I’ve had the car a few more days, and I think my initial impressions still hold. As somebody else said, regardless of what you think of Tesla as a company or Musk as a celebrity CEO, this is a fantastic car. I know many of these features are available on other cars, but no review ever says “the A4 has great seats, but so does a C class, so we’re not giving the A4 credit.” I’m talking about the Model 3.
The electric drive train is superb. The amount of power available at any speed is wonderful, and it is completely effortless. I drove a manual for 135,000 miles. It was fun the whole time. This is different, but not boring the way an automatic might be. Power delivery is instant, which is what people always say about electrics, but just reading or watching a video about it doesn’t do it justice.
The automated stuff is very well integrated into the car and it feels like a cohesive product, not a bunch of different technologies just stuck together.
Set the cruise control at 65, and the car goes 65. Up a hill: 65, down a hill: 65, until there is a slow car in front, then it sorts it out. Change lanes to get around the slow car: back to 65.
Regenerate to nearly a full stop, then step on the brake “Hold” comes up, and you’re off the pedals until the light changes.
The auto wipers just worked. They also work well as wipers, but that might just be new blades and smooth glass.
Get in and go, get out and walk away are good. I turned off the horn on locking, so I keep having to look behind and make sure the mirrors folded in. Maybe I’ll turn the horn back on, though I do think it’s obnoxious.
Believe people when they say the speedometer location is fine. It took me maybe five miles of incorrectly looking through the steering wheel to stop even thinking about it. My eyes know where to go, and the numbers are big and clear enough to not require much attention.
I’m perfectly happy with the included slacker radio. It’s fine. I marked a bunch of genres, channels, and artists as favorites, and then just put it on the play my favorites channel.
The geo-based garage door opening works really well. Pulling in and out of my driveway the door just opens and closes. Going to my inlaws, the garage door button appears on the screen, but doesn’t auto open, which is exactly what I want.
Here are bunch of things I don’t like, because stuff that bothers you sticks out. None of these are deal breakers or make me regret getting the car.
The rear visibility is poor. This is when driving, not backing up. Backing is fine. It’s a big window, but it’s pointed up at the sky. I’ve had cars get lost below my rear view mirror. I know, one tap to view the camera, but it looks too low to be a useful rear view mirror replacement.
A car at this price point should have ventilated seats. The seats are otherwise comfortable and supportive. I guess I just have a sweaty back.
The screen is a great interface, when the car is stopped. I find myself not doing things like adjusting the mirrors or the vent when driving, because I don’t want to give the screen that much attention. The big vent looks cool, but I’d much rather some simple manual louvered holes. It works fine, but like I said, it’s very difficult to tweak where the air is going while driving. It’s not that it takes more than two or three taps to get to the adjustments, it’s that I can’t do it out of my peripheral vision. Perhaps with more use I’ll be able to.
The voice commands seem limited: “Adjust the left mirror” “???”; “Switch to phone audio” “???”; “Make it colder” “???”; “Navigate home” works.
Finally, here are some things I’d like to see added. I guess the normal way to request this is to tweet @elonmusk.
Link the mirror auto-folding to the garage door geo fence. When the garage door is opened (entering area) fold the mirrors. When the garage door is closed (leaving the area) unfold the mirrors. Or give the mirrors their own fence.
A bunch of other stuff I’ve already scene discussed, like an integrated dash cam, stream live video to the app, etc.
IPv6 support.