After 1 week and 1000 miles E-Tron is a great car

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David Green

Well-Known Member
So I have had my Galaxy Blue E-Tron prestige for a week now, and like it more and more every day. So far it works exactly as intended, and I have not noticed 1 glitch or software bug so far. Range is about 225 Miles, and of course the charge rate is awesome AC or DC. As a past EV driver, I am adjusting to the regen setup, albeit quirky when you are used to any other EV, I think it will be the future standard. As a person who had previously reserved an I-Pace and then jumped over to E-Tron to avoid Jaguar's glitchy systems, I am thrilled with that decision, I got the right car for our family.

Highlights
*Gesture Tailgate
*Massage Seats
*Super Quiet Interior (quietest car I have ever ridden in)
*Snappy (No Lag) Infotainment with Haptic feedback
*Interior LED lighting
*Rear Seat comfort
*Perfect size for our family
*Cell phone integration
*Range, I was expecting 204 miles as the EPA rated, but achieving 10% higher, and have not taken a trip on flat ground yet, every trip has been over the mountains. Will update after a trip to Oregon this weekend.
 
Toyota dealers (and others like GM) were notorious for trying to 'bait-and-switch' to other cars. You had to insist on a Prius or fuel efficient car because they really wanted to sell something else. Did you run into anything like this when you bought yours?

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
Toyota dealers (and others like GM) were notorious for trying to 'bait-and-switch' to other cars. You had to insist on a Prius or fuel efficient car because they really wanted to sell something else. Did you run into anything like this when you bought yours?

Bob Wilson
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Not at all, the Salesman (Alberto) was very well up to speed on the E-Tron, Electrify America, and the EV movement. He had been to Germany to train with Audi on the sales and marketing plan, and was very professional all the way through the transaction. He is the dealerships main E-Tron salesperson, and has personally sold 15 or more of the 20 E-Trons the dealership has moved as of 2 weeks ago. Most likely a few more since, as they are starting to come in to the country in larger quantities now as the production ramps up.

The only funny thing was in the finance office when the finance person (makes a living selling higher interest rates, gap insurance, and extended service plans) tried in vain to sell me extended service plans "Audi Care" and told me repeatedly that german cars go thru brakes and rotors annually. I told her I do my own maintenance, and did not need it, not to mention EV's rarely use their friction brakes, and I even asked her if she had ever looked at the size of the brakes that come on the E-Tron (they are huge, even larger than the ones on the front of my HD diesel pickup that lasted 160K miles before needing pads) I think they are going to be OK... After telling the young lady that was not ugly by any means "no" at least 20 times (I think I threw her off her game). When we were done, she said "the salesman went to gas up your car and will be back shortly to deliver it". Needless to say he took a while "Gassing it up" and ended up delivering it to my home later that night, which solved another problem I was concerned with which was how to get 2 cars home from the dealership since I kept my Lexus.
 
bwilson4web said:
When I bought our Prius Prime, we spent two hours at the dealer, 1.5 hrs in the finance office. What a waste of time.

Bob Wilson
Click to expand...

Yeah, the old school dealer model is obsolete, there is no question about that. They spend so much time and effort trying to squeeze more money out of the customer. Audi has a good balance though on the E-Tron, pricing is set. I give Audi an A+ in communication from order to delivery. When I ordered, about the time production of E-trons started they estimated delivery in 3Q 2019, I got an update email when the configuration locked, production started, car left the factory, car loaded on ship, car arrived in USA (Houston). The day the car arrived in Houston Audi refunded my $1K deposit onto my credit card (exactly what they said they would do). They do this so you can use the $1K for part of your down payment if you wish, or as I did, left the 1K, and put nothing down. Audi is professional all the way, they nailed my configuration, even though we changed interior color 2 months after we ordered, and the day before Configuration changes locked out. I am impressed, now into our second week, still no software bugs or other glitches, car is great.
 
David Green said:
I am impressed, now into our second week, still no software bugs or other glitches, car is great.
Click to expand...
As you get used to the car, I suspect the Lexus will wind up being 'driveway art.'

I'm looking forward to reading 30 or 90 day progress reports with odometer and other notable events. If other family members are driving, their impressions help too. As I mentioned earlier, the Model 3 is right-sized for our family. But it is important to share 'lessons learned' not for me as much as anyone else who might wander in.

Bob Wilson
 
David Green said:
So I have had my Galaxy Blue E-Tron prestige for a week now, and like it more and more every day. So far it works exactly as intended, and I have not noticed 1 glitch or software bug so far. Range is about 225 Miles, and of course the charge rate is awesome AC or DC. As a past EV driver, I am adjusting to the regen setup, albeit quirky when you are used to any other EV, I think it will be the future standard. As a person who had previously reserved an I-Pace and then jumped over to E-Tron to avoid Jaguar's glitchy systems, I am thrilled with that decision, I got the right car for our family.

Highlights
*Gesture Tailgate
*Massage Seats
*Super Quiet Interior (quietest car I have ever ridden in)
*Snappy (No Lag) Infotainment with Haptic feedback
*Interior LED lighting
*Rear Seat comfort
*Perfect size for our family
*Cell phone integration
*Range, I was expecting 204 miles as the EPA rated, but achieving 10% higher, and have not taken a trip on flat ground yet, every trip has been over the mountains. Will update after a trip to Oregon this weekend.
Click to expand...
Could you explain what is different about the regen setup, and why you think it will be the standard?, or it more about the feel of the system that must be experienced?
 
David Green said:
Yeah, the old school dealer model is obsolete, there is no question about that. They spend so much time and effort trying to squeeze more money out of the customer. Audi has a good balance though on the E-Tron, pricing is set. I give Audi an A+ in communication from order to delivery. When I ordered, about the time production of E-trons started they estimated delivery in 3Q 2019, I got an update email when the configuration locked, production started, car left the factory, car loaded on ship, car arrived in USA (Houston). The day the car arrived in Houston Audi refunded my $1K deposit onto my credit card (exactly what they said they would do). They do this so you can use the $1K for part of your down payment if you wish, or as I did, left the 1K, and put nothing down. Audi is professional all the way, they nailed my configuration, even though we changed interior color 2 months after we ordered, and the day before Configuration changes locked out. I am impressed, now into our second week, still no software bugs or other glitches, car is great.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing all the good info. I wonder if the price will remain “set” as Etrons begin to stack up on dealer lots?
 
Sandroad said:
I wonder if the price will remain . . .
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Perhaps a little too soon to speculate. In the Prius community, a new car has a 3-4 month 'bump' when the built-up demand leads to an early sales peak. After 3-4 months, sales will reach a static rate, a percentage of market, and then comes the fun and games.

Bob Wilson
 
MajorAward said:
Could you explain what is different about the regen setup, and why you think it will be the standard?, or it more about the feel of the system that must be experienced?
Click to expand...

Most EV's in the default setting when the let off the accelerator completely have some amount of regeneration, the E-Tron by default free wheels (Gliding) when you let off the accelerator, and you then use the left steering wheel paddle to set level 1,2, or 3 regen, which then resets to default when you resume accelerating. I found this very strange for the first few minutes of driving, but after a few minutes getting used to it, I found it very good, as of course gliding is the most efficient way to travel in an EV. I think this regen setup is the reason my wife and I are constantly getting 10% over the EPA rated range, and the GOM is slowly climbing in its estimate with each recharge. At a full charge we are now showing 228 miles of range. I drive the car using the paddles and my wife uses the brake pedal for all braking, she has not learned about regen by paddle (and does not care to learn or try anything different), amazingly I have not noticed any difference in her efficiency compared to mine. The e-Tron however has no direct mechanical connection between the brake pedal and hydraulic friction brakes, so the brake by wire system is constantly determining when are the best times to use regen braking, and when to engage the friction brakes. I figured this 1st gen brake by wire system would be quirky, but surprisingly it is very smooth, and linear feeling. I am sure as algorithms are refined this will be the way future EV's are designed as most EV owners tend to over regen, and then have to use power again when approaching a stop which is very inefficient. If you ever watch hyper milers, the first thing they do is disengage regen, as a percentage of all energy captured by regen is lost through the charging, and discharging of the battery (basically throwing away energy) Audi says they tested this with their brake by wire against traditional regen systems with a multitude of drivers (ranging in EV skills) and found their system more efficient with over 90% of the drivers that participated in the test. Bottom line is that when you can coast, that is always the most efficient, using regen only when you need to slow the vehicle, which I feel Audi is leading in this area as the average driver is not smooth enough with their right foot to perfectly modulate a coast regularly. I am pretty smooth with a vehicles controls as I grew up as a heavy equipment operator where being smooth is critical if you want to have your machines and body last any length of time.
 
Sandroad said:
Thanks for sharing all the good info. I wonder if the price will remain “set” as Etrons begin to stack up on dealer lots?
Click to expand...


Have to wait and see... Tesla constantly lowering prices will at some point put pressure on the competition especially in the premium segment, but it remains too early to know what the final result will be. I think if someone was interested in an E-Tron the deals will be better in 6 months IMO. Right now, my local dealership has sold over 20 E-Trons and has 1 in inventory with additional dealer markup. The inventory car is a cancelled order that the customer did not like the light blue color (I tend to agree) and cancelled his delivery, but reordered a Galaxy Blue E-Tron, same color as ours.

I have gotten 4 or 5 random folks commenting on the cool color of our car, and my wife has had a couple, and even more surprising the other day we pulled into a Thai restaurant and parked next to a lifted Ram diesel pickup, and the guy was walking to his truck looked and said to us, "nice car" I was wondering if that was going to precede a diesel smoke show, but he was actually sincere, and walked around the car looking at it. One of my wife's girlfriends just ordered an E-Tron and is going to get rid of her 2016 Model S (that she absolutely loves). She said she cannot believe all the features and interior quality, and comfort. I can tell the E-Tron is going to be well received by the reaction I get to it everywhere I park. Tesla people seem to be the most interested to see it up close, and touch it.
 
David Green said:
Most EV's in the default setting when the let off the accelerator completely have some amount of regeneration, the E-Tron by default free wheels (Gliding) when you let off the accelerator, and you then use the left steering wheel paddle to set level 1,2, or 3 regen, which then resets to default when you resume accelerating. I found this very strange for the first few minutes of driving, but after a few minutes getting used to it, I found it very good, as of course gliding is the most efficient way to travel in an EV. I think this regen setup is the reason my wife and I are constantly getting 10% over the EPA rated range, and the GOM is slowly climbing in its estimate with each recharge. At a full charge we are now showing 228 miles of range. I drive the car using the paddles and my wife uses the brake pedal for all braking, she has not learned about regen by paddle (and does not care to learn or try anything different), amazingly I have not noticed any difference in her efficiency compared to mine. The e-Tron however has no direct mechanical connection between the brake pedal and hydraulic friction brakes, so the brake by wire system is constantly determining when are the best times to use regen braking, and when to engage the friction brakes. I figured this 1st gen brake by wire system would be quirky, but surprisingly it is very smooth, and linear feeling. I am sure as algorithms are refined this will be the way future EV's are designed as most EV owners tend to over regen, and then have to use power again when approaching a stop which is very inefficient. If you ever watch hyper milers, the first thing they do is disengage regen, as a percentage of all energy captured by regen is lost through the charging, and discharging of the battery (basically throwing away energy) Audi says they tested this with their brake by wire against traditional regen systems with a multitude of drivers (ranging in EV skills) and found their system more efficient with over 90% of the drivers that participated in the test. Bottom line is that when you can coast, that is always the most efficient, using regen only when you need to slow the vehicle, which I feel Audi is leading in this area as the average driver is not smooth enough with their right foot to perfectly modulate a coast regularly. I am pretty smooth with a vehicles controls as I grew up as a heavy equipment operator where being smooth is critical if you want to have your machines and body last any length of time.
Click to expand...

The Honda Clarity PHEV has a similar braking system, though not exactly the same. It's not entirely free-wheeling when off the accelerator, but it's almost. There are 3 additional levels of regeneration available with the paddles. The brake pedal operates very similarly, with most of the slowing of the vehicle coming from regeneration and the friction brakes only applied at the very end of the stop or in a quick stop situation. Honda also got it right with the brakes, with most folks really liking the integration of regeneration and friction. And, most folks are finding no difference in effect on range when using the brake pedal vs. the paddles. Super efficient, so long as the stops are anticipated enough to avoid using the friction brakes for slowing. When I get my Etron (in my dreams!), I'll be all set.
 
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