Reads like a hit piece. Not that the car doesn't have some warts due to early production issues, but compared to the vast majority of other reviews on the vehicle this one seems to harbor a lot of negative bias.
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Car and Driver Model 3 Test - Not Great
- Thread starter igotzzoom
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T34ME
Active Member
Of course you can. Had the ICE guy reviewers done their homework, they would have known that.
Complaining about panel gaps and misaligned trims.... Seems like a standard thing to do when testing Tesla's. The article comes with over 80 photo's, however, no picture of the panel gaps or misaligned trims....
I have seen the Model 3 in person in Vnacouver, there were no panel gaps or misaligned trims, it all makes you wonder.
I have seen the Model 3 in person in Vnacouver, there were no panel gaps or misaligned trims, it all makes you wonder.
I can't speak for C&D personally, but I can tell you the automotive establishment, from Detroit to Stuttgart to Tokyo, looks at Tesla with a combination of curiosity and fear. Their outward hostility and derision I think hide an underlying insecurity about their entire business model. If I had to analogize it, I'd put it this way...
They're currently on one side of the canyon, under-girded by 100 years of industrial tradition, and the backing of the "military-industrial complex", including Big Oil. They see the other side, electrical and powered by renewable energy. They know they need to ultimately get to the other side, but they're so heavily invested into the current status quo, that they fear making the leap across the canyon and falling into it.
I feel the buying public, by and large, has a less nuanced view of the market. They're very pragmatically-inclined on a short-term basis. Most of them are not very well-informed about EVs, and see them as short-range, underpowered, weird-looking, and difficult to own. Some are aware of Tesla, but surprisingly, many are not that informed about Tesla other than having heard of Elon Musk and Tesla in abstract. I'd say it's going to take a good 5-7 years out of EVs being widely available and meeting most peoples' pragmatic, quotidian needs until we see a large-scale adoption.
They're currently on one side of the canyon, under-girded by 100 years of industrial tradition, and the backing of the "military-industrial complex", including Big Oil. They see the other side, electrical and powered by renewable energy. They know they need to ultimately get to the other side, but they're so heavily invested into the current status quo, that they fear making the leap across the canyon and falling into it.
I feel the buying public, by and large, has a less nuanced view of the market. They're very pragmatically-inclined on a short-term basis. Most of them are not very well-informed about EVs, and see them as short-range, underpowered, weird-looking, and difficult to own. Some are aware of Tesla, but surprisingly, many are not that informed about Tesla other than having heard of Elon Musk and Tesla in abstract. I'd say it's going to take a good 5-7 years out of EVs being widely available and meeting most peoples' pragmatic, quotidian needs until we see a large-scale adoption.
The number of tesla haters and negative comments towards the 3 is kind of worrying for me. Almost all are misinformed and have never sat in a Tesla but its concerning about vandalism towards my car and other safety concerns if running into these Tesla haters.
N5329K
Active Member
Their conclusions seem to boil down to:
1. Too expensive to change the world.
3. Interior is refreshing and clever (except the rear seats, which are not made for humans) but not up to Euro standards;
4. Exterior is still a fit-and-finish work in progress;
5. UI is borderline weird and distracting;
6. Driving experience is very good;
7. Range is really cut by cold (and driving style, I bet).
The tone was negative but the comments and conclusions seem pretty fair.
Robin
1. Too expensive to change the world.
3. Interior is refreshing and clever (except the rear seats, which are not made for humans) but not up to Euro standards;
4. Exterior is still a fit-and-finish work in progress;
5. UI is borderline weird and distracting;
6. Driving experience is very good;
7. Range is really cut by cold (and driving style, I bet).
The tone was negative but the comments and conclusions seem pretty fair.
Robin
Brian Anderson
Member
The is precisely the reason I cancelled my long time subscription 10 years ago. The writers are so stuck in the ICE mindset that they have become fossils along with the cars they love so much. They have always had an anti EV slant and will continue to unless they clean out the current staff for a new fresher perspective. Oh well guess this publication will die off in the coming year along with their beloved dino juice burners.
JohnSnowNW
Active Member
Maybe they should have waited to review the $35k version, before casting a negative for a vehicle they weren't testing.
voip-ninja
Give me some sugar baby
I will second all of that. The review was tough but fair without being overly critical. The real world range, in cool temperatures, is something that over 75% of the country is going to have to deal with every year.
Tesla is moving out from targeting purely EV enthusiasts with the Model 3 and they have to be prepared to have their new baby compared to other cars in the same segment from companies whose $50,000 automobiles are their bread and butter (BMW, Mercedes, Audi).
The Model 3 skid pad results were not impressive. Noise level worse than an A4? This car has no engine, that's simply not acceptable.
Many of the people (myself included) who have a Model 3 on order have done so not necessarily because we are interested in the environmental aspect of owning an EV, but because we want to legitimately see if an electric car can deliver the premium sports sedan with newer more exciting technology and with the benefit of never needing to visit a gas station again.
We are going to see more commentary like the C&D review from drivers who aren't simply enamored with the Tesla "mission" but who are replacing their previous BMW or Audi whip with a Model 3 and will be particularly critical considering the $56,000 asking price of the only configuration currently available.
This review also makes me wonder if Tesla's reason for not offering Model-3 testers, even in road show form for current reservation holders, has less to do with them desperately trying to get to all reservation holders first, or if it's fear of what is going to happen when someone does a back to back test drive of a Model 3 against a BMW 340i, Audi S4, Mercedes C450.
One area that the C&D review really missed the mark on was that the federal tax incentive, for those who earn enough will make the car more competitive with similar ICE cars. There is a $5,000 state tax credit in addition to the federal credit in my state, lopping $12,500 off of the cost of a Model 3 through probably the end of this year. If an AWD Model 3 ends up being $60,000 I will be comparing it with what I can get from Audi, Mercedes and BMW at the $47,500 mark and making my decision based on that.
anticitizen13.7
Not posting at TMC after 9/17/2018
People get upset when what they consider the established and rightful order, becomes suddenly at risk of being upended.
I find that personality type has a lot to do with how people react to Tesla. Risk taking people, like entrepreneurs, are more willing to see Tesla in a positive light. People who are risk averse or conservative tend to hate Tesla and despise Elon Musk.
As for the C&D review, it didn't reveal anything that I didn't already know from the numerous other reviews out there. The substance of the article seemed pretty accurate to me, even if the tone was slightly negative.
Having just left the auto enthusiast publishing field, I don't think it's going to be quite as stark. The last two decades have been a story of "managed decline" and that's a nice way of putting it. I left my previous company after 13 years. In that time, we'd had three corporate name changes, numerous executive and management changes, one bankruptcy, and multiple re-organizations. Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and Road & Track are all shadows of their former selves. They're no longer the privileged princes of automobiledom.
Automotive media has become very fragmented. There are now dozens of blogs and forums for every conceivable niche and interest. The former "Big Three" of auto media are doubling-down on their digital strategies, getting greenhorns right out of colleges to basically blog away in cube farms, pumping their sites full of "fluffy" superficial spoon-fed re-purposed press release content. My former company was recently acquired by a major special-interest cable content company, and I can tell you from the way they re-structured the company, the longer-term plan is to kill off the print side entirely. Of course, this is assuming they can still make a compelling business case out of an all-digital, all-video strategy, which is still very much an open question.
They don't have a blanket bias against EV. They gave a five-star rating to the Chevy Bolt and labeled it an "editor's choice." They may have a grudge against Tesla or perhaps even an affinity for the traditional automakers, but they appear capable of reviewing an EV car positively. Most of their criticisms are valid - they just aren't things I care about as much as they do.
Do you think that car magazines should be impressed with anything less than extraordinary performance???
And they tested the car without the sport wheels and stickier tires.
Popular Mechanics voted the model 3 car of the year... Who cares about C&D.
JohnSnowNW
Active Member
They seemed to be impressed with the Bolt...so draw your own conclusions.
insaneoctane
Well-Known Member
I guess I am surprised that they didn't think it was extraordinary.
Completely agree. Like some of the folks here, i too am a long long time C&D subscriber and i find this article pretty spot on. Most items of concern mentioned in the article are the items that owners here on this forum have brought up so i question why some folks seem offended to view the concerns there in the magazine. It seems we fanboys get easily offended when someone calls our baby ugly though we all know our baby has some significant issues to overcome.
erthquake
Active Member
Well since Tesla doesn't advertise at all, the ratio is infinity.
JohnSnowNW
Active Member
Seems that people have an issue with the weight given to the negatives, rather than disagreeing with the negatives themselves.
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