I just traded in my manual 2006 e90 325xi last Friday for a model 3 with 19" sport wheels.
I can make very similar comparisons between the two. (I also love my Tesla so far)
My BMW wasn't particularly quick (I think it had 215 hp) so the Tesla is certainly much quicker. I agree with@voip-ninja that while the model 3 is quick from a stop, where you really notice the acceleration is when you are already at speed. It's very impressive how much passing acceleration there is when going 50. The other really noticeable thing is how smooth everything is. I never realized how much of the vibration in an ICE comes from the engine (even after reading everybody mentioning it) Its funny even though the car is fast, the smoothness makes me want to drive it slow while trying to be as smooth as possible. I'm still training my brain to be as smooth with one pedal driving and regen.
I also found out that my kids are keenly comparing my speed to the speed limit shown on the screen. My son was giving me a hard time for going 27 in a 25 zone.
Regarding the seats, The Tesla seats are definitely much softer than the sport seats I had in my BMW. I've noticed that BMW's generally seem to have seats with what feels like thick firm leather. I've always found them very nice, but some people may think they are too firm. I also really like the extendable thigh support that the BMW seats had.
All that being said, I think the Tesla seats are very comfortable. They are just different. The ultra leather material (or whatever it is) is much more compliant than the leather BMW uses. The ultra leather is also much smoother than traditional leather. It doesn't have the texture or grain of real leather, and I think that's what people expect in a nice seat or steering wheel, so when it's not there my initial reaction is to think its inferior, but I'm not really sure that's true.
The Tesla seats seem to be very supportive, so that's good. They have good side bolstering, but are a bit wider than my BMW. I haven't gone on a long drive yet so we'll see how they feel for a 4 or 5 hour drive. The big question mark for me is how the ultra leather material will hold up long term. My 12 year old BMW seats still looked great when I traded it in. They had no cracks and just the slightest amount of wear on the side bolster from sliding in and out. All I did for maintenance was to use leather cleaner and conditioner about twice a year. Which reminds me I need to figure out what product to use on this synthetic material.
As far as other cabin materials, I actually think the Tesla materials are quite nice and compare favorably to at least my BMW. I think the new Tesla headliner material is nicer than what BMW used. I also like the wood strip on the dash. It has more of an open pore (less sealed) finish and doesn't just feel like plastic like the "wood" the BMW had. I also think the door panels have a nice feel with the last bit of Alcantara left, although I think these would also be fine if they used the ultra leather there.
In reality I usually associate quality interior feel in a car to what the knobs and buttons feel like. I always felt BMW's knobs and buttons were as good as it gets. The Tesla of course doesn't have any knobs or buttons so there really isn't anything to compare it to. The 2 steering column stalks seem fine to me. I'm used to the turn signal setup, since BMW used the same system, although the detents on the Tesla stalk are much stiffer than the BMW ones.
The model 3 audio is hands down better than what was in my BMW. no contest.
Finally, regarding ride, I actually find the ride of the model 3 with 19" rims to be much more compliant than my BMW. My BMW had run flat tires on 17" rims with sport suspension (although I'm not sure what suspension changes there were with the all wheel drive model) The ride was very harsh. I think that was mainly because of the run flat tires. Hitting even relatively small bumps would feel like I was popping a tire or bending a rim. I was a little worried that the sport rims would be harsh on the Tesla because of the low sidewalls, but they are not bad at all. I think the large wheel diameter helps here. When driving home from picking up model 3 I went over a transition from where they were milling the road for paving back onto the old pavement. These kind of bumps where both front wheels hit at the same time were always super harsh in my old car. The model 3 was much less harsh going over. The suspension feel was more of single bounce going over as opposed to a harsh hit.
Cornering handling feels similar, maybe slightly more road feel on the BMW. The low center of gravity is certainly nice on the Tesla. Then again I have my dilemma of wanting to drive the car slowly.
Overall I'm super thrilled with model 3. The technology is a blast. I'm loving the autopilot. It hasn't done anything unexpected on me yet, so I think I need to be careful to not become complacent. My kids love the rainbow road / more cowbell. It will be exciting to get new updates over time.
I can make very similar comparisons between the two. (I also love my Tesla so far)
My BMW wasn't particularly quick (I think it had 215 hp) so the Tesla is certainly much quicker. I agree with@voip-ninja that while the model 3 is quick from a stop, where you really notice the acceleration is when you are already at speed. It's very impressive how much passing acceleration there is when going 50. The other really noticeable thing is how smooth everything is. I never realized how much of the vibration in an ICE comes from the engine (even after reading everybody mentioning it) Its funny even though the car is fast, the smoothness makes me want to drive it slow while trying to be as smooth as possible. I'm still training my brain to be as smooth with one pedal driving and regen.
I also found out that my kids are keenly comparing my speed to the speed limit shown on the screen. My son was giving me a hard time for going 27 in a 25 zone.
Regarding the seats, The Tesla seats are definitely much softer than the sport seats I had in my BMW. I've noticed that BMW's generally seem to have seats with what feels like thick firm leather. I've always found them very nice, but some people may think they are too firm. I also really like the extendable thigh support that the BMW seats had.
All that being said, I think the Tesla seats are very comfortable. They are just different. The ultra leather material (or whatever it is) is much more compliant than the leather BMW uses. The ultra leather is also much smoother than traditional leather. It doesn't have the texture or grain of real leather, and I think that's what people expect in a nice seat or steering wheel, so when it's not there my initial reaction is to think its inferior, but I'm not really sure that's true.
The Tesla seats seem to be very supportive, so that's good. They have good side bolstering, but are a bit wider than my BMW. I haven't gone on a long drive yet so we'll see how they feel for a 4 or 5 hour drive. The big question mark for me is how the ultra leather material will hold up long term. My 12 year old BMW seats still looked great when I traded it in. They had no cracks and just the slightest amount of wear on the side bolster from sliding in and out. All I did for maintenance was to use leather cleaner and conditioner about twice a year. Which reminds me I need to figure out what product to use on this synthetic material.
As far as other cabin materials, I actually think the Tesla materials are quite nice and compare favorably to at least my BMW. I think the new Tesla headliner material is nicer than what BMW used. I also like the wood strip on the dash. It has more of an open pore (less sealed) finish and doesn't just feel like plastic like the "wood" the BMW had. I also think the door panels have a nice feel with the last bit of Alcantara left, although I think these would also be fine if they used the ultra leather there.
In reality I usually associate quality interior feel in a car to what the knobs and buttons feel like. I always felt BMW's knobs and buttons were as good as it gets. The Tesla of course doesn't have any knobs or buttons so there really isn't anything to compare it to. The 2 steering column stalks seem fine to me. I'm used to the turn signal setup, since BMW used the same system, although the detents on the Tesla stalk are much stiffer than the BMW ones.
The model 3 audio is hands down better than what was in my BMW. no contest.
Finally, regarding ride, I actually find the ride of the model 3 with 19" rims to be much more compliant than my BMW. My BMW had run flat tires on 17" rims with sport suspension (although I'm not sure what suspension changes there were with the all wheel drive model) The ride was very harsh. I think that was mainly because of the run flat tires. Hitting even relatively small bumps would feel like I was popping a tire or bending a rim. I was a little worried that the sport rims would be harsh on the Tesla because of the low sidewalls, but they are not bad at all. I think the large wheel diameter helps here. When driving home from picking up model 3 I went over a transition from where they were milling the road for paving back onto the old pavement. These kind of bumps where both front wheels hit at the same time were always super harsh in my old car. The model 3 was much less harsh going over. The suspension feel was more of single bounce going over as opposed to a harsh hit.
Cornering handling feels similar, maybe slightly more road feel on the BMW. The low center of gravity is certainly nice on the Tesla. Then again I have my dilemma of wanting to drive the car slowly.
Overall I'm super thrilled with model 3. The technology is a blast. I'm loving the autopilot. It hasn't done anything unexpected on me yet, so I think I need to be careful to not become complacent. My kids love the rainbow road / more cowbell. It will be exciting to get new updates over time.
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