I don't suppose there's a way to change the title of this thread (stated sheepishly)?
I just traded my Tero 3 for a Tero 5. It is not a Tero X 5. I didn't need or want the fenders, or the rear suspension, for what I use it for. Three things prompted the trade. First, I love the geometry of the frame--it seems to fit my body and use-case pretty much perfectly so I wanted to stick with the Tero hardtail, but the 510WH battery just wasn't enough for the riding I do (long rides with lots of small hills), leaving me worried on most rides that I would run out of power often returning home sooner than I had planned with 20%-40% battery, so I wanted to get the 710WH battery in the 5. Second, the Tero 5 is now on sale for $1,500 off the regular price. Third, the fork on my Tero 3 never performed well at all, and just this weekend "froze" (stopped moving even in unlocked mode and the LBS mechanic said it needed to be replaced), so I was thinking of upgrading it. Also, although this was not really too much of a problem, the shifter/gears on the Tero 3 were not very accurate when climbing and I felt like quick gear changes were not great. So, it occurred to me that changing the fork to something better ($500-600 for part plus install), better battery ($1,400), and better shifter/gear system ($600-800 for parts and install) basically made the difference in what it was going to cost me to trade in and upgrade at the discount priced on the Tero 5. The funny thing is, the much stronger motor on the Tero 5 is NOT something I care much about, since I don't use Turbo mode on the Tero 3 (lots of hills but not too many that are long steep climbs) that often anyway, and the Tero 5 looks like it has two more lower gears for climbing. I will have to think about how to adjust the mode settings so they don't give me more assist than I want, and don't eat up battery life on all-day rides.
I want to give a shout-out to the manager of my local bike shop. I brought in the Tero 3 quite dirty, a little scuffed up, and with a nonfunctioning fork, and he overlooked all of this and gave me the fully contracted trade in amount (when you buy a bike from them, they give you a trade in value per year at the time you buy the bike, with a disclaimer related to wear and tear). After taking the loss on the trade in value versus the price I paid new, but then accounting for the steep discount on the Tero 5, I am basically paying what I would have paid if I'd just purchased the Tero 5 a year ago. So, yes, I do wish I'd waited to get the Tero 5 now, but I didn't know it was going to be on sale for 30% off, and I got most of a season riding the Tero 3 basically free.