New (Model 3) owners - any surprises?

[MrBadger]

I normally research things far more than most, or perhaps I should. But still occasionally get surprised by something.

So any surprises with the car or service, good or bad?

 

[ewoodrick]

Just go buy one and the let the surprises be fun. As was just announced, essentially 100,000 people did so in the last 3 months.

Enjoy life, don't worry about it.

 

[BubblegumPete]

No real surprises as such although I have quite a few glitches with my car in terms of warnings coming up randomly for example 'Parking brake function degraded' Also Spotify and radio cutting out a lot! But I did a hard reset yesterday and so far it seems to of fixed it.

Another little surprise was how short the Supercharger cables are compared to petrol pumps. So if you need to use a super charger make sure you park as close as you can.

 

[cezdoc]

Another little surprise was how short the Supercharger cables are compared to petrol pumps. So if you need to use a super charger make sure you park as close as you can.

This is something you soon get used to, although I still have trouble parking my Model S straight!
AFAIK all newer Superchargers have bump strips so you just back in until you touch the strip. I guess the Model S and X are so long you get used to backing in as far as you can go, otherwise the front end will be sticking out.

Wouldn't it be great if Autopilot could park the car for you at a Supercharger? Not only would it make sure you're close enough for the cable to reach but it could automatically pick a non-paired bay, or if you had to share it could pick the one offering the fastest charge rate based on the charge status of the other car. The layout of each supercharger could be hard-wired, a bit like the Nav mapping, so no need for deep neural net learning.

 

[MrBadger]

Just go buy one and the let the surprises be fun. As was just announced, essentially 100,000 people did so in the last 3 months.

Enjoy life, don't worry about it.

already have. just doing my due diligence retrospectively. Need the car to last 12-15 years which is about 8-13 years longer than most people seem to keep cars for these days.

 

[pgkevet]

This is something you soon get used to, although I still have trouble parking my Model S straight!

I'm essentially frugal (aka mean) so when I use a (free for me) supercharger I need to park with the steering straight to pop my mobile on the binnacle for movie watching while I use my thermos and sarnies and read the paper - no way am I paying for overpriced naff coffee etc.
The trick is that you can reverse nicely with the rear camera and have all your lines straight but still find front of car yawing left or right..pull forward to straighten and go back again - worth it to see the binnacle without a steering spoke in the way . Although you would think autopark could handle superchargers by now without cars each side.
Apparently the biggest suprise is if you ding the car and wait weeks and weeks for parts...the other suprise is the price of them.

 

[BubblegumPete]

I'm essentially frugal (aka mean) so when I use a (free for me) supercharger I need to park with the steering straight to pop my mobile on the binnacle for movie watching while I use my thermos and sarnies and read the paper - no way am I paying for overpriced naff coffee etc.
The trick is that you can reverse nicely with the rear camera and have all your lines straight but still find front of car yawing left or right..pull forward to straighten and go back again - worth it to see the binnacle without a steering spoke in the way . Although you would think autopark could handle superchargers by now without cars each side.
Apparently the biggest suprise is if you ding the car and wait weeks and weeks for parts...the other suprise is the price of them.

I find the camera actually harder to use then just my mirrors. Every time I've used it so far I end up at an angle. I guess it's just a case of getting used to it?

 

[tess19]

No car is perfect. Mercedes recently had a massive recall but no publicity or their shares did not plummet. Tesla is still THE car to go for. I am waiting for mine. No VIN allocated yet.

 

[MrBadger]

I find the camera actually harder to use then just my mirrors. Every time I've used it so far I end up at an angle. I guess it's just a case of getting used to it?

I never got use to trying to parallel park straight a wedge shaped Smart car - and I owned that for over 14 years.

 

[gilscales]

I normally research things far more than most, or perhaps I should. But still occasionally get surprised by something.

So any surprises with the car or service, good or bad?

My biggest surprise is how great the car is overall and just how much I love it!, my favorite car by far and I have owned/leased a few cars that cost more but could not hold a candle to this one IMO.

 

[WannabeOwner]

any surprises with the car

There is no dedicated stalk for Cruise Control and as such no means of engaging CC at "current speed" as is common on other cars, and also no ability to "nudge" the CC by 1 MPH / 5 MPH. Only way is to press +/- on the screen ... and if you engage at 30 and want to drive at 30 its quite a long way to change the speed from National Speed Limit!

Work around that I have read (but not tried) is to keep foot on accelerator, after engaging CC, so that "you are overriding", adjust the speed, and then release the accelerator so CC can only then do its own thing.

I reckon this needs to be improved in an update (e.g. use button/thumb-wheel control on steering wheel)

surprises with the car - good

When delivery specialist trogged off to get something we did our microscopic PDI checks and found nothing wrong. When he returned we complained that we had found nothing! and that that was not the normal Tesla experience.

All joking apart he said (albeit Tesla folk not renowned for actually knowing chapter and verse ...) that there are very few faults found on M3, and in the end-June handover rush they had taken our car off the transporter, into washing, 30 minutes before we arrived. Winding the window down it came back up wet - so he was right on that point!

 

[Oddbin]

There is no dedicated stalk for Cruise Control and as such no means of engaging CC at "current speed" as is common on other cars, and also no ability to "nudge" the CC by 1 MPH / 5 MPH. Only way is to press +/- on the screen ... and if you engage at 30 and want to drive at 30 its quite a long way to change the speed from National Speed Limit!

Work around that I have read (but not tried) is to keep foot on accelerator, after engaging CC, so that "you are overriding", adjust the speed, and then release the accelerator so CC can only then do its own thing.

I reckon this needs to be improved in an update (e.g. use button/thumb-wheel control on steering wheel)

I thought the wheels toggled speed up/down and distance to the car in front? Or at least the US ones do. Does the car spot the speed limit changes because I thought that was supposed to be another way to jump speeds, by touching it?

 

[RjbT3]

There is no dedicated stalk for Cruise Control and as such no means of engaging CC at "current speed" as is common on other cars, and also no ability to "nudge" the CC by 1 MPH / 5 MPH. Only way is to press +/- on the screen ...

Wow! Very interesting. Reminds me of driving my wife's BMW after my Land Rover and realising how superior the CC and driver controls are. Hopefully Tesla will be able to improve that in an update!

 

[interbear]

There is no dedicated stalk for Cruise Control and as such no means of engaging CC at "current speed" as is common on other cars, and also no ability to "nudge" the CC by 1 MPH / 5 MPH. Only way is to press +/- on the screen ... and if you engage at 30 and want to drive at 30 its quite a long way to change the speed from National Speed Limit!

Work around that I have read (but not tried) is to keep foot on accelerator, after engaging CC, so that "you are overriding", adjust the speed, and then release the accelerator so CC can only then do its own thing.

I reckon this needs to be improved in an update (e.g. use button/thumb-wheel control on steering wheel)

Interesting. I use the cruise control stalk to nudge speed up or down all the time on my Audi. And I like he ability to start cruise control at whatever speed I’m currently driving. So not having that will take some getting used to. I gather the Tesla sets it at the prevailing speed limit, but what happens if the standard speed limit is 70mph but it’s one of those awfully long stretches of motorway where speed is limited to 50mph with loads of average speed cameras? I always use cruise control on those stretches of motorway.

Agree that being able to control it via the thumb-wheel control on the steering wheel makes sense.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I use the cruise control stalk to nudge speed up or down all the time on my Audi. And I like he ability to start cruise control at whatever speed I’m currently driving

me too I suspect an Update will improve this at some point. I'll ask my daughter how she is getting on with it and report back.

what happens if the standard speed limit is 70mph but it’s one of those awfully long stretches of motorway where speed is limited to 50mph with loads of average speed cameras?

The old AP1 could read the speed signs, AP2 onward doesn't, yet, but has a GPS database of speed limit locations. Unlike AP1, that's no good for temporary roadworks of course, and I have heard that the start-of-limit location isn't very accurate ... and of course a couple of hundred yards off is definitely the wrong side of the law! But maybe that will work OK on (non-temporary, non-gantry) speed-restricted sections

But my wish would be on car being able to read speed signs in a future update.

 

[-DB-]

I thought the wheels toggled speed up/down and distance to the car in front? Or at least the US ones do. Does the car spot the speed limit changes because I thought that was supposed to be another way to jump speeds, by touching it?

I though this also. Assume there isn’t a setting for it somewhere in the software?

Maybe US only at the minute.

 

[LukeT]

me too I suspect an Update will improve this at some point. I'll ask my daughter how she is getting on with it and report back.

I have a MS rather than M3 on order and that has the stalk but I'm reading this with interest. I hadn't realised the M3 had no stalk.

I'm another serial stalk/steering wheel button speed fiddler and can't get my head around the idea that one would have to wander off to a touch screen to do something like this.

I wonder what they will do with the refreshed S on this front given that in general its layout/controls seem to be heading the way of the 3. Can't work out whether this is a genuine negative or another in perception only. To lose the AP stalk in pursuit of a minimalist look seems pretty extreme.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Yes, the right scroll-wheel on the steering wheel changes the autopilot max speed. One notch per mph or flick it for 5mph chunks.
If you tap the speed limit sign on the screen, the autopilot max jumps straight to it (including any offset you have set)

Pushing the same scroll wheel left or right, changes the follow distance

 

[WannabeOwner]

I have a MS rather than M3 on order

OK, you're fine Dedicated Cruise Control stalk ... from memory:

Pull to engage, at current speed limit. Double-pull for AP

DOWN to engage at current speed

Pull and hold to change to current speed limit (e.g. when you come into 30 MPH zone)

Up/down short-nudge for 1 MPH adjustment, long-nudge for 5 MPH

To lose the AP stalk in pursuit of a minimalist look seems pretty extreme.

Might only be cost-saving on M3 ?

 

[Yev000]

According to the video guide on autopilot you can adjust cruise control speed with the scroll wheel on the steering wheel. As well as distance from the car in front.