Today was the day of the test drive of the Tesla Model 3. We arrived about 20 minutes early, our instructions were to bring our drivers license and arrive 15 minutes early. The facility was new and quite nice. But new buildings generally are nice, hard to get that wrong.
When I made the appointment for the test drive I did not know today was the open house for Franklin Tesla. They were very busy giving people a tour of their facility. However, they did have plenty of showroom employees on hand and we were quickly introduced to someone who walked us through the basic operation of the car and handed us the key card that allows you to start driving.
We were told we could be gone 30 minutes, we were alone while we were driving.
Lisa drove first. She quickly learned the operation of the "one pedal driving experience". Around town stop and go traffic out to an open main highway. She floored the (electric?) pedal and we were suitably impressed with the acceleration. This was the "low powered" Tesla. Not a match for a high performance ICE car, but not meant to be. For family sedan, quite strong instant acceleration. Lisa was annoyed the screen could not be tilted toward her face. She also noted there was no instrument cluster and she was not a fan of the missing cluster.
Next was my turn to drive. I became accustomed to the one pedal operation quickly. I have to say, I can see why some people like that style of driving. The missing instrument panel did not bother me, I had the seat further back than she did and could easily see the screen. The car was pleasant to drive. Not only was the acceleration instant and strong, the steering felt good to me and the seat had plenty of adjustment to get comfortable. I was only in the car 30 minutes and driving about 15 minutes so I can't say how seat would be on a long trip but my initial impression was good.
Interior material and quality seemed "good". Not "Wow this is really upper end" or "This is cheap". Just good functional new car middle ground quality, if that makes sense.
On the exterior, the fit of the left brake light gap was about 1/8'' less than the corresponding right side. Noticeable if you looked for it, but not terrible. I would expect better from a $50,000 car. No glaring problems otherwise.
We talked to the girl about the buying process. For those who might not know, the people at the store are not on commission. They are there to answer questions and assist however they can. So, zero pressure from her. She was very friendly and helpful. She told us they had no model 3's on the lot, they were sold before they got there. She answered our questions and we left to walk around the parking lot before heading home. She would have helped us order the car there at the store if we had asked.
We had talked about the Tesla for the next couple of hours and agreed that it is a very impressive car that we would both enjoy driving. But we have decided to wait for another year. Not because we have any negative feelings for the car, but in order to be in a more prepared financial condition.
I will close by saying again, we were both very impressed with the car as well as the dealership experience. I believe buying a car from Tesla would be quite pleasant, and that has not been my experience with most of my new car purchases in the past.
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