Acquaintance of mine - now retired but formerly an airline Captain and qualified Electrical Engineer posted on another Forum that he'd picked up his Tesla 3 on Saturday. Here's what he had to say:
Yesterday our newest baby arrived. After literally years of waiting, we picked up our Tesla Model 3. In a word: truly INCREDIBLE! It’s well beyond my wildest dreams. This car is a bloody spaceship, thanks to Elon Musk and team. This car is a true game changer for all sorts of reasons. Forget all the “FUD” which so often gets in the news: Our car had zero faults, zero excessive panel gaps or misaligned trims, zero paint blemishes, no nothing, it’s perfect! We picked it up at the appointed time at 11am- the staff are absolutely flat out delivering the backlog, with up to 70 model 3’s being delivered in Brisbane one day and an average of “only” 50. (They we’re delivering an incredible 53 cars in Brisbane yesterday). For the actual delivery, it was recommended to have the phone apps already installed on both phones in advance and also preferably watch all their videos, plus ideally read the owners manual (PDF). I had done all of that! They allocated just 15 mins average for each delivery (another truck arrived with more cars while we were there) and we were literally done in less than the allocated 15mins- everything worked quickly and flawlessly, and although the staff were more than happy to spend longer showing it’s features, I just said, don’t bother, I’ve read and watched everything, happy to drive off and learn as I go.The car goes like a supercar, handles like a supercar, has a really fabulous sound system with included Spotify, internet radio, FM, Bluetooth (of course), and also plays your own music from a memory stick or SSD, and is extremely easy to get the hang of. Almost everything is controlled on the beautiful, very large iPad like centre screen. The brilliant screen makes everything else even in top end, far more expensive cars look like they’re last century! I also have a compact Samsung 500Gb T5 SSD plugged in which holds LOTS of music, plus dashcam video (three cameras), plus “sentry” video which records any suspicious goings on around the car when parked in a public place. There is no key, or even key fob - unless you’re old fashioned and want one, which costs extra. (Why on earth would you?) As long as you have your paired smartphone, virtually everything can be done on the phone remotely, (and from anywhere in the world with internet coverage), or the car will just unlock or lock as you walk up to it or walk away, with no need to take the phone from your pocket! It of course remembers seat, mirror and all driver settings depending on whether it’s me or the wife driving. Eg: she likes “chill” mode for less aggressive acceleration. There is also a backup smart card (same size as a credit card) if your phone is for example, not in your pocket or has a flat battery. Unless driving aggressively, it’s very easy to drive using accelerator pedal only, lifting your foot slowing the car using regen (ie: power back into the battery.) The regen is way more powerful than the PHEV- you could easily drive down virtually any mountain range in Australia without using brakes.The only slight problem I can foresee is that we will have to be very careful of speeding- the acceleration is highly addictive and makes even high powered motorcycles look bloody slow. : A big Ducati pulled up beside us at a red traffic light, and when the light went green, I left him in the dust up to 60kmh without even trying. You should have seen the look on his face when I backed off at 60 kph and he caught us- he gave a very big grin and thumbs up. I can see a lot of enjoyable road trips coming up- probably the first being a day trip to Mt Tamborine or perhaps Mt Nebo for a picnic. (Our car has about 500 klms range on a full charge.)The big ICE manufacturers including the Germans are terrified of Tesla, and for very good reason. This car is like a modern Model T, an absolutely massive disruption, and will change the world. Good riddance to smelly polluting ICE cars, (and especially in our cities). The future is electric!
Michael.
LTR Price at posting:
9.8¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)