10k review (M3LR).

my initial impressions review: 1 week review (M3LR).

just hit 10k miles and wanted to give an update on my thought thus far.

1. autopilot
this is probably the biggest surprise for me. when i initially tried AP i had significant phantom braking on the highway and it was terrible (nausea inducing) in stop and go traffic. the phantom braking alone was enough to not trust the system and i stopped using AP altogether for a while. both of these have changed to an unbelievable degree over the course of the various updates. i have now done ~100 mile trips with AP engaged without issues, no nausea inducing hard accerleration and braking in stop and go / slow traffic. it really has become a huge positive for the driving experience on longer trips for me.

2. driving experience
still love getting in the car and still making excuses to go on a drive. with the lack of standard gears the car just feels ridiculously smooth and really makes driving an ICE car jarring in comparison. ended up getting acceleration boost within the first week of ownership. car feels very planted in corners. hardly use the physical brakes. cabin is quiet enough and on par with my previous cars. visibility overall is great.

3. interior
this also surprised me -- coming from audi's i was a bit worried/skeptical about the interior but have grown to really enjoy the minimalism. don't miss the physical buttons at all.

4. touchscreen / OS
didn't take long to get used to the touch screen controls and OS and don't have any major complaints. the constant updates are welcomed.

5. charging
i have yet to use the supercharging network. tesla charger at home and 50 mile round trip commute to work. scheduling works great.

6. efficiency
surprised at how much weather and speed play into "tesla" miles. i also was pretty shocked when i carried two road bikes on my 1up hitch rack -- charged the tesla to 280 "tesla" miles. actual miles for the roundtrip was 120 miles and ended the trip with 90 "tesla" miles.

7. sound system / audio interface
i was initially dissappointed in the audio interface and lack of seamless connection with a mobile device (iphone). i ended up getting a tidal subscription and either downloading my playlist in hifi in my garage over wifi before departing or connecting my phone as a hotspot to allow hifi playback on the go. i would say the overall sound is on par with what i have had as premium sound systems in my past cars. the tidal app is a bit clunky and lacking features but it gets the job done.

8. maintenance
none. no issues whatsoever (hopefully i'm not jinxing myself). will get a tire rotation soon but other than that, very happy.

all in all love the car and would purchase again -- it is crazy to know that the price has gone up ~10k since when i took delivery!

 

[Ashhong]

Disappointed in your opinion on the stereo. Coming from a Harmon Kardon BMW system I am hoping that the sound quality is better after all of the praise I’ve seen for it

 

[ForestGump]

I coming up on 13,000 miles and my biggest frustrations are 1) navigation and 2) autopilot.

 

[Destiny1701]

Disappointed in your opinion on the stereo. Coming from a Harmon Kardon BMW system I am hoping that the sound quality is better after all of the praise I’ve seen for it

I found the sound system to be best in class actually. The lows are fantastic and the mid/highs are crisp and clean. Never heard it ever distort at any level. A lot of friends are amazed how much punch it has alongside crispness. I’ve tried to push it and see how far the bass kicks until it pops or distorts. It simply doesn’t

I’m using my Spotify account on Tesla if that means anything.

Eq Settings are classic lows set 6/7 mid rate to 0/2 and high to 7/8.

 

[ForestGump]

You may want to buy a depth gauge and check your tires across the treads before rotating. My 2020LR shows even wear and I’ve skipped rotation (13 k miles on new rubber. OEMs gone in 10k).

Are you saying your OEM tires only lasted you 10,000 miles?

 

[tm1v2]

Disappointed in your opinion on the stereo. Coming from a Harmon Kardon BMW system I am hoping that the sound quality is better after all of the praise I’ve seen for it

@Ashhong My 2021 M3P stereo is definitely better to my ears than the (optional?) Harmon-Kardon stereo in a loaded Polestar 2 Performance I also tested. I've no idea if the Polestar 2 HK system is comparable to your BMW HK system though.

Model 3 stereo wasn't the very best of the cars we tested though, that would go to the (optional?) Bang & Olufsen system in a Mach-E. (I do NOT recommend the Mach-E, for a couple reasons, but I thought its B&O stereo was really good for a factory system.)

 

[TOPCARS]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

[Julia Connor]

Nice review!

 

[jankratochvil]

while not plugged in at the house, and only using 80% of the battery (from 10 to 90% charge),

Do I understand it correctly you do not plug it in at home if the battery would not get under 10%? That is not good for battery, optimal is Depth of Discharge (DoD) 20% - such as 40%-60% cycling. Doing 80% DoD you will have only 40% of the optimal lifetime/degradation of your battery.
See Impacts of a low state of charge headline there.
Personally I am not behaving best as I am most of the time driving 10% DoD which should have about 83% of optimal battery lifetime; but then with occasional 80% DoD it may count as 20% DoD.

 

[Ashhong]

Do I understand it correctly you do not plug it in at home if the battery would not get under 10%? That is not good for battery, optimal is Depth of Discharge (DoD) 20% - such as 40%-60% cycling. Doing 80% DoD you will have only 40% of the optimal lifetime/degradation of your battery.
See Impacts of a low state of charge headline there.
Personally I am not behaving best as I am most of the time driving 10% DoD which should have about 83% of optimal battery lifetime; but then with occasional 80% DoD it may count as 20% DoD.

Hmmm in layman’s terms? I plan to charge when I hit like 30-40% until 80 max

 

[jankratochvil]

Hmmm in layman’s terms? I plan to charge when I hit like 30-40% until 80 max

The 80% DoD I was replying to is definitely not so great. But your 40% looks to be even better than my 10-20%, optimal is even higher DoD - 55% according to this chart. I am not a battery expect, I just read many articles in the past years. After all such small differences should not matter much - just some 2% capacity difference in 10 years (if you filter the degradation by "Daily charge level ?").

 

[hruskap]

I am a new Tesla owner of a Model Y built in July 2022 and noticed the auto pilot was better at keeping the car centered in the lane than I was. Question to the group, is paint protective film (PPF) worth the cost - $2500. I would like to hear opinions on the subject.

thanks

 

[Destiny1701]

I am a new Tesla owner of a Model Y built in July 2022 and noticed the auto pilot was better at keeping the car centered in the lane than I was. Question to the group, is paint protective film (PPF) worth the cost - $2500. I would like to hear opinions on the subject.

thanks

I have a July 2022 MYP bkue and chose to ppf the front bumper, hood, side mirrors and side rockers.

Within 2 months I’ve got 3 nicks in the ppf from highway driving and likely some pebble etc. if it were unprotected, full paint nicks already. Once I remove this and re apply one day, it will remain untouched.

My 2 cents

 

[refusedmd]

I am a new Tesla owner of a Model Y built in July 2022 and noticed the auto pilot was better at keeping the car centered in the lane than I was. Question to the group, is paint protective film (PPF) worth the cost - $2500. I would like to hear opinions on the subject.

thanks

i thought about doing this and even the full PPF (to get the matte black look, which is considerably expensive) but in the end decided it wasn't worth the cost. younger me would have definitely done it

as my daily driver / "beater" (lots of highway miles), will just accept that the car will not stay pristine no matter how much i want to protect it.

 

[Destiny1701]

I think the issue with the grill less fronts of EV’s is that we will see far more nicks, scratches, dings etc than on a typical grilled ice car. Ie. Lexus, Audi, bmw..even Porsche now with its full front plastic () all have massive grills and less frontal painted areas.

With tesla, one will visually see far more damage on the front than typical. If anything, why not just ppf the front bumper as protection? Save a lot of $ and peace of mind plus long term clean look.

 

[DocHolliday]

I think it really depends on your driving conditions. Most of my driving is around town/local trips and I make an effort to get clear of any dump/gravel/concrete/gardening trucks on the freeway as quickly as possible. A year in, I don't have any significant nicks or chips on the frontal surfaces.

 

[ODWms]

I did the high impact areas (front, hood, side mirrors, etc.) I definitely don’t regret it, as almost 4 years and 65,000 in, the car doesn’t have a single impact, where I know it would have been quite bad without.

 

[ForestGump]

I am a new Tesla owner of a Model Y built in July 2022 and noticed the auto pilot was better at keeping the car centered in the lane than I was. Question to the group, is paint protective film (PPF) worth the cost - $2500. I would like to hear opinions on the subject.

thanks

IMO its a car that you're driving on the road. If you need PPF you shouldn't be driving the car and it should be sitting in a show room. That's just me though, most people have the opposite opinion. However, for me my car is just a car, its to get me from point a to point b and I really couldn't care any less about little common chips, dings and scratches that occur from normal driving. Even with PPF you won't be able to stop deep impacts that happen from rocks falling out of trucks on the highway, and the alternative is just driving in a bubble and being afraid to drive and enjoy your car... That's my thoughts.

We watch the "waiting room" forums in here and see all the excitement and anticipation from soon to be owners who all have these exact plans to ppf and the whole 9 yards but as soon as the honeymoon phase is over and the first or second chip of the paint is found you just don't care that much anymore and come to reality that its a vehicle made for public roads.

 

[Destiny1701]

IMO its a car that you're driving on the road. If you need PPF you shouldn't be driving the car and it should be sitting in a show room. That's just me though, most people have the opposite opinion. However, for me my car is just a car, its to get me from point a to point b and I really couldn't care any less about little common chips, dings and scratches that occur from normal driving. Even with PPF you won't be able to stop deep impacts that happen from rocks falling out of trucks on the highway, and the alternative is just driving in a bubble and being afraid to drive and enjoy your car... That's my thoughts.

We watch the "waiting room" forums in here and see all the excitement and anticipation from soon to be owners who all have these exact plans to ppf and the whole 9 yards but as soon as the honeymoon phase is over and the first or second chip of the paint is found you just don't care that much anymore and come to reality that its a vehicle made for public roads.

Well said and correct from your point of view.

I suppose some folks like to shoe shine and others simply use them as intended and are ok with walking around as is. To each is own. It’s all personal choice

My neighbour a few doors down just picked up his white MY last week and he is going to spend $300 on the front bumper/lights ppf and $50 on side mirrors. Ie. the 2 areas that receive the most chips/nicks. For $350 on his $80k (cnd) investment (.43% of the cost of the car) he’s content with keeping his car looking as new as possible for some time. After 3-4 yrs he will replace it again and hopefully have a showroom look maintained

Cost benefit here? Not so bad imo.

 

[hruskap]

Thank you for all of the replies. I did a full front rather than a partial front to avoid the line where the PPF stops. I felt it would look unsightly on a $65,000 vehicle. It turned out great and I am satisfied I made the right call although I agree it is just a car.

 

[DrChaos]

Disappointed in your opinion on the stereo. Coming from a Harmon Kardon BMW system I am hoping that the sound quality is better after all of the praise I’ve seen for it

I had a HK sound in a BMW i3---I prefer the Tesla Premium. Most prominently I love using Tunein for international internet radio---I listen to classical and the far wider availablility of diverse music in decent enough fidelity (depending on station) is a major improvement.