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My experience

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I don’t know the etiquette but I’m cross posting this on this website and the Tesla owner forums because I think it’s important for people to get firsthand accounts of the Tesla ordering and delivery experience. Also, I’m guessing many people had the same thoughts/reservations I did when considering a new Model 3.

Here is some background (you can skip this paragraph if you aren’t interested): I am an electric car enthusiast but was never able to buy one because I travel about 90-100 miles a day. I have owned a Prius for 8 years and 210,000 miles, then an Accord Hybrid. When my oldest son got his license two years ago I decided to buy a new car even though the Accord was only three years old and let him use the Accord. I desperately wanted to go electric but the Model S was $90,000 and the Leaf had only about 100 mile range. I ended up buying a Prius Prime which got about 25 miles of electric range and then a 55 MPG. I can charge at work so I was basically driving about half my weekday miles on electric. I was happy with the car and could have easily kept it for 10 more years.

I decided to finally upgrade to a fully electric vehicle. The reason for writing this isn’t just to introduce myself but to write about what I went through with ordering and picking up the vehicle. I’m sure some people have had great experiences and some have had worse ones but this is just one individual’s experience picking up a Model 3 this past week in NY (Long Island).

As expected, ordering the car could not have been easier. I could have ordered it online in 5 seconds (As most people who end up buying one, I probably configured it on the website 50 times over the last few months) but wanted to go into the store to ask questions about the rumors I heard about free supercharging and possible upgrades (I really wanted white paint and black interior with 18 inch wheels so I wasn’t looking for upgrades anyway). I went to the Manhasset, NY store and they explained the very limited circumstances you can get upgrades but confirmed the 2 year supercharging if I took delivery by the end of the quarter. Most importantly, they had the configuration I wanted in New Jersey and said they could get it in a week. No pressure. No sales manager. No up-sell in any way.

I then had to go through the post ordering process. I financed through Tesla and had them take a payoff my Prius Prime. I have read horror stories about how poorly organized Tesla is once you order the car, how unresponsive they are, how they mess up the financing documents, how they mess up the car payoffs, etc. All I can say is my experience was so perfect from start to finish that it would put any regular car dealership to shame. In one week (and I don’t know how some of you handle going weeks or longer waiting because I was going crazy) they emailed me two or three times and called me. Financing was quick and easy. They assumed I was going to put down a certain amount of money and when I saw the docs I told them I wanted to put down a larger down payment. 30 minutes later the updated documents with the updated numbers appeared in my account. I uploaded all the documents they requested. Literally, the only hitch was because of my insurance carrier and the Manhasset document specialist (Ricki) told me that she would call them directly (ON HER DAY OFF) and take care of it (which she did). Most of my contact with Tesla was through email or text and I never want to buy a car the old way ever again. Every contact with them was overwhelmingly positive. This could not have been an easier or more enjoyable experience.

They called me over the weekend to schedule pickup for 10am yesterday. I told them I couldn’t make it at 10. They said they were really busy this week but could do at 2pm. Again, no problem accommodating my request.

I also heard horror stories about the pickup process and how rushed it can be. Stories about people being given the car and told to read the manual. Stories about people being given 5 minutes with the car and no information. Again, my experience was completely opposite. They told me ahead of time they were delivering 20-25 cars a day this week so I expected the worst. My sales rep Brittany was excited to see me (she knew how badly I wanted this car) and they had someone switch my plates, and go over every aspect of the car. It took more than 30 minutes for him to go over the car. I probably didn’t need so much detail because I’ve been reading these forums forever but he kept showing me every menu, every part of the car. It was just a fantastic experience.

Also VERY important- before he went over the details of the car I asked for some extended time to go over the car myself. I had a five page checklist that I downloaded from the internet for what to review with a new Model 3. He obviously had other owners coming in but had no problem giving me as much time as I wanted. The checklist is crazy long and crazy detailed but we’ve all read the stories about large panel gaps and unpainted surfaces and all the delivery problems. I’m not a “bring a caliper with you” type of person but if I’m spending this much for a car I want to be correct and I want anything wrong noted and fixed. The car was PERFECT. Again- PERFECT. Panels were perfect, White paint perfect. Interior seats perfect. Doors perfect. Windows perfect. Everything was perfect. In all honesty, I expect a new car to not have any issues. The ordering and delivery process was better than any car dealer I ever experienced. The condition of the new car was exactly like every new car I ever bought- not one blemish or imperfection.

As for the car itself, I always read how people love the Tesla experience. I test drove the car but nothing prepared me for how I feel right now. I haven’t stopped smiling for the past two days. I had very high expectations and the car has exceeded all of them. Today I was at a light next to another Model 3 owner. I told him I just got mine. He said “six months in and I still love it as much as the day I bought it”.

I could not be happier.
 
Congratulations on the purchase. I think most people’s experience is similar to yours but people don’t often take the time to post when they have a good experience.

I had a very similar experience with three Model 3 deliveries this year. The cars were perfect, and the reps were extremely professional and pleasant to deal with.

I also had two deliveries where the experience was not quite so good. But 3/5 is still pretty darn good!

And regardless of your delivery experience, virtually everyone on this forum continues to be thrilled with their Model 3 and considers it to be the best car they have ever owned. So enjoy your car for many years to come and welcome to the Tesla family!
 
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Haha, awesome! My experience was exactly the opposite, but I still love my car!

4 months waiting, home delivery at a rest stop, ZERO SOC! no chargers at the rest stop, had to push the car back on to the carrier, and take it to another rest stop with chargers! I changed my own license plates! Inspected/looked at my car under streetlights at a supercharger, woohoo! Thank goodness, I'm not too picky.
 
Picked up a new one this past week and my experience for the most part mirrors yours.
At times some parts of the process felt a little foreign but nothing a little patience could not cure.
Definitely a positive experience and a perma smile still when driving it.
 
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I had a similar experience. They allowed us to take our time and go over the car. After reading some of the horror stories here, we brought a checklist, flashlight, and my wife went over the car with a fine toothed comb while the DA went over the features with me. She found a few very minor issues, including a couple of glue over runs. The DA drove the car back to detailing and they were taken care of right then and there.

I have never been a car person and always just valued comfort, luxury, and reliability. However, this car is just so much fun! I'm now in my second month of ownership and love driving for the first time in my life!!
 
I had a similar experience. They allowed us to take our time and go over the car. After reading some of the horror stories here, we brought a checklist, flashlight, and my wife went over the car with a fine toothed comb while the DA went over the features with me. She found a few very minor issues, including a couple of glue over runs. The DA drove the car back to detailing and they were taken care of right then and there.
What FL center did you take delivery from? I had a good experience at Dania Beach and will be there again soon for another 3 pickup.
 
Thanks for taking the time to share your purchase/delivery experience. I'm sure it's helpful as well to those still waiting to pick up their cars. It's a big purchase and people are understandably anxious about it and reading the forums probably makes you even more so--we were joking about it at one point and someone here even came up with a name for it. Even if one's communications isn't as smooth as yours pretty much everyone agrees that the car is worth the wait.

For someone who ordered and then waited about 3 months for delivery (actually similar times for both of our cars--guess our order timeframe, 12/31/16 and 6/26/18, was just bad as we are in California and so generally end of quarter delivery), I can tell you the last few weeks had you checking emails every day, sometimes multiple times a day. All you guys ordering now are fortunate that production is way up from when I ordered mine and had to wait for the 100,000s of orders before mine to even get an "invite" to place my actual order above the reservation order. So that was two wait windows for the Model 3 when I ordered mine. I just passed my one year anniversary since delivery and it's true for me too, love the car still, even more than the first day I got to drive it. Well congrats on the new car and hope your one year is just as enjoyable. Now the real fun starts.


BTW if you are talking about posting over at Tesla.com's owners' forum, that is completely separate from this site. There are members here that post there too but I don't think posting in both places is exactly considered cross-posting as a result.
 
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I had a positive experience too. Ordered it in mid-July and picked up 7/26. The delivery specialist or DA contacted my via email and text with delivery dates and updates. I asked him to make sure the software was updated for performance and he did it within a day. I knew of the checklist, but was too excited and forgot to bring it with me. My wife and I went through it carefully, and only found some stickers and it took them quite some effort to remove them. The paint was perfect. I forgot to check the panel gaps :(
After a few weeks I found that trunk and back lights were not aligned very well, but not visible unless you touch both sides to feel the gaps etc. I decided to let go and live with it afraid that they may mess up the paint etc. Not sure if it's easy fix. I may ask them to check someday when I go to the SC.
Overall great experience and great car!
 
I just had a good delivery experience today at the Devon, PA location. Didn't find any flaws, paint or otherwise; they had everything ready to go so the paperwork and signing took about 10 minutes; they only gently tried to hurry me and were polite about it; and a guy gave me a long walkthrough before I left. Helped me set up the app, pair my phone and cards, showed me the important features, and answered my questions.

Timeline: ordered 9/17; on 9/18 was offered 9/20 or 9/23 delivery; accepted 9/23 delivery; rescheduled delivery to 9/27 due to financing not being ready (financed at 1.99% through Allegacy). Long range dual motor, white, black interior, 19 in wheels (upgraded at no cost).
 
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I just had a good delivery experience today at the Devon, PA location. Didn't find any flaws, paint or otherwise; they had everything ready to go so the paperwork and signing took about 10 minutes; they only gently tried to hurry me and were polite about it; and a guy gave me a long walkthrough before I left. Helped me set up the app, pair my phone and cards, showed me the important features, and answered my questions.

Glad to hear you had a good delivery experience today - congrats on the car !
 
Can someone please explain to me about some of the deliveries? A few post down someone had one delivered to them at a rest stop, I heard someone had it delivered to the back of a Wal-Mart.
I don't understand this why would this be happening instead of picking it up at the store??