Very disappointing new M3 experience

[stopcrazypp]

oK, sorry for my snippy reply; you're right, most of my issues are not all that significant -- it was just the combination of all those items within a few days of taking delivery that started to add up. The screen crashing is not insignificant, but the one that really got me going was the whole dashcam thing, and I still can't get a straight answer. Half the responders are claiming it doesn't record any video to the flash drive unless you honk, and the other half are insisting it does save the last hour without you taking any action. Both can't be true. I really don't want to have to install my previous dashcam if I don't have to, as it's a PITA, and keeps falling off. But I consider it critical to have a fully functional dashcam in the car.

As I pointed out earlier, the manual says on page 70 that it loops every hour in the Recent Clips folder (with the caveat I pointed out of when the car is off) and that is my experience also.

For screen crashing, does it crash after viewing the manual in the car? There is a known bug where it does that and there is a recent update that addressed it. However, in normal operation it shouldn't crash regularly. Thread that discusses this here:
Owners Manual crashes Tesla's computer

 

[oreobbq]

oK, sorry for my snippy reply; you're right, most of my issues are not all that significant -- it was just the combination of all those items within a few days of taking delivery that started to add up. The screen crashing is not insignificant, but the one that really got me going was the whole dashcam thing, and I still can't get a straight answer. Half the responders are claiming it doesn't record any video to the flash drive unless you honk, and the other half are insisting it does save the last hour without you taking any action. Both can't be true. I really don't want to have to install my previous dashcam if I don't have to, as it's a PITA, and keeps falling off. But I consider it critical to have a fully functional dashcam in the car.

I'd suggest formatting the usb drive on a computer and see if that helps. I'm sure you'll get used to everything else with a bit of time.

 

[MDL3_NV]

When I picked up my 2021 Model 3 Long Range at the end of June (probably from the same place you picked up yours) I had the "factory" firmware on the car. My screen would reboot randomly, I couldn't access the owners manual in the car or the computer would crash, and sentry mode didn't work. It took about 3 weeks and I finally got a firmware update that fixed all those issues. I would ask your service department to upgrade the firmware if possible (if you are running the "factory" firmware).

 

[Taxvictim]

OP, sorry you are not enjoying your experience, but my delivery experience (yesterday!) was almost exactly the same as yours, and I was happy it was so fast. The telephone message about my appointment said "the delivery experience is streamlined, watch the videos." I had watched every video about the car, so I honestly just wanted the key cards.

My dashcam is also not working, though Sentry does. I cannot get the red light on the dashcam icon to illuminate, and when parked the dashcam option is grayed out. I found a thread that suggested this problem (as well as the cabin overheat selections) are grayed out because the Tesla computers have not been updated to say the car has been "delivered" to the customer. I guess that makes sense because Tesla probably doesn't want their whole inventory recording video of their employees and draining batteries to keep the cars cool on their 2,000 mile journies.

Also, my cruise control does not work "yet." It keeps saying it needs time to calibrate the cameras, but I have driven 90 miles and on the screen where it shows your car driving, it shows only the road lanes and no other objects. I think this is also related to the idea my car has not yet been "delivered" per the Tesla database.

Back to the dealer tomorrow, begging them to digitally release my car into the wilds so these functions will work.

Thank you for being an early adopter so I could have the benefit of buying this outstanding Model 3 Performance. It looks great in the white interior, have I told you guys that?

 

[howardc888]

Sorry to hear about your experience with M3LR. Tesla definitely has changed from your earlier days with model S. Many people in this forum expected these issues when they purchased the car. I am one of them as well but I am content with my M3P, specifically for the performance and quite of few ease of use M3 has to offer. For the price, I think Tesla can do better with quality and I like to see the competitions so we, as consumers, have more options and also incentivize car companies to become innovative. As of now, other car manufacturers are still doing catch-up and price gap is at least 30% to over 100% higher for similar performance like acceleration and range (but you do get better interior/exterior quality from other European cars).

For the problems you mentioned, maybe I can address two:

1. homelink is missing by default due to cost cutting. But you can make a service appointment and get it installed for $300 (old price, not sure if it is still true). Tesla can come to you house to get it installed. Just think of it as the total cost of the car then you won't feel so bad. In case that you don't know. The tesla Homelink has programmable ability that you can set it to open the garage door automatically by proximity (Eg: program it to open when your car are within 50ft of your house). Also can do same thing to close the door, but I don't program that feature for safety reason. It can store up to 3 addresses only, like most other homelinks.

2. Dashcam. I assume you know that you need a usb stick plugged into the car, correct? The usb stick also has to be formatted in certain way. Search in the forum and you can find the answer. What I did was to buy the micro sd card (link below) with endurance so it can handles repeated write/rewrite. And stick that into a sd card reader (link below). Plug in the whole thing into Tesla usb port. It took me a few iteration to get it setup right. Once it is setup, all the rest is easy. The sentry feature saved me in one incident that some lady backing into my front bumper while the car was parked on the street. The whole thing was recorded and I was able to get compensated by her insurance company for the damage.

Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006T9B6R2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There are many small areas that you may not like the M3 and I can name a few here. (no truck lining/mat, headrest of car seat is non-movable, tesla recently remove the lumbar support for passenger side. no memory seat capability for passenger, mis-aligned door gaps, and the list goes on). I could ignore all those. And if you could too, the car should be pretty good. Otherwise, I would recommend you to get the MS plaid. M3 and MS are quite different class and can be seen in car prices too. If I get older, I may get the MS plaid in the future but as of now, I prefer driving a smaller car even though the plaid acceleration is insane.

 

[dmurphy]

And last, but most certainly not least, NO BUILT-IN GARAGE DOOR OPENER? SERIOUSLY??? My 2-year old Subaru, which cost FAR LESS than this car, came with one. We’re talking about a five-dollar (at most) piece of silicon here. C’mon you guys, that’s ridiculous.

Incorrect, at least in 2021. I just helped someone purchase a Subaru Forester last week, and the HomeLink opener is only available with the upgraded rearview mirror add-on, at $365 MSRP. Maybe not all trim levels or whatever, but the Premium trim sure needed it. Same with Tesla - Model S & X have a Homelink transmitter included; it's an add-on on Model 3.

But hey, don't let me get in the way of an angry rant.

 

[ChopinBlues]

As I pointed out earlier, the manual says on page 70 that it loops every hour in the Recent Clips folder (with the caveat I pointed out of when the car is off) and that is my experience also.

For screen crashing, does it crash after viewing the manual in the car? There is a known bug where it does that and there is a recent update that addressed it. However, in normal operation it shouldn't crash regularly. Thread that discusses this here:
Owners Manual crashes Tesla's computer

So videos are actually showing up on my flash drive now -- they were definitely not there yesterday; there wasn't even a 'Recent clips' folder. However, I would like to clarify something: let's say I park the car after a long drive, right after which there will presumably be an hour's worth of the most recent clips on the flash drive. If I come back to the car after an hour or more, will all those clips be gone? I surely hope not, as that would make no sense whatsoever.

As far as the screen crashing, I can't say for sure. I know i did bring up the manual a couple of times, but mostly I was messing around with the dashcam functionality, and I can't definitely say exactly when the crashes occurred.

BTW, I greatly appreciate the terrific and detailed, factual responses from you. A lot of responders here are either not paying close attention to the details of what I'm describing, or they have no idea what they're talking about. Details are important, such as the difference between ram, flash memory, and hard drives. Most folks treat those as one and the same.

Also curious about something: it says you've been a member since 2007 -- has this forum really existed that long? The original Model S only came out in mid 2012; yes the Roadster was available 5 years earlier, but there was only a minuscule handful of those.

 

[ChopinBlues]

Incorrect, at least in 2021. I just helped someone purchase a Subaru Forester last week, and the HomeLink opener is only available with the upgraded rearview mirror add-on, at $365 MSRP. Maybe not all trim levels or whatever, but the Premium trim sure needed it. Same with Tesla - Model S & X have a Homelink transmitter included; it's an add-on on Model 3.

But hey, don't let me get in the way of an angry rant.

View attachment 711639

don't worry -- you're not in the way at all, especially since you're wrong -- I have an Outback, not a Forester, and it was included in the the model i got. So stop and think before you open your mouth next time with an irrelevant rant of your own

 

[stopcrazypp]

So videos are actually showing up on my flash drive now -- they were definitely not there yesterday; there wasn't even a 'Recent clips' folder. However, I would like to clarify something: let's say I park the car after a long drive, right after which there will presumably be an hour's worth of the most recent clips on the flash drive. If I come back to the car after an hour or more, will all those clips be gone? I surely hope not, as that would make no sense whatsoever.

As I mention here, if you come back an hour later after parking, the hour it loops would be deleted. This is likely because the cleanup routine resumes (where it looks at the time and deletes the RecentClips more than an hour old). However, any clips you saved on purpose (whether by pressing the icon, the horn, or it automatically saves due to detecting an accident, if you enabled that function) or those saved by Sentry mode would still remain.
Very disappointing new M3 experience

You can work around this by pulling the drive before it does the cleanup, but as I say, this is only viable if the USB stick is not in your glovebox (I have a 2021 Model 3 so mine is), otherwise given there is no way to open the glove box without the screen having booted up fully, I expect it would have deleted it already by the time you open it up.

Also curious about something: it says you've been a member since 2007 -- has this forum really existed that long? The original Model S only came out in mid 2012; yes the Roadster was available 5 years earlier, but there was only a minuscule handful of those.

Yes, you can see from the copyright on the bottom the forum has been around since 2006. I have been following Tesla since I first saw the Tesla Roadster at the SF auto show back then (it was Tesla's first auto show attendance). There's an article on that on Tesla's website:
Auto Show Mania

 

[dmurphy]

don't worry -- you're not in the way at all, especially since you're wrong -- I have an Outback, not a Forester, and it was included in the the model i got. So stop and think before you open your mouth next time with an irrelevant rant of your own

I'm not wrong. Subaru charges extra for homelink modules, but not on all models. Ya know, exactly the same as Tesla. You buy a Model 3, you need to add a Homelink module. Not so with S or X. With Subaru, you buy a Forester, you need to add a Homelink module. Not so with Outback.


Understand your frustration of course, but Tesla is far from the only manufacturer doing so, and the one you chose as a counterexample does *exactly* the same thing.

The crashes are certainly annoying, and I sympathize with that. As mentioned, the known bug with the owners' manual is a PITA.

Would suggest you use this link instead of trying to read it on the car's screen until the bug is fixed: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

And yes, this most recent version perfectly reflects the current center console, etc.

Also suggest you tone the anger down ... you'll catch more flies with more honey than vinegar.

 

[Soul Surfer]

I am sorry that you are so unhappy - I am thrilled with my model 3 LR even though I have had many of the same experiences. The difference is that I knew exactly what to expect having haunted all of the online forums, youtube videos, etc. I was so well-prepared that I didn't need or want much personal interaction when I picked up the car. I didn't even really need the owner's manual, although I did read a current version just to pick up any fine points.

I have not seen the screen problem that you mentioned - perhaps you have a hardware problem that service should address. I have had the MCU crash when looking at the owner's manual (where the AC comes on full blast, the screen hangs, and you need to do a reset) and that clearly is a software bug that will eventually be addressed.

The odd noises while parked do come and go - I put it down to the heat pump meeting the needs of the battery management system and don't worry too much about it.

You didn't say what you actually think is wrong with the dashcam. I guess that you just wanted to vent, not to get help or ideas.

As to the built-in garage door opener, that has been discussed at length in the online forums. That said, I don't know what the part really costs but imagine that it costs $5. Sounds trivial for sure. But multiply that by the approximately 900,000 cars that will be delivered this year and you are talking about 4.5 Million dollars. That doesn't count the licensing fees for the garage door companies, support, etc. For better or worse, Tesla decided that they weren't willing to carry that cost after looking into how often the feature actually was being used. Personally, I just put my opener control on my sun visor just like I have with every other car. If I decide to get lazy, there is always Tailwind.

Even my 2018 Volt did these noises while parked and plugged in. They were conditioning noises from the battery management system.

 

[Jeremy3292]

This thread probably should’ve been locked up as soon as it was posted. It is nothing more than an empty rant. The 3 is half the cost of the S for a reason.

 

[jjrandorin]

This thread probably should’ve been locked up as soon as it was posted. It is nothing more than an empty rant. The 3 is half the cost of the S for a reason.

TMC allows people to post their frustrations, as long as they are not personally attacking someone.

==================================

(Moderator note)

Making a general reminder here that personal attacks / name calling are not allowed. People can express frustration, disagree with each other, etc, but any further personal attacks will likely result in something more than just removing a post.

 

[chamshaw]

ChopinBlues; my used M3LR from Japan delights my wife and me daily even though we have to fiddle to make corrections (and understand why) from time to time. So far our gamble has paid off and we love our Chichi to bits. You may like to relax with one or the other of Chopin's two piano concertos; it seems you're a little tense.

 

[euro.r]

Short story….I agree with you 100% about homelink. That being said, I carry my garage door opener in a tray I got from Abstract Ocean and I don’t think I’ll be buying the homelink option anymore.

Haven’t experienced the UI freezing/crashing. Hopefully I won’t. As for everything else, I actually wish the Tesla UI was more customizable (like how Android typically is) so I can create my own custom dashboards, etc.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Yeah, it's stupid to omit the garage opener, especially since EV's prefer garages.
But Homelink was crappy technology when it debuted in the 1940's and has not been improved since. It's a horrible system from a truly awful and undeserving monopoly. I expect that Tesla is pursuing a MyQ app license agreement that will finally eliminate Homelink from the planet, but there's still no excuse for skimping on a $3 part before the proper solution is available.

Yeah, they should tell you that it whirrs in reverse, that it often clinks and buzzes in your garage, that it's missing a section of weatherstripping on the trunk, and the HVAC might just run sometimes to dehumidify or whatever even though the car has been vacant for quite some time. But covid plus the elimination of all customer service reps kinda ended all that. Like you, I remember the days when they'd hand you a glass of champagne at the door when you walked into the dealership. The focus now is on manufacturing expansion, as it should be, but the casualty of that is a total elimination of customer service in every regard other than repairs.

Yeah, it's inexcusable that they can't even guesstimate your delivery to within the nearest quarter but when your car does arrive unexpectedly on a random Thursday you damn well better come get it within 3 days or they'll void your sale and kick you right back to the end of the line.

I don't know if it was mentioned already, but new cars are delivered with a very old "stable" firmware version and this year that version happens to be not so stable. It'll update within a few weeks and be much better. Note that while most automakers have halted production due to the chip shortage, Tesla kept going by branching their code out into a vast number of variants for the many chip substitutions they have implemented so this is going to be a buggy year or two.

And lastly, you owned a Tesla for 8 years and you're upset that the 3 arrived before you got your garage outlet installed? You can't just make a ridiculous complaint like that and not expect to be seen as a troll.

 

[CoastieM3]

Executive summary: Pickup sucked, expected a more personalized experience. Have an outdated manual, but could benefit from reading it. Car makes funny noises. No Homelink.

Tim

Clear, concise communication.

 

[CoastieM3]

Yeah, it's stupid to omit the garage opener, especially since EV's prefer garages.
But Homelink was crappy technology when it debuted in the 1940's and has not been improved since. It's a horrible system from a truly awful and undeserving monopoly. I expect that Tesla is pursuing a MyQ app license agreement that will finally eliminate Homelink from the planet, but there's still no excuse for skimping on a $3 part before the proper solution is available.

Yeah, they should tell you that it whirrs in reverse, that it often clinks and buzzes in your garage, that it's missing a section of weatherstripping on the trunk, and the HVAC might just run sometimes to dehumidify or whatever even though the car has been vacant for quite some time. But covid plus the elimination of all customer service reps kinda ended all that. Like you, I remember the days when they'd hand you a glass of champagne at the door when you walked into the dealership. The focus now is on manufacturing expansion, as it should be, but the casualty of that is a total elimination of customer service in every regard other than repairs.

Yeah, it's inexcusable that they can't even guesstimate your delivery to within the nearest quarter but when your car does arrive unexpectedly on a random Thursday you damn well better come get it within 3 days or they'll void your sale and kick you right back to the end of the line.

I don't know if it was mentioned already, but new cars are delivered with a very old "stable" firmware version and this year that version happens to be not so stable. It'll update within a few weeks and be much better. Note that while most automakers have halted production due to the chip shortage, Tesla kept going by branching their code out into a vast number of variants for the many chip substitutions they have implemented so this is going to be a buggy year or two.

And lastly, you owned a Tesla for 8 years and you're upset that the 3 arrived before you got your garage outlet installed? You can't just make a ridiculous complaint like that and not expect to be seen as a troll.

The last paragraph was beautiful.

Seriously, there’s people in the waiting room hitting refresh on Tesla.com multiple times a day waiting for a VIN (I was one).

I love this car; was new to Tesla so I did my homework and knew what to expect. Read the forum, watched the videos. I get that not everyone is in to that (my wife) but it helps to be prepared. Did a trip from SF to Monterey this weekend and wish I’d bought a 3 sooner.

OP came across as “old man yells at cloud”.

 

[bo3bdar]

First of all, what you need to know is that I have owned a Model S for almost EIGHT years (yes, I was one of Tesla's very early customers -- Note my join date to the left). I have been so thrilled with that car, that there was never any question that my next car would be another Tesla.

My experience so far with my week-old Model 3 LR has been a very different story. For starters, the delivery time-frame was way off — In August I was told November, and got it in September. That would normally be a good thing, except for the fact that I only had a few days notice that the car was coming far earlier than expected, and was unable to get the new NEMA 6-50 outlet installed, or the additional other accessories that I wanted before the car arrived, some of which are now out-of-stock.

When I picked up the car, the dealer spent almost no time helping me with the features of the car (many of which were new to me), or setting things up. They helped me enable the feature that unlocks the car with my phone, and then turned me loose. That is completely unacceptable for a car of this complexity.

I had an inordinate amount of trouble setting up the profiles for my wife and myself. Still not convinced everything is function as it should.

When using the screen (sitting in the garage, not driving), it frequently suddenly dims, and then freezes, requiring one of those double thumbwheel resets. THIS IS MAJOR BUG!

The online manual is poorly written, and, worst of all, is hopelessly out of date, and apparently describes an earlier model. For example, my center console looks and operates very differently then the one described in the manual. The “dashcam” section is joke — More on this below.

The car’s onscreen manual either appears to be only a small subset of the online one, or the search feature simply doesn’t work, not sure which is the case, and not wasting any more time on it.

My first call to your tech support line was answered by someone who apparently knew almost nothing about the car, and was clearly referring to the user manual while on the phone. I am well aware of online manuals, and know how to download and use them. If the answer was in the manual, I wouldn’t have been calling.

The 2nd day, I noticed an annoying “whining” sound when my wife was backing out of the garage. Had no idea this is an audible warning, which prompted another call to tech support. Another shortcoming of the dealer delivery experience.

The car also frequently makes odd buzzing/grinding noises while just sitting in the garage. Maybe this has to do with “preconditioning”, whatever that is, or perhaps cooling/heating the battery while charging. Still not sure what’s going on here, and never got a satisfying answer from phone tech support on this subject.

The so-called “dashcam” feature in this car is either not working, or it simply doesn’t function like virtually every other 3rd-party dashcam on the market, several of which I have owned. I have already wasted NUMEROUS hours on this problem, either on the phone, or posting online, trying to figure this out. At this time, it looks like it’s not working properly, but still not really sure.

And last, but most certainly not least, NO BUILT-IN GARAGE DOOR OPENER? SERIOUSLY??? My 2-year old Subaru, which cost FAR LESS than this car, came with one. We’re talking about a five-dollar (at most) piece of silicon here. C’mon you guys, that’s ridiculous.

Needless to say, unlike my old MS, this is not a car I would be likely to recommend to anyone. If this had been an Amazon purchase, there is a good chance it would already be on it’s way back to Amazon.

Well people here are giving you a hard time for not being satisfied with current Tesla. I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to write this up, and give me a sense of new-Tesla vs. old-Tesla. I've only had my car for a year, and I've had a hard time reconciling my actual experience with people on here always singing the praises of Tesla. So I really appreciate your perspective as a long time Tesla driver.

The crashing of the user manual is a good example of new-Tesla thinking. Just don't care, let it be a problem for months. Old-Tesla would have fixed an embarrassingly stupid error like that in a week. Until you get an update past whatever your car came with, opening the user manual will crash the MCU. (Several threads on here about this)

 

[holmgang]

Phew. Tough crowd in here.

When I went for a test drive, they pulled the car out, gave me the key card, and walked away. I knew the gear select is with column stalk, but had to google even how to "turn on" the car.

By the time I received delivery, the delivery agent patiently walked through the car with me. I declined most of the help, but I can easily empathize that many many other customers (particularly non tech enthusiasts) would appreciate what is quite a wholesale change in the interaction we've used to for decades.

Hell, when I was taking the car home, it started snowing, and I had a moment of panic not knowing how to turn on the wipers -- oh, the column stalks didn't have roller wheels or levers or stalk detents to activate the wipers??? theres a button at the end that manually triggers it? thats a pretty realistic and simple "miss" that can have big consequences