Well, the month-and-a-half long journey to delivery has finally ended, and
Red Comet (it literally is
three times faster than my last car's 0-60 speed!) is in its loading bay. The Model 3 is both the smoothest and most exciting car I've ever driven.
Delivery experience: hilariously, I got a text an hour before I left to pick it up warning of big crowds and that it might be a good idea to arrive an hour late...only to find nearly no one there when I got to Buena Park! Clearly I got my vehicle before the huge December rush, and it was such a relief to not have to feel rushed by the delivery staff. Paperwork was literally five minutes. I remembered how long it had taken me to buy my previous cars and I smiled: yes, this is how things should have always been.
Flaws (or, the lack thereof): I took my friend with me to the delivery center to do some exterior inspection while the DA showed me the ropes on the car. He found almost no flaws whatsoever, save for one: there was a somewhat misaligned plastic guard at the bottom left side. We pointed it out to the DA, and he took it to the service center. I went back to the waiting room, prepared to settle down for at least half an hour to an hour...and then the DA comes back
five minutes later. It's fixed. We were ready to go, less than an hour after we arrived—and that's with the repair of the minor flaw.
I was shocked how effective the Hold mode
regenerative braking was. I came from a Prius Prime so I'd done regenerative braking somewhat before, but this was a whole new experience. I'm already mostly used to it.
The Prime's
adaptive cruise control was primitive compared to the Tesla's, and I had no idea that
autosteer would take such a huge load off my mind in semi-heavy traffic. I barely noticed that the 91 was half-jammed on the way home. This is going to make commuting so much less stressful.
Having never driven a fast car, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to handle the P3D's instant
acceleration, but my fears were quickly allayed. The car accelerated confidently, but never in an out-of-control way. I'm so used to pushing the accelerator hard to get even acceptable passing speeds and so this was a revelation...I didn't know a car could handle so precisely and responsively.
I was also afraid of some of the reports that
cabin noise would be an issue. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ride was almost alarmingly quiet, not to mention smooth—not quite Lexus smooth, but much smoother than any other car I've owned. Rather than excited and giddy, a minute into driving I was...calm. Peaceful.
Oh, and the cherries on top? I saw a cone on the screen on the way home: so
it's got HW3. It came loaded with v10 already, and it updated itself to
2019.40.2 when I got home. I've got the latest and greatest.
Driving the Model 3 really does, like many people have said, feel similar to the leap from a flip phone to the first iPhone (which I had, incidentally). You feel like you're driving 10 years in the future.
In short, this has been by far the most positive car buying experience I've ever had, for the best car I've ever had. None of the horror stories I've heard on these forums and elsewhere came to pass. I wish everyone who is about to endure the end-of-year rush the best of luck and that you'll get the car of your dreams. Owning a Tesla has been my dream for the past five years, and it feels so good to have that one come true.