[dave1619]

I've owned a Model 3 for over 5 months now with almost 6k miles on it. All I can attest to is my personal experience and the experience of some friends who also own a Model 3. Performance and handling on this car is truly amazing. Autopilot (at least in my personal experience) has been excellent. That said I understand the limitations of Autopilot and keep cautious oversight when it's on. I've head a few minor issues with the car but they are very minor compares to how great the car has been. For example, my trunk is difficult to close. One of the panel pieces was bulging out but service ranger fixed that. And sometimes the car doesn't recognize my phone to start the car, so I need to start it from the app or use the key card. Hopefully Tesla will be able to iron out these issues, and other issues that early owners have had. But I went into it knowing that I'm an early owner and will face some issues on first gen, first year car. All first gen, first year cars have their share of problems.

But overall, I suggest those who seriously want to know what kind of car the Model 3 is, is to test drive the car. And to ask Model 3 owners about the car. The vast, vast majority of Model 3 owners I've talked with tell me the car is truly amazing.

[blub]

This comment was confusing to me because it's super-positive and doesn't mention the article, so I thought the article itself is also positive. However:

"Sixteen weeks into ownership, we've had so many issues with our Model 3 that we started a shared Google Doc to catalog various warning messages, necessary screen resets and general failures." "We put down a $1,000 deposit to get on a two-year waiting list for this car and it's falling apart."

Disclaimer: I work in automotive for not Tesla.

[carlivar]

How do you like the touchscreen? This has always been my biggest concern. I don't like non tactile controls, and it sounds like some fairly simple and common features like mirror adjustments are buried in menus. Taking eye off the road for that screen doesn't sound good?

[colordrops]

The UI is pretty intuitive and they are making regular usability updates. Many things on the car are automatic so you don't have to mess with controls anyway, such as windshield wipers, lights, seat position, etc.

[carlivar]

So do you feel like you don't need to take your eyes off the road any more than with traditional controls?

[colordrops]

No, I don't. The Model 3 still has volume and toggle knobs on the wheel, so you can adjust audio without looking. Similarly to other cars, you have to look for a sec if you want to do something more complex. But it's not really a problem at all.

[greglindahl]

I've never "commonly" adjusted a side mirror -- it's a very occasional thing.

[carlivar]

That is true, I'm getting old and have memory seats now. I'm 6'4" so this used to be more common for me before memory seats. Or in other people's cars.

[dlhavema]

I so want memory seats. My wife is about 8 inches shorter than me...

[abduhl]

I am trying to think of any other first generation first year car that had a problem so basic as being on the order of "car doesn't recognize the key/keyfob and so won't start" and I can't think of one.

[rorso]

My first-release Subaru XV wouldn't re-start lots during the stop-start feature... in traffic. You'd have to put it in park, completely turn the car off, take key out, put key back in, and restart the car. Turning off the stop-start was the "solution" offered online, which reset every time you got back in the car (so it was easy to forget).

Also the entire entertainment unit would "crash" every couple days, and not work until another full "reboot" of the car like above. The screen would just lock up, music would stop, nothing at all on the centre screen would respond.

I also had a VW Passat TSI that went back to the dealership 6 times in the first year for electrical issues. Everything from the gearbox sensors failing causing the car to go into limp mode, to the centre screen locking up like the XV (in this case it would just fail to boot when you turned the car on), to the electric seats moving themselves (bad ground). They ended up buying back that car after the entire motor AND gearbox needed replacing at 11mths in.

I've owned a fair few new cars, and very few haven't had issues. Most were so insignificant I just waited until next service schedule, but many needed to go back under warranty.

New cars are complex machines that have problems.

[justin66]

VW and Subaru don't rank near the top of anyone's reliability rankings. You don't seem bothered by the problems, but if you were you could always buy something like a Toyota/Lexus.

[shaklee3]

This is incorrect. Subaru is ranked second in realiability after Toyota in consumer reports.

[justin66]

I guess I was thinking of: https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability-owner-satisf...

and yeah, Subaru doesn't rank too badly (sixth) on that list. I always thought of Subarus as being good, long-term powertrain reliability notwithstanding. The gas mileage they're getting while running normally-aspirated, full-time AWD powertrains is pretty impressive. I can't imagine why the parent's car was so utterly screwed up, but I wouldn't be happy about a problem that required me to turn the car off and take the key out.

I think the advice on getting a Toyota or a Lexus if you want to maximize your odds of not having problems like the parent described still stands. The conventional wisdom is that their reliability comes from making continuous small changes to their models instead of waiting to make major changes, although next year's Corolla hatchback looks like a pretty major one. It will be interesting to see what the first-year reliability of that model is.

[njovin]

OP did say that the key card worked but the phone recognition didn’t.

I’ve owned few cars with any sort of phone integrations beyond basic Bluetooth and they almost never work. Heck I own a Toyota truck they’ve been making for decades with a digital interface that’s probably five years mature and you still have to install one of their (overwhelmingly one-star rated) apps to do anything interesting with it. even if the app does work you get integration with a B-grade navigation app or iHeartRadio.

It’s not really a fair comparison.

[mdeeks]

I think you misunderstood. He is saying the feature where it recognizes your phone is near the car and unlocks wasn’t working. The key fob and opening the app manually still work.

[dangrossman]

Tesla doesn't give you a fob. You just have your phone, and the valet/guest card.

[mdeeks]

Yeah, I misspoke. It's a card not a fob. Like others said, it isn't a valet/guest card. It is actually the main "key" to your car in addition to your phone.

[amluto]

Oh, geez. Did they at least make it so that you can have more than one phone associated without sharing the same password?

[modeless]

Yes, it supports three according to the manual.

[amluto]

Wow, Tesla used a whole two bits to track the number of associations!

[checker]

Does this work when your phone runs out of charge, or do you need to find a good samaritan that will charge it for you?

[modeless]

The key card is your backup for when the phone isn't available for whatever reason. It's not a valet key, it's the main car key. (Valet mode is activated from the touchscreen, or your phone.)

Personally, I'm looking forward to not carrying a bulky fob with me everywhere. The key card will go in my wallet with my other cards, and my pockets will be lighter.

[linsomniac]

As far as the radio volume issue they were having: My 1997 Audi A4 had a similar problem. Unlike the Tesla, I didn't have the option of a firmware update to fix it. :-)

[houssc]

It sounds like the key fob did work as others pointed out. However I'm sure there are still lots of unfinished things. When I was out in Chicago with my buddy late last year I got to drive the updated Model S and I noticed the windshield wipers wouldn't come on automatically whenever it rained. After digging through the menu we found a thing that said said something like "feature coming soon" for automatic wipers. Kinda sucks to not have feature a lot of very entry level luxury-ish cars have. Overall the tech is cool and I bet they offer a lot more future functionality through patching. Just feels like they are always in a rush to launch to get some cash in the door and they go with "that will do for now" as the solution.

I hear they got a patch out around last new years to finally address this.

[greglindahl]

It's only Model S with AP2 that had that problem: the original S and the AP1 S both shipped with working automatic wipers on day 1.

But yes, that's the kind of thing you should expect from Tesla... just like you should expect that the missing-but-common feature of backup-lines on the backup camera to be retroactively added 3 years after the initial cars shipped. Yin and yang.

[houssc]

Yea he has the AP2, thanks I forgot what it was called. Sadly that is the kind of thing I'd expect and it completely understandably takes away from the value of their products. Everyone has their own equation for what makes sense and I'm sure some are fine with these issues too. Good thing we have a free market with many options :-).

[greglindahl]

When I first got my S, if you left the windshield wipers on the automatic setting, and it had rained in the recent past, when you unlocked the car and opened the door, the wipers would activate once and throw water on you.

Mercedes, which uses the same wiper system, had the same bug.

The difference is that Mercedes never fixed those cars. Tesla did.

So yes, there are issues. But it's not a straight win for either Tesla or non-Tesla. It's just different.

[houssc]

Yea I mentioned that as well in my prior post, that tesla does patch and like I said everyone has a different equation to decide what they want.

[boznz]

I left my Keyless entry Mazda 3 keys on the drivers seat and it locked me out at the gas station. There are some things that should just not go wrong on a car!

[stephengillie]

My Camry Hybrid won't lock the doors from the outside if the key fob is inside. You have to lock it from inside if the fob is inside.

[omarforgotpwd]

I can confirm that it is amazing. Yes there are some software bugs but it's hard to care when your car is that fucking amazing. They release software updates often.