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Quick Model 3 Review - The Best Car I've Ever Owned, With The Most Issues I've Ever Had In A Car.

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Sounds like a oxymoron, right?

I'll give you a quick introduction as to who I am. I've previously owned a new 2014 Camaro SS 1LE and 2020 Veloster N. Sold the Camaro after 6 years, sold the Veloster after 1. Both great cars in their own right, both never had any real issues. The camaro had a weird hum from the driver's side mirror at around 40 mph but nothing that was annoying. The Veloster, although the interior could've had higher quality materials, was absolutely rock solid. No problems and no rattles whatsoever.

I have days worth of experience with my dad's 2021 C8 Corvette Z51, my special others BMW 135I, and some SUV's here and there.

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The Good
The Model 3 is hands down the best car I've ever experienced. I have a 2021 Dual Motor (NOT performance) with a white interior. No accel boost or FSD.. yet. Not only is it beautiful to look at, but the driveline is just heaven on wheels. I thought I would miss the sound of a rumbly V8 car, or the backfire pops of a turbo, but actually the M3 is car enough to make those two other cars look primitive. I love the instant power, I love the simplistic instruments-in-a-screen approach, I think the sound system is the best in the world. I drove my dad's Corvette recently and amazingly the Model 3 made me feel like the driveline was clunky on it, even though it's a high-end corvette. The sound is great for the first WOT or two but after that I kind of missed my car.

All the other goods I can share are basically well-known between all of us. Maintenance costs, charging from home, the mobile theater hub, etc. All amazing features. All things I can talk about all day.

Do not be mistaken that the paragraphs below are longer than the Goods, and by thinking that this means I have more negatives to say than positives. They are only longer because they are more elaborate.

The "Meh"
Not having Android Auto took me a good while to get used to. I would use that sucker all day long in the Veloster. The coolest thing about it was being able to ask questions like "when does this store close" and "is it going to rain today" all by just saying "Hey google" and the car responding accordingly. Unfortunately for me, the voice commands of the Tesla feel kind of lackluster compared to it.

I also am not thrilled with the Spotify app. Half the time I enter the car, Spotify is in the middle of crashing and wont play anything for a few minutes. Not having Pandora is both a blessing and a curse.

I've also been locked out of my car once, when the mobile app was down, even after restarting the phone, and clearing data / cookies in the app. Thank god I had my card on me or else I would've been stranded.

Maybe there is a way to do this, but I wish I could turn off the auto high beams on autopilot. It's weird almost flashing people in front of me when it's dark outside and I have no control over it.

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The Bad
Wow have I never experienced a brand new car with so many issues. I get loud rattles from the driver's side wheel well, passenger's side wheel well, front driver's side dash, and rear seats (although admittedly, the rear seat rattles aren't that bad). The hood was way out of alignment. multiple areas of trim were falling apart on the driver's side. I have some other bizarre issues such as an AC vent not working, and a loud chirping noise coming from the front of the car sometimes. This car is only 3 months old!!

The turn signal & gear stocks feel downright non responsive at times and that is somewhat annoying.

Tesla service has been okay. In the 3 months i've owned this car, i've now had to contact Tesla 3 separate times for random fixes. Getting an appointment is simple enough and the staff is friendly. My last visit they didn't fix everything, even though the invoice said they did, and I found that to be irritating.

End Summary
Do you know of a 4 door car that does a consistent 0-60 in 4.2 seconds and has the maintenance cost of a Camry? Whilst also costing around 50k? What about a car that does 0-60 in 3.8 for only 2 grand more? If you do, kindly point me in the right direction.. that's actually a challenge I'm presenting you with lol.

It's a great car and I'll still recommend it to people. I just hate it when people ask me how I like it. Because I gloat like a madman, and then I mention that i've had my fair share of build quality issues with it thus far. People give me the funniest look, but ultimately they wont understand until they experience it themselves.

At least the problems are covered under warranty. For now.

(“2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance AWD Front” and “2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance AWD Rear” by Vauxford are licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.)
 
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Hmmm...are you certain? Has always seemed to me they use Google Maps traffic. You can open up Google Maps on your phone and compare to the in car navigation and the traffic info always looks identical down to the minutia.


So it's actually kinda weird... the color on the traffic that displays is google.

But Tesla doesn't actually use THAT traffic data to navigate, it uses other stuff.
(It does appear the tomtom stuff is gone now though)


 
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So it's actually kinda weird... the color on the traffic that displays is google.

But Tesla doesn't actually use THAT traffic data to navigate, it uses other stuff.
(It does appear the tomtom stuff is gone now though)


Ok this definitely makes a lot of sense to me now. I don't usually use the in car navigation for routing but I do look at it or Google Maps on my phone to see where the slowdowns are.
 
Who needs spotify, Android and 'Hey Google'? Why use mobile app when you have two cards? Unspecified rattles from seemingly everywhere and signal stocks downright unresponsive! What? All vehicles differ and take time to get used to.
After about the same time of ownership of our used 3LR from Japan we love our Chichi and have made a number of minor repairs and improvements simply because I'm a fussy retired aircraft engineer. Chichi is utterly smooth and quiet on all but the roughest chip surfaces.
Are we extra lucky? Enjoy the good and very good; tolerate the rest with good homour.
I'm not trying to be a dick, but you're being willfully ignorant to the fact that Tesla still can't put a vehicle together consistently, and after nearly 4 years of Model 3 production, these continually repeated issues should have been sorted out, instead of relying on the consumer to 'get used to'. Tesla is way too focused on meeting quarterly sales goals and pushing out half-baked vehicles with garbage quality control from a 60 year old factory and relying on overworked service centers to fix their ****-ups. The build quality of every 3 I've been in is roughly at par with late 90's Kia/Hyundai.
 
To each their own, but in my experience this car is junk. Feels like I bought and am driving someone’s college science project. The tech is cool, but as a car it gets a zero. I’ve had so many stupid issues and now my roof glass has a stress fracture. And my car is 4 months old with 1,000 miles. My local SC is also incompetent and slow AF. Sad to say, but this was the single worst purchase decision I have ever made.
Hot take
 
Trying to use this blog to learn more about the car. When I see this it makes me hesitate to buy. I am concerned about quality issues for a car that is priced similar to German luxury brands. Panel gaps and lack of 360 camera are few items.
If you are really picky about quality, this is definitely the wrong car for you...lol. For many, the overall experience outweighs the negatives but its not the perfect car for everyone. My prior Lexus had much better quality.
 
My last three cars were popular sport coupe/sedans. There is no comparison in terms of performance, handling dynamics, etc., compared to the M3P. In terms of performance for the $, the M3P is a 10/10 in my book.

However, as good as the performance is, the quality is nearly as bad, IMHO. I've had too many issues including rattles, multiple trips to service for the same issues that are only fixed temporarily (steering column squeak, TPMS), issues that aren't correctible (horizontal headlight alignment) or are not considered issues by Tesla, (phone key issues, window regulators) etc...

With used car prices the way they are, I was thinking about selling this (taking an acceptable hit) and getting the same now that it has been out for over 3 years now. I had a new loaner a few weeks ago and liked what the HW3 does for the display, the charging pad, basic AP, etc... But, it also had the same rear seat rattle that mine did (until I fixed it, for the most part.)

With all that said, I don't know what I'm going to do in terms of keeping/getting a new M3P or a different make. The performance washes away a lot of the sins but not all of them. One thing seems to be certain about quality being hit or miss (from the posts here and one of my best friends, who bought his LR a few months after me who's had ~1/3 of the issues that I've had...)
 
I have a 2018 LR RWD and love the car but I've had about ~30 service appointments for various things over the last 2.5 years. All of the issues are minor and mostly related to fit and finish so they didn't prevent me from driving the car but it's very frustrating to always be fixing little issues.

But, it also had the same rear seat rattle that mine did (until I fixed it, for the most part.)

My biggest annoyances with the car has been all the creaks, buzzing, and rattles. I've spent an insane amount of time trying to fix all of these but still have a persistent rear passenger side rattle/buzz. I've tried quite a few things but what was your fix for that @al503 ?

I'm hoping the new MYLR has much better build quality but I have to admit I was a bit disheartened when I test drove one (69XXX VIN) and there was a loud rattle coming from the rear. I'd literally give up some features for a quieter cabin but Tesla seems to really struggle with that.
 
It sounds like some owners have had really negative experiences. My only issue was that the weather stripping was bad on a door from the factory and the FM module went out in the first month of ownership. Other than that and a couple persistent rattles (i gave up fixing those), its been great. Overall quality is okay...reminds me of a GM product but certainly not luxurious. Overall, the total cost of ownership and the ability to smoke almost anything from a dig are worth the other issues for me :D
 
I have a 2018 LR RWD and love the car but I've had about ~30 service appointments for various things over the last 2.5 years.
Oh my. I'm right around 10 visits but I've been bundling/waiting for more than one or two issues to crop up before each visit.

In terms of the fix for the rear seat back, I believe there are a couple of threads on this. I put some adhesive rubber furniture pads to act as spacers between the top of the seat backs and the frame where the seatbacks latch in. That helped but didn't solve it completely. I then took some leftover felt tape that I got for the B pillar seat belt height adjustment covers and wrapped the actual square metal latches. That helped for a while but now it seems like the entire rear decklid is rattling. (I can push the decklid down and it seems to adhere to something for a split second before popping loose. A heavy sandbag on it stops that rattle.) Not sure how I'm going to figure that one out. Since I'm thinking about selling and replacing, I might just live with it.
 
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Some people have had bad luck. My experience (a late 2018 Midrange M3) has been very good. It's the best car I've ever had in every way. My only complaint is that it's not more free of road noise. I'd prefer if it was, but it's not. And it's not something that's primary for me compared to the positives. But then again, I wasn't expecting a coddling cushioned old-folks-mobile. It's a lean, low to the ground, sports sedan, and my car hasn't had anything wrong with it. No misaligned stuff, everything works fine.

I used to lean on the display to do everything, but now I use mostly voice commands. The voice commands aren't elaborate, but they OK. If I ask for say hardware stores, it shows them with hours of operation, I tap on one, and it navigates there. On music requests it takes more tries, but it's usable.

I wonder how this works. Some people seem to add up a bunch of assembly and ergonomics flaws, and end up saying it's a POS. Which surprises me no end. Is it just a matter of the sheer count of their panel gaps and squeaks reaching critical mass, or their very high standards, or their desire for a more padded cushmobile, or just personality/irritability/resentment/anger? Or maybe people who don't use the automation/autopilot/NOA, that you can't get on any other vehicle, who treat it strictly as a regular car, and so they focus on build details?
 
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I think some of you are taking for granted that the other auto manufacturers you're comparing Tesla with have had many, many decades to sort these types of issues out.

Tesla doesn't make a perfect car (no one does), but if I could have any car in the world, it'd be the one I have (M3LR).
Exactly. Other companies deliver cars with issues all of the time. My previous car was a new 2017 Volvo S60. It had more delivery issues than the M3 I picked up in September.

Some of it is luck.
 
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FWIW I had to take my bought-new Lexus to the dealer for fit and finish problems more than I've had to have a mobile service guy come to my house for them on my Model 3.

(3 times on the Lexus-- 1 time on the Tesla).
 
In terms of the fix for the rear seat back, I believe there are a couple of threads on this. I put some adhesive rubber furniture pads to act as spacers between the top of the seat backs and the frame where the seatbacks latch in. That helped but didn't solve it completely. I then took some leftover felt tape that I got for the B pillar seat belt height adjustment covers and wrapped the actual square metal latches. That helped for a while but now it seems like the entire rear decklid is rattling. (I can push the decklid down and it seems to adhere to something for a split second before popping loose. A heavy sandbag on it stops that rattle.) Not sure how I'm going to figure that one out. Since I'm thinking about selling and replacing, I might just live with it.
Looks like we've tried the same things. I have the same suspicion that rear deck lid is the problem. I've lifted it up to see if anything was loose and sound deaden the metal but it didn't help much. When I push down I hear on the rear deck it sounds like the adhesive has failed and makes a crunching sound as it sticks/unsticks to the metal beneath.

I've also mostly given up on fixing it after trying ~10 different things since I'm upgrading to a MY. I really hope the build quality is a lot better now.
 
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