My New Tesla Model 3 — Six Things I Like and Six Things I Dislike

I picked up my new car after a near 9 month wait. A black base model Tesla model 3 with white seats. After nearly a month with the car I think I am approaching the end of the honeymoon phase and can hopefully give some non biased opinions of what I like and dislike so far:

Likes:

1. The car is very quiet, especially coming from a normal gas engine car. The front windows have two panes sandwiched together to prevent wind noise, and you never hear the electric motor. If the AC or heater are off you just hear road noise from the tires.
2. Charging at home and not needing to go to a gas station anymore. There is never that feeling of “Next time I’m out I need to stop somewhere to fill up”
3. The Tesla app is great, and works as your key. Walk up and it unlocks, walk away and it locks. If the car is being driven it shows speed, location, battery percentage. Turn on the AC before heading out with the app, see how much you’ve saved on gas with the app. See someone a little too close to your car? Talk to them through the app in a scary voice via a voice modulation filter. Pop the front trunk, schedule service, request roadside assistance all through the app.
4. Software updates that make the car better over time. When my wife and I picked up the car we were disappointed to see that our Spotify accounts need to be logged in and out each time we want to listen to our own music. A week later release notes for the next update showed Spotify login is now paired to user profiles. It works great.
5. The car user interface is responsive, vastly different from other car “infotainment” screens. Even new cars like the Lucid EVs aren’t as snappy. It makes the whole idea of everything living on one screen manageable.
6. Super chargers are fast and easy. Pull in and plug in and they charge your account automatically on your usage.

Even dirty and in the rain the car looks pretty rad imo

Dislikes:

1. It took nearly 9 months to get this car. When I ordered it, the estimated delivery date was 2 months. This is an issue with Tesla not estimating deliveries correctly. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth and I could see how it would cause people to cancel orders.
2. Tesla service people are hard to get ahold of, when I had questions about my order sometimes emails would take weeks before I got a response. When I asked what was going on with my car (why is it taking 8 months when you said 2) they simply responded with “We can’t see anything from the factory”. I can see this being an issue going forward if I ever need a service repair.
3. While my car did include the mobile charger (fits a standard outlet but charges very slowly) Tesla has failed to keep their fast charge adapters in stock (specifically the Gen 2 NEMA adapter) on their website. If I had to drive often and keep my car charged fully, having to keep going to super chargers ruining the convenience of having an EV that can be charged at home.
4. Rock chips in my paint already! I’m not sure if it’s Tesla’s paint or maybe I’m just noticing it more now that I have a solid black car, but I already have 3 or 4 large chips on the hood and front bumper at 1,500 miles. Yikes!
5. The windshield wipers have the fluid dispenser in the arms rather than in the hood. This feels like Tesla trying something new that doesn’t quite work as well as they think. If you’re going fast most of the fluid discharges into the wind. Seems unnecessary.
6. The front trunk is not super useful and I think they should rethink it. Maybe if it had power lift and close I would actually use it. There is no button on the hood itself so to open it you need to go in the app or in the car. Every time you open it you need to two hand the hood and push down, unsure if it is ever enough force or too much. It just seems like such a unique aspect of EVs in general: since there is no combustion engine up front there is all this space but it ends up being like that sitting area in an old persons house that no one ever goes in.

Overall I’m very pleased with the car. It is fun to drive, stylish, the white seats are awesome and comfy. Anyways thanks for reading!