So we finally got our Model 3 exactly 10 days ago, and I wanted to share my thoughts on my experience so far. I will probably add more thoughts as time goes.
This is my first electric car ever so the overall experience was new for me. For background, my other car is a Honda CRV, and I recently sold off my Subaru BRZ.
Delivery Experience - Meh. We had to wait 2 hours after our appointment time because the car was still being detailed. The delivery specialist was not special at all. Had no idea about some of the features.
The initial build quality was good. No cosmetic or mechanical issues. There are some minor misalignments but nothing that you would not see in any other car if you looked minutely.
Driving - Driving the Model 3 feels great. Overall handling is superb. Definitely not what people would normally expect from an electric car but would expect from a Tesla. Amazing acceleration, just amazing (super quick off the spot). It almost feels like a roller coaster. I had some fun catching people off guard while riding them around.
Steering is solid, and the car feels in control.
The suspension is much stiffer than I expected. For comparison, for me the suspension felt slightly stiffer than BMW 335 but no as hard as my BRZ.
Very quiet in the cabin. This can be attributed to in large part to the lack of ICE.
Motion sickness - For real. Apparently caused by regenerative braking. Turned it down to LOW to get used it slowly.
Glass roof and interior - The glass roof is my favorite feature. It just makes the car feel bigger and spacious. Just a different feel. Lots of legroom, even in the back. The dome lights and accent lights are a good touch. The center console storage space lids etc. feel plasticky. My 2017 CRV has much better materials in this regard. Steering wheel feels nice and solid.
Misc. (not interior related) - You have to close the doors really (really really) hard to make them close properly. If the door is not closed hard enough it doesn't latch and the window does not get sealed.
Touch screen - Nothing new here. The screen quality is good - clear, responsive, adaptive brightness, all the good stuff.
Controls (or lack there of) - Coming from a conventional car interior, I do miss some of the physical buttons. The steering stalk on the left lets you control the turn signals, and there is button to trigger the wiper. The stalk on the right is for drive controls. The two wheels let you contol the volume, and adjust the mirrors.
Yyou need 2 clicks on the screen just to get the wipers going. SMH
Here is what I miss - No cruise control + or - on the steering wheel. I have to reach to the screen to increase or decrease cruise speed. If someone knows what I am missing do let me know. Cannot switch radio stations. You can skip songs but that's it.
Go to the screen to open the glove box (another smh) - I know Tesla wants to keep things simple and this is there way to enforce safety of the stored items during Valet mode but Worse - even the passenger has to reach all the way to the left hand corner of the screen to open the glove box that is right in front. I am sure there could be a better solution.
Fixable - Navigation steps are listed on the far right hand side of the screen. Away from the driver, and it is sometimes hard to read/follow while driving. Looking so far to the right does not feel like just a glance. It is taking focus away from actual driving. Hopefully they can bring that panel back to the left, closer to the driver.
Battery & range - Range anxiety got real when the battery was down to 40 miles. Had to find a public charge and I actually ended up paying to get some juice. The battery lost about 15-20 miles per day sitting in the garage during the long weekend. It was in 40-50s during the weekend here in the bay area. This is based on the small sample size and non scientific, casual observation. I will have a better idea in the coming days.
From the comments it looks like the batter loss is greater than expected. I will observe for a few more days and report back.
