Plaid For Daily Driving In San Francisco

[BluesOnPurpose]

Some context:
- Live in SF
- Drive to work every day (in SF, building I work at has a lot. Have a place to park at home too)
- Currently have a 2020 M3LR
- Looking at selling the M3 and getting a Plaid

Anyone have experience driving a Plaid/refreshed S in SF and any feedback on what it’s been like/regrets? I know it’s bigger, but it’s hard to imagine the day to day without living it. I think my work commute will be fine, but I’m curious about just driving around the city, trying to park on the street, etc. Has it been annoying at all, anything I should think about, or am I worried about nothing?

 

[WilliamG]

Model 3 is far, far easier for driving in busy town, and far easier to manually park (yoke is less easy to manage in tight environments etc). The S is a longer, wider, heavier car than the 3, and you feel it in every aspect of the drive. I moved from a 3 to an S, and while the S is better in just about every way for me (more comfortable, faster, quieter, more supple suspension feel, - if you're spending most of your time navigating tight traffic and tight turns, and trying to park on the street, just be sure this is the car for you.

 

[DayTrippin]

Don't live in the Bay Area anymore. I have a '22 M3LR and '22 Model S LR. Hands down, I would not go with the S in the city. I live in Dallas now and everything that I like about the S over the 3 makes it a liability in dense traffic and narrow streets.

The nose is VERY easy to scrape on the S. Only when it is in the max height position, which is speed limited, does it even remotely come close to giving the clearance of the M3 in normal driving. The car is even worse to see out the windows but the big screen for rear view camera is nice. The power of the Plaid is wasted in the city. The base LR will be pretty much just as quick as the Plaid in daily traffic and still is very fast when you can open it up.

Most of the time I get to work faster in my 3 than the S as it can make gaps the S can't in traffic. If I had to drive only in densely congested traffic, I would sell the S and keep the 3. Don't even want to get into the yoke discussion, but just purely on point and shoot, managing approach and departure angles (dips in the road), ease of parking, and on a few other things, the 3 is the superior urban sedan. Efficiency in the city for the 3 is far better.

Every time I can get out the let the S stretch its legs, I forget about the 3. The S is more of a GT car for my purposes. I loaded it up with an incredible amount of stuff for family, dog, gear, and more for vacation and it handled it all like an SUV and was still stupid quick. I could easily go 300 miles on a full charge going over 75 mph with the AC on full blast in very hot weather. A lot of love about the S but city traffic during rush hour is not on my list of faves.

 

[ucmndd]

I hate driving my S in SF. If I lived there I wouldn’t own one.

 

[BluesOnPurpose]

…Every time I can get out the let the S stretch its legs, I forget about the 3. The S is more of a GT car for my purposes. I loaded it up with an incredible amount of stuff for family, dog, gear, and more for vacation and it handled it all like an SUV and was still stupid quick. I could easily go 300 miles on a full charge going over 75 mph with the AC on full blast in very hot weather. A lot of love about the S but city traffic during rush hour is not on my list of faves.

This is the heart of my conundrum. I need to drive to work but switching to an S is more about the added comfort + enjoyment driving when getting out of the city (quite often) and/or with people in the backseat (also kind of hate the 3 suspension, though part of that is the quality of SF streets that you'll feel on any car). It does sound like consensus is the 3 is better for most of the situation though, still tempted to try out the S.

 

[HP Man]

If feasible, you may want to rent an S for a day or two. The refreshed S is a very wide car and makes tight turns and narrow streets a bit of a pain. That said, the comfort is far beyond a M3 or MY. Only you will know if for you the maneuverability hassle on narrow streets / congested traffic is too much to handle.

 

[voltage]

I got rid of my 3 for a S almost three years ago. Never any regret. It’s just a better overall car for me. I hated the jarring ride of the 3. I could never get comfortable in that car. To me it would be worth the switch even if it’s harder to get around in the city.

 

[BluesOnPurpose]

Ha, and of course, my Aug-Sep delivery just got randomly bumped to the week.

 

[BluesOnPurpose]

*this

 

[Hayseed_MS]

Why not get one on Turo for a few days?

 

[BluesOnPurpose]

Why not get one on Turo for a few days?

Oh duh, found one available in the next couple of days. Have to delay my delivery probably. But I am a little worried about f*cking it up while testing (scratching bumper, etc) if that is indeed one of the likely annoyances of driving it in SF.

 

[vcor]

I'm in the bay area and drive into SF on occasion. Never had any problems but to be fair, I never drive in during rush hour. That has little to do with the S and just my hate of rush hour traffic. A few times having a Mini or some other micro car could be handy for street parking, but seems 80% of the vehicles are as big if not larger than the S and make do. Street parking is always the largest hassle if SF, but not sure the difference between the 3 and S is that large.

 

[3Volts2aTes]

Oh duh, found one available in the next couple of days. Have to delay my delivery probably. But I am a little worried about f*cking it up while testing (scratching bumper, etc) if that is indeed one of the likely annoyances of driving it in SF.

Hate to say it like this, but that is the risk when one is rented. Use your best care, naturally - but you would feel far worse having the same thing happen to your brand new one, and knowing it would keep happening.

That being said, it is going to be interesting seeing your decisions. It seems for your case the 3 is much better suited to the daily use, so the question is if the comfort and smiles when you get out of town worth the added inconvenience in daily routines. The nice thing about daily routines even with inconveniences…they do become background noise pretty quickly.

 

[Aggmeister2010]

Model 3.

 

[BluesOnPurpose]

Accepted delivery. Adore the look, interior, ride quality, and speed on the open road, out of the city. It’s definitely bigger but not awkwardly so. In the city, I mostly drive on the same roads as MUNI buses and trucks, so the size is really not that noticeable at all. No regrets and not going back to the Model 3.

Had what one could call a major build issue, am stuck with a loaner Y while they fix it. Missing it already.

 

[xxaarraa]

Welcome. The S ride quality is sublime and that alone makes the trade-off worthwhile. Not to mention the really bland styling of the 3/Y.

 

[vcor]

Congrats on your new S. Considering it seems 50% of the cars in SF are trucks or SUVs, the S will be easy to deal with.

 

[RSpanner]

Get a beater or take BART. leave the S for when you want to get away.
ex-bay area native.

 

[WilliamG]

Accepted delivery. Adore the look, interior, ride quality, and speed on the open road, out of the city. It’s definitely bigger but not awkwardly so. In the city, I mostly drive on the same roads as MUNI buses and trucks, so the size is really not that noticeable at all. No regrets and not going back to the Model 3.

Had what one could call a major build issue, am stuck with a loaner Y while they fix it. Missing it already.

What was wrong with the car? And congrats (I think!) on the new S!

 

[BluesOnPurpose]

What was wrong with the car? And congrats (I think!) on the new S!

Rear bumper wasn’t attached properly and flew off when I was on the freeway. Scary as all hell. No one/thing was hurt fortunately (except for the bumper, of course). Went back and they took it into to fix immediately, but they won’t have the replacement part til next week. Needless to say, it has fully balanced out every bit of joy I got from receiving the car.