Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Sure does seem like I have a car buying problem, this one didn't last long 
.
Today I sold my Model 3 with almost 1,800 miles to CarMax, they gave me the best price of any other dealer. Private party could have likely done a little better, but there was a lot of flakey people. CarMax paid $48k, on my $41k car that after taxes and fees was $47.2k. Ceramic tint including glass roof and clear bra was $1,450 from a high-end shop, so all-in-all almost 7 weeks of ownership cost $650. @dishdude and I met up and he got to take it for a quick spin, he can offer input as well.
There are some things I loved about this car, and some things I couldn't live with. I didn't fall in love with it, so it doesn't hurt to see it go. One reason for selling is I am now unfortunately working mostly from home. I'll only be going into work maybe 1-2 times per week. I was excited about being able to for 1, drive the car, but 2, charging at work (free). The main reason I sold it was it just wasn't comfortable to me. I'm not a small guy, and the seat has side bolsters that are huge on the bottom. My butt would fall asleep and it was making my sciatic nerve act up. Just couldn't get comfortable. Another annoyance was the rattles, I had 3-4 of them (video of what was next to my ear posted below). It takes 4-5 weeks to get an appointment at a Tesla service center so if they couldn't resolve them on the first visit, I'd potentially be living with them for months and months. This was a turn off for any other future service needs.
The Pros:
.Today I sold my Model 3 with almost 1,800 miles to CarMax, they gave me the best price of any other dealer. Private party could have likely done a little better, but there was a lot of flakey people. CarMax paid $48k, on my $41k car that after taxes and fees was $47.2k. Ceramic tint including glass roof and clear bra was $1,450 from a high-end shop, so all-in-all almost 7 weeks of ownership cost $650. @dishdude and I met up and he got to take it for a quick spin, he can offer input as well.
There are some things I loved about this car, and some things I couldn't live with. I didn't fall in love with it, so it doesn't hurt to see it go. One reason for selling is I am now unfortunately working mostly from home. I'll only be going into work maybe 1-2 times per week. I was excited about being able to for 1, drive the car, but 2, charging at work (free). The main reason I sold it was it just wasn't comfortable to me. I'm not a small guy, and the seat has side bolsters that are huge on the bottom. My butt would fall asleep and it was making my sciatic nerve act up. Just couldn't get comfortable. Another annoyance was the rattles, I had 3-4 of them (video of what was next to my ear posted below). It takes 4-5 weeks to get an appointment at a Tesla service center so if they couldn't resolve them on the first visit, I'd potentially be living with them for months and months. This was a turn off for any other future service needs.
The Pros:
- Technology. I work in IT so I love the gadgets and gizmos. From the video games to video streaming, fart noises and ice cream truck sounds, security surveillance and customizability etc.
- Roominess. For a small car, there's a decent amount of room. Lots of shoulder and head room, big front and rear trunks, legroom in the back wasn't the best but scooting up the seats made it ok.
- Fit and finish (aside from rattles). The materials are nice IMO, smooth feel and they seemed to fit pretty good. No weird gaps, just the driver's side door belt molding was a little off. Could have gotten it adjusted at a service center if I kept the car. I'll lump in road noise on here. Pretty decent.
- Suspension and handling. Smaller cars like this don't have plush rides, there's a firmness, and that was ok with this one. It absorbed pretty decently. Pushing into the corners was ok too, not spectacular. There was some under-steer. Dual motor models might not have as much of an issue.
- Power. Effortless acceleration. Not a racecar, but at this price point 5.3s 0-60 and low 13's in the 1/4 mile is nice. Remember, this is the base-model of the 3's, there's 3 tiers.
- Good A/C, it had no problem keeping the car cool.
- Ability to charge with a lot of different plugs. Easy to find adapters for the charger to use lots of different types of 220 outlets.
- Having no key was so nice. Just walk up to the car, get in, and go. Flawlessly from your phone's Bluetooth. Then get out and walk away. Don't need to turn anything off, it locks itself.
- Seat bottom comfort. I've been in dozens and dozens of cars in my life. Never sat in a car that has seat bolsters in the bottom quite like this. Made for 100 pound middle schoolers I guess? Ok maybe not that small. But still weird.
- The rattles. Each rear door panel had one, as well as the driver's side B pillar. I had one in the dash that would come and go. I worry that as the car ages these would progress.
- The black vegan leather seats are HOT as heck in the sun. Ouch. My Genesis' real black leather seats were nothing like this.
- The A/C is LOUD when cooling hard.
- The A/C defaults to blowing on the driver only if there is no passenger. I wish this were a setting, I believe it is to preserve battery life. I want it to cool the whole car, not just me. This is easily fixed though in the A/C settings to turn on the passenger vent, but just an annoyance to do that every time.
