Before purchasing my M3, I was on this forum quite often. Thought I would give back and share my thoughts and opinion for any other folks considering an M3. I have a Red M3 LR AWD with white interior and 19's.
The background
I've always been a car guy. Some of my previous cars are WRX, BMW 335i, and my last car - 2015 Challenger SRT 392. The Challenger was a manual transmission and daily driver. I live in Canada and yes, I drove the Challenger in the winter.
My thoughts and opinions
Fuel savings - Just did the calculation and the amount of fuel saved was way more than I originally planned. This is mainly due to the fact that we are using the M3 on the weekends as opposed to my wife's car. Of course for me, this is a huge savings coming from the Challenger but it makes a significant impact on the financials of this purchase
Driving experience - The M3 does not have the noise, interaction and thrill of the Challenger. The M3 is fast and handles well but it does not substitute the visceral feeling of driving the Challenger. Having said that, most of the time I drove the Challenger was on a straight line on a highway plus I'm getting old. In other words, although the noise was glorious at times, when it's 7 am and I'm heading off to work, it was a bit annoying.
Also on the driving experience, initially I found it quite boring. There really isn't anything to look at since there is only one screen. The car drives so effortlessly and with no drama. I have since become more used to this and I look around the surrounding more (since you can use autopilot) and also focus more on the podcasts/music.
The buying experience - I've had read many posts about the challenges of customer service with this really fast growing company. If you want to buy anything from this company, be prepared to have the possibility of misinformation, delays and not being able to get a hold of a real person. They are trying but when the company is growing so quickly, items you take for granted when interacting with a traditional auto dealer may not hold true with Tesla. I purchased an inventory car at the beginning of December and long story short, I picked up my car on December 31st. There was no sense in complaining because quite frankly, if I didn't like it, they would have easily sold my car to someone else.
Winter range - I am currently experiencing about a 40% loss in range during the winter. It's not as bad as I thought. I do NOT hyper mile, I have the heater going, stereo playing and a drive the car "normally". I also have 19's wheels with winter tires but I also do a lot of highway driving.
One pedal driving - This is probably my most favourite feature of the car. Prior to purchasing the car, saw many videos of people raving about this but didn't really understand why. I still don't understand why I love this feature so much. Every time I have to use the brakes, it feels like SO much work. I had no idea I am so lazy.
Feeling good about the environment - This was NOT a reason at all of why I purchased the car however now that I have it, I have become more environmentally aware. Small things like watching the energy consumption at home and becoming more educated on climate change is a result of buying this car. I'm not going to march in any protests any time soon but I do feel like I'm making a contribution.
I hope this information will help someone in their purchase decision.
The background
I've always been a car guy. Some of my previous cars are WRX, BMW 335i, and my last car - 2015 Challenger SRT 392. The Challenger was a manual transmission and daily driver. I live in Canada and yes, I drove the Challenger in the winter.
My thoughts and opinions
Fuel savings - Just did the calculation and the amount of fuel saved was way more than I originally planned. This is mainly due to the fact that we are using the M3 on the weekends as opposed to my wife's car. Of course for me, this is a huge savings coming from the Challenger but it makes a significant impact on the financials of this purchase
Driving experience - The M3 does not have the noise, interaction and thrill of the Challenger. The M3 is fast and handles well but it does not substitute the visceral feeling of driving the Challenger. Having said that, most of the time I drove the Challenger was on a straight line on a highway plus I'm getting old. In other words, although the noise was glorious at times, when it's 7 am and I'm heading off to work, it was a bit annoying.
Also on the driving experience, initially I found it quite boring. There really isn't anything to look at since there is only one screen. The car drives so effortlessly and with no drama. I have since become more used to this and I look around the surrounding more (since you can use autopilot) and also focus more on the podcasts/music.
The buying experience - I've had read many posts about the challenges of customer service with this really fast growing company. If you want to buy anything from this company, be prepared to have the possibility of misinformation, delays and not being able to get a hold of a real person. They are trying but when the company is growing so quickly, items you take for granted when interacting with a traditional auto dealer may not hold true with Tesla. I purchased an inventory car at the beginning of December and long story short, I picked up my car on December 31st. There was no sense in complaining because quite frankly, if I didn't like it, they would have easily sold my car to someone else.
Winter range - I am currently experiencing about a 40% loss in range during the winter. It's not as bad as I thought. I do NOT hyper mile, I have the heater going, stereo playing and a drive the car "normally". I also have 19's wheels with winter tires but I also do a lot of highway driving.
One pedal driving - This is probably my most favourite feature of the car. Prior to purchasing the car, saw many videos of people raving about this but didn't really understand why. I still don't understand why I love this feature so much. Every time I have to use the brakes, it feels like SO much work. I had no idea I am so lazy.
Feeling good about the environment - This was NOT a reason at all of why I purchased the car however now that I have it, I have become more environmentally aware. Small things like watching the energy consumption at home and becoming more educated on climate change is a result of buying this car. I'm not going to march in any protests any time soon but I do feel like I'm making a contribution.
I hope this information will help someone in their purchase decision.