Picked up our M3 SR+ today from West Drayton earlier in the afternoon. Everything went quite smoothly. Spent close to 2 hours in the service centre (10 mins early, 20 mins group video presentation on overview of car features and Q&A, 15 mins waiting around, 30 mins with Tesla staff pairing phones/showing us around cars and how to use, 20 mins or so faffing around and checking the car over before we drove off). Altogether quite a relaxed experience although there were continuously groups of people coming in to collect cars. Tesla staff said they’re handing over a 100 cars a day at the moment. Our car was unloaded from the delivery truck yesterday night and made ready for collection in the early afternoon.
Had a reasonably good look around car and only noticed a couple potential spots on door/sill edges that may need attention. There were other marks on the body work that looked like light scratches but they all appear to be glue/residue marks from the film wrapping they used when the car was in transit. Will do a more thorough check tomorrow morning.
We got confirmation from Tesla that any paint/bodywork defect must be reported (using the app) within 200 miles. The reason being that once the car has been driven for many miles it would be difficult to determine where damage may have occurred - seems to be a fair enough point.
Our car was almost fully charged (showing 213 miles) but forgot to check the odometer at the point of handover. We got the two cables plus aero covers.
Initial driving experience was great - smooth, great acceleration. Got used to the regenerative braking quite quickly. Very quiet at low speeds. At higher speeds the noise was more noticeable, perhaps more so than a new high-end luxury ICE. It rained a bit on the way back and the windscreen and wipers did require more attention then I expected to do the job. Drove a little in the night. The steering area is very very dark. Takes some getting used to especially as it it is typically lit up with all the instrumentation in normal cars. I know there is no instrumentation in this area but perhaps some low level convenience/courtesy lighting on the indicators and mode selection stick would be very nice and cool.
I couldn’t test out too much in terms of the performance and auto pilot as my wife was in the passenger seat on the drive back and prevented me from using the screen too much to prevent finger print marks!
It takes a lot for me to rate anything 10/10 or call something brilliant or amazing. After my first few hours with the Tesla Model 3 I’d say it is great car, some brilliant tech and lots of clever features but a shame the car does not come with a set of car mats and the boot does not have power assisted tailgate! Time will tell if the car can continue to exceed my expectations in terms of reliability and total cost of ownership.
For me the wait has been worth it (4 months, not a reservation holder). Tesla communications has been diabolical during the wait period and really it’s not the way a company should be treating its customers parting with large sums of money, no matter how busy or unprepared they are due to dealing with a big backlog. However we’re very happy with the car so far and feel privileged that we are in the fortunate position to own a brand new one.
Hope all those still waiting get your car soon!
