. Then, a menu pops up on screen asking you to choose a direction of motion (Forward or Reverse). Once you get out of the car and all doors are closed, the car starts creeping in the chosen direction of motion until it encounters an obstacle. This is very useful in tight garages or narrow parking spots, and when the time comes to retrieve the car you can always use the basic Summon mode. Here's a poor video demonstrating Reverse Summon (I parked too close to the curb on the left and the car refused to move forward any further):

https://youtu.be/sEVxszXGplM

A few weeks after I got FSD, I got a software update with some cool improvements - one of the new features being "Green Light Traffic Chime" - basically plays a chime every time a green signal is detected, so it chimes when you're driving towards a green light, and more importantly, it chimes when a red light that you're stopped at turns green. Massively useful when you're checking your phone while safely stopped at a traffic light, and then people around you start honking!

https://youtu.be/169Q5WyECwY

So that's the story of how I got FSD for Saphira, and now she's fully decked out with all the bells and whistles (well, almost!) that Tesla can offer her! All in all, FSD cost me a total of $6000 ($3000 for base Autopilot during car purchase, and $3000 for this FSD upgrade) - note that today's cost structure is different, as base Autopilot is included with every Tesla and FSD is a single add-on package

As it turns out - a few months after buying FSD, Tesla increased the price of FSD from $8000 to $10000, on account of having delivered "FSD Beta" to early access users, videos of which you've probably seen floating around. Put another way, the FSD package has appreciated in value from $7000 to $10000 in just four months, and if I had not snagged it for $3k, it would've been a $7k upgrade today! Grabbing FSD early seems like a financially prudent "investment", for now (in the hope of increasing resale value). We'll see what the future brings!

2. 19" Sport Wheels Purchase

Ever since I got the car, I had wished for the sexy 19" Sport rims offered by Tesla. I was stretched too thin to get them while ordering the car, so after I recovered financially a year or so later I began looking out for them actively on Tesla Facebook groups / forums etc. Things became urgent when my original 18" tires began to lose grip on wet roads, and upon inspection I found that they had begun balding significantly on the inboard side (all 4 - a result of a slight negative camber on all four wheels, probably intentional because I had done an alignment check from Tesla on my last tire rotation during the HW3 retrofit service appointment).

So it came as a relief when one day in October 2020, a fine gentleman on Facebook offered an amazing deal on a set of 19" Sport wheels + tires with less than 8k miles on them.



How did I know it was an amazing deal?? Because he had listed the set of 4 wheels+tires for $1100 on his ad, when a brand new set from the Tesla website costs a whopping $3500! Granted, he was selling a used set, but with only 8000 miles on the tires and zero scratches on the rims, this was a steal! Sure enough, after getting so many responses on his posting, he started backtracking, saying he listed them too low and now didn't want to sell them. I had to bargain UPWARDS to finally get him to settle on a deal at $1250






The deal was done. Only problem? Said gentleman lived in Louisville, Kentucky, about 5.5 hours away from my home in Michigan. I wasn't about to let that deter me though - this was the deal of the year, and I was determined to see it through. I immediately planned a day long drive to his house and back, 11-12 hours of driving total.



Thus, that Friday (October 30th to be precise), after wrapping up work early, I started from home around 2 PM for my 5.5-hour drive south. I made good, steady progress on the way down, covering 269 miles on a single charge until the Cincinnati Supercharger (avg Wh/mi of 231 as you can see).



As I reached the guy's place I also crossed the 30,000 mile mark, a significant milestone as I had managed to stretch my original tires past that mark (many in the Model 3 owners community haven't been able to LOL)




Fitting the wheels + tires in the back wasn't as straightforward as I had thought it would be - but we somehow got them to fit, and man, the wheels were in absolute MINT condition!





The journey back home was uneventful (apart from the fact that I didn't do well on time, having spent an extra couple of hours talking to the guy in his garage as he started showing me around his tool collection, car care products, modifications made to his car, and what not. I finally reached home around 5 AM the next day, which was a Saturday).

The next day, it was time to swap out the wheels! I enlisted the help of a colleague who has a hydraulic jack and impact wrench, because the cold weather had set in and doing it with a manual socket wrench was a no-no. Some pictures and videos from the parking lot tire swap:




A look at the new (used) tire vs the absolutely finished old tire. They say Teslas can chew through tires like a knife through butter, here's proof!

https://youtu.be/01ZRCdV8AFQ

https://youtu.be/K-mrxXqQIgY

Fitting the last wheel nut cap on...!

https://youtu.be/9X5n9E1SL7U

Finally, within the car's touchscreen, I was supposed to select the proper wheel configuration so that the car can account for the difference in wheel diameter and compute speed / odometer mileage accordingly.

https://youtu.be/NVXAt6R7vp0

Once this was done, and I started driving, the TPMS sensors within the new wheels automatically communicated with the relevant ECU in the vehicle, and all was well. (I didn't know about this step, it just happened automatically. I did know that when buying a new set of wheels for a Tesla you have to ensure that they come with the OEM TPMS sensors inside, or you have to pluck the ones from your own original wheels and put install them on the new ones).



That concluded the wheel swap, both from a hardware and software perspective. I am now a happy camper! Absolutely stunning photographs wherever I go, and since the past three-four months of getting the new wheels, I found I've been glancing back at the car every single time without fail. Talk about falling in love all over again!

But wait.... there's "ONE MORE THING"!!

BONUS PURCHASE:

While I was contemplating the FSD decision, another decision was looming in my mind - one pertaining to that APC-looking monstrosity from a post-apocalyptic future (APC = armored personnel carrier). I am of course referring to nothing other than the Tesla CyberTruck.




Like many of you, I too, hated the design on the day it was launched. The Cybertruck captured everyone's attention like no other Tesla product ever did. The weird looks, the crazy specs, even crazier/unexpectedly cheap pricing, and who can forget the broken glass demo? (In fact I still remember November 2019 vividly because I actually sold TSLA stocks the day after the launch, thinking "the stock's gotta plummet after this ugly shit, right? Oh boy, how wrong I was... I only recovered my TSLA position 4 months later, in the first week of March 2020, when the entire market collapsed on fears of the Covid-19 pandemic and I luckily swooped in to make my move).

While the engineer in me appreciated the engineering constraints that led to the peculiar design of the Cybertruck (low cost, aerodynamics, novel manufacturing method with stainless steel exoskeleton), for the life of me I couldn't understand how a design genius like Franz Von Holzhausen could only come up with that design given those engineering constraints. I mean, we're talking about the same guy who designed the frickin Model S! That gorgeous, timeless, classic beauty of a sedan! I couldn't fathom why the Cybertruck could not have been a similarly gorgeous design, and therefore, I hated it.

A year and a half later though, as I had more and more time to digest it, I began appreciating some things about the Cybertruck.

• The 500+ miles of range enabled by the sloping rear roof/tonneau cover (no aero disturbances caused by sudden boundary layer separation that happens in a normal truck design).
• The crazy cheap price enabled by the revolutionary manufacturing process (no investments in stamping machines required, just bend the steel into shape after laser cutting lines through it).
• 6-seat passenger capacity with loads of luggage room in the frunk and lockable bed. Practicality at its best.
• Adjustable air suspension with up to 16" (400+mm!) of ground clearance!

And I had an important epiphany - a truck doesn't need to look beautiful, it needs to look BADASS. And well, it doesn't get anymore badass than the CT, at least we all can agree on that. One look at that thing gaining up on you in your rear-view mirror, and anyone would make way for the Cybertruck. Plus, after so many road trips in my Model 3, and a couple of sleeping-in-car experiences, I have somewhat started entertaining the idea of this in my life...


So, what brings that into consideration here? Well, since the price of FSD was going up by $1000 from July 1st, 2020, I thought, if I am inclined towards possibly wanting to purchase a Cybertruck some time in the distant future, why not pay the $100 refundable deposit to reserve one today and lock in the FSD price? Sure, I may not have enough money to get any version of the Cybertruck right now, but I was betting that with hundreds of thousands of pre-orders, I'd be wayyyyy back in line, giving me enough time to accumulate savings. And I was betting that the Cybertruck production ramp would be quite hard given the novel exoskeleton approach to its design. In two-three years time, who knows, I may even have enough in TSLA stocks to partly finance a Cybertruck purchase.


With that in mind, I went ahead and placed an order for two Cybertrucks (why the hell not! ) - one for the mid-tier 300-mile Dual Motor, and one for the 500-mile Tri Motor. Which one I end up getting will depend on my financial situation two years from now.





This is what my Tesla Account looks like now. Of course, I don't intend on buying two CTs, but the one I purchase would depend on my financial situation. And I'm going to wait until Tesla practically forces me to fulfill one of these orders.

[dragracer567]

Note to Mods: I am not sure which thread this post belongs to. Please attach this post to the appropriate thread if deemed necessary.


The latest of the brilliant drag race series by Matt Watson's carwow whcih involved the three variants of the Tesla Model 3 seems to have thrown in quite some surprises:

1) While the Performance won the drag race, the LR variant is quite close behind while the entry level variant was last.

2) The rolling race was where the surprise lies. They did three rolling races - one at 30 MPH (48 Km/hr), one at 50 MPH (80 Km/hr) and one at 70 MPH (112 Km/hr). In the latter two, the LR variant was actually faster than the performance variant with the entry level variant very close behing which effectively means that the extra price you pay for the performance variant (+ drop in range) vis a vis the LR variant is just for the increased power at launch!

Now, they haven't really explained why the LR actually seems to be quicker at higher speeds. Perhaps a knowledgeable Bhp-ian could explain this intriguing outcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htGXA4McmGU

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

Note to Mods: I am not sure which thread this post belongs to. Please attach this post to the appropriate thread if deemed necessary.


The latest of the brilliant drag race series by Matt Watson's carwow whcih involved the three variants of the Tesla Model 3 seems to have thrown in quite some surprises:

1) While the Performance won the drag race, the LR variant is quite close behind while the entry level variant was last.

2) The rolling race was where the surprise lies. They did three rolling races - one at 30 MPH (48 Km/hr), one at 50 MPH (80 Km/hr) and one at 70 MPH (112 Km/hr). In the latter two, the LR variant was actually faster than the performance variant with the entry level variant very close behing which effectively means that the extra price you pay for the performance variant (+ drop in range) vis a vis the LR variant is just for the increased power at launch!

Now, they haven't really explained why the LR actually seems to be quicker at higher speeds. Perhaps a knowledgeable Bhp-ian could explain this intriguing outcome.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=htGXA4McmGU

The reason is actually pretty simple, really - Model 3 Performance and Model 3 Dual Motor essentially have the same motors front and rear, only "binned" for best performance in the P models. (Binning is a process where the product is manufactured for a certain performance level, and because only a certain percentage of the manufacturing yield meets those performance specifications, you sell those as the highest performance spec and the others as the "base" spec. Think computer chips - basically all Intel CPUs are designed to be Core i7's, but the chip-making process only yields a small percentage of i7-capable chips, so the rest are sold as i5's and i3's. Related link)

As for why you see the P being the clear winner in the 0-60mph sprints while the Dual Motor catches up in the higher speed test runs - that's because Tesla has just programmed the Dual Motor variants to have a slightly slower torque curve off the line.

Elon had alluded to this in his tweets in the past, and indeed, I have tried my hand at tweeting at him to offer a Track Mode "software unlock" paid option to Dual Motor Model 3 owners like me.. but no luck so far

[SedatedDrive]

Great ownership and review thread! I too like the S design:


Thank you for a detailed write up. There is almost no reason to upgrade from one Tesla model to another. I wish you many happy and safe miles in your beautiful car.

[ysjoy]

ICYMI:
<From the quirky and bizzare Internet>

Here's what happens if you smash a Tesla's center display while driving:
The center display controls practically everything inside the car, so what happens if you destroy it with a sledgehammer?
Just how durable is the Tesla model 3 center glass display screen? What happens if you destroy it? Time to find out.

YouTuber TechRax finds out

Watch on:
Spoiler Alert
The car keeps driving/ running, you really donot need that screen/ display/ console to keep the car running!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyQ8uB_zNIA

Source
IG/ FB: DigitalTrends
YouTube: TechRax

[TrackDay]

People have gone from smashing smartphones to now touchscreens on cars !

Never driven a Tesla, but I assume the touchscreen is the one that controls all the A/C controls and music system etc. So yeah technically the car will still drive, but without control over the creature comforts that we are used to. Hope the next video doesn't involve smashing the whole car !

[Himanshu809]

Originally Posted by ysjoy

ICYMI:
<From the quirky and bizzare Internet>

Here's what happens if you smash a Tesla's center display while driving:
The center display controls practically everything inside the car, so what happens if you destroy it with a sledgehammer?
Just how durable is the Tesla model 3 center glass display screen? What happens if you destroy it? Time to find out.

YouTuber TechRax finds out

Watch on:
Spoiler Alert
The car keeps driving/ running, you really donot need that screen/ display/ console to keep the car running!!

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=YyQ8uB_zNIA

Source
IG/ FB: DigitalTrends
YouTube: TechRax

I find such videos absolutely disgusting. Let's see what happens if we do this. I mean, this is even beyond first world problems. Destroying a sweet ride like that and for what? Views? I really abhor this social media culture. Everybody wants attention and is ready to pay any price for it...

Willingly destroying a beautiful car which many of us will be lucky to own and drive like this...for views?

Such people don't have any morality other than money.

I understand that they do it to sell their videos etc but come on... Is it just me who hates stuff like this?

[kedar_GT]

Amazing thread Harshal - chronicling your time and updates done to Saphira in such great detail!

[shibujp]

I cannot stop smiling to myself as I read through the thread. So this is what a car buying experience of the future would look like! Excellent thread and thanks for including all the details, the videos every step of the way. Just read the posts starting from the FSD purchase on and it sure has whetted my appetite to read the entirety of the thread.

What struck me apart from the technology aspect is how far ahead Tesla is in the relationship between the customer and the manufacturer. The constant OTA upgrades that help you continuously spec up your car, the largely onsite service with limited trips to the service center all this bring into stark reality how far behind the curve the regular manufacturers are in this game.

Truly back to the future stuff!

Drive on,
Shibu

[ashwin1224]

Originally Posted by ysjoy

ICYMI:
<From the quirky and bizzare Internet>

Here's what happens if you smash a Tesla's center display while driving:
The center display controls practically everything inside the car, so what happens if you destroy it with a sledgehammer?
Just how durable is the Tesla model 3 center glass display screen? What happens if you destroy it? Time to find out.

YouTuber TechRax finds out

Watch on:
Spoiler Alert
The car keeps driving/ running, you really donot need that screen/ display/ console to keep the car running!!

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=YyQ8uB_zNIA

Source
IG/ FB: DigitalTrends
YouTube: TechRax

Who covers the cost of repairs for these videos? Does the youtuber get enough from ad revenue to pay for repairs?

It's also absurd that people take these videos seriously. I mean of course the car will run without a screen, this is essentially smashing your monitor and being surprised the CPU still works

[Harshal.Bhosale]

Alright guys, some really bad news and some really good news.

Bad news is, I lost the car :( Totalled by insurance company for underbody battery damage!

This happened a few months ago and I haven't had the strength to type it all up, but after seeing the T-BHP Newsletter email today and seeing Saphira at the top, I felt the time has come. Also, I feel comfortable enough now (especially in light of the good news) to open up about the incident.

We were on a road trip from Michigan to the west coast and back, and this happened on the return journey. Basically, a random metallic object (most likely a differential casing or something similar) was lying on the highway / was freshly dropped from some previous vehicle, and ended up damaging three vehicles including Saphira. It was the middle of the night and the middle of nowhere (incident happened on I-40 East, about an hour east of Kingman, AZ at around 9 PM - we had just stopped for a Supercharging break and were heading for a hotel in Sedona). Luckily I do have dashcam footage of the incident, but it did nothing to help nor harm me as it was just a rogue object.

Here's a video of the incident captured on dashcam:

https://youtu.be/ZBLbVXjCTy0

As you can see, it appeared quite suddenly, and because the car was on Autopilot, a sudden disengagement + yanking the steering wheel could've produced who knows what result. At the end of the video you see the other affected vehicles - an SUV and a semi truck. The SUV just got a tire burst + broken wheel (I think), they installed a spare and were on their way in half an hour. The semi truck eventually had to be towed away (I think damage to the radiator or something like that. Initially we suspected that the part fell off of the semi itself, but the truck driver claimed that he got hit by the same object as us).

Speaking of damage to Saphira, well

• Front right Tire burst
• Front right rim cracked
• Slight scratch under front bumper
• Tear in battery casing

Some pictures from the night:




















I was understandably in shock, too numb to think straight. One quick glance at the underbody with a flashlight told me all I needed to know, that this was not going to be an easy repair. I quickly called 911, my insurance company, and Tesla roadside, in that order. The car thought it was fine, actually if you look at the Alerts / log photo above, it did not even know that the battery had taken a hit - no cell damage, no coolant leakage / pressure/temperature warnings. As far as the car thought, the low tire pressure in one tire (front right) was all it knew. Still, the battery was at a pretty high SoC (having just juiced up at a Supercharger), so I was right to be worried about that aspect - lucky nothing else pierced, or maybe a testament to Tesla's engineering that an object that could shatter an alloy wheel could only produce a small shear force on the battery shield casing.

The police officer arrived about half an hour later and took statements from all three vehicles involved, and that formed the basis of my insurance report. Insurance helped me book a rental car right then and there for the next day, luckily there was an Enterprise rental very close to the hotel we were heading towards that night. The tow vehicle arrived and the vehicle was loaded up.

In terms of continuing our onward journey though, we were extremely lucky that we had friends in another car traveling with us in this particular leg of the road trip (they had flown from Michigan to Vegas and we were doing the Nevada - Arizona - Utah leg together). They were just a couple of miles behind us when this happened, in fact the first thing I did even before we came to a full stop was to call them and scream "STAY IN THE LEFT LANE STAY IN THE LEFT LANE", upon which they narrowly missed hitting the same damn thing and were able to pull up a few hundred feet ahead of us. It was their presence that helped me work through the situation, otherwise I was too numb to make the right decisions at that time. We loaded up all the stuff from my car into their rental car (a not-so-huge Mazda CX-30, honestly what exactly is that car? a lifted hatchback? A trimmed down crossover?). So eventually, 6 people (4 friends + me+wifey), their luggage along with the entire contents of my Tesla, of which there was a LOT because we were carrying all sorts of oddities like air mattresses and blankets and what not - everything was crammed into the poor little CX-30 and we made our way in extreme discomfort to our hotel in Sedona, about a two and a half hour journey made with eyes wide open for debris on the road! The bags were crammed in all the footwells except the driver (one of my friends, the poor guy himself had a backpack resting in between him and the steering wheel as he drove), while my other friend in the front passenger seat had bags in the entire footwell area + up on the dash, I had no idea how she sat cross legged in that space for the entire trip!

Eventually we made it to the hotel and the next day we got a rental car, a Nissan Maxima which would be our steed for the remainder of our trip. I was honestly in no mood to enjoy the trip, but after much internal deliberations, decided to put aside my feelings for a few days and have fun while we were with our friends. We covered some amazing places, including parts of Sedona I had never seen before, the Grand Canyon south rim trail (only first 2 miles, up to the appropriately named "Ooh Aah!" point), and the absolutely gorgeous Zion National Park being the highlights of the trip. But that's another story.

Saphira meanwhile, was shipped off to the nearest Tesla service center, that being the one in Las Vegas. From there, we received a quote for $18000, which included a complete battery replacement + wheel and tire replacement.


I was completely mind-blown that a full battery replacement would be necessary, and even tried debating with the Service center reps over it, but they said they cannot allow any repairs to the battery that has taken such a high speed hit. I'm glad they didn't repair it though, as my confidence in the pack would've been somewhat degraded after that, especially every time I went to a Supercharger.


This was just an initial quote estimate however, while the final quote would've been drawn up after the front of the car was opened up to check for damages to the bumper / underbody plastics etc. I forwarded this to my insurance claims adjuster (Progressive), and they left me in suspense for quite a few days, during which two options were on the table:

• Either the car gets repaired, and has a collision history on the record - would reduce Saphira's resale value in the future
• The car gets totalled and I get the full market value of the car

The collision part really bugged me though. Apparently, submitting the video to them sealed the case, because in their words, "stationary" objects on the road are not covered under Comprehensive coverage, because it is expected that the driver will avoid them. Only moving objects other than vehicles are considered under Comprehensive, for example a deer crossing the road and running into your car. So no matter which option was chosen, I got a collision on my driving record, which will shoot up my insurance rates for the next couple of years at least.


In the end, after internal financial calculations, Progressive decided to declare my car a total loss, and their vehicle appraiser came up with a pretty generous offer for my car - approximately $46000. If you remember, I bought the car for around $49000. Not bad for 2 years and 37,000 miles on the clock!

The market value of the car definitely held up, and I think a good chunk of it was the FSD package I had. Non-FSD Model 3's of my vintage were going for around $4000 less at that time (of course, if this had happened in the last few weeks, the craziness in the US used car market could've seen me recoup even more than I put into the car!)

Basically though, the Progressive appraiser provided a detailed report of 5 similarly equipped Model 3's that had sold for similar prices, and they calculated my price based on those. I was satisfied with what they offered and asked them to draw up the paperwork.



I accepted the offer and that was it. Saphira was no longer mine! :(





**************************************************







Chronologically, these are the last pictures I have of her in the Las Vegas Service Center. I wasn't even allowed near her as they had placed High Voltage Danger signs all around!










For a few months after this, I missed Saphira terribly. I'd keep opening the app, checking out the location like a creepy stalking ex. For the longest period of time, it stayed at the Copart salvage yard in Vegas. One day though, I noticed that the location had suddenly changed to somewhere in Delaware - that meant that the car was sold to somebody at a salvage auction. No doubt that somebody could very easily just weld the underbody portion of the battery casing, and have a brand spanking new Model 3 with FSD for a pretty good price!

What happened next was wild though - a few weeks later, I opened the app to find that the car was in - surprise surprise - Ukraine!



I had read on Tesla forums about salvaged Model S's ending up in poorer eastern European countries where there is a demand for such cars with lack of transparency on regulations (i.e. what is legally a salvage car in the US may not necessarily be a salvage car in those countries).

After this, I stopped checking the app for location details as if felt like intruding on their privacy, but I did notice an interesting catch - they (and at this point I was sure it was a third-party high-tech service center of some sort) had managed to convert my Dual Motor all-wheel-drive Model 3 to a Performance Model 3, as noted by the red line under the Dual Motor badging in the app!




After this, the journey well and truly came to an end, as the new owner (whoever this dealer ended up selling the car to in Ukraine) formally requested Tesla for a transfer of ownership, of which I was informed via email by Tesla, and after that paperwork was done, I lost access to the app.




And that, was the end of it. No more Model 3. No more Saphira. No more Tesla....

Or was it??

Apparently, fate wasn't done with me. Out of the dark clouds came a glimmer of sunshine, a different kind of hope. A few weeks before this incident happened, I had received this message on Linkedin.




It seems that fate loves to toy with you in the strangest of ways. No, I wasn't considering a switch at this point in my life (I was beginning to consider the possibility of a switch at some point in the near future, but that was it). Anyway, one thing led to another (the process was quite challenging in a good way), and

I started working with Tesla last month!

So that's the good note which I'd like to end this story at. Obviously, this thread may no longer be necessary as I do not own a Model 3 anymore. Also, I cannot share any internal Tesla information, but I can speak to publicly known facts. If there is value in keeping this thread open, for example with the recent sightings of a Model 3 in Pune, there might be renewed interest so I may be able to answer people's questions about the car in general.


Thanks for reading this far, and have a good day!


This is Saphira, signing off! (I'd be lying if I said I didn't choke up while writing all of this tonight)

[carthick1000]

Harshal loses Tesla. Tesla finds Harshal

Indeed it was too bad that the scattered objects lying on highways is a menace in most US highways. During my work related travels to US, I got acquainted such scattered objects. It is usually fallen off from some other vehicle. And when I see cars parked on the shoulder, I normally slow down a bit and move over to the other lane, as this is a potentially unsafe situation. Unfortunately it turned out bad in your case.

Looking at the positive side, no injuries whatsoever. And getting hit by ~$3500 depreciation for a 39000mile driven car is like almost nothing. And ending up with a job at Tesla is like icing on the cake. Overall a bumpy ride for saphira but a good destination for Harshal.

Thanks for sharing the price of the battery pack. $15000 for 75kWh. So $200/kWh.

Btw CX-30 is a Mazda 3 on stilts, but with more practical boot, rear visibility and interior space unlike Mazda 3.

[extreme_torque]

Sorry to see the care totalled but on the upside you got good value from the insurance company and you could now go ahead and buy the same car or perhaps the Model Y with a company discount. If you get the new Model 3, you get additional features plus extra range too, thanks to that Octovalve.

[jacobvarughese]

Hey, just stumbled upon this beautiful thread - I ordered a 2021 Model Y Long Range, Red color (paid $2600 extra) with a 7 seater configuration (additional $4k) and black interior here in Toronto, Canada.

The estimated date of delivery changed from early September to end of this month- am pivoting from a 2019 Lexus RX 350 (one of the most reliable vehicles here in North America) to this spaceship.

Went for a loan this time around as Tesla's lease terms were sub-optimal- hope to see the spaceship sooner than later. Total damage was $76,480 CAD.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by jacobvarughese

Hey, just stumbled upon this beautiful thread - I ordered a 2021 Model Y Long Range, Red color (paid $2600 extra) with a 7 seater configuration (additional $4k) and black interior here in Toronto, Canada.

The estimated date of delivery changed from early September to end of this month- am pivoting from a 2019 Lexus RX 350 (one of the most reliable vehicles here in North America) to this spaceship.

Went for a loan this time around as Tesla's lease terms were sub-optimal- hope to see the spaceship sooner than later. Total damage was $76,480 CAD.

Whoa that is cheap! Is it the total on-road cost? Taxes and everything included? A Model 3 Long Range is more than 85k here in Australia.