Tesla Model 3. 3 weeks of ownership.

[vash]

i dont think we have had the full experience. our electrician fumbled the ball big time and forgot to schedule us for the charger-install at our home. they claimed we didnt confirm so we resent them our confirmation email, and noted that they seemed to have cashed our deposit check "on time". they do the work next friday.

so all we have been doing is doing the slow-ass 120V charge and/or hitting up a free destination charger. they strangely seem to be in front of all our best breweries. (!) not mad about that! i have not plugged into a super charger yet.

fit and finish. errr..what can i say about that? well, our car is pretty well put together. seams and joints match up. but we do get some wind noise right at my left ear, sitting in the drivers seat. my coworker just so happened to have a mobile mechanic come by our office to do some work (headlight issue). i told the guy my weeks old car had wind noise. he dropped everything and came over. he went straight to the issue. the window doesnt sit flush so it isnt pressing against the seal that tight. we scheduled a repair. not sure what that entails. the guy said some people get new glass!! what? whatever. its on them.

the car is a joy to drive. zippy, solid, and relatively quiet. he did some presto-chango and reprogrammed the window and it fits tight now. kinda fast. and the car is super comfortable inside. best AC in the business. it just seems to ooze coolness from the vents. no blast of air to the face like my toyota.

i like the thing. the distance is a numbers trick tho. they say 340 mile range (or so) but they say to only charge to 80%, so that is only 300 miles. it's plenty, but i dont appreciate the play with the numbers.

[Skip Newsom]

Photo's or it didn't happen...
New one?

Is it true they make sparks like a Tesla coil if you hit Alt, Ctrl, Del?

[masraum]

Interesting. I know that Todd/Nostatic really loved aspects of the whole electric car thing. He had an BMW i3 that was great until it wasn't and then traded to something else, but still really seemed to love the electric experience.

I'd be curious to live with one for a bit. I could manage, but I do live in the boonies now, so it's less appealing than it was when I lived in the middle of Houston. I could still get from here to the grandkids as that's only ~110 miles away.

Right, where are the pics?!?

[Steve Carlton]

I enjoyed my Standard Range Plus and liked it enough to have ordered a Dual Motor AWD, but fell into a Polestar deal that I liked better. I thought the car was awesome. I wasn't crazy about having to turn off the Autopilot to change lanes, then turn it on again, but maybe that's been fixed or will be fixed. It also punished me for letting it to its job and not resisting the steering often enough and it would disable Autopilot until I restarted the car. Funny, but annoying.

I put sound deadening material in the front wheel wells and under the hood, and back up seals around the doors, frunk, and trunk. It seemed to have helped, but I couldn't say for sure. You wouldn't know unless you could go before/after instantly, which is impossible. Some people seem to have gotten db readings that indicated they work.

I still have a real wood kit in the box never installed for the center console. If you have the wood in the dash, you could buy this for half price if a 2020 kit would fit in your car.

https://www.rpmtesla.com/collections/model-3-interior-parts/products/model-3-y-open-pore-wood-veneer-center-console-overlay-229

I also have the Jeda Products USB hub thing. Don't know if it'll work on your car.

This USB memory device was supposed to be the best, so I had it backing up my cameras, but it died or something fairly quickly. I like the idea of being able to recover recorded incidents.

https://puretesla.com/product/tesla-dashcam-sentry-mode-package-usb-microsd-configured-for-teslacam/

Does your car have hubcaps? If so, there's great alloys underneath. All you need is a center hub and lug nut cover kit...

[Evans, Marv]

My wife's Model Y, dual motor is approaching a year old and something like 14K miles. She still loves the damned thing more than me. It's given flawless service so far even though Consumer Reports gave it a pretty poor rating in terms of maintainance (what maintainance?) & quality issues . They advertised 300+ miles on a charge but the 80% threshold only gave around 290, which has since shrunk to around 275 - for whatever reason, I don't know. The car is perfect for what we use it for, and it will be interesting when we get our true up on our solar panel net metering next May to see if charging it causes us to have to pay something. When it needs tires, I'll try to check for some that have the least rolling resistance and road noise.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

My wife's Model Y, dual motor is approaching a year old and something like 14K miles. She still loves the damned thing more than me. It's given flawless service so far even though Consumer Reports gave it a pretty poor rating in terms of maintainance (what maintainance?) & quality issues . They advertised 300+ miles on a charge but the 80% threshold only gave around 290, which has since shrunk to around 275 - for whatever reason, I don't know. The car is perfect for what we use it for, and it will be interesting when we get our true up on our solar panel net metering next May to see if charging it causes us to have to pay something. When it needs tires, I'll try to check for some that have the least rolling resistance and road noise.

Maintenance is interesting, the biggest item is lubing the brake caliper slides because they don't get used as often as on an ICE vehicle. The other is tires. My Y can eat tires better than our Cayenne could. The rest is just cabin air filters and brake fluid, but the cost at the Tesla SC is pretty ridiculous. Edit: I probably eat tires more due to my driving.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by vash

so all we have been doing is doing the slow-ass 120V charge and/or hitting up a free destination charger.

One of my modern pet peeves is these free charging stations. First, the taxpayer helps to pay for the car, then customers of businesses that install these charging stations pay for the fuel.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

_

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by Norm K

One of my modern pet peeves is these free charging stations. First, the taxpayer helps to pay for the car, then customers of businesses that install these charging stations pay for the fuel.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

_

In a lot of cases you are patronizing theses business at the same time.

[vash]

Originally Posted by Skip Newsom

Photo's or it didn't happen...
New one?

Is it true they make sparks like a Tesla coil if you hit Alt, Ctrl, Del?

New.

Looks like everyone else’s.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by vash

New.

Looks like everyone else’s.

Wow! That's completely amazing. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it or as beautiful!

Congrats on the interesting new car

[Steve Carlton]

That color used to be a $2,000 option- now it's standard. Good color- marketable later on. I liked the red, but I didn't want to pay $2,000 for a car that would be worth $1,000 less than a white one. I took off the hubcaps, and viola!

[cantdrv55]

If you’re ever down my way again, can I have a ride? I’ve never been in a Tesla.

[ZOO]

My student for a 30 minute intro to track driving had a Performance Edition. It was phenomenal on track -- he had spent considerable time "programming" the car for the event. He used about 20 percent of a full charge for the session, and nothing showed any heat management issues.

"Lifting" for a corner was a bit of a skill -- the regen is aggressive, and he didn't need to brake in some areas as a result.

I'd own one -- though the F150 Lightning is also high on my list for my next vehicle.

[hcoles]

Originally Posted by Evans, Marv

My wife's Model Y, dual motor is approaching a year old and something like 14K miles. She still loves the damned thing more than me. It's given flawless service so far even though Consumer Reports gave it a pretty poor rating in terms of maintainance (what maintainance?) & quality issues . They advertised 300+ miles on a charge but the 80% threshold only gave around 290, which has since shrunk to around 275 - for whatever reason, I don't know. The car is perfect for what we use it for, and it will be interesting when we get our true up on our solar panel net metering next May to see if charging it causes us to have to pay something. When it needs tires, I'll try to check for some that have the least rolling resistance and road noise.

A friend that has a model 3 (single motor) asked for some advice after discovering a nail in a tire. It seems the tires come with a foam liner. I googled it and a test showed a 1db reduction in noise at one of the test speeds comparing with and without the foam liner. Maybe ask Tirerack if they will start adding rolling resistance to the specs. Side note - I drove the car and it has enough acceleration for any reasonable situation.

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Scott R

In a lot of cases you are patronizing theses business at the same time.

Just like gas stations, but where are they giving away petrol?

[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by hcoles

A friend that has a model 3 (single motor) asked for some advice after discovering a nail in a tire. It seems the tires come with a foam liner.

I believe the early ones had the foam liner, but that was later discontinued.

[MMARSH]

Originally Posted by vash

i dont think we have had the full experience. our electrician fumbled the ball big time and forgot to schedule us for the charger-install at our home. they claimed we didnt confirm so we resent them our confirmation email, and noted that they seemed to have cashed our deposit check "on time". they do the work next friday.

so all we have been doing is doing the slow-ass 120V charge and/or hitting up a free destination charger. they strangely seem to be in front of all our best breweries. (!) not mad about that! i have not plugged into a super charger yet.

fit and finish. errr..what can i say about that? well, our car is pretty well put together. seams and joints match up. but we do get some wind noise right at my left ear, sitting in the drivers seat. my coworker just so happened to have a mobile mechanic come by our office to do some work (headlight issue). i told the guy my weeks old car had wind noise. he dropped everything and came over. he went straight to the issue. the window doesnt sit flush so it isnt pressing against the seal that tight. we scheduled a repair. not sure what that entails. the guy said some people get new glass!! what? whatever. its on them.

the car is a joy to drive. zippy, solid, and relatively quiet. he did some presto-chango and reprogrammed the window and it fits tight now. kinda fast. and the car is super comfortable inside. best AC in the business. it just seems to ooze coolness from the vents. no blast of air to the face like my toyota.

i like the thing. the distance is a numbers trick tho. they say 340 mile range (or so) but they say to only charge to 80%, so that is only 300 miles. it's plenty, but i dont appreciate the play with the numbers.

We have a Model S and a Model 3. The 80% charge is just for daily charging. If going on a trip, we then charge it to 100% when we start and then will do 80% -100% depending on the situation. With that last 20% charge time, sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze. If we are stopping to eat and going to be there for a bit, then 100%, it wanting to kinda top off and go, then we will do 80%, then go. But in reality, 99% of both our cars use is daily driving and range has never been an issue.

My wife has the same problem with her 21 Model 3, since the day she picked it up. Wind noise from the left window. The mobile tech has been to the house to attempt to fix it and it has been to the dealer once. It still leaks, it's scheduled for a different dealer for attempt number 3. That has been the only issue we have had, otherwise she loves the car. I've really had no issues with my Model S and I'm just over 40K in it.

The foam liner is also on the Model S wheels/tires. On my car. The Acoustic version of the Michelin Pilot Sports are lined in a foam strip. I have 2 rears getting installed today......

[Zeke]

I rode in a Tesla M3 as a passenger in the front seat with one other adult in the rear. Let me tell you it was a rough ass ride. Now I have 3 cars that are rough, in order: an old Jeep, my '06 Chevy 1500 PU (wish I had Michelins) and the '00 Boxster 2.7 (not the stiffer S model).

Then comes the '96 Jag XK6 which has to be the best car I've ever owned. It's not worth jack so I don't really do maintenance as I should. But it rides (and handles) very well.

I'd put the Tesla at about the Boxster level. In CA we have HOV lanes on every freeway and most of them were created from what should be a center shoulder/emergency lane. In many cases those lanes are much bouncier than the next one over, etc. I wouldn't want a Tesla as a daily and use the HOV's, much less our poor ass broken down streets in Long Beach.

You wouldn't believe the immediate change in street/road quality when I cross over the Orange County line. It's immediate as in the color of the street changes right then and there. But I don't live there and don't go there a lot, so a Tesla would suck for me.

There are 2 of them (M3's) on my block alone.

BTW, the one I rode is is owned by a middle aged nurse. If it has suspension settings and she's running 'sport', I'd be surprised.

[Steve Carlton]

I thought my 2020 was just a little firm and not harsh at all. Maybe she put on crap tires or more likely they were over inflated. Tesla recommended 45 psi, but Elon recommended 38 psi for comfort. I ran 39 psi to keep the TPMS light off and it was a noticeable improvement. No adjustable suspension as far as I know.

[MMARSH]

Originally Posted by Zeke

I rode in a Tesla M3 as a passenger in the front seat with one other adult in the rear. Let me tell you it was a rough ass ride. Now I have 3 cars that are rough, in order: an old Jeep, my '06 Chevy 1500 PU (wish I had Michelins) and the '00 Boxster 2.7 (not the stiffer S model).

Then comes the '96 Jag XK6 which has to be the best car I've ever owned. It's not worth jack so I don't really do maintenance as I should. But it rides (and handles) very well.

I'd put the Tesla at about the Boxster level. In CA we have HOV lanes on every freeway and most of them were created from what should be a center shoulder/emergency lane. In many cases those lanes are much bouncier than the next one over, etc. I wouldn't want a Tesla as a daily and use the HOV's, much less our poor ass broken down streets in Long Beach.

You wouldn't believe the immediate change in street/road quality when I cross over the Orange County line. It's immediate as in the color of the street changes right then and there. But I don't live there and don't go there a lot, so a Tesla would suck for me.

There are 2 of them (M3's) on my block alone.

BTW, the one I rode is is owned by a middle aged nurse. If it has suspension settings and she's running 'sport', I'd be surprised.

My wife's 3 rides significantly firmer then my S. But the Mini Cooper S with the sport suspension and larger wheels that she replaced with the Model 3 would shake your fillings out......she put 150K on the Mini.