Model 3 LR RWD - One Year In

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I'm not saying that features like NoA deserves an "automatic check mark". It's definitely got tons of issues. I just have grown to learn which areas it makes sense to use it and which segments of road it just cannot handle at all. I do not believe the current iteration of NoA is ready for confirmation-less automatic lane changes and Tesla is going to have to show some substantial improvements with it before I would ever trust it.



Geez, electricity rates in MA are that high?? I pay $0.12 per kWh on average for the whole year in NJ. So compared to my previous car, 2012 Ford Mustang, my 3 costs a whole 2/3 less to fuel for the same driving distance per month. And insurance varies so greatly from person to person so you can't really count that as a strike against the 3. Compared to my Mustang my 3 only costs around $15 more a month to insure for the same coverage. Not too bad since it's almost twice the MSRP.

I'm not living in a bubble and totally recognize that there are some glaring major issues Tesla still needs to fix. But it used to be much worse. A year ago I had to regularly reboot the screen, the display would crash constantly or there would be other strange behaviors that would require a reboot. A year later the systems in the car are much more stable. In my opinion there have been many more improvements and fixes introduced than new bugs over the past 12 months.

Yeah, I never realized how much more electricity is in MA compared to other parts of the country. I obviously didn't do my homework. A friend ran the numbers shortly after I got the car, he owns a Prius, and said there is no way he could financially justify it, even the base model. BTW Electricity rates are worse in CA. There are some towns in MA that are cheap that somehow have started their own utility companies.

I got the car shortly before V9 and they also put in some horrible hacks for cold weather, which I really wish they made optional. It made things 10x worse. So you may have seen a better progression from your starting point than mine.

You're numbers make sense to me at $0.12 / kWh compared to a running a Mustang. Mustang's probably are not cheap to insure either

I looked past the insurance etc. thinking I'll get it all back in fuel savings. Ugh.

So the only big "bonus" left on the car, for me, is Auto Pilot. And I think we agree where that stands right now.

 

[tom29928]

One year ago today I picked up my Model 3 LR RWD from Tesla and I haven't regretted my decision at all since then. This is without a doubt the best car I have ever owned. I will never be going back to ICE again.

I've got a pretty low VIN in the 7000s and was probably among the first Tesla non-owners in NJ to receive their Model 3. Being that my Model 3 was built very early in the production ramp I was prepared for some issues. I've definitely had my fair share but Tesla was very quick to fix all of my issues, many of which were minor.

The sheer amount of software updates that my Model 3 has received since I got it is quite staggering. I'm sure I'll miss a few things but these are all of the software features or tweaks I can think of that were introduced after I received my Model 3 one year ago:

• Summon
• Rear seat heaters (GUI to turn these on did not exist when I got my car)
• Wi-Fi (could only connect to LTE when I got my car)
• Dog Mode
• Sentry Mode
• TeslaCam dash camera
• Navigate on Autopilot
• Control following distance from scroll wheel (you had to do this from the touch screen when I first got my car)
• 5% peak power increase
• 5% range increase
• Automatic hi-beam
• Showing vehicles in adjacent lanes on the touchscreen
• Show different types of vehicles as well as pedestrians and bicycles on the touchscreen
• Cabin overheat protection
• Lock/unlock confirmation beep
• PIN to drive
• Tesla account credentials required to disable mobile access
• Atari games
• Send addresses to navigation from phone
• Initiate software updates from Tesla mobile app
• Media controls from Tesla mobile app
• Set rear seats as child seats to disable seat belt warnings
• Redesign of "cards" for wipers / tire pressure on screen
• App launcher including web browser, calendar integration and energy graph
• Blind spot monitoring
• Updated HVAC interface
• Add/remove key cards yourself
• Cold weather improvements (charge port locking behavior and battery warming)
• Romance mode
• Emissions testing mode (farts)
• Location based automatic mirror folding

As you can see that list is quite impressive. Anyway, that's all of the good. Here are all of the issues I've experienced, all of which have been fixed though:

• Charge port door replaced two times
  • 1st due to water intrusion from washing my car causing the door to randomly open and close on its own
  • 2nd due to a weird charging error I received when I was plugged in to a public charger and also the diamond plastic piece fell off
• Aero shield replaced
  • Drove through a puddle and part of the aero shield ripped; several others here have experienced the same thing
• Rear tail lights replaced due to condensation build up
• Passenger mirror assembly replaced because the black triangle piece on it had come loose and was causing lots of wind noise
• Prolonged period of time where the audio output from the subwoofer was subpar or non-existant; software updates seem to have resolved this

As I mentioned I was prepared to deal with a few issues since my Model 3 was such an early build. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't change a thing. This past year with my Model 3 has been absolutely fantastic and I look forward to driving it for many more years to come.