Guys and gals, this is for those of you that haven't yet had the experience of driving a Model 3. Of course this is just my opinion and your mileage may vary but...
I got a call about a week ago that I could schedule a test drive at the Atlanta/Avalon store. Of course I snatched up the opportunity. Yesterday was my day. I spent about an hour with the staff there and my experience was literally everything I could hope for. The staff was knowledgeable, friendly, totally non pressure and I had a blast. A special shout out to Megan Hannon who was assigned to show me around the car. She was fabulous.
The only disappointment on the day was that I had thought that it would be in a Performance model but their two demo cars were both RWD long range models. That disappointment melted away as soon as I got in the car. I won't waste your time on the specs or my impressions because they have all been stated and restated numerous times on this forum. The one thing that I will say is that I am glad this was a RWD because it quickly showed me that the added acceleration of the Performance model is only relevant to the speed junkies out there. This RWD had more acceleration than anyone could ever want/need in daily driving. Absolutely breathtaking. I got to use autopilot on the highway which is a huge feature for me. Blown away. Just a fabulous experience all the way around.
If there was a negative, (and it really wasn't a surprise for me since I had sat in a Model 3 before) it is the rear seat leg and foot room. I know people have said that a 6' plus passenger can fit behind a 6' plus driver without a problem but in practice, at least for me, that is not going to be the case. Yes they could fit but I sure wouldn't want to be that passenger for more than a short trip down the road. For me, this is not a problem since I will rarely have an adult passenger in the back and to be clear, if they were sitting behind my 5'7" wife they would be fine. Megan was also 5'7" so I had her adjust her seat for her comfort and then got in the back behind her with no problem (I'm 6'2").
On the whole, it was a fantastic afternoon. I can't thank the staff enough. They answered all my questions in a completely relaxed, no pressure environment. Again, a HUGE shout out to Megan for walking me through this first experience with the car. Professional, courteous, funny, and completely dedicated to educating me in any and all things that I might have had a question about.
Those of you in the Atlanta area, be sure to take advantage of test driving a Model 3, or any other Tesla, at the Avalon store. They are great people. Only thing that really sucks is that now the wait for my car just became even more difficult!
Dan
