How are the body panel gaps, and paint finish? I’ve heard a few people complain about the showroom lighting not allowing for proper inspection of the car, only discovering issues once it was in the sun.
How is the road/wind noise? Again, some complaints about the sealing around the front edge of the overhead glass.
How is the suspension/ride?
Rear visibility a concern?
Have you sat in the back yet? How is the legroom/thigh support?
Congrats! Very different delivery experience when I picked up my MS in Jan 2014. Back then they didn’t even have a showroom in TX yet and my car was just in a service bay at the service center.
After 4 years I still look forward to driving it every time. It was more than 2x the money I ever spent on a car in my life, but I’ve never regretted it (even though it has had 1-2 trips to the SC a year for warranty fixes).
When you do get your NEMA 14-50 outlet, be sure to shop around. Many electricians overcharge when they here “Tesla charging”. Some have gotten much better prices by telling the electrician the outlet is for a welder. I installed my outlet myself and the material cost was only $55.
Your car looks great!
I’m curious as to how you find the massive sunroof in sunny California. I recall some criticism of the early Model Xs, that the windshield was so big, and people got tired of driving with so much sun, that I believe that larger sun visors were installed.
So far the glass is fine. We’ve had a couple of sunny days here and I didn’t notice any particular heat on my head. The top glass is actually quite dark and has some IR-reflective coating. It’s probably a comparable amount of light compared to a normal sunroof (more area, but less light per unit area).
I won’t say the panel gaps are perfect, or even as good as my BMW. But they’re totally fine–nothing ridiculous like touching or misaligned seams. The worst I’ve found is the chrome on the driver door where it meets the jamb; if you laid a ruler flat on it, it would tip a bit. I suspect it could be fixed if I complained, but really it’s not a big deal. I’ll go through with a finer-toothed comb this weekend.
I sat in the back and it was totally comfortable, but I’ll grant there is the issue of a low seat–or, put another way, the footwell is not so deep. I’m pretty short so I could stretch my legs out and be fine. A taller person would have to live with the lack of underleg support. Probably not great for long distance trips. I had a 6’ friend in it yesterday; I forgot to ask if it was comfortable but he didn’t complain about anything. Front seat was fine for a 6’5" guy.
For noise, it’s basically silent at lower speeds (say, <50 mph). I don’t yet have much time at higher speeds and was listening to music, so I can’t really evaluate it, but there was nothing untoward there. I’ll try it without music at highway speeds next chance I get.
The ride is great. I may have different standards coming from an older 3-series with some sporty non-stock bushings on it, but it’s downright cushy in comparison (but without any sense of bounce or floatiness). Handling is fantastic; easily on par with the BMW. The steering could use more feedback, but only this morning did I realize I had it in “normal” mode, not “sport”. It’s not bad at any rate; pretty typical for a modern car, but I’m used to more feedback. Will update later on that front once I try it in sport mode. Hopefully I can make it up to Skyline drive (local curvy road) this weekend to test the handling a bit more.
Rear visibility is certainly worse than my BMW, though I didn’t have a backup camera and that makes up for a lot. It doesn’t seem to be a problem yet. It seems a lot of modern cars have a high waist (safety reasons?) and so probably this is a common thing.
Biggest annoyance so far is that I can’t shift directly from reverse to drive. I have to come to a stop, keep my foot on the brake, then shift to drive. I miss the ability to realign myself in a parking space by giving a little pulse of reverse to back out, and then in one operation accelerate forward again. Probably more of a manual transmission thing. Wouldn’t surprise me if modern automatics had an interlock here (old ones didn’t).
Congratulations. Now you need to find another Model 3 to drive just to see it automatically adjust to your settings.
I was looking at a wrecked Model 3 and it looks like it has airbags for your feet and legs.
I would look around for someone who can paint the aero hub caps. Might be able to jazz them up enough to keep them on.
Have you tried auto pilot or auto park yet?
Not yet. Autopilot is still calibrating–it takes 50 miles or so to kick in, and I’m not there yet. Supposedly autopark works right away–I forgot to try that! Will keep you posted.
Do you get the supercharging with the model 3? I didn’t know if that was included like the other models. I know the referral program is different - you don’t get the same rewards for referring other people who buy the 3 vs the X or S.
No. Model S/X owners receive 400kWh credits per year. Model 3 owners do not. Rates here.
I had forgotten about that. There’s pretty much continuous promotions that allow S and X owners to get free supercharging for life - just need a referral code. It’s like a given that the X and S owners would have it - I forgot about the new 3s
Yup. I’m cool with that, as long as Supercharging is supported at all. They need to improve their usage problem, and more unlimited users is not a good way forward.
I talked with the friend in the back seat–he said it was totally fine, and there was an impressive amount of legroom and head clearance. I checked myself and he’s right; there’s a ton. As said, the footwell is a tad shallow but I suspect the extra space in other dimensions makes up for it. I mean, it’s not a giant SUV but it seems to compare well against other compact sedans.
Did some subjective road noise tests. On pretty smooth asphalt, tire noise is the dominant sound at up to ~65 (I didn’t go faster). There is a bit of wind noise from somewhere above, but it’s not a lot, and just kind of a general wooshing sound. If the asphalt is at all rough, tire noise is definitely the loudest component. All in all it’s pretty quiet.
One definite noise improvement over the BMW (aside from EV-related things) is that when the back seats are folded down, there’s no extra noise from the trunk. On the BMW, things actually get pretty loud in that case, but the 3 must have some extra damping material. I use the folded seats a fair amount for transporting stuff so this is actually a noticeable improvement.
Thanks for this tip, BTW. Hey, I might need a welder anyhow.
I am sorta tempted to do it myself but I’d need to do some reading on whether there’s any special code-related stuff for 220. I’m familiar enough with general-purpose indoor outlets/switches/wiring but not so much the other cases.
Oh, and here’s a cute little goodie I found stashed away in one of the many compartments well after delivery.
Well, I can experiment on my own car. It supports a collection of driver profiles, each with settings for seats, mirrors, steering wheel, and probably a few other things. I haven’t tried it yet, though.
Yeah–this is actually the major reason to install the 220v charger for me. I guess there’s just some fixed overhead to keep the car alive. Quadruple the power and the overhead cost is 1/4, relatively speaking.
Not a huge deal as you say, but probably enough to pay for the install after several years.
The NEMA 14-50 outlet is straight forward. You need 6 gauge wire which is a bit hard to work with (very stiff).Tesla only needs the 2 hot + ground, but I used 4-wires and hooked up neutral as well. Not sure if code cares, but I’m a completionist. But adding a 220V outlet is the same as any other outlet. Use the proper pass-throughs in the breaker box, stress relief, proper outlet box etc. Nothing tricky and if you’ve done 110V outlets in the past you shouldn’t have any problems.
What does the M3 charge at? My early MS goes to 40A, newer MS only do 32A. I think that’s probably safer. I noticed the Tesla cable and plug gets very hot at 40A. I have limited my car to 30A because I’m not in a hurry when charging overnight.
FWIW, I paid to have a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed next to my breaker panel and it cost me like $100. Well worth the hassle of the work, IMHO. Now, that bargain price was the result of installing the outlet literally two feet, not fifty, and a cheap electrician who didn’t care if the outlet was for a welder or an EV.
it should be well under a grand so long as you don’t need a service upgrade.
My NEMA-14 outlet will cost about $1200. I’ve used this electrician before and their rates were reasonable so I wonder if it’s just because I’m in CA and things are more expensive, or due to specific setup, or due to being overpriced. I have to do some step down on the amperage due to not enough power coming into the house, have some additional complications with the solar and powerwalls, and am locating the plug about 25 feet from the main panel.
Hmm, in looking at the invoice, the permit and additional distance is $900. Yay. I did ask about increasing the service to the house and the estimate was about $12-15K. I’m going to pass on that unless I have to power two vehicles simultaneously.
do you need a sub-panel?