Totally agree…mentioned that same thing above. Put a button back there, let the person using the seat control it him/herself. This is a case of trying to be flashy vs practical.
I completely agree. Let the back seat people control their own stuff in the back.
@bro1999 As for kids, what they don’t know won’t hurt them. If they do ask, just tell them it’s automatic (smart car) and based on the outside temperature 
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LOL at the guy claiming Supercruise, a system that works on about 0.1% of roads in the country is “better” than autopilot. What good is a system you can’t use? 
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GM also sells a pure electric car with DC fast charging as an optional feature. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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yea, I don’t get that either. The system prepopulates the road information to be able to drive semi-autonomously. I would think if it would be that limited they should be able to implement full self driving on those roads.
Yep. Supercruise is actually a well designed system–one of the best so far. It’s just SO CRAZY LIMITED that I’m not sure I’d even pay for it if I happened to be I interested in the single car GM makes (Caddy CT6) that it’s available on so far.
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Nissan does too. What’s your point? GM and Nissan offer flexibility WRT fast charging?
Yep, Nissan is guilty of this too. BMW at least quickly corrected this mistake in the 2015 model year of the i3.
If by “flexibility” you mean “the shock and disappointment of uneducated buyers finding out after the sale that their electric car can’t use the primary method of charging on a trip and forever limiting the car to a small radius around their home.”
One could claim caveat emptor, but sadly we can’t even depend on the GM/Nissan salespeople to properly educate people new to EVs because they frequently aren’t educated on their own products, and that goes double for EVs. I test drove a Bolt and that salesperson told me a list of things that were untrue about not just the Bolt but EVs in general.
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If an EV buyer (generally more informed than the typical car buyer) is dumb enough to fork over $37k without confirming whether the car has fast charging or not, that is their problem.
FWIW, I think fast charging should come standard with the Bolt, and I think eventually it will become a standard option, but I’ve seen quite a few owners state they were glad they were not forced into buying that option.
I predict the majority of those buyers will fully regret it when they try to resell those cars and no one wants them (leasing is not an issue obviously). That’s been the fate of the 2014 i3 BEVs that didn’t come with the optional DC charge port.
The other odd thing missing from the Bolt is navigation. It’s absolutely critical to be able to easily locate charge stations, and no, plugging in my phone every time I get in the car using the bare-bones charging station info on Apple/Google Maps is not a replacement for a dedicated nav system that is aware of things like if the station is currently in use.
My i3 does come with nav (even on the base model) but it still fails in this area pretty hard because it doesn’t distinguish between a slow L2 charger and a reasonably fast L3 charger. I have to use PlugShare on my phone while stopped because legacy car manufacturers haven’t figured out software yet, even though Tesla has been doing this right since 2012.
I drove my friend’s Model 3 last weekend for about a half-hour. All in all, it’s a nice car. No car is perfect and some cars are better or worse at certain things than others. My two cents:
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Most other cars of its price are better at traditional car stuff (build quality, seats, NVH, etc.), while Model 3 excels at EV and techy software stuff (range, charging, future proofing, etc.)
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Tesla obviously had time, cost, and packaging constraints with Model 3. But on balance, they invested in the right things that matter to most people. The big screen overshadows the otherwise basic interior. The fancy door handles give it a cool factor, even if the front fascia is just one big piece of injection-molded plastic with no detail or material variety.
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Speaking of looks, it’s growing on me. It looks… like a Model 3. You see them daily in LA now. It’s not a gorgeous car by any means; the greenhouse and vertical side windows make it look like a bubble car. Model 3 just has its own look.
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If established automakers could make a long-range BEV sports sedan, I’d probably choose that over a Model 3. But as it stands, there’s no other competition. Other manufacturers will catch up with batteries and motors, while Tesla will catch up with quality and attention to detail. I’m agnostic to the fact Model 3 is a Tesla.
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Speaking of established automakers vs. Tesla, they have different approaches. Established automakers are much more conservative with releasing technology. Tesla takes risks and releases technology that isn’t ready yet. You get to be “first” but with some detriment to quality and arguably safety.
Random observations from driving Model 3:
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Despite being a late-December 2017 build, no buzzes or rattles. Road and wind noise is higher than in my F30 3-series. Car felt a bit echoey and hollow, but not too bad.
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Interior fit and finish seemed fine. The new car smell brought back memories of our Gen 1 Volt. The vegan leather was obviously not real, but didn’t draw any attention to itself.
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Ride quality felt firm as a passenger; didn’t mind it as a driver. Stiffness was on par with a loaner 2018 4-series I had. Firmer than my non-sport 3-series. My friend’s Model 3 had the 19-inch Continental all-seasons.
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Front seats were OK. Could use more thigh support. Bottom cushion is sorta flat. Rear seats aren’t very comfortable; no footwell so your knees are up high.
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UI is a hit-or-miss. Didn’t mind the offset speedo or the wiper controls, since they’re close to the wheel with lots of negative space. Nav instructions were too far to the right. Google satellite view is too detailed and not useful for driving. You can’t really input directions on the move because the ride is so firm you end up hitting the wrong key.
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Door handles. Are they are ergonomic as normal handles? No. But you’ll get used to them and most people find them cool. Same story with the air vents. They’re just different. There are pros and cons.
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How did the driving feel compare to your F30? Lack of shifting?
The problem with a long-range BEV sports sedan from other manufacturers is there’s (almost) no where to charge them on a trip, and even if you do find a DC charger it’s 1/2 to 1/3 as fast as a Supercharger and to add insult to injury, probably twice as expensive per charge.
I expect that situation to get better over time, but I think it’ll take years before anyone gets competitive with what Tesla has right now, and the Supercharger network has been quickly expanding. Not sure how many buyers are willing to buy a car that can’t go on a road trip, regardless of whether they have other cars in their house. We’ve seen that opinion already in this thread.
Not having gear and instant torque would feel like a big one for me.
I know a lot of people are making the superchargers to be a big deal, but how many times are people really using it? I still say autopilot is still the game changer at the moment.
Also charging stops are still an hour, keep that in mind
I didn’t really push it, since there were passengers. The steering was direct and weighty. I liked the lack of shifting, but that’s inherent to all EVs. I’ve had a Focus Electric and i3 before, so going to my F30 felt so arcane at first – jerky engine braking when coming to a stop, aggressive start/stop, laggy pedal response, no regen, etc.
Electric motors are so superior to ICE in normal driving that I’ve had to take up autocrossing in order to justify having my F30.
Superchargers aren’t really a factor for me since I drive over 300 miles at a time at most once or twice a year. Any more than that and I’m flying.
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Electric motors are so superior to ICE in normal driving that I’ve had to take up autocrossing in order to justify having my F30.
WORD. 
Superchargers are not really too much of a factor to me either, but I still think they are a major psychological factor to a majority of the market in the US. At least that is what all the surveys show and people seem to still be obsessed over range as the #1 factor for EVs.
I’m very interested in the eventual BMW i4/Next/whatever they release that aims to compete with Tesla. Real competition will be good for everyone and the BMW will likely lease better. The build quality in my i3 is excellent. 
As long as it isn’t as hideously ugly as the i3 (I know looks are subjective). Some of the renderings look cool though. Renderings don’t always translate over to production though, so it will be interesting to see what it ends up looking like.
This term kills me. What is it - potato skins? 
plenty of people who just want the bolt as an hov commuter vehicle and get it on a cheap lease are more than happy to not have to pay for features they don’t need.
I’m on my second i3 and I still don’t like it from the rear / rear three-quarter view. The BMW BEV will almost certainly have a more traditional shape and be closer to the Model 3, which itself was designed to target the 3 Series.
I think the Model 3 looks pretty good but it has some weirdness going on with the rear window as a side-product of the glass roof.
The Model 3 is probably the best looking BEV on the road right now. I know every car and every manufacturer has it’s quirks, but there are too many on the Model 3 for me to consider it, personally. I’m definitely not opposed to one if the price is right, it looks appealing, it can be leased and the electric infrastructure gets much better.
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