I’ll start with the good, (which far outweighs the bad, even if there may be more items in the bad).
What I love:
- The instant torque. Wow. I got the stealth / sleeper and it is something else. I previously had a BMW i3, which I loved. The Model 3 takes that effortless power experience even further.
- It’s battery powered. Kind of goes without saying, but after going back to an ICE for a year and a half after my last i3, it is so nice to drive an electric car again. Never having to go to the gas station, charging at work, the lack of engine noise. The environmental benefits. Love it.
- The fit and finish. Both inside and out, the car is lovely. The seats are comfortable, the surfaces feel nice, it’s just a really nice vehicle.
- Software updates. This is a game changer and a huge advantage you get when you buy a Tesla. I’ve already had one in the week I’ve had the car. Being able to schedule it was great too.
- The app. I love that the app is the car key. Walking away from the car to lock it is awesome. The functionality of the app is great. I do wish the lock/unlock/open/close charging port button was up leveled out of the main list, like locking/unlocking the car, but that’s minor.
- Being able to watch Netflix etc while you’re charging, with great sound, is really cool.
What could be better:
- Those door handles. Cool as a demo, but not practical at all.
- The doors (including trunk) have to be closed much harder than every other car I’ve owned. I’m (and it’s not just me) always not closing it properly, so I have to do it multiple times frequently. And when you combine that with the door handles, it can be even more frustrating from the outside.
- The navigation UI on the center display. This one is a bit baffling. The display is so huge, but one of the most import pieces of information is so tiny I can barely read it. It’s the module that shows you upcoming intersections, distances to next turn, ETA, etc. It’s tiny. Minuscule. Compare it to the equivalent in CarPlay, which from an information hierarchy point of view, is much more appropriate in scale.
- It’s not as quiet as I had expected. Not sure if there’s not enough insulation or if all that glass makes it much harder to insulate, but there’s significantly more road and wind noise at higher speeds than some other cars I’ve had.
- The range is never the reality. If I have to travel 20 miles, by the end of the journey my battery range is reduced by 30-50 miles.
- Sentry mode is really cool, but clips need much better organization, intelligence (ie - which clips are more important for me to review - there’s far too many to review them all) and you should be able to view them on the center display.
- I know it’ll never happen, but I actually just want CarPlay. I got used to having much better integration with my phone with Siri, calling or dictating texts to people, Apple Music and Apple Maps. Losing all that is hard, because the Tesla equivalents aren’t as good (imo).
- Speaking of the center display, there are some functions that aren’t easy to access while you’re trying to keep your eyes on the road. Things like turning on fog lights, adjusting climate control, wiper speed, changing the brightness of the display, all take either multiple steps, or careful tapping or swiping of small targets.
- I’d love to be able to customize the scroll wheel on the right side of the steering wheel. I would assign it to air temperature, which I adjust frequently.
- The cup holders are too big for most cups. I got some inserts, but they aren’t perfect either. This one is a bit odd because it seems like a solved problem in many other cars.
Anyway, these are my first impressions. Like I said, there’s more quibbles than positives, but the positives still outweigh them by a huge margin. Overall, I love the car and look forward to driving it every day.
