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Tesla's clearly were developed in Cali - weather issues

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I have to say that I find this a bit puzzling. I live in metro Atlanta, and have had my car for five months. The kinds of rains we get here during thunderstorm season are quite intense and fairly frequent, including over 2.5" in one day a month or so ago. Much heavier than what you'll typically see most anywhere on the west coast. My only complaint with the wipers has been the occasional chattering on the glass, but the clearing of water has been quite satisfactory.
 
I love my model 3, but I have to wonder if it was ever tested in the rain. At here in the Pacific Northwest we have the rainy season upon us and the Model 3 has some rather silly design issues:

  • Open the trunk in the rain and the water rushes in. Can't say I have had a car that had this issue before
  • Roll down the windows in heavy rain and the rain on the roof drips down into the car. Makes using the Starbucks drive through a bit of task. I seems like the channels on the car to move the rain around the windows does not handle enough volume for heavy rain
  • Windshield wipers! The wipers themselves are great, but the program to run them and access to them is silly. Auto barely works and when it does come on it is on a speed way too slow. Going manual is on the screen only (other than pressing the button for one wipe) and as heavy rain hits on the highway I would rather I have my eyes up then trying to work the touch screen. Hopefully they will update the software to fix this as right now I think I hand crank connected to the wipers would work better.
  • Foggy lights - what is up with that?
The good news is defrost works well and the car handles very well on wet roads. I can live with most of the stuff, but the wipers are a safety issue.

I have little experience in snow and below freezing weather so other can chime in on that.

How's handling for you? I had my first heavy rain in Los Angeles and acceleration is jerky and braking on the curve almost lost control... not sure if is because of RWD or torque, or just my driving that needs to be toned down when raining.. :)
 
I love my model 3, but I have to wonder if it was ever tested in the rain. At here in the Pacific Northwest we have the rainy season upon us and the Model 3 has some rather silly design issues:

  • Open the trunk in the rain and the water rushes in. Can't say I have had a car that had this issue before
  • Roll down the windows in heavy rain and the rain on the roof drips down into the car. Makes using the Starbucks drive through a bit of task. I seems like the channels on the car to move the rain around the windows does not handle enough volume for heavy rain
  • Windshield wipers! The wipers themselves are great, but the program to run them and access to them is silly. Auto barely works and when it does come on it is on a speed way too slow. Going manual is on the screen only (other than pressing the button for one wipe) and as heavy rain hits on the highway I would rather I have my eyes up then trying to work the touch screen. Hopefully they will update the software to fix this as right now I think I hand crank connected to the wipers would work better.
  • Foggy lights - what is up with that?
The good news is defrost works well and the car handles very well on wet roads. I can live with most of the stuff, but the wipers are a safety issue.

I have little experience in snow and below freezing weather so other can chime in on that.

Agreed on all fronts. I live in Portland Oregon and the windshield wipers are driving me downright batty. Our rain conditions change constantly throughout my commute and so I am always constantly adjusting them. Auto is an utter joke, so this leaves you either incessantly pressing the wiper fluid button to wipe once (why does WIPER FLUID get a dedicated button but speed settings don't?). Changing speeds on the touchscreen buried in a menu that might be covered by something else is downright dangerous.

Totally agree on the other parts as well. I get the frameless windows letting water in, but there is basically no excuse for the trunk getting water in from the roof. The instant I looked at that I thought "well that will be a problem in the rain". "Designed in California" clearly. ;-) I also got a bunch of pine needles in the rubber at the bottom of the glass roof.

The headlights thing I could see being a real issue too. Clearly LED is the future, but now that lights don't heat up much, they won't melt ice or snow and condensation / fogging can block them. I am curious how to solve that in future iterations?

Don't get me wrong, I *love* the car overall, but these issues are pretty boneheaded. I am curious what better UI / software changes they will make to the wiper controls. Really though, they just need a danged stick like every other car. (who knows, maybe the machine learning stuff will make auto flawless and then the argument to not have the stick makes sense)
 
I have AWD and the car is great in the rain for handling
How's handling for you? I had my first heavy rain in Los Angeles and acceleration is jerky and braking on the curve almost lost control... not sure if is because of RWD or torque, or just my driving that needs to be toned down when raining.. :)
Handling is great in the rain, but I have the AWD version.
 
Hmm... I really think most of these complaints are nitpicking. Most of this stuff you'd experience in a normal car and there are issues with ICE that you'll not see with EV's.

I spent most of my early years in the East Coast and 3 winters in North Dakota where it was -30 F with -60 F wind chill and had all kind of issues with my 93 Honda Accord. One time my car completely seized because of the cold and wouldn't start because it was -30. Thank god someone told be to get a block heater in the summer and when I plugged it in and let it heat up for about 30 min, it started right up. One time there was a ice storm and it completely froze my door and I couldn't even open it. Not to mention, I've spun out cars because of ice and snow. Once I did it on a intersate. That is when I learned it's great to have a car with a lower center of gravity because in a truck or SUV I would have flipped over.

Granted that trunk issue maybe a problem but if your trunk floods, get a trunk liner and towel. Also don't use the trunk when it's pouring rain! Last do what I did, move to California!
 
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Hmm... I really think most of these complaints are nitpicking. Most of this stuff you'd experience in a normal car and there are issues with ICE that you'll not see with EV's.

I spent most of my early years in the East Coast and 3 winters in North Dakota where it was -30 F with -60 F wind chill and had all kind of issues with my 93 Honda Accord.

I think you kind of make my point when you compare a 2018 Tesla Model 3 to a 1993 Accord. Tesla could use that in their marketing - "The New Model - Every-bit as good as a 93 Accord!"

The model 3 is supposed to be in the class of Mid/small Size Luxury car. It should be as good as Mercedes C class, Audi A4/A6, BMW 3/4, Acura, Lexus ect.

Having owned many other recent luxury cars I can say all the one's I have don't have these issues. The issues we are talking about are nothing to do with ICE V EV. They are all just good or even basic car design.

Don't get me wrong I love my M3 I would buy it again in a heartbeat, but they could of made this car even better without much effort.

The cool thing with the M3 is I expect they will be able to fix the wiper issue.
 
I love my model 3, but I have to wonder if it was ever tested in the rain. At here in the Pacific Northwest we have the rainy season upon us and the Model 3 has some rather silly design issues:

  • Open the trunk in the rain and the water rushes in. Can't say I have had a car that had this issue before
  • Roll down the windows in heavy rain and the rain on the roof drips down into the car. Makes using the Starbucks drive through a bit of task. I seems like the channels on the car to move the rain around the windows does not handle enough volume for heavy rain
  • Windshield wipers! The wipers themselves are great, but the program to run them and access to them is silly. Auto barely works and when it does come on it is on a speed way too slow. Going manual is on the screen only (other than pressing the button for one wipe) and as heavy rain hits on the highway I would rather I have my eyes up then trying to work the touch screen. Hopefully they will update the software to fix this as right now I think I hand crank connected to the wipers would work better.
  • Foggy lights - what is up with that?
The good news is defrost works well and the car handles very well on wet roads. I can live with most of the stuff, but the wipers are a safety issue.

I have little experience in snow and below freezing weather so other can chime in on that.
I agree on the wiper for which there is an update coming (relies on AI rather than absolute sensors apparently)
 
Auto is an utter joke, so this leaves you either incessantly pressing the wiper fluid button to wipe once (why does WIPER FLUID get a dedicated button but speed settings don't?).
While Auto wipers do leave something to be desired (IMO; the Model 3 being the first car I've had it on), pressing the button on the left stalk slightly will operate the wipers once without spraying any cleaning solution. If you're getting water when doing this, then you're pressing too hard.
 
My 2006 BMW 3-series wagon has better auto-wipe. It's not perfect either, but better. And it has a little wheel on the stalk to change wiper speed in increments. IMO they should allow to press the left stalk button and then use the right steering wheel roller to set speed in small increments. Would be doable in software.
 
I just watched Bjorn's quick video about how the water drips into the trunk area and had a similar but more frozen kind of situation happen. In the garage after a cold day (-20) the snow was basically ice and sure enough, it all dropped into the trunk around the edges. There wasn't much on top and no way am I going to be able to just brush it aside.

The snow brush in the trunk usually wasn't a problem for any car I've had, I'm not so sure now. ha It least it was easy to clean up!
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I just watched Bjorn's quick video about how the water drips into the trunk area and had a similar but more frozen kind of situation happen. In the garage after a cold day (-20) the snow was basically ice and sure enough, it all dropped into the trunk around the edges. There wasn't much on top and no way am I going to be able to just brush it aside.

The snow brush in the trunk usually wasn't a problem for any car I've had, I'm not so sure now. ha It least it was easy to clean up!View attachment 370858
I predicted that would be an issue on 3/31/16 when I saw the first test ride videos and commented about it here on 4/1/16:

I'm betting they haven't done any winter testing no this design yet. Imagine having some snow on the rear window or trunk. Open the trunk and the snow falls onto the glass...which then falls/slides into the trunk.

Looks like I'll probably be getting an S instead as I need more cargo flexibility that is available with a hatch/liftback.

Note: I ended up ordering the Model S 10 days later. I did order a Model 3 for my mom eventually but she's the one who will have to deal with the snow, not me!
 
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I just watched Bjorn's quick video about how the water drips into the trunk area and had a similar but more frozen kind of situation happen. In the garage after a cold day (-20) the snow was basically ice and sure enough, it all dropped into the trunk around the edges. There wasn't much on top and no way am I going to be able to just brush it aside.

The snow brush in the trunk usually wasn't a problem for any car I've had, I'm not so sure now. ha It least it was easy to clean up!View attachment 370858

What rubber mat is that? I like it and want one!