What I hate about my Tesla Model 3
“Regular Cars Just Feel Stupid” — Joe Rogan
When Joe Rogan had Elon Musk on an episode of his Podcast, I instantly watched it. Elon Musk is basically a genius in my eyes. Sure he has used the brains of engineers to build the empire he has, but his vision is extraordinary.
Tesla was founded back in July of 2003, but it flew under the radar for quite some time before it started turning the eyes of investors, consumers, and other car companies. Most people laughed at Elon Musk & Tesla as trying to do something that seemed impossible.
At times before & during the Model 3 launch, Tesla was weeks away from filing for bankruptcy. Now, holds the title of “Most Valuable Car Company” in the entire world, surpassing Toyota.
In September of 2020 I decided I was ready for a new car, I was tired of my Jeep Wrangler and wanted something a bit more comfortable to drive around. For me, being self employed and working from home a car is more of a luxury to me, it doesn’t have to be practical.
I thought about getting a Lexus F Sport until I realized the price of insurance for someone under the age of 25. I looked at getting a Toyota 4Runner as it was like a Jeep Wrangler, but with a few more features.
I was shopping around, looking for deals and what was available as the car shortage was effecting the market the same as the housing shortage we have experienced this year.
We were up at a local mall with a Tesla dealership, I had looked at them in the past, but never gave it any thought. I really just wanted to see exactly what Joe Rogan was talking about when he said regular cars felt stupid after driving a Tesla.
We hopped in, went to take off, pulling up to a red light, let my foot off the gas expecting to start coasting up to the light and BOOM we stopped. Tesla’s have a feature called regenerative breaking, so every time you let your foot off the throttle, it starts slowing down & breaking to help recharge the battery to extend your mileage.
After test driving the Tesla for about 20 minutes I knew this was the car. It was fast, fun, had a crazy amount of features and well there was no haggling on price. We test drove on a Saturday, filled out my application in about 10 minutes, was approved and left the dealership. Returned the next morning to pick up my brand new Tesla Model 3. Signed a few pieces of paper, received a little packet and was on my way.
From start to finish, including the 20 minute test drive, I spent no more than 45–50 minutes at the dealership. That is paperwork, approval, learning that car and test driving it. The experience was unlike anything else. When we bought my wife’s car last year, we were at the dealership for a little over 4 hours, it was miserable just sitting their waiting. Elon Musk & Tesla always figure out the most efficient way to do everything, and sure enough, they did it with shopping experience.
After having the Tesla for over 3 months now, there are a few minor things that I truly dislike. They are all small and things I don’t think about often, but annoying enough to add them to the article.
Before we dive into the negatives, I want to say I am extremely grateful to be in the position I am in at such a young age. I absolutely love my car & enjoy driving it. The list of goods outweigh the bads 100 to 1. I don’t want anyone thinking “look at this stuckup kid complaining about things that don’t truly matter”. I will also be writing about the things I love most about my car, because it still blows my mind every time I get into it!
The Bad:
- Door Handles:
The door handles on the Tesla model 3 do not protrude from the door, they are flat & sleek. You simply push in the back of the handle, the front pops out & you pull on it. It works great, feels great, and looks awesome not having door handles sticking out.
But…
Living in a northern midwest state it gets cold & it snows. When ice & snow start sticking to the car, the handles start to freeze & become extremely hard to open, you basically have to force the back of the handle into the car to be able to open.
I usually park in our garage, so it typical isn’t an issue. Over the last week we have had about 6 inches of snow and being out, going shopping, and the car getting covered in snow, I realized how annoying it is.
Solution: Small heating elements behind the handle. Would be extremely easy for Tesla to add to the car as there are other heating elements already on the car.
2. Auto High Beams
The headlights are awesome, they are bright, light up the rode & the high beams make it look like it is day time. Tesla has been deemed by a few different review sites to have the best headlights among cars. They are absolutely fantastic and offer an automatic high beam feature that will turn off your high beams when another car is in range.
The issue: The cameras & sensors (the car is covered in them) they use to decide when the high beams come on, and when they go off need some tweaking. Everything about the Tesla is coding & software based so it can easily be done. In my opinion they need to increase the sensitivity of the auto high beams.
Solution: Adjust the sensitivity in the coding as to when the high beams come on & go off. I rarely find myself having to turn them off manually, but it does happen from time to time.
3. Battery Life In The Cold
Batteries just don’t do well in the cold, it is a proven fact. But living in a cold weather state hurts the range you get per charge. Recently we have had nights down into the teens & the next day my battery will have 10–15 less miles than the night before. It plain out sucks.
Not only do you lose battery life in the cold weather, you also charge slow if you battery isn’t warm. Luckily I do have a supercharger about 10 minutes from my house, so I hope in the car, tell the car I am heading to the supercharger & by the time I get there the battery is warm enough to charge at a rate of nearly 500 miles per hour.
Solution: The Tesla Model S & Model X both have dedicated battery heaters that keep your battery warm. The Model 3 uses the motors to heat the battery up, so unless you are driving, your battery sits cold. Adding a simple battery heater like the S & X have would elminate the issue.
4. Supercharger Stations:
Tesla Superchargers are FAST, and I mean mind boggling fast. The fact that I have watched the car charger at a rate of over 600 Miles Per Hour is insane. Around my city, there are 5 different supercharger stations & hundreds of other electric car chargers you can use.
The only issue with the other charges is the charge rate. Using chargers that aren’t Tesla Superchargers work great in a pinch, but they typically only charge at a rate of 10–15 miles per hour MAX.
We went to a mall once, I realized my mileage was low so I used a charger the mall provided in parking garage. We went shopping, had lunch, and spent a few hours at the mall to come back to my car with only 24 more miles than I had when we got there. While it is free & great, if I had my Tesla plugged into a Supercharger, it would have been fully charged during that same time frame.
My issue with the Tesla Supercharger being how the cord hangs. When you plug the cord into your car it is tight, snug and doesn't move what so ever. When you return the cord back to its home hanging in the Supercharger it constantly falls back down. If the cord isn’t pushed back in to the extremely loose holder it will fall back down & I have had it hit my car numerous times.
Solution: A better holder contraption. If Tesla would just update the plug holder on the Supercharger to the same style that is on the car, the charger would never fall out, therefore avoiding your car being hit by a heavy & hard plastic piece.
Overview:
I absolutely love my car, everyone keeps asking me if there is anything I dislike it. I have been looking over the car, trying to find issues that I don’t like and it was extremely hard to come up with any. The features I do love outweigh the few issues I have by a long shot.
Overall the Tesla is packed full of features, the buying experience was excellent, and it is by far the best driving experience I have ever had while in a car.
I am extremely grateful to share my thoughts & opinions with you. Be sure to watch out for my favorite features post coming this week. It is much longer and there are a few things in their I guarantee you didn't know existed.
