I had picked up a Tesla 3 a year ago and wanted to give a quick 1 year update. First of, the wife drives the car now since her commute is farther than mine. At first she didn’t like it and was worried about Autopilot, but now she can’t live without it. It has its problems (like wanting to take the left exit on highways besides going straight,) but for the most part, as long as you’re paying attention, it’s a great driving experience. I drive it on weekends and love it. The best part really is the Autopilot – if you don’t get that when buying a Tesla, then what’s the point.
Another great feature is being able to walk up to the car with your phone in pocket and you just open the door, get in, and turn the lever to DRIVE. There’s no pushing a button to unlock the card. No button to START the car. It’s just like an always-on go-cart. I’ve stepped out of my gas SUV and left the car running a few times – the Tesla “shuts” itself off – you park car, push a button and just get out. You’d think saving one step of pushing the start button is minimal, but once you get used to it, you really like it.
I used to hand wash the car using the two bucket method, but after a couple of times, I gave up and barely wash the car now. Most people say you should take it to a brush less car wash, so I may do that. Plus the wife eats curbs like M&M’s and she’s already scraped up the front corner, so does it really matter if I wash it anymore?
I do like all the over the air updates. When I got the car, you couldn’t even record video of the exterior cameras. Eventually they updated to let you plug in a USB drive to record the video. Then you couldn’t get alerted when someone tampered with your car when you were shopping or so. Now you get alerted I believe. Eventually they’ll prob send you the video to your phone (kinda like Ring) so you know what happened. It’s like when the Iphone 3 came out and they kept making massive improvements with every new iPhone except this is Tesla’s software. There’s still so much potential software-wise going on with the car.
I’m sure there are more reasons but these were the main ones; other reasons – (big screen, summoning the car to you is a cool gimmick to show your friends, cost of electricity vs gas, etc.) Oh by the way it’s been a year already and we’ve done no maintenance on the car. I think I’ll need to rotate the tire, but that’s it… maybe top off the washer fluid.
The ONLY complaint I have is that the car is pretty low to the ground, especially when getting in and out. Sorry, when you drive an SUV daily and have to go back back to the 3, you can feel the elevation difference. This is why I plan on getting the Y later down the road.
We have a Model S and I love it – buying that car, even if it was expensive, is a decision that I would make all over again. I’ve driven ICE cars a few times over the years since owning it and it reinforces my decision every time.
The car just being ready when you’re ready to go is great. The lack of maintenance and fill ups is awesome. The acceleration means that you have more maneuverability on the highway. Autopilot is excellent for road trips in addition to daily driving – we’ve done Las Vegas to Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City and are thankful to have had it.
Superchargers are sometimes slow when there’s a lot of load on the circuit or the weather is very cold. That’s the only major complaint I’ve had.
I would recommend a Tesla to anyone interested in buying a car nowadays. I think they remain on top of the EV market for now, but am excited to see other competitors start to catch up.
Hello I’m interested in buying a Tesla. I want to know if the car insurance is expensive? And what are your pros and cons of owning one. Thank you
The insurance is about the same as owning a $50K BMW or so. Each person’s insurance varies due to old, driving record, etc so can’t really tell you. This article JUST listed all the pros and cons.