I got a notice in my email that a model 3 was in at one of the local showrooms so I went to go check it out.
It was nice, but I was hoping for a bit more. It's not that the interior was plain, I quite liked that look of the dash, it was more that the seats and interior felt kinda cheap (other than the wood on the dash). Door handles were not impressive compared to the S or X or even regular door handles but I'd be ok with them.
I found the seats less comfortable than the model S, and I'm not sure they looked like they would hold up well. The cup holders were sub par (hey the little things count!). I did like the phone holder. Anyone had any issues with seat sag? Seats are incredibly important for a commuter car for me, which is why I rejected buying a bolt when I thought the tax credit would get dropped. The seats were miles better than the chevy bolt seats, I was just hoping for something more like the S.
I guess the hard part was that I really enjoyed the interior of the model s allot more. I also noted that the used (140k miles on it) volt I picked up a couple months ago to hold me over delays and ford buying my car back, had a nicer looking interior than the premium model 3. I guess it's subjective, but the leather seats and fit and finish felt better quality in the volt, granted the volt seats have no lumbar or power (but they are comfortable for me). Even my wife found the same thing to be true and noted it before I said anything. So I started looking at the S which had much better seats and interior options. I really want a white or at least a non black interior now after seeing the model 3, there's a difference between dull and minimalist
I'm not a fan at all of the shiny black plastic (terrible for scratches and wear) which was already showing. Or hard non bland non-textured trim pieces. While my old volt has some shiny interior pieces they are painted in a gloss paint which has apparently held up quite well, since it looked better (most of it) than the showroom car was already displaying. At least use a textured plastic instead of shiny! There were gaps where the interior panels matched up with the headliner etc, like the clips holding them had already failed. Not terrible but not great. I didn't think the headliner not being alcantara would be a big deal, but it made the car feel much more like your typical commuter without it, since the paneling was kind of meh, some alcantara to spruce things up would have been quite nice. I can't fathom how anyone would call out the Model 3's interior to be like a luxury car (although I can see stating that for the S or X). Other than the large touch screen and piece of wood in the dash, there really wasn't much of anything luxury about the interior itself.
The S however is just too expensive for my budget. Once you add the premium package to get heated seats and better sound, heppa filter etc (at nearly the cost of my entire volt which has these things lol) I just have a hard time justifying the price.
I test drove the S (no test drives for the 3 yet, but they might be available before I am up for configuration although thats not looking too good). I wanted to compare the regen to the chevy volt. It was quite a bit different but good in it's own way. I like that the Chevy adds additional regen when using the brakes so you can drive more like the tesla in standard mode mode and still get allot of regen, and I was worried I would not like teslas implementation but it was ok although I'd probably mostly use the heavier regen mode.
I guess I'm much more on the fence now.
Started looking at older model S's but that probably not a very good comparison to the 75D I test drove which had the newest computer (the one that does not lag) etc. I think the newest S's have auto pilot 2.5? The auto pilot was great, and I will be wanting that feature. Older S's are tempting me now, but I'm not sure those would be good comparisons. The new one I test drove has air suspension standard, a faster processor, better autopilot than anything I would be able to get used in the model 3 price range.
So now I want an S but cannot afford one (don't want to stretch my budget that thin when I need other things), and not sure what to do about getting a model 3. I feel like I should certainly test drive one before I configure, but that might be risky for getting the tax incentives.
I'm not a huge fan of touch screen for everything either, I just don't like having my eyes off the road to adjust sliders and other other things. (certainly a big compromise for me.) Where you might have to look quickly to see a button, the button is always there, and if you have to tap it several times, you can do this without looking at it. My volt has too much touch screen too) It will be interesting to see how hard it is to set things on the 3, but I tend to feel it's about as bad as using your phone mounted to the dashboard while driving. You will also likely be responsible for adjusting passengers settings since they have no idea and won't want to interfere with your driving.
It was nice, but I was hoping for a bit more. It's not that the interior was plain, I quite liked that look of the dash, it was more that the seats and interior felt kinda cheap (other than the wood on the dash). Door handles were not impressive compared to the S or X or even regular door handles but I'd be ok with them.
I found the seats less comfortable than the model S, and I'm not sure they looked like they would hold up well. The cup holders were sub par (hey the little things count!). I did like the phone holder. Anyone had any issues with seat sag? Seats are incredibly important for a commuter car for me, which is why I rejected buying a bolt when I thought the tax credit would get dropped. The seats were miles better than the chevy bolt seats, I was just hoping for something more like the S.
I guess the hard part was that I really enjoyed the interior of the model s allot more. I also noted that the used (140k miles on it) volt I picked up a couple months ago to hold me over delays and ford buying my car back, had a nicer looking interior than the premium model 3. I guess it's subjective, but the leather seats and fit and finish felt better quality in the volt, granted the volt seats have no lumbar or power (but they are comfortable for me). Even my wife found the same thing to be true and noted it before I said anything. So I started looking at the S which had much better seats and interior options. I really want a white or at least a non black interior now after seeing the model 3, there's a difference between dull and minimalist
I'm not a fan at all of the shiny black plastic (terrible for scratches and wear) which was already showing. Or hard non bland non-textured trim pieces. While my old volt has some shiny interior pieces they are painted in a gloss paint which has apparently held up quite well, since it looked better (most of it) than the showroom car was already displaying. At least use a textured plastic instead of shiny! There were gaps where the interior panels matched up with the headliner etc, like the clips holding them had already failed. Not terrible but not great. I didn't think the headliner not being alcantara would be a big deal, but it made the car feel much more like your typical commuter without it, since the paneling was kind of meh, some alcantara to spruce things up would have been quite nice. I can't fathom how anyone would call out the Model 3's interior to be like a luxury car (although I can see stating that for the S or X). Other than the large touch screen and piece of wood in the dash, there really wasn't much of anything luxury about the interior itself.The S however is just too expensive for my budget. Once you add the premium package to get heated seats and better sound, heppa filter etc (at nearly the cost of my entire volt which has these things lol) I just have a hard time justifying the price.
I test drove the S (no test drives for the 3 yet, but they might be available before I am up for configuration although thats not looking too good). I wanted to compare the regen to the chevy volt. It was quite a bit different but good in it's own way. I like that the Chevy adds additional regen when using the brakes so you can drive more like the tesla in standard mode mode and still get allot of regen, and I was worried I would not like teslas implementation but it was ok although I'd probably mostly use the heavier regen mode.
I guess I'm much more on the fence now.
Started looking at older model S's but that probably not a very good comparison to the 75D I test drove which had the newest computer (the one that does not lag) etc. I think the newest S's have auto pilot 2.5? The auto pilot was great, and I will be wanting that feature. Older S's are tempting me now, but I'm not sure those would be good comparisons. The new one I test drove has air suspension standard, a faster processor, better autopilot than anything I would be able to get used in the model 3 price range.
So now I want an S but cannot afford one (don't want to stretch my budget that thin when I need other things), and not sure what to do about getting a model 3. I feel like I should certainly test drive one before I configure, but that might be risky for getting the tax incentives.
I'm not a huge fan of touch screen for everything either, I just don't like having my eyes off the road to adjust sliders and other other things. (certainly a big compromise for me.) Where you might have to look quickly to see a button, the button is always there, and if you have to tap it several times, you can do this without looking at it. My volt has too much touch screen too) It will be interesting to see how hard it is to set things on the 3, but I tend to feel it's about as bad as using your phone mounted to the dashboard while driving. You will also likely be responsible for adjusting passengers settings since they have no idea and won't want to interfere with your driving.
