Rain, Weather and Tesla Model 3

[RickW]

Hello,

This is my first post. I live in the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot. Could someone who has held on to a Tesla Model 3 or other Tesla product for over a year tell me about the effect of persistent rain on the surface paint and under carriage (corrosion, rust, etc)?
I have been seeing pictures of broken suspensions and a Finnish video on eroding paint after about 800 miles.

I want to purchase a LR Model 3 but worried about the workmanship and how it will hold up to the Northwest weather. Additionally, can the undercarriage and metal parts be protected against persistent water/snow? Thank you.

 

[M109Rider]

Hello,

This is my first post. I live in the Pacific Northwest where it rains a lot. Could someone who has held on to a Tesla Model 3 or other Tesla product for over a year tell me about the effect of persistent rain on the surface paint and under carriage (corrosion, rust, etc)?
I have been seeing pictures of broken suspensions and a Finnish video on eroding paint after about 800 miles.

I want to purchase a LR Model 3 but worried about the workmanship and how it will hold up to the Northwest weather. Additionally, can the undercarriage and metal parts be protected against persistent water/snow? Thank you.

I live in the north east, where winters are nasty, and we get a good amount of rain in the summer.
I was concerned about rust as well, but being through a full winter here, where they dump salt all over the place, I can say I’ve seen no corrosion of any kind.
I’ve had the wheels off several times for rotation, and saw no corrosion.

I’m almost a year into ownership, with almost 30,000 miles. 48,000 Km’s.

Seems like the conditions here are as bad as it could get and rain and salt have had no impact so far.

 

[Fernand]

There was that one guy who drove on dirt roads
daily, and mud had baked under the rear "shield".
It caused no problem other than adding some
significant weight, so he was going to take that
shield off yearly and remove these Sumerian clay
tablets. But his undercarriage was fine, his dad's
a car pro, and he even thought the brakes were
new.
It's probably like Jay Leno says, "3 years, no fluids,
no maintenance, nothin'. Electric's the future."
As to the paint, do some research and when the
car's brand new, apply some DIY coating, like
maybe a Quartz UK, that's been shown to last
a couple of years+, then a nice carnauba wax
for sensuality. Develop a technique to keep it in
good condition without a lot of work, ONR is
popular, and you should be a happy Tesla driver.
Unless you're one of the occasional unluckies,
the build quality has been fine. The car doesn't
have a lot of parts, and it sort of snaps together
like a Lego. That also makes it easy to make
mods and get at the insides.