UK order placed! Any tips from our U.S./EU friends?

[lukejrmcc]

Good evening all,

My first post as part of Tesla Motors Club! I placed my order for the Model 3 on 10th May and have had information slowly coming through each time I log in e.g. the app I downloaded now shows basic tutorials, and I've also been able to enter information regarding car trade-in, delivery address and financing. It's all becoming real now!

Firstly, any other UK buyers had any other info on their dates? Or is it still "late June"?

Secondly, is there anything us UK buyers should be aware of, any hints/tips, or anything you wish you guys had known before everything went through? The supercharger network seems to be rapidly upgrading to suit Model 3 charge units and I'm struggling to find any negatives, despite my research, so I'm excitedly nervous...

Thanks for reading, let me know if there's anything you'd suggest.

Cheers,
Luke

 

[navt]

Hi and welcome. I wouldn’t hold my breath for a pre-July delivery. By 10th May there were minimum 3,500 M3 orders. There is a separate thread about shipping (boat) to the EU. Some reckon first batch of RHD approx. 200 arriving 1st week of June with another ship being loaded as I write with end June delivery. The wait is killing me.

 

[VT_EE]

Congrats on your order! I didn’t realize how much the Model 3 would ruin all others cars for me. It is that much fun to drive.
Hopefully you ordered 18” or 19” wheels. UK country roads will torch the 20s on the performance model. I’m in the U.K. now and was pleasantly surprised to see Superchargers at M6 services. Unfortunately no Model 3s around though, just a couple of Xs. I’m sure it will be a different story next time I’m over.

 

[BubblegumPete]

Hi Luke,

I'm in the same boat as you. Ordered on the 1st of May...although had an issue with a wire transfer so I think it didn't actually go through until around the 7th. Now have my referall code and entered the details regarding driving licence, trade in...

It still says June but I read somewhere on the Tesla website that they're expecting the first batch to be early July so we shall see. I'lm really looking forward to getting the car as have been saving for the past year but I have so much to do to be ready. In the process of extending the drive and building a car port for it. I then have to install the electric point, so if it's a few weeks late that is probably for the best.

Let us know if you have any updates on your manage page.

 

[renrot]

Glad to see a UK specific delivery thread.

Ordered mine on the 2nd May...but did a modification to the configuration 5 days later. According to the customer service, apparently it doesn't make any difference to delivery timescale for changes in such short period of time, as the configuration take gets sent through to operations.

Anyways, similar to Pete, wire transfer seems to take awhile to get updated on the account page.

The current account page asking you to update Delivery Location, Trade-in, Payment Method and Registration was only updated on the 16th May, after approximately 2 weeks from first order configuration. Wonder how everyone else's process was.

There is also no indication of expected delivery date on my account page, except for the main order configuration page which is now July instead of June when we first placed order.

There is a very useful thread on EU delivery.
First boatload of M3 to Europe

Keep us posted on any updates.

 

[BubblegumPete]

Thanks for the link renrot.

I have Full Self Driving as part of my package but I'm now wondering if it's worth it, considering there seems to be a lot of reports from Tesla 3 drivers in Europe saying that the latest update has disabled many of the good features, apparently to keep in line with new European laws. Anyone know anything about this?

If that is the case and then I might as well save myself £5000 and take it off.

 

[lukejrmcc]

Thanks everyone! Renrot thanks for the link. When did you all put a reservation on? I reserved in March 2017.

Pete - I didn't go for the full self driving in the end. Not sure about the legislation but I'll look into it, I was happy with having the autopilot for the motorways for now (summon feature is awesome but I'm hopeful it'll become standard when future updates come).

I decided on hire purchase finance with a substantial deposit, but Black Horse finance are yet to get back to me on the request. It's the only outstanding bit to fill in on my order (still has an open plus sign next to it).

 

[BubblegumPete]

Thanks Luke for letting me know.

I'm really on the fence about the FSD. At the moment it just seems pretty pointless seeing as Autopilot has pretty much everything I need. But then it might so happen that in a year the FSD become fantastic but they decide because it's so good that they're going to hike up the price loads.

I was initially going to go with PCP but like you I'm fortunate enough to be able to put down quite a large deposit which would bring my monthly costs down over five years to a similar price to PCP over fours years and in theory save me about £10,000 on interest so I'm going to go that route instead.

 

[-DB-]

Ordered 1st May here. I dropped the FSD from my order after thinking about it for a few days.

I went HP with decent deposit down. Had a call from Tesla last week and they updated my account so I am now at the "Drafting your contract" stage. They said July/Aug was more likely delivery date

 

[BubblegumPete]

Good to hear DB.

Been trying to contact the sales team today but they're apparently on holiday. Seems like a weird day to have a holiday but maybe all their call centres are based in the US.

I reckon Mid July seems like the most likely delivery time.

 

[lukejrmcc]

Thanks DB. I tried to call today too so will try again tomorrow. No response or call from Black horse finance yet.

Was resigned to the fact it could be July/August based on previous history. I don't mind too much, however my trade-in car will have done a few more miles than I've put down if that's the case!

 

[-DB-]

Your trade in is good for 1000 miles. If a little over you should be ok.

 

[lukejrmcc]

Your trade in is good for 1000 miles. If a little over you should be ok.

My worry is I do c.3,000 miles per month currently

 

[sixela]

Thanks for the link renrot.

I have Full Self Driving as part of my package but I'm now wondering if it's worth it, considering there seems to be a lot of reports from Tesla 3 drivers in Europe saying that the latest update has disabled many of the good features, apparently to keep in line with new European laws. Anyone know anything about this?

We're living through it but that's just noise -- they need some time to change the software to comply in less idiotic ways (like slowing to take a curve instead of taking it at the older speed and then giving up in the middle of the curve and asking you to take over because lateral acceleration is too high for a "compliant" autopilot).

The larger point is that the price of FSD is based on future features, not on what it can do now. They used to have Enhanced Autopilot and they just moved some features to "FSD" because otherwise no one in their right mind would order FSD. Even those features are still beta and it shows.

I still ordered FSD because in due course I want it when it will have less teething problems (it will require new hardware, and the hardware upgrade is included in the price).

But at current prices you're better off (for tax reasons) ordering it when you need it; the only danger is that you might have to pay more when it works better.

Right now, if you don't buy FSD:

-AutoSteer becomes impossible to use with passengers except on really long stretches with no lane changes. Since there is no auto lane change, you have to disengage and re-engage AutoSteer when you change lanes. It is trivial (and when I'm alone it's become second nature), but because it's important for you to know whether AutoSteer is engaged or not, it comes with constant bing-bong and bong-bing noises that will drive passengers crazy.

So you usually have to revert to Traffic Aware Cruise Control.

-You have no Navigation on Autopilot, which does semi-automatic lane changes (it will suggest them and then you can just accept them). But even in "Mad Max" it's very careful not to force itself in small gaps, so it's usually overly timid.

-You're missing Summon, which is convenient if you have a very narrow garage (or parking spots that are too narrow for you to get out of the car comfortably). With Summon you can put the car in front of the parking space, get out of the car, let it fold the rear view mirrors and reverse into the parking space, and then later summon it back forward.

-You're missing AutoPark, which actually works quite well (especially for parking nose pointing outward in perpendicular parking spaces).

 

[jjrandorin]

Pre congratulations to all of our international soon-to-be tesla ownership family

One thing I would say is, try not to let this or any other message board completely form your opinion of the car, or the company. No, I am not a fanboy (far from it), but if you go by a lot of what you read on these boards, the cars are either the second coming of <insert diety> or, rolling death traps that are intentionally trying to steer you off the road or into pedestrians.

My experience with my model 3 Performance, since 12/04 of last year, has been great. No real issues, my couple trips to the local service center were met with nice, caring employees who either resolved my issue, or explained why what I was concerned about was not a big deal.

I have had little software glitches, similar to what one would have on a new phone (and similar to what I have on my wifes 2019 BMW X3 M40 we also got this year).

Since I have charging in my garage, it cant really be over stated how "liberating" it is to wake up every morning with a "full tank" and not have to plan to go get gas somewhere. I have not taken a long road trip in my model 3 as of yet but for me I know it would not be too much of a change... supercharger density is extremly good in california after all.

There definitely are things that are a bit disappointing. Like everyone says, the paint is pretty soft, and seems to pick up rock chips easier than our BMWs ever have for example.

The manufacturing tolerances are not quite as tight as you would see on most german cars in this price range, but I personally believe some of this is up to individual tolerance.... and the fact that everyone tries to take a protractor to their new car because of reading how horrible the panel gaps are on message boards.

One thing everyone agrees on (almost everyone, even detractors). The model 3 is an AMAZING driving car. Its like nothing I have ever driven from the pure driving perspective, and the driving experience makes up for the companies quirks.

Dont let these message boards, or teslas somewhat ineptness at the sales process get you too down in the dumps (to answer my advice since advice was requested by OP). That would be the biggest piece of advice I can give.

Welcome aboard the train!