I have a 1/18 LR rwd with eap, bought the fsd when on sale to get hw3. Only reason I can see trading up is more comfortable rear seat and awd, which I really don’t need.
There have been multiple tiny changes since the introduction, most aren't even worth mentioning. Different seats are the biggest change The underside of the rear deck in the trunk used to be exposed metal The Tesla logo on the steering wheel changed from chrome finish to a more matt finish The aluminum strip below the wood on the dash is now one piece. The UV coating on the roof glass has changed several times The key card changed Headlights were redesigned (or recalibrated to change IIHS rating) Almost forgot! Alcantara-gate!!!!! Other things listed above I can't think of anything else off the top of my head (oh, and they added a motor to the front wheels).
Sorry, I'm new to Teslas so can you help catch me up on Alcantara-gate? I've had numerous BMWs with this material (love it, very durable when not used on a steering wheel)
if you were lucky enough to get one of the first ~2000 model 3s ever you got an alcantara headliner. It’s nice, I have one. Tesla stopped making them in very short order and people who were on the prior owner waiting list for a car got really upset when it disappeared as all the demo cars had it, so people thought that was what they were buying.
At some point in 2018, to increase production rate, they removed some of the spot welds the robots were doing. Also, the "flufferbot" stopped installing some padding between the floor and the battery pack. There has been various suspension tuning along the way as well. Early cars had stiffer springs for instance.
Oh wow, My 2008 M5 had an alcantara headliner and I will tell you, you are very lucky. BMW reserves the alcantara headliner for the most premium versions of their cars (M5, X6M, X5M, M8, etc). Even my F80 M3 does not have it and its one of those "sure wish they offered it" items. What color was the alcantara headliner? Black/anthracite?
The same cream color as the fabric. Our S has the black alcantara and that is a nice color. Wish the 3 had a dark headliner option. In hindsight, I think those first few cars were the only ones with an actual “premium” interior, since the standard interior disappeared and essentially all the interior packages are the same minus a few small details.
Unplugged performance sells the alcantara headliner kit for 2k if you really want it. I’d rather have the 2k.
For 2019 models, rear motor is a 990 rather than 980 based on all known recent user reports. Appeared to change in early 2019. Presumably will continue for 2020. 980 is the rear motor used for the Performance.
Honestly, I do not know anyone here knows and no one has done a tear down. It is just a noted difference, new for 2019, that shows up between Performance and AWD. One other datapoint is that the 2020 AWD is less efficient than the 2020 Performance 18”. We don’t really know why exactly. But may be related.