Out with the Honda Prologue and in with a Tesla Model 3. It's a VERY different experience but not in a bad way. After my test drive last week I thought about it and decided this was the way I wanted to go. I thought about it for a week before making the leap and ordering it.
What a great experience. I submitted the order on the Tesla website. Did a few steps in the app. Financing and everything was done in the app. Scheduled a date and time to go pick up the car (sadly in Fremont, not Vallejo, which would have been closer, oh well, it was cool to see the huge Tesla factory), went into the showroom, they gave me a post it note telling me which parking spot to find my car in. Then, inspected the car, everything was fine, went in the app to accept delivery and pair my phone with the car and we could leave. No sitting in the dealership for four hours waiting for the finance guy to finish up with the previous customer. No negotiating off dumb dealer add-ons. No upsells of protection plans and other trash.
I used FSD ("Full Self Driving [Supervised]) the whole way home. And have been using it pretty much every drive since I got the car. And for the most part, it's wonderful. The Supervised part is important though, about once a day it does something that I feel I need to intervene to avoid causing problems. Also, the navigation routing is weird. Like, to get to my work, it wants to go a certain way, which would mean taking a right then a left then needing to make a left turn across a busy road with two lanes in each direction. Instead of just going straight and making a hassle-free right into the parking lot. It also did the same thing when leaving a friends house. If it had gone straight we would have ended up at a traffic light. Instead, it took a detour to one block over where I'd have to turn across multiple lanes on a busy highway. I'm not sure what its obsession is with that manuever! I wonder if I can suggest routing improvements to Tesla somehow? All that said, I have a three month free trial of FSD, and am not sure if I will keep it after that (it's $100/mo). The other thing about FSD is that it doesn't avoid potholes and stuff like I do as a human driver. I let it be, but cringe a little each time.
It's FAST. Yes, this is the slowest version of the car, but it's still super quick and will push you back in your seat if you ask it to.
Quality and fit and finish stuff is just as good as the Prologue, a vehicle with an MSRP of about $15K more than my Tesla. In fact, I'd say in some ways its better, as the Prologue has some problems... at under 7000 miles two interior trim pieces are loose already (and no, we are not rough with the vehicle). The Tesla? No issues. I'd say the worst part is the motorized charging cover. It sounds cheap!
As I mentioned last week in my test drive of pretty much the same car in a different color, the audio system isn't stellar. It's not worse than the Prologue's "Bose Premium Audio", it's just not great in a different way. Still, plenty good enough, I am OK with it. Like I said before, though, I would have upgraded to the premium audio used in the AWD version of the Model 3 if it was an available option, for, let's say, $500?
I find the suspension to be a little firmer than I'm used to. It's definitely more "sporty" than "comfy" but it's not bad. Once again, hard to compare a "sports sedan" to a "family SUV" here. I suspect the Model Y would be a lot more like a Honda Prologue. But, at the time of placing the order, the Model Y was much more expensive. Of course, the next day, the cheaper Model Y dropped and it wouldn't have been a huge price difference. Oh well, I don't like the new tail light thing on the refreshed Y looks anyway, so I'm not really upset about it.
Tesla gets some quality of life stuff right that makes a huge difference. Phone as a key is one of the best features ever and has so far worked flawlessly. I do carry a key card in my wallet as a backup but I haven't need it yet. Their mobile app and in-car software are amazing as well. HondaLink by OnStar literally never worked right and in the Prologue I could trigger a "Service Transmission" and the EV equivalent of a check engine light by shifting too soon after starting the car. But the Tesla? It all works wonderfully. Scheduled charging was literally broken in the Prologue. While in the Tesla it took me under 2 minutes to create the charging schedule I wanted for my home location while making it charge instantly anywhere else.
But, there are some downsides. I hate the door handles. Every time I have ever got in/driven a 3/Y I have hated the door handles. I'm a fan of traditional door handles. Yet, our Equinox EV has "pop out" door handles which are still better than the awkward push in and pull thing we got going on with this car. Also, as most people know, Tesla dropped the turn signal and shifter stalk in this car. The turn signal is fine... FSD signals for you, and even if you are driving manually, you get used to it real quick. Shifter is more annoying. You swipe on the screen to shift. I enabled "Auto Shift Beta" and it generally works OK but the way our driveway goes onto a busy two way street, and the manuevers I have to make when I arrive or leave are a little frustrating.
I do like the charge port being in the rear drivers side, as I tend to prefer to back in to our driveway anyway. And hey, when I do use Superchargers, I don't have to use up two spots up!
Efficiency on this car is excellent. I've averaged about 4mi/kwh since taking delivery. In the Prologue? I'd average under 3 most drives. With our power costs and only having Level 1 charging at home, this makes a difference. I do have Sentry Mode on which uses a little juice when the car is sitting but with todays political climate I think it's a must for all Tesla owners. I do think I will have an electrician install a L2 plug eventually, but so far I've been fine with the slooooow charging.
Interior space/trunk space, definitely less than I'm used to. But it's fine, it's just me... or maybe me and a passenger occasionally. No kids or whatever. I used the cargo area of the Prologue like twice? And like I said, there is an Equinox EV in the household I can borrow if/when I need more space.
So yeah, those are my thoughts for now. Whether you like Tesla as a company or not, and regardless of what you think of the CEO, the car is impressive. I'd give it a 9/10 rating overall.
And, as a bonus, the color and wheel combo I picked nicely matches our Equinox EV. They look so cute together! The "Highland" Model 3 really does look so much better than the previous years. Much less of a blob thing!
What a great experience. I submitted the order on the Tesla website. Did a few steps in the app. Financing and everything was done in the app. Scheduled a date and time to go pick up the car (sadly in Fremont, not Vallejo, which would have been closer, oh well, it was cool to see the huge Tesla factory), went into the showroom, they gave me a post it note telling me which parking spot to find my car in. Then, inspected the car, everything was fine, went in the app to accept delivery and pair my phone with the car and we could leave. No sitting in the dealership for four hours waiting for the finance guy to finish up with the previous customer. No negotiating off dumb dealer add-ons. No upsells of protection plans and other trash.
I used FSD ("Full Self Driving [Supervised]) the whole way home. And have been using it pretty much every drive since I got the car. And for the most part, it's wonderful. The Supervised part is important though, about once a day it does something that I feel I need to intervene to avoid causing problems. Also, the navigation routing is weird. Like, to get to my work, it wants to go a certain way, which would mean taking a right then a left then needing to make a left turn across a busy road with two lanes in each direction. Instead of just going straight and making a hassle-free right into the parking lot. It also did the same thing when leaving a friends house. If it had gone straight we would have ended up at a traffic light. Instead, it took a detour to one block over where I'd have to turn across multiple lanes on a busy highway. I'm not sure what its obsession is with that manuever! I wonder if I can suggest routing improvements to Tesla somehow? All that said, I have a three month free trial of FSD, and am not sure if I will keep it after that (it's $100/mo). The other thing about FSD is that it doesn't avoid potholes and stuff like I do as a human driver. I let it be, but cringe a little each time.
It's FAST. Yes, this is the slowest version of the car, but it's still super quick and will push you back in your seat if you ask it to.
Quality and fit and finish stuff is just as good as the Prologue, a vehicle with an MSRP of about $15K more than my Tesla. In fact, I'd say in some ways its better, as the Prologue has some problems... at under 7000 miles two interior trim pieces are loose already (and no, we are not rough with the vehicle). The Tesla? No issues. I'd say the worst part is the motorized charging cover. It sounds cheap!
As I mentioned last week in my test drive of pretty much the same car in a different color, the audio system isn't stellar. It's not worse than the Prologue's "Bose Premium Audio", it's just not great in a different way. Still, plenty good enough, I am OK with it. Like I said before, though, I would have upgraded to the premium audio used in the AWD version of the Model 3 if it was an available option, for, let's say, $500?
I find the suspension to be a little firmer than I'm used to. It's definitely more "sporty" than "comfy" but it's not bad. Once again, hard to compare a "sports sedan" to a "family SUV" here. I suspect the Model Y would be a lot more like a Honda Prologue. But, at the time of placing the order, the Model Y was much more expensive. Of course, the next day, the cheaper Model Y dropped and it wouldn't have been a huge price difference. Oh well, I don't like the new tail light thing on the refreshed Y looks anyway, so I'm not really upset about it.
Tesla gets some quality of life stuff right that makes a huge difference. Phone as a key is one of the best features ever and has so far worked flawlessly. I do carry a key card in my wallet as a backup but I haven't need it yet. Their mobile app and in-car software are amazing as well. HondaLink by OnStar literally never worked right and in the Prologue I could trigger a "Service Transmission" and the EV equivalent of a check engine light by shifting too soon after starting the car. But the Tesla? It all works wonderfully. Scheduled charging was literally broken in the Prologue. While in the Tesla it took me under 2 minutes to create the charging schedule I wanted for my home location while making it charge instantly anywhere else.
But, there are some downsides. I hate the door handles. Every time I have ever got in/driven a 3/Y I have hated the door handles. I'm a fan of traditional door handles. Yet, our Equinox EV has "pop out" door handles which are still better than the awkward push in and pull thing we got going on with this car. Also, as most people know, Tesla dropped the turn signal and shifter stalk in this car. The turn signal is fine... FSD signals for you, and even if you are driving manually, you get used to it real quick. Shifter is more annoying. You swipe on the screen to shift. I enabled "Auto Shift Beta" and it generally works OK but the way our driveway goes onto a busy two way street, and the manuevers I have to make when I arrive or leave are a little frustrating.
I do like the charge port being in the rear drivers side, as I tend to prefer to back in to our driveway anyway. And hey, when I do use Superchargers, I don't have to use up two spots up!
Efficiency on this car is excellent. I've averaged about 4mi/kwh since taking delivery. In the Prologue? I'd average under 3 most drives. With our power costs and only having Level 1 charging at home, this makes a difference. I do have Sentry Mode on which uses a little juice when the car is sitting but with todays political climate I think it's a must for all Tesla owners. I do think I will have an electrician install a L2 plug eventually, but so far I've been fine with the slooooow charging.
Interior space/trunk space, definitely less than I'm used to. But it's fine, it's just me... or maybe me and a passenger occasionally. No kids or whatever. I used the cargo area of the Prologue like twice? And like I said, there is an Equinox EV in the household I can borrow if/when I need more space.
So yeah, those are my thoughts for now. Whether you like Tesla as a company or not, and regardless of what you think of the CEO, the car is impressive. I'd give it a 9/10 rating overall.
And, as a bonus, the color and wheel combo I picked nicely matches our Equinox EV. They look so cute together! The "Highland" Model 3 really does look so much better than the previous years. Much less of a blob thing!
