22% depreciation in 8 months [Update: sold it for 5.4% less than new price]

[WilliamG]

The white seats are softer and breathe better, I have not had issues in my colleagues car.

I’d never read that the white seats are softer or breathe better. Where are you getting that from?

 

[MXWing]

You could sell it privately and reduce some of those losses?

 

[Marius A]

I’d never read that the white seats are softer or breathe better. Where are you getting that from?

That's my experience using my colleague's car. I don't get the same contact dermatitis riding in his car.

This is the second "my model 3 is a gigantic piece of crap, so i bought another one" thread I've seen in a few weeks. What an odd thought process if you ask me. Especially when you consider your #1 complaint seems to be about awful service. Are you just hoping the new car is perfect so you never have to deal with them again?

That's probably my other post.
How often do you have to deal with Tesla Service Centers? I've had 5 appointments in as many months. I just want one which isn't a lemon.

...
Reading the above list, I don't see how you can possibly be happy in another Model 3.
Plastic seats are crap, and wont get better with color change.
FSD, windshield wipers, screen crashes, summon, and road noise wont get any better in the new TM3.

Perhaps a closer look at Model S, Taycan, or something else is in order?

I'm comparing with a new TM3 and the showroom car which is older than mine. I didn't get FSD again, I got performance instead for roughly the same money. Windshield wipers are obviously worse than other cars. I never heard about screen blacking out before. My colleague doesn't have that either. Summon, not an issue when you don't have it. Road noise was much better before they changed the roof, it is a very noticeable difference from my colleague's car to mine.
Finally, plastic seats are crap, but I don't have an allergic reaction when I ride a newer TM3 with white interior. This alone is pretty much worth switching cars for me.

 

[Marius A]

You could sell it privately and reduce some of those losses?

I've put it out now, we'll see what I can get before delivery. I just don't like lying to people, and not telling about the issues feels like lying to me. We'll see if I can the price up a bit.

 

[TomLee]

That's my experience using my colleague's car. I don't get the same contact dermatitis riding in his car.

That's probably my other post.
How often do you have to deal with Tesla Service Centers? I've had 5 appointments in as many months. I just want one which isn't a lemon.

I'm comparing with a new TM3 and the showroom car which is older than mine. I didn't get FSD again, I got performance instead for roughly the same money. Windshield wipers are obviously worse than other cars. I never heard about screen blacking out before. My colleague doesn't have that either. Summon, not an issue when you don't have it. Road noise was much better before they changed the roof, it is a very noticeable difference from my colleague's car to mine.
Finally, plastic seats are crap, but I don't have an allergic reaction when I ride a newer TM3 with white interior. This alone is pretty much worth switching cars for me.

I can feel your pain. Lost 22% in 8 months is not something someone can easily take. Having said that, I strongly suggest you consider other brands as I'm very sure most of the issues you have may happen to your new car. Even worth, you might found new issues in your new car that you didn't discover in your old one. To name a few: rattle issue, charging port issue, vampire drain issue, etc. They were widely discussed here but not discovered by you in your old car. Honestly, save yourself some time and effort (best for your own health). There are cars have much better build quality out there. Tesla is known for poor built quality and not for you.

 

[holmgang]

I’d never read that the white seats are softer or breathe better. Where are you getting that from?

ive read more than once that the white seats are a bit softer, whether its in the skin/membrane itself, or the foam underneath.

 

[DJVoorhees]

22% value deficit in 8 months

Yup - it's now a used car, Tesla is pumping out lots of model 3's and dropping the price, they are not uncommon anymore.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Awesome car, but customer service is a sh**show.

Agree. 10000%
Customer service? What’s that?

 

[Marius A]

I can feel your pain. Lost 22% in 8 months is not something someone can easily take. Having said that, I strongly suggest you consider other brands as I'm very sure most of the issues you have may happen to your new car. Even worth, you might found new issues in your new car that you didn't discover in your old one. To name a few: rattle issue, charging port issue, vampire drain issue, etc. They were widely discussed here but not discovered by you in your old car. Honestly, save yourself some time and effort (best for your own health). There are cars have much better build quality out there. Tesla is known for poor built quality and not for you.

I had rattles, one inside the vent which they fixed and one from the roof which I fixed myself. I had 35km vampire drain each night, which was fixed by forgetting the WiFi network and turning sentry off.
If I find anything I can't live with, or a combination of things I can't live with, I'll send the car right back within the 7 days.
Most of the things that bug me with the old car showed up within 4 days, but I didn't know I could hand in the car without an appointment, so I wasted those 7 days trying to get through to Tesla on the phone and by email.

But maybe I'm wrong, in that case I only have myself to blame. Based on what I hear from other people who got the TM3 in Norway I've been rather unlucky. If I get a new car with the same faults, but it is possible to use the Tesla app and the seats don't cause allergic dermatitis, then I can deal with the other issues like everyone else does.
It doesn't have to be without fault, it just needs to be somewhat OK.

Build quality has gotten A LOT better the last 6 months, and software issues will eventually be fixed (hopefully). That's one of the biggest pros about the TM3. You get a $100k car for $65k if you can live with software bugs for a few years. I mean, nothing even comes close to that WLTP rating with such a small battery. You get 10+ miles per hour on a normal euro plug, 230v/13a. The TMS gets half that? The Audi can barely preheat the cabin with that.

 

[MXWing]

I've put it out now, we'll see what I can get before delivery. I just don't like lying to people, and not telling about the issues feels like lying to me. We'll see if I can the price up a bit.

It’s under warranty and if my time was cheap, I could see myself hassling Tesla until my car was working.

Could be the next person doesn’t run into the same problem you are running in into. You can advertise you have unlock issues with the phone to be fully transparent.

To save 9-10K on a car, I would use a fob if needed.

Hope this is some ideas for a win win situation and I am sorry you are having a hard time with your car.

 

[Marius A]

It’s under warranty and if my time was cheap, I could see myself hassling Tesla until my car was working.

Could be the next person doesn’t run into the same problem you are running in into. You can advertise you have unlock issues with the phone to be fully transparent.

To save 9-10K on a car, I would use a fob if needed.

Hope this is some ideas for a win win situation and I am sorry you are having a hard time with your car.

Thanks, really appreciate it!
I think I'm going to stick with my choice to get the P3D+. The wakeup part is 4 months of not being able to pre-heat the car in freezing temperatures. I just got a bid which is ~4k higher than what Tesla offered. If that deal goes through I'll just try to imagine that I was willing to spend $8k on an interior that doesn't cause dermatitis. Also, every trip to the Tesla Service Center costs me around $550 in lost billable time.

I really appreciate all the concern and sympathy I got here. I think that'll help me put the whole thing to rest. Thanks everyone.

 

[TomLee]

I had rattles, one inside the vent which they fixed and one from the roof which I fixed myself. I had 35km vampire drain each night, which was fixed by forgetting the WiFi network and turning sentry off.
If I find anything I can't live with, or a combination of things I can't live with, I'll send the car right back within the 7 days.
Most of the things that bug me with the old car showed up within 4 days, but I didn't know I could hand in the car without an appointment, so I wasted those 7 days trying to get through to Tesla on the phone and by email.

But maybe I'm wrong, in that case I only have myself to blame. Based on what I hear from other people who got the TM3 in Norway I've been rather unlucky. If I get a new car with the same faults, but it is possible to use the Tesla app and the seats don't cause allergic dermatitis, then I can deal with the other issues like everyone else does.
It doesn't have to be without fault, it just needs to be somewhat OK.

Build quality has gotten A LOT better the last 6 months, and software issues will eventually be fixed (hopefully). That's one of the biggest pros about the TM3. You get a $100k car for $65k if you can live with software bugs for a few years. I mean, nothing even comes close to that WLTP rating with such a small battery. You get 10+ miles per hour on a normal euro plug, 230v/13a. The TMS gets half that? The Audi can barely preheat the cabin with that.

I was very concerned about the vampire drain and therefore turned off everything I can turned off. After few months of living with TM3, I put back the Sentry mode and careless, still but just less , about it. Rattles used to drive me crazy especially when I show off my car to my friends. It was on and off for the first 4 months, every one in the car can hear it. Until one day it just gone. It happened that I put some PPF on the fender one day before. I don't even know if they were related or not. But anyway, I just hope I'll never hear it any more.

I'm putting those out just to say that every TM3, or car in general, has some problems here or there. The more expensive the car you bought, the more you care about it, or say have higher expectation on it. You just put too much expectation on your old and the up coming new TM3 which I think is the problem you have right now. Think of it this way, a big portion of the price you paid is for the software. Car itself may worth half or 3 quarter of the total. In that sense, treat it as a $40k car instead of $60k car and you will feel much better.

 

[Atari2600]

The white seats are softer and breathe better, I have not had issues in my colleagues car.

Your statement appears to have no factual backing. I have white seats and the material is solid non perforated polyurethane materials. How exactly can the white seats breathe better?

edit: I can only see this if they switched to this: Original | ultrafabrics

But I did not think the Ultra White seats were from this line.

 

[WilliamG]

ive read more than once that the white seats are a bit softer, whether its in the skin/membrane itself, or the foam underneath.

I'm going to call shenanigans on this. As far as I'm aware (and again, I speak from someone living on these boards day in/day out for about 7 months only), the white seats differ from the black ones by virtue of being white. If there's something else I'm not aware of, I'd like to see some factual backing rather than having read someone else say it. I've ridden in my friend's white-seat Model 3 several times, and have noticed zero difference.

 

[plusonechoi]

There is no denying that a 10 year old car company has its share problems, but so do car manufacturers that have been around for 100 years too. Tesla is continually improving their cars and service from what I can tell, there's going to be a level of acceptance and understanding while they work things out. Enjoy the car and accept the minor imperfections for now, fortunately so many updates can be adjusted through software...and OTA at that!

 

[Marius A]

I'm going to call shenanigans on this. As far as I'm aware (and again, I speak from someone living on these boards day in/day out for about 7 months only), the white seats differ from the black ones by virtue of being white. If there's something else I'm not aware of, I'd like to see some factual backing rather than having read someone else say it. I've ridden in my friend's white-seat Model 3 several times, and have noticed zero difference.

This is the answer I got from Tesla's legal department when I was investigating the issue with allergic reactions:
"Både de sorte og hvite setene er lagd av samme materialfamilie, men de er ikke helt identiske."

Translated:
The black and white seats are made out of the same family of materials, but they are not identical

 

[WilliamG]

This is the answer I got from Tesla's legal department when I was investigating the issue with allergic reactions:
"Både de sorte og hvite setene er lagd av samme materialfamilie, men de er ikke helt identiske."

Translated:
The black and white seats are made out of the same family of materials, but they are not identical

Well no, they’re not identical. One set is black and one is white. And the dye is a different color. To be honest, I’ve never read of anyone having an allergic reaction to one seat color and not another. Have you tried sitting in another black interior Model 3, say at a showroom? This isn’t adding up to me so I’d love to get to the bottom of it.

 

[Marius A]

Well no, they’re not identical. One set is black and one is white. And the dye is a different color. To be honest, I’ve never read of anyone having an allergic reaction to one seat color and not another. Have you tried sitting in another black interior Model 3, say at a showroom? This isn’t adding up to me so I’d love to get to the bottom of it.

The context was whether they are the same (except for dye) because I have not had a reaction to the white. I never thought it could be something specifically wrong with my seats, but I haven't tried another black interior TM3 (it doesn't happen immediately, depends how warm it is, and if I wear a sweater it's thick enough to prevent the reaction. Shirt/t-shirt is not enough.

I've had 4 loaner TMS, didn't have a reaction with any of those seats, not sure if they are the same material? If that's the case then maybe there's something specifically with my seats, mold from overseas shipping or something like that. It's not dimethyl fumarate, they aren't using that in the TM3 (I asked).

 

[OCR1]

The white vs black seat makes no sense to me either. Without having a clear factual explanation of how the white seat is manufactured in such a way that it would not cause a skin reaction I would not be wasting money selling your Model 3 and buying a new one.

But it sounds like you just really want a Performance model anyway and that is probably the main motivation for you to trade your current vehicle in. I would rather have a Performance without FSD than an AWD with FSD myself, but I would not want to lose $12K to make the trade happen. But we each spend our money as we see fit, so if it’s important enough to do it then who am I to judge.

 

[Marius A]

The white vs black seat makes no sense to me either. Without having a clear factual explanation of how the white seat is manufactured in such a way that it would not cause a skin reaction I would not be wasting money selling your Model 3 and buying a new one.

But it sounds like you just really want a Performance model anyway and that is probably the main motivation for you to trade your current vehicle in. I would rather have a Performance without FSD than an AWD with FSD myself, but I would not want to lose $12K to make the trade happen. But we each spend our money as we see fit, so if it’s important enough to do it then who am I to judge.

I can't explain it better than tell you that Tesla themselves said they were not identical, and that driving for a couple of hours in a colleague's car with white interior does not cause those reactions.
I don't specifically know that it has something to do with the material breathing, that was just an assumption I made. What I do know is that for the same stretch of road, with the same climate settings, with the same clothes, I get large sores over my lower back in my car, but nothing happens when I drive his car.
Both are TM3, mine is from march, his is from September (delivery dates).

Regarding really wanting a performance I'm having second thoughts. If I could sell the perf wheels for a decent amount of money and buy 19" sport instead that would be great, but the 20s have a long-tail cost which keeps upping the price. I would rather buy a stealth, but I don't think that's going to show up.