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600 Miles in a Tesla Model 3: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Short version for the impatient: Don't hesitate to buy this car if you can responsibly afford it. It's an excellent performance oriented car (but not perfect).
This review ended up being very long. If you're interested in the Model 3 I hope you read the whole thing anyway because I think there's a lot of useful information here. I've tried to be as unbiased as possible and not give the car a pass in any category simply because it's an EV.
I'm an EV enthusiast. I've already owned 4 EVs (Chevy Volt, Coda, Toyota RAV4 EV and BMW i3) and I've also previously driven the Chevy Bolt and the Tesla Model S. I have two reservations for the Model 3. So I know what to expect from an EV and think I have a pretty good base of experience for comparison. I'm not someone who will overlook flaws simply because a car's an EV.
I rented a Model 3 on Turo.com and I drove the car 628.3 miles over multiple days including a 390 mile day trip on Saturday. The car is an early VIN and only had about 1,500 miles on it when I got it. The car was running software version 2017.50.12. The car has nearly all of the currently available options: upgraded paint, sport wheels, long range battery, premium package (with dark interior) and Enhanced Autopilot. The only thing missing was full self driving but that feature does not currently do anything anyway so I didn't miss much. The total sticker price of the car as configured was $57,500.
Let's start with the bad and the ugly because that's easiest: There is nothing that is outright bad about this car. There are a few things that are just OK and could be better (see below) but there is nothing that is just plain bad. I also experienced no ugliness. No glitches, no screen freak outs, no ghosts blasting the sound system for no reason and no need to reset the computer. There was nothing that did not operate as intended. I know for some people problems using a mobile phone to lock and unlock the car might be considered ugly but I did not try that feature (I used a key card). Every aspect of this car that I experienced ranged from "decent" to "excellent."
BUILD QUALITY
The build quality of the car is solid all-around. Last December I made a couple of trips to the Fremont delivery center and took a close look at 50 - 60 mostly later VIN Model 3s there. A substantial percentage of those cars (30% - 50%) had minor visible exterior quality issues such as slightly misaligned panels and trim pieces. However, the car I rented had no issues of that type that I could see.
The doors close with a satisfying thunk and the interior materials seem to be of reasonable quality with the exception of the covers on the center console compartments which feel and look like cheap shiny plastic. I also noticed an occasional slight rattle in the area of the center console that might have been one of those covers.
When driving the car there are no unexpected noises or vibrations. The car is extremely stable and there is no looseness or "play" in steering, braking or acceleration. The driving feel of this car is as good as you can get and is an area where the car is truly excellent and of obvious superior quality.
DESIGN
The exterior design of the car is very appealing. I won't say too much about this because you've all seen the pictures. It's a good looking car from all angles. One interesting thing I liked is that when the glass roof is damp or wet it turns an unusual reddish orange color (when viewed from the outside).
A lot of words have be used to describe the interior of the Model 3 including, "spartan," "austere," "minimalist" and "zen-like." I'll use my own words: elegant simplicity. I've always been a fan of minimalist design and the interior of the Model 3 doesn't disappoint me in that regard.
Even without all the buttons and knobs the interior of the Model 3 ultimately feels like a small or midsize car. It doesn't have the light, open, airy living room feeling of my BMW i3, for example. This is in part because of the unnecessarily huge center console. The console has a lot of storage space which is good but it really does divide the cabin and cut down on the feeling of openness. Also contributing to a less-open feel is the dark interior which is a dark charcoal grey (not really black). The glass roof counters the enclosed feeling but only for passengers in the back seat. You don't really notice the glass roof in the front seats. The headliner is light grey which also counters the enclosed feeling.
About that headliner. In this car it's Alcantara (or something similar). It really does look and feel nice and contributes to the elegant and refined look of the car. Despite the glass roof there is a lot of the headliner material used in the car. All of the pillars as well as the chunky borders around the glass roof are covered with it. You may have heard that Tesla has recently changed the headliner material in all newer Model 3s from the Alcantara to a cloth textile material. I haven't seen this new material yet so I can't comment on whether the change is good or bad.
If you don't like the sun and think you may need to buy a screen to cover the glass roof don't bother. The glass roof is tinted very dark and you don't feel the sun at all. In fact in my opinion it's too dark. I would prefer to let a lot more light in the car to contribute to an open feeling. I wish the opacity of the roof were controllable so you could dial how much outside light you let in. If you were to drive this car somewhere to watch a meteor shower you'd want to get out of the car to see anything.
The center console has lots of useful storage space and also has a really nice area to place and charge your mobile phone. This area for phones is really convenient; I have no idea why every car manufacturer doesn't have this. The top of the center console is covered with cheap feeling plastic in shiny piano black. It seems like this material would scratch easily and I can say for certain it collects and shows fingerprints.
The dark interior also shows dust, lint and dirt very easily. If you get this interior color you'll want to keep a cleaning cloth and hand vacuum handy. If you're someone who likes to eat in their car and gets crumbs everywhere I'd definitely recommend a different color.
You've heard correctly. There is no instrument cluster in this car. There's just a large 15 inch LCD display in the center above the console. I had no difficulty at all adjusting to this layout. I've had other cars with instrument panels in the center so perhaps that helped. The user interface of the center screen is well-designed and intuitively laid out. It's easy to find and remember where things are. Figuring it out is very much like getting a new mobile phone or tablet. There's a lot to digest there but don't worry. The defaults are all sensible so it's not necessary to go through everything all at once.
PERFORMANCE
I've owned a lot of cars over the years. With a lot of old cars, as well as some newer cars that are supposed to be "sporty," you can really "feel" the road when driving the car. You can feel the road through the steering, through the brakes, through cornering and even through the accelerator response. I have an all-manual BMW Z4 which (while not remotely a performance car) gives me a feel for the road like that.
The Model 3 is not like that but that's not a bad thing. The Model 3 is more like video game with an expensive precision controller where you know exactly how every muscle movement will translate to into an precise movement in the game. No, when you drive the Model 3 you don't feel the road in the classic sense but the surgical precision with which you can control and throw the car around is just as good... and a lot less exhausting. "Precise" is the right word for this car's handling: everything is precise from the steering to the braking to the regenerative brakes to the throttle response. If you want the satisfaction you get from mastering a temperamental piece of machinery that fights you for control then this car isn't for you. If you want to effortlessly carve up the roads at whatever speed you chose without breaking a sweat then this is your car. The Model 3 is a thoroughly modern take on a performance car.
All EVs enjoy near instantaneous torque. There's no need to spool up an engine to the proper RPM band or switch gears to maximize torque. The torque is just always there. This allows even the lowliest of EVs to zip away from a stoplight and pull away quicker than just about any ICE powered car. But there's instant torque and then there's instant torque. Teslas are known for taking this to the extreme and the Model 3 is no different. Other manufacturers seem to build in a short but noticeable did-you-really-mean-to-do-this? delay in their throttle response. Not so for Tesla. When you press the accelerator down the car goes _instantly_. Yes, it's less forgiving (and probably contributes to parking lot accidents) but a lot more fun.
When you floor the accelerator to go from 0 MPH to 60 MPH it will impress you and your friends. But, strangely, I found flooring the accelerator to go from 25 MPH to 60 MPH even more impressive. When you're already moving the instant torque hits you like a wall and really jerks you back in your seat. When accelerating from 0 you don't quite get the same effect in the Model 3. You can get that feeling from 0 in a performance Model S, of course, and hopefully when the performance Model 3 comes out it will be similar.
DRIVEABILITY
I'm going to buck the trends and say that visibility is just OK in the Model 3. At 5' 8" I'm not a tall guy and I like to move the driver's seat up a bit. When I did so in the Model 3 the border between the windshield and the glass roof seemed a little lower in my field of vision than I would like and it obstructed my vision slightly when I was stopped close underneath some stoplights. The "A" pillars seemed to block a little bit more of my vision in the Model 3 than in other cars. When I'm switching lanes I like to do an over-the-shoulder-head-turn to check my blind spots but visibility out of the car toward the rear sides isn't as good as with some cars. As has been said in other reviews the trunk of the Model 3 sits very high and consequently you get a smaller field of view out of the back window than with many other cars. Finally all three of the driving mirrors on the Model 3 are very small and don't give you a great field of view. All of these things added up to result in less visibility than I would have preferred but still acceptable.
The Model 3 is much more performance oriented than I expected for a mass market car. As a consequence the ride quality is much firmer than I expected. This is very apparent on roads that are not perfectly smooth. As I found out there are very few perfectly smooth roads in the Bay Area. All the freeways are pretty bumpy (particularly I880 northbound between San Jose and Pleasanton) and you feel it in the Model 3. It's not really uncomfortable but it's definitely something you'll notice. If you're used to sport suspensions in your cars then this won't bother you. But if you or someone in your family prefers a less pronounced road feel then you'll probably want to opt for the 18 inch wheels and wait for the air suspension.
Another thing I noticed is the ride felt pretty much the same at 45 MPH as at 65 MPH as at 85 MPH. I had difficulty knowing how fast I was going strictly by feel. I'm sure that would come with more time behind the wheel.
One other tidbit... Many modern cars have a weird air pressure effect that can be a little uncomfortable on the ears if you open one or more of the windows while driving. The Model 3 does not seem to suffer from this which may be welcome news for others like I who sometimes like to drive with the windows open.
EVs obviously don't have a noisy ICE engine which gives them the potential to be quieter than an equivalent ICE car. But the Model 3 was not nearly as quiet as I expected. There is a lot of road and tire noise. I wasn't driving that fast either. I did most of my freeway driving around 65 - 74 MPH. It's possible that the 18 inch wheels, different tires and air suspension could quiet this down a bit.
For such an aerodynamic car the Model 3 has a lot of wind noise as well. In fact, there is more wind noise in the Model 3 than in any other EV I've driven which I found very surprising. Most of the noise comes from the windshield area. I tried switching to recirculated rather than outside air which helps reduce such noise in some other cars but that did not help. Turning off the climate control system entirely also did not help. The Model 3 also had a lesser amount of wind noise around the doors and side windows as well which I don't normally notice in other cars.
The Model 3 isn't a noisy car but I've had quieter EVs and it's not as quiet as I expect a car to be for nearly $60,000. But, again, much of this is probably a side effect of the sport tuning of the car. If you expected the Model 3 to be a perfectly silent sound stage to listen to your classical music on the (excellent) sound system that is sadly not the case.
ENHANCED AUTOPILOT
The Model 3 I drove was equiped with Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) and I used it quite a bit including on my long day trip.
The Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC) is the feature I enjoyed using the most. This feature is simply an advanced cruise control that adjusts your speed as necessary to not get too close to the car ahead of you in your lane. It handles speedups and slowdowns flawlessly and will even safely bring the car to a complete stop and restart again if that's what traffic in front of you does.
I've driven cars with a similar feature before (including my BMW i3) and Tesla's implementation is by far the best. Without exception it performed as a skilled and experienced human driver would including gracefully and fluidly handling sudden stops by cars ahead and being cut off by another driver at high speed.
I kept the follow distance setting at the default of 5 and it chose an appropriate follow distance in all conditions including high and low speeds and light and heavy traffic. Not once did it brake suddenly because of a phantom that only the car could see. And not once did it give me a heart attack by failing to see and attempting to plow into a car right in front of me. I wish the same could be said of my BMW.
I quickly developed complete confidence in TACC and found it to be extremely impressive and the star of the EAP show.
The Model 3 I drove is also equipped with Autosteer which is supposed to steer for you and keep the car centered in its lane on the freeway. Your are required to keep your hands on the steering wheel as it does this.
To put it bluntly Autosteer was a huge disappointment for me. I won't go so far as to say it's bad because there are so few cars with a similar feature right now so it's hard for me to definitively say how it performs relative to others. But there were a lot of things I didn't like about how Autosteer handled situations and it was so erratic that I was not able to develop any confidence in it at all.
The first issue I noticed with Autosteer was the "ping pong" effect. The car would sometimes bounce back and forth within its lane from one side to the other. This happened occasionally even on clearly marked freeways such as I880 and I580.
Another thing I noticed is that when working properly Autosteer always wants to put the car in the exact center of its lane. I quickly realized that's often not what I want. When traveling in either the leftmost or rightmost lanes of a divided freeway I normally stay closer to the outside edge of the lane in order to give lane-splitting motorcycles a little more room and also because there's no reason to be any closer to other traffic than you need to be. Autosteer doesn't do this. Even when not in those outside lanes I will naturally drift closer to one side of my lane or the other if passing or being passed by a wide truck. I do this simply because wide trucks need a little more room so I give it to them. Autosteer doesn't do this either.
Autosteer would sometimes also react very late to curves which caused me quite a bit of anxiety. A few time it reacted so late that it actually drifted into the adjacent lane though fortunately it didn't do it while there was a car there.
On countless occasions Autosteer needlessly got closer to other traffic than I felt comfortable with so I had to take control of the car myself. Once or twice I did give Autosteer the opportunity to kill me but it didn't so perhaps it's better than it seemed to me.
The Autosteer hands-on-wheel detection and warning system also need work. The first time I saw the warning I had no idea what it was. I just thought to myself "why is it flashing blue around my speedometer?" I didn't realize until later that further down on the screen there is small warning text that said that the car didn't detect my hands on the wheel. I didn't notice it because of course I was concentrating on the road and not scanning the screen looking to see if there was some new text to read somewhere. So I saw the flashing blue a few more times and still had no idea what it was. I didn't figure out what was going on until the car put on the hazard lights and started to stop in the middle of interstate 880! The sad thing is that my attention was fully on the road and _both_ my hands were on the steering wheel (at 9 and 3 positions) the entire time!
Which brings me to: the hands-on-wheel detection is not nearly sensitive enough. I don't know what kind of death grip you'd need to have in order to get the Model 3 to register that your hands are on the steering wheel. But I could find no normal way of gripping the wheel that reliably enabled the car to detect that I was holding the wheel as I should. I ended up just shaking the wheel every time the warning came up.
I also tried Autosteer a couple of times on regular surface streets, well, just because. I quickly learned not to because its behavior scared the heck out of me.
By the end of my final day I'd given up on Autosteer and stuck with solid and reliable TACC. Autosteer was just too erratic, too frustrating to use and too scary for me to consider using on a regular basis.
EAP also comes with a self parking feature. It pains me to say so but I am not a good parallel parker. The Model 3 performed this task flawlessly the one time I tried it. I could not get the Model 3 to detect and attempt to perpendicular park though I only tried once.
So EAP costs $5,000. Is it worth it? In my opinion, no. TACC is excellent and self parking works well but that price is far out of line that what other companies charge for similar features. Since Autosteer and the hands-on-wheel detection work so unreliably I'd say save your money for now.
RANGE
I've only had relatively short range EVs. My RAV4 EV has the longest range of all the EVs I've had and it's only rated at 113 miles on a 100% extended charge (though in real life it can go about 125+ miles in perfect conditions). My Coda was the second highest at 88 miles of rated range (though in real life it could go about 100+ miles in perfect conditions).
The Model 3 I drove is rated at a huge 310 miles. That's on a 100% charge, though. The Model 3 I drove was set up to use a 90% charge for everyday driving for a range of 278 miles. That must be in perfect conditions, though, as it did not do quite that well for me. Nevertheless that is a _huge_ pile of miles and it changes your entire outlook on how you can use your EV. With every EV I've owned my default mode of operation has been to leave the climate control off unless it is extremely cold or extremely hot outside. I do this because climate control (particularly cabin heat) has always significantly affected the range of EVs and I want to maximize the distance I can travel if needed. Because my commute is relatively long at 60 miles round-trip I purposely deprive myself of comfort because of the what-if anxiety I've felt driving my short range EVs.
With the long range of the Model 3 all of that changed. All of a sudden my default mode was to actually be comfortable in a car! With the huge range I _knew_ I could make it where ever I might need or want to go. After having been chained to short range EVs for such a long I can't tell you what a liberating feeling it is to have the same freedom that legacy car drivers have in an EV.
Adding to the end of range anxiety is of course Tesla's supercharger network. My first attempt to try out supercharging at the Mountain View supercharger on Thursday afternoon didn't go so well as the line was very long and I decided not to wait. But I had better luck on my long Saturday day trip. I stopped at the Gilroy and Dublin superchargers and didn't have to wait at either.
During my time with the car I averaged a very respectable 265 Wh per mile. This seems very good considering I had the climate control on the entire time (the weather was very mild though) and considering most of my miles were on the highway where I may have been slightly exceeding the speed limit.
NAVIGATION AND SOUND SYSTEM
The navigation system in the Model 3 is very good though I have a few minor gripes. First I'll say that I always end up getting the package that includes navigation whenever I buy a new car but I never end up using it because car navigation systems universally suck. Well it's no longer universal because this is the first car navigation system I've seen that's so good I'll actually use it instead of my mobile phone. The map is easy to read and the spoken directions are clear and concise (including spoken street names).
One minor nitpick I have is that on the freeway the navigation system warns you of upcoming maneuvers only one mile in advance. At freeway speeds this is usually less than a minute which can make me feel rushed if I need to navigate across multiple lanes in heavy traffic. I prefer the two mile warning given by Google Maps. Once the car did not give me the one mile warning at all and I was startled by a "turn here now!" that I wasn't expecting.
Another gripe I have with the navigation system is that it does not emulate common sense when it comes to selecting roads for you to take to route around traffic. I was driving north on CA 17 Saturday night from Santa Cruz through the mountains after a nice day and dinner there with a friend. As often happens on 17 there must have been a traffic incident and traffic was backed up. The navigation system helpfully sent us on a side road to bypass the traffic. Big mistake. I don't even know how these roads were even on a map. They were two-way streets but barely wide enough for one car. The roads were completely unlighted and ridiculously twisty. The roads were so treacherous I didn't go above 15 MPH and it was still nerve racking. We were on those roads for several grueling miles and my friend complained that the ride made her feel ill. The navigation system should not route people on such roads even during broad daylight and definitely not at night.
When I buy a new car I always purchase the upgraded sound system and I'm usually disappointed. Manufacturer installed sound rarely impress me and rarely have both great clarity as well as relatively flat response across all frequencies. Well, I wasn't disappointed this time. This sound system is really, really good. Crystal clear highs? Yes. Punchy but never muddy bass? Yep. Loud enough for all but the most deaf? You betcha!
MISCELLANEOUS
Almost everyone to whom I gave a ride figured out how to operate the outside door handles without prompting. They're aerodynamic and good looking. But the more practice I had with them the more I realized they are a little awkward to use.
Despite my telling front seat passengers to use the button to open the door most people went right for the emergency manual door release lever instead. I'd recommend that Tesla move it someplace else on the door panel (while still easily visible and clearly marked) to make it easier for passengers to remember to use the button.
The front end of the car, while distinctive looking and stylish, is a bug killing-field. Apparently it's just the right shape for vehicular insect control.
I used the key card to lock and unlock the car. It generally worked well though sometimes it took 2 or 3 taps to activate. It still beats stabbing at a tiny hole in your door with a sharp piece of metal.
The hood takes an annoying amount of force to close. You end up having to lean on it (using both hands) to close it which worried me that I might accidentally dent it.
The on-screen tire pressure warning is a convenient feature that most high end cars have these days. It's very clear on the Model 3 but I found it annoying that while it will tell you your tires' pressures and which ones are low it doesn't actually tell you how much pressure the tires _should_ have. You can still find this information on the driver's door jamb but it should be on the screen too. The recommended pressure for the tires is 42 PSI. But the warning system warns at 41 PSI. I think it should give you a little more wiggle room before a warning appears.
The have been enough Model 3s in the Bay Area for long enough now that I guess they're not that unusual to see. No strangers honked or waved at me or crowded around the car to get a look at Tesla's latest. I stood in line at the Fremont factory hours before they opened on March 31, 2016 so I could be one of the first to have a Model 3. It's disappointing that no first time Tesla buyers have had the opportunity to buy the car yet and by the time we can it will already almost be yesterday's news around here.
Yes, there's no reliable key fob, no HUD, no AM radio, no XM radio, no Apple CarPlay and no Android Auto. Many people may find those things significant omissions. Most people probably won't. Nevertheless it may have been better to not alienate groups of car buyers seemingly unnecessarily.
So is the Tesla Model 3 worth it and should you buy it? Absolutely... with a couple of caveats.
First, realize that the car gets expensive when you start adding in options. It's probably better to go with the base Model than to add a bunch of expensive options if it's a stretch for you to afford them. The base car will still give you everything that's really important.
Second be aware that for better or worse this car is tuned for sport performance. If you are expecting the ultimate in ride comfort and a quiet ride above all else this car may not quite be what you want.
I had a great time with the car and it was a lot of fun to drive. My time with it validated my initial decision to buy the Model 3 and I'm now even more excited about it than ever.
Thanks!
[Edited Feb 6]
This review ended up being very long. If you're interested in the Model 3 I hope you read the whole thing anyway because I think there's a lot of useful information here. I've tried to be as unbiased as possible and not give the car a pass in any category simply because it's an EV.
I'm an EV enthusiast. I've already owned 4 EVs (Chevy Volt, Coda, Toyota RAV4 EV and BMW i3) and I've also previously driven the Chevy Bolt and the Tesla Model S. I have two reservations for the Model 3. So I know what to expect from an EV and think I have a pretty good base of experience for comparison. I'm not someone who will overlook flaws simply because a car's an EV.
I rented a Model 3 on Turo.com and I drove the car 628.3 miles over multiple days including a 390 mile day trip on Saturday. The car is an early VIN and only had about 1,500 miles on it when I got it. The car was running software version 2017.50.12. The car has nearly all of the currently available options: upgraded paint, sport wheels, long range battery, premium package (with dark interior) and Enhanced Autopilot. The only thing missing was full self driving but that feature does not currently do anything anyway so I didn't miss much. The total sticker price of the car as configured was $57,500.
Let's start with the bad and the ugly because that's easiest: There is nothing that is outright bad about this car. There are a few things that are just OK and could be better (see below) but there is nothing that is just plain bad. I also experienced no ugliness. No glitches, no screen freak outs, no ghosts blasting the sound system for no reason and no need to reset the computer. There was nothing that did not operate as intended. I know for some people problems using a mobile phone to lock and unlock the car might be considered ugly but I did not try that feature (I used a key card). Every aspect of this car that I experienced ranged from "decent" to "excellent."
BUILD QUALITY
The build quality of the car is solid all-around. Last December I made a couple of trips to the Fremont delivery center and took a close look at 50 - 60 mostly later VIN Model 3s there. A substantial percentage of those cars (30% - 50%) had minor visible exterior quality issues such as slightly misaligned panels and trim pieces. However, the car I rented had no issues of that type that I could see.
The doors close with a satisfying thunk and the interior materials seem to be of reasonable quality with the exception of the covers on the center console compartments which feel and look like cheap shiny plastic. I also noticed an occasional slight rattle in the area of the center console that might have been one of those covers.
When driving the car there are no unexpected noises or vibrations. The car is extremely stable and there is no looseness or "play" in steering, braking or acceleration. The driving feel of this car is as good as you can get and is an area where the car is truly excellent and of obvious superior quality.
DESIGN
The exterior design of the car is very appealing. I won't say too much about this because you've all seen the pictures. It's a good looking car from all angles. One interesting thing I liked is that when the glass roof is damp or wet it turns an unusual reddish orange color (when viewed from the outside).
A lot of words have be used to describe the interior of the Model 3 including, "spartan," "austere," "minimalist" and "zen-like." I'll use my own words: elegant simplicity. I've always been a fan of minimalist design and the interior of the Model 3 doesn't disappoint me in that regard.
Even without all the buttons and knobs the interior of the Model 3 ultimately feels like a small or midsize car. It doesn't have the light, open, airy living room feeling of my BMW i3, for example. This is in part because of the unnecessarily huge center console. The console has a lot of storage space which is good but it really does divide the cabin and cut down on the feeling of openness. Also contributing to a less-open feel is the dark interior which is a dark charcoal grey (not really black). The glass roof counters the enclosed feeling but only for passengers in the back seat. You don't really notice the glass roof in the front seats. The headliner is light grey which also counters the enclosed feeling.
About that headliner. In this car it's Alcantara (or something similar). It really does look and feel nice and contributes to the elegant and refined look of the car. Despite the glass roof there is a lot of the headliner material used in the car. All of the pillars as well as the chunky borders around the glass roof are covered with it. You may have heard that Tesla has recently changed the headliner material in all newer Model 3s from the Alcantara to a cloth textile material. I haven't seen this new material yet so I can't comment on whether the change is good or bad.
If you don't like the sun and think you may need to buy a screen to cover the glass roof don't bother. The glass roof is tinted very dark and you don't feel the sun at all. In fact in my opinion it's too dark. I would prefer to let a lot more light in the car to contribute to an open feeling. I wish the opacity of the roof were controllable so you could dial how much outside light you let in. If you were to drive this car somewhere to watch a meteor shower you'd want to get out of the car to see anything.
The center console has lots of useful storage space and also has a really nice area to place and charge your mobile phone. This area for phones is really convenient; I have no idea why every car manufacturer doesn't have this. The top of the center console is covered with cheap feeling plastic in shiny piano black. It seems like this material would scratch easily and I can say for certain it collects and shows fingerprints.
The dark interior also shows dust, lint and dirt very easily. If you get this interior color you'll want to keep a cleaning cloth and hand vacuum handy. If you're someone who likes to eat in their car and gets crumbs everywhere I'd definitely recommend a different color.
You've heard correctly. There is no instrument cluster in this car. There's just a large 15 inch LCD display in the center above the console. I had no difficulty at all adjusting to this layout. I've had other cars with instrument panels in the center so perhaps that helped. The user interface of the center screen is well-designed and intuitively laid out. It's easy to find and remember where things are. Figuring it out is very much like getting a new mobile phone or tablet. There's a lot to digest there but don't worry. The defaults are all sensible so it's not necessary to go through everything all at once.
PERFORMANCE
I've owned a lot of cars over the years. With a lot of old cars, as well as some newer cars that are supposed to be "sporty," you can really "feel" the road when driving the car. You can feel the road through the steering, through the brakes, through cornering and even through the accelerator response. I have an all-manual BMW Z4 which (while not remotely a performance car) gives me a feel for the road like that.
The Model 3 is not like that but that's not a bad thing. The Model 3 is more like video game with an expensive precision controller where you know exactly how every muscle movement will translate to into an precise movement in the game. No, when you drive the Model 3 you don't feel the road in the classic sense but the surgical precision with which you can control and throw the car around is just as good... and a lot less exhausting. "Precise" is the right word for this car's handling: everything is precise from the steering to the braking to the regenerative brakes to the throttle response. If you want the satisfaction you get from mastering a temperamental piece of machinery that fights you for control then this car isn't for you. If you want to effortlessly carve up the roads at whatever speed you chose without breaking a sweat then this is your car. The Model 3 is a thoroughly modern take on a performance car.
All EVs enjoy near instantaneous torque. There's no need to spool up an engine to the proper RPM band or switch gears to maximize torque. The torque is just always there. This allows even the lowliest of EVs to zip away from a stoplight and pull away quicker than just about any ICE powered car. But there's instant torque and then there's instant torque. Teslas are known for taking this to the extreme and the Model 3 is no different. Other manufacturers seem to build in a short but noticeable did-you-really-mean-to-do-this? delay in their throttle response. Not so for Tesla. When you press the accelerator down the car goes _instantly_. Yes, it's less forgiving (and probably contributes to parking lot accidents) but a lot more fun.
When you floor the accelerator to go from 0 MPH to 60 MPH it will impress you and your friends. But, strangely, I found flooring the accelerator to go from 25 MPH to 60 MPH even more impressive. When you're already moving the instant torque hits you like a wall and really jerks you back in your seat. When accelerating from 0 you don't quite get the same effect in the Model 3. You can get that feeling from 0 in a performance Model S, of course, and hopefully when the performance Model 3 comes out it will be similar.
DRIVEABILITY
I'm going to buck the trends and say that visibility is just OK in the Model 3. At 5' 8" I'm not a tall guy and I like to move the driver's seat up a bit. When I did so in the Model 3 the border between the windshield and the glass roof seemed a little lower in my field of vision than I would like and it obstructed my vision slightly when I was stopped close underneath some stoplights. The "A" pillars seemed to block a little bit more of my vision in the Model 3 than in other cars. When I'm switching lanes I like to do an over-the-shoulder-head-turn to check my blind spots but visibility out of the car toward the rear sides isn't as good as with some cars. As has been said in other reviews the trunk of the Model 3 sits very high and consequently you get a smaller field of view out of the back window than with many other cars. Finally all three of the driving mirrors on the Model 3 are very small and don't give you a great field of view. All of these things added up to result in less visibility than I would have preferred but still acceptable.
The Model 3 is much more performance oriented than I expected for a mass market car. As a consequence the ride quality is much firmer than I expected. This is very apparent on roads that are not perfectly smooth. As I found out there are very few perfectly smooth roads in the Bay Area. All the freeways are pretty bumpy (particularly I880 northbound between San Jose and Pleasanton) and you feel it in the Model 3. It's not really uncomfortable but it's definitely something you'll notice. If you're used to sport suspensions in your cars then this won't bother you. But if you or someone in your family prefers a less pronounced road feel then you'll probably want to opt for the 18 inch wheels and wait for the air suspension.
Another thing I noticed is the ride felt pretty much the same at 45 MPH as at 65 MPH as at 85 MPH. I had difficulty knowing how fast I was going strictly by feel. I'm sure that would come with more time behind the wheel.
One other tidbit... Many modern cars have a weird air pressure effect that can be a little uncomfortable on the ears if you open one or more of the windows while driving. The Model 3 does not seem to suffer from this which may be welcome news for others like I who sometimes like to drive with the windows open.
EVs obviously don't have a noisy ICE engine which gives them the potential to be quieter than an equivalent ICE car. But the Model 3 was not nearly as quiet as I expected. There is a lot of road and tire noise. I wasn't driving that fast either. I did most of my freeway driving around 65 - 74 MPH. It's possible that the 18 inch wheels, different tires and air suspension could quiet this down a bit.
For such an aerodynamic car the Model 3 has a lot of wind noise as well. In fact, there is more wind noise in the Model 3 than in any other EV I've driven which I found very surprising. Most of the noise comes from the windshield area. I tried switching to recirculated rather than outside air which helps reduce such noise in some other cars but that did not help. Turning off the climate control system entirely also did not help. The Model 3 also had a lesser amount of wind noise around the doors and side windows as well which I don't normally notice in other cars.
The Model 3 isn't a noisy car but I've had quieter EVs and it's not as quiet as I expect a car to be for nearly $60,000. But, again, much of this is probably a side effect of the sport tuning of the car. If you expected the Model 3 to be a perfectly silent sound stage to listen to your classical music on the (excellent) sound system that is sadly not the case.
ENHANCED AUTOPILOT
The Model 3 I drove was equiped with Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) and I used it quite a bit including on my long day trip.
The Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC) is the feature I enjoyed using the most. This feature is simply an advanced cruise control that adjusts your speed as necessary to not get too close to the car ahead of you in your lane. It handles speedups and slowdowns flawlessly and will even safely bring the car to a complete stop and restart again if that's what traffic in front of you does.
I've driven cars with a similar feature before (including my BMW i3) and Tesla's implementation is by far the best. Without exception it performed as a skilled and experienced human driver would including gracefully and fluidly handling sudden stops by cars ahead and being cut off by another driver at high speed.
I kept the follow distance setting at the default of 5 and it chose an appropriate follow distance in all conditions including high and low speeds and light and heavy traffic. Not once did it brake suddenly because of a phantom that only the car could see. And not once did it give me a heart attack by failing to see and attempting to plow into a car right in front of me. I wish the same could be said of my BMW.
I quickly developed complete confidence in TACC and found it to be extremely impressive and the star of the EAP show.
The Model 3 I drove is also equipped with Autosteer which is supposed to steer for you and keep the car centered in its lane on the freeway. Your are required to keep your hands on the steering wheel as it does this.
To put it bluntly Autosteer was a huge disappointment for me. I won't go so far as to say it's bad because there are so few cars with a similar feature right now so it's hard for me to definitively say how it performs relative to others. But there were a lot of things I didn't like about how Autosteer handled situations and it was so erratic that I was not able to develop any confidence in it at all.
The first issue I noticed with Autosteer was the "ping pong" effect. The car would sometimes bounce back and forth within its lane from one side to the other. This happened occasionally even on clearly marked freeways such as I880 and I580.
Another thing I noticed is that when working properly Autosteer always wants to put the car in the exact center of its lane. I quickly realized that's often not what I want. When traveling in either the leftmost or rightmost lanes of a divided freeway I normally stay closer to the outside edge of the lane in order to give lane-splitting motorcycles a little more room and also because there's no reason to be any closer to other traffic than you need to be. Autosteer doesn't do this. Even when not in those outside lanes I will naturally drift closer to one side of my lane or the other if passing or being passed by a wide truck. I do this simply because wide trucks need a little more room so I give it to them. Autosteer doesn't do this either.
Autosteer would sometimes also react very late to curves which caused me quite a bit of anxiety. A few time it reacted so late that it actually drifted into the adjacent lane though fortunately it didn't do it while there was a car there.
On countless occasions Autosteer needlessly got closer to other traffic than I felt comfortable with so I had to take control of the car myself. Once or twice I did give Autosteer the opportunity to kill me but it didn't so perhaps it's better than it seemed to me.
The Autosteer hands-on-wheel detection and warning system also need work. The first time I saw the warning I had no idea what it was. I just thought to myself "why is it flashing blue around my speedometer?" I didn't realize until later that further down on the screen there is small warning text that said that the car didn't detect my hands on the wheel. I didn't notice it because of course I was concentrating on the road and not scanning the screen looking to see if there was some new text to read somewhere. So I saw the flashing blue a few more times and still had no idea what it was. I didn't figure out what was going on until the car put on the hazard lights and started to stop in the middle of interstate 880! The sad thing is that my attention was fully on the road and _both_ my hands were on the steering wheel (at 9 and 3 positions) the entire time!
Which brings me to: the hands-on-wheel detection is not nearly sensitive enough. I don't know what kind of death grip you'd need to have in order to get the Model 3 to register that your hands are on the steering wheel. But I could find no normal way of gripping the wheel that reliably enabled the car to detect that I was holding the wheel as I should. I ended up just shaking the wheel every time the warning came up.
I also tried Autosteer a couple of times on regular surface streets, well, just because. I quickly learned not to because its behavior scared the heck out of me.
By the end of my final day I'd given up on Autosteer and stuck with solid and reliable TACC. Autosteer was just too erratic, too frustrating to use and too scary for me to consider using on a regular basis.
EAP also comes with a self parking feature. It pains me to say so but I am not a good parallel parker. The Model 3 performed this task flawlessly the one time I tried it. I could not get the Model 3 to detect and attempt to perpendicular park though I only tried once.
So EAP costs $5,000. Is it worth it? In my opinion, no. TACC is excellent and self parking works well but that price is far out of line that what other companies charge for similar features. Since Autosteer and the hands-on-wheel detection work so unreliably I'd say save your money for now.
RANGE
I've only had relatively short range EVs. My RAV4 EV has the longest range of all the EVs I've had and it's only rated at 113 miles on a 100% extended charge (though in real life it can go about 125+ miles in perfect conditions). My Coda was the second highest at 88 miles of rated range (though in real life it could go about 100+ miles in perfect conditions).
The Model 3 I drove is rated at a huge 310 miles. That's on a 100% charge, though. The Model 3 I drove was set up to use a 90% charge for everyday driving for a range of 278 miles. That must be in perfect conditions, though, as it did not do quite that well for me. Nevertheless that is a _huge_ pile of miles and it changes your entire outlook on how you can use your EV. With every EV I've owned my default mode of operation has been to leave the climate control off unless it is extremely cold or extremely hot outside. I do this because climate control (particularly cabin heat) has always significantly affected the range of EVs and I want to maximize the distance I can travel if needed. Because my commute is relatively long at 60 miles round-trip I purposely deprive myself of comfort because of the what-if anxiety I've felt driving my short range EVs.
With the long range of the Model 3 all of that changed. All of a sudden my default mode was to actually be comfortable in a car! With the huge range I _knew_ I could make it where ever I might need or want to go. After having been chained to short range EVs for such a long I can't tell you what a liberating feeling it is to have the same freedom that legacy car drivers have in an EV.
Adding to the end of range anxiety is of course Tesla's supercharger network. My first attempt to try out supercharging at the Mountain View supercharger on Thursday afternoon didn't go so well as the line was very long and I decided not to wait. But I had better luck on my long Saturday day trip. I stopped at the Gilroy and Dublin superchargers and didn't have to wait at either.
During my time with the car I averaged a very respectable 265 Wh per mile. This seems very good considering I had the climate control on the entire time (the weather was very mild though) and considering most of my miles were on the highway where I may have been slightly exceeding the speed limit.
NAVIGATION AND SOUND SYSTEM
The navigation system in the Model 3 is very good though I have a few minor gripes. First I'll say that I always end up getting the package that includes navigation whenever I buy a new car but I never end up using it because car navigation systems universally suck. Well it's no longer universal because this is the first car navigation system I've seen that's so good I'll actually use it instead of my mobile phone. The map is easy to read and the spoken directions are clear and concise (including spoken street names).
One minor nitpick I have is that on the freeway the navigation system warns you of upcoming maneuvers only one mile in advance. At freeway speeds this is usually less than a minute which can make me feel rushed if I need to navigate across multiple lanes in heavy traffic. I prefer the two mile warning given by Google Maps. Once the car did not give me the one mile warning at all and I was startled by a "turn here now!" that I wasn't expecting.
Another gripe I have with the navigation system is that it does not emulate common sense when it comes to selecting roads for you to take to route around traffic. I was driving north on CA 17 Saturday night from Santa Cruz through the mountains after a nice day and dinner there with a friend. As often happens on 17 there must have been a traffic incident and traffic was backed up. The navigation system helpfully sent us on a side road to bypass the traffic. Big mistake. I don't even know how these roads were even on a map. They were two-way streets but barely wide enough for one car. The roads were completely unlighted and ridiculously twisty. The roads were so treacherous I didn't go above 15 MPH and it was still nerve racking. We were on those roads for several grueling miles and my friend complained that the ride made her feel ill. The navigation system should not route people on such roads even during broad daylight and definitely not at night.
When I buy a new car I always purchase the upgraded sound system and I'm usually disappointed. Manufacturer installed sound rarely impress me and rarely have both great clarity as well as relatively flat response across all frequencies. Well, I wasn't disappointed this time. This sound system is really, really good. Crystal clear highs? Yes. Punchy but never muddy bass? Yep. Loud enough for all but the most deaf? You betcha!
MISCELLANEOUS
Almost everyone to whom I gave a ride figured out how to operate the outside door handles without prompting. They're aerodynamic and good looking. But the more practice I had with them the more I realized they are a little awkward to use.
Despite my telling front seat passengers to use the button to open the door most people went right for the emergency manual door release lever instead. I'd recommend that Tesla move it someplace else on the door panel (while still easily visible and clearly marked) to make it easier for passengers to remember to use the button.
The front end of the car, while distinctive looking and stylish, is a bug killing-field. Apparently it's just the right shape for vehicular insect control.
I used the key card to lock and unlock the car. It generally worked well though sometimes it took 2 or 3 taps to activate. It still beats stabbing at a tiny hole in your door with a sharp piece of metal.
The hood takes an annoying amount of force to close. You end up having to lean on it (using both hands) to close it which worried me that I might accidentally dent it.
The on-screen tire pressure warning is a convenient feature that most high end cars have these days. It's very clear on the Model 3 but I found it annoying that while it will tell you your tires' pressures and which ones are low it doesn't actually tell you how much pressure the tires _should_ have. You can still find this information on the driver's door jamb but it should be on the screen too. The recommended pressure for the tires is 42 PSI. But the warning system warns at 41 PSI. I think it should give you a little more wiggle room before a warning appears.
The have been enough Model 3s in the Bay Area for long enough now that I guess they're not that unusual to see. No strangers honked or waved at me or crowded around the car to get a look at Tesla's latest. I stood in line at the Fremont factory hours before they opened on March 31, 2016 so I could be one of the first to have a Model 3. It's disappointing that no first time Tesla buyers have had the opportunity to buy the car yet and by the time we can it will already almost be yesterday's news around here.
Yes, there's no reliable key fob, no HUD, no AM radio, no XM radio, no Apple CarPlay and no Android Auto. Many people may find those things significant omissions. Most people probably won't. Nevertheless it may have been better to not alienate groups of car buyers seemingly unnecessarily.
So is the Tesla Model 3 worth it and should you buy it? Absolutely... with a couple of caveats.
First, realize that the car gets expensive when you start adding in options. It's probably better to go with the base Model than to add a bunch of expensive options if it's a stretch for you to afford them. The base car will still give you everything that's really important.
Second be aware that for better or worse this car is tuned for sport performance. If you are expecting the ultimate in ride comfort and a quiet ride above all else this car may not quite be what you want.
I had a great time with the car and it was a lot of fun to drive. My time with it validated my initial decision to buy the Model 3 and I'm now even more excited about it than ever.
Thanks!
[Edited Feb 6]
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Comments
Nice review, though. Sorry to hear about the wind noise and the visibility issues. I don't understand how a 0.23 drag coefficient produces that much wind noise - something must be wrong somewhere.
What did you think of the car's turning circle? Tesla's early manual says it turns like a minivan, but I have not seen many comments from drivers on this. Thanks,
Today i got to sit in my first model 3 and I had a similar experience with being somewhat underwhelmed with the visability. I'm sure I'd adapt quickly but I thought visability was less than I expected based on others comments.
"What did you think of the car's turning circle?"
The turning radius is wider than many cars but not unbearably so. It's manageable. You may need a point when turning around.
I tend to agree on ACC and autosteer. Wish they'd offer ACC for $500 or $1k without the other pre-beta killware.
Wow! Beautiful piece of writing, and very comprehensive. Intersting observation about location of door button. Also about driver's seat position. Thanks!
The biggest point of interest for me is around the EAP. It seems to me that the full suite of EAP functionality is not safely usable, so a person who purchases EAP is basically limited to I suppose some parking features and TACC. $5k is indeed too much for that. I see that Toyota is starting to put in full range dynamic cruise control, which functions in bumper to bumper traffic (look on youtube for "prius prime dynamic cruise"). This is in fact going to be a standard feature on some toyotas. Other brands are on board with it, too. You still have to steer, but with the tesla you still do anyway, or at least should. I remain surprised that Tesla's autosteer works so badly. I've seen the videos of it, too. They shouldn't have released that code to production, it is not ready or safe.
The more I learn about tesla, and other manufacturers, the more I realize in some ways Tesla is not as ahead as I once thought. For $45k (SR + PUP + EAP), this car still falls short of non-EV competitors in accessories, and by quite a margin. I can think of another sedan coming out this year that for $45k will do 0-60 in 5.9-6.0, is much larger than the tesla, has a heated steering wheel, ventilated front seats, HUD, radar cruise through entire speed spectrum, real-time adaptive suspension, apple carplay, key fob, satellite, power moonroof, gauge cluster, will be more reliable (no that isn't a subjective statement), and when it's not a service center in every small town in the country. Everything I just mentioned except for radar cruise, the Model 3 doesn't have.
Interesting on the EAP - I wonder if it is different on the 3 than the X. I have AP 1.0 on my S and EAP on my X. I have not had any problems with either, and I have driven many 2 lane highways with it engaged on my X and not a problem. I have found that some of it depends on your driving style, which I think Carl did a good job of referencing. Those that hug the lines away from vehicles feel less safe with EAP as it does put you in the middle of the lane and with that, you "feel" too close to other cars and that it is not safe.
Again, wonder if it is different in the 3 than my X, as I don't get the ping-pong issue, the only one I do get is on some curves, it tends to get close to the line, but rarely do I have to take over or feel unsafe. With EAP - I have also learned - to each is their own. Some may feel unsafe just because of driving style. I have yet to feel unsafe with mine in the X.
Just another data point for some - not trying to sell it, but there has been much discussion on EAP on the X/S forums and I have learned that there are so many viewpoints on it and I feel it important to understand that while some opinions are they feel unsafe or wouldn't buy it, I on the other hand love and use it all the time and do not feel unsafe...
Again, nice write up Carl and good insights.
1. EAP is not confidence inspiring on roads that curve, even on roads that have wide curves.
2. Lane merges on Model 3 are sometimes scary.
More of this on a dedicated thread for EAP.
I also drive a BMW Z4. How would describe the difference in acceleration and comfort? Thanks.
2019 Avalon