[jeddo45]

One of my friends got his Model 3. He's let me drive and spend some time with it enough for me to have a good opinion and experience with the car.

I believe Elon has directly pitted his Model 3 right against BMW's 3 series. He tweeted out not too long ago his performance Model 3 that will be coming out in the near future is a direct competitor to the M3. So with that being said, here is my honest opinion about the car.

My friend has a white exterior/white interior Model 3.

Exterior-

The car reminds me of a Porsche, just no where near as nice. More like a knockoff 911. I'm not a fan of the look of the car. The back doesn't bother me as much as the front. It looks incomplete. The Model S (updated model) has the same look, and I personally like the Model S from yesteryear because of a grille that was upfront. I think it would've looked a lot better than not having a grille but that's just a personal opinion. The car as a whole is extremely simple. Surprisingly, this car has a good amount of trunk space and the front trunk is a definite nice amenity though the back is probably what you are going to be using more.

Interior-

I'll start in the back seat. It's not the roomiest backseat, but it's not uncomfortable by any means. It's got way more back seat space than my E93, but much similar space like the E90. You got foot room and the seats are comfortable enough for you to sit back and enjoy the drive. The panoramic glass roof honestly makes sitting in the back seat quite enjoyable actually. Just being able to see the sky as well as out the window while your driving is really nice. If your a passenger in this car, you're going to want to sit in the back because of the perspective you get with all that glass.

The front seat as far as being a passenger is what you could expect from any car. Nothing too much different there although I will point out the front passenger seat has a lot of foot room. My guess is the lack of engine allows them to really push way up to allow a whole lot more foot room.

The interior as a whole could be described in one word: simplistic. I always thought the 3 series had a pretty good balance between simplistic and functional. Tesla really leaned on the simplistic side of things. All the controls are on that touch screen, which I will get to in a second. But in efforts of them keeping the interior looking uncluttered, it could be a little more difficult to do things like adjust your climate control or turn your heated seats on. No buttons, no console, nothing. Just a seat and cupholders. Everything else is hidden away, which will take some getting used to.

Touch Screen -

Let's talk about the screen. I know people where complaining about the size of the screen when the Model 3 was first introduced because it was directly compared to the Model S and Model X, but the truth is the screen is plenty big. It's bigger than any other screen in any other car that I've seen. The UI/UX does take some getting used to but it's fairly easy to navigate around. As a passenger, it works well. As a driver, completely different story. But the large touch interface works well.


As a driver (because this is basically your instrument cluster) it's weird. If we are talking about using it as an infotainment center, then it works well. One thing that is nice about it is this system saves your complete drivers profile. Your seat position, your mirror position, and the different settings that you change that are contingent on your driving style. Once you walk up with your designated key, it's set up to your liking. You could easily switch profile with one touch.

My biggest complaint is that this screen is also the drivers instrument cluster. Tesla really pushed the whole minimalistic simplistic look a little too much for my taste. They definitely sacrificed functionality for simplicity. I like the dash on my 3 series because it was never overcluttered. You got your speed, RPMs, gas, and oil temp and that's it. You see everything you need right there without really having to take your eyes off the road. The Model 3 obviously has no dash, and there is a definite learning curve of looking to the side, rather than just moving your eyes down. I'm not a fan of it. If they added a heads up display, that would have been awesome. But looking to the side is just flat out strange.

Driving -

In short, driving the Model 3 is definitely different. I'd say it's quick, but not fast. It gets to 80 fairly quick, but after that, you could notice the car's performance start degrading, not at an extreme rate, just nowhere near how fast it accelerates. Just put it this way, my 335i still pulls quite nicely all the way through 3rd gear. Maybe it's the quick acceleration that makes the higher speeds seem slow, but there is a definite performance degradation.

The weirdest aspect of driving this car is not so much acceleration, but when you're not. The motor braking on this car is very aggressive. Once you release the acceleration pedal, it slows down. It feels like your braking when you are just coasting. It's almost like the car applies the brakes for you and that I didn't like at all. You're going to have to completely relearn your braking distances because of how aggressive it is. Maybe this is a setting that could be changed in the UI, and that would be one of the first things I would have changed if this was my car.

The car feels pretty well balanced. You could take a turn and not have to slow down, or feel like the car is going to go out from under you. It feels well balanced. The steering is quite as heavy as my 335i, but it's not light like the new generation of BMW's. There is a heft to turning the wheel, and that had to be one of the best things I enjoyed about driving this car. It reminded me of my car, and I'm not complaining about that.

I was surprised about much of the outer noise I could hear in the cabin in this car. You could really hear the wind and the electric motor even when the windows are rolled up. It isn't unbearably loud, but I was expecting it to be a heck of a lot more quieter on the inside, and that's not the case. Maybe it was because of that all glass roof but it really surprised me on how much of the outside elements you could hear.

Overall the car drives nice, but there is just a weirdness to driving it. It feels different to driving your common combustion engine/transmission car. Your expecting to hear the engine and the gear shifts, but they aren't there. You expect the engine to kick power out when you loose traction, but you don't get that. One thing I love about my car is hearing the turbos spool. Obviously I don't get that driving this car. There is a whole lot more to switching to a fully electric car other than it being powered by an alternative energy source. It's a paradigm shift. This car didn't put me off to electric cars, but it didn't sell me on it.

The truth is it is still inconvenient to drive an electric car because there aren't charging stations everywhere. You need to plan your trips and if you run out of juice, good luck. It takes all night for it to charge up at your residence. Gas stations are everywhere, and you just can't beat that convenience in a Tesla (or any electric car for that matter). It does get decent mileage, but like I said you really always need to plan your trips if you don't have a full battery. The chances are if you need to charge on the road, your going to need to go way out of your way to find a supercharger to top off and it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to charge up. It's doable, just not convenient.

Overall, I give the car a 6/10. It's not a bad car by any means, just different. My fear everytime I drive a newer car than my 335i is it will make me want to get rid of my car. This car didn't do that for me. If anything, it made me love my 335i even more.


If you haven't had the opportunity to drive the Model 3, or any Tesla for that matter, I'd encourage you to give it a try because it will give you a different perspective of driving. In my case, it made me appreciate my car even more.

With all this being said, I applaud Elon Musk for what he is doing. I know a lot of people don't like the idea of electric cars but I think that it will really benefit combustion cars a lot more when they become more mainstream. If they get more traction, combustion engine car prices as well as gas is going to need to drop to better appeal, and I'm all for that. The Model 3 is still very expensive. It starts at 35k, and that's before taxes and any other added amenities. Your average Model 3 is going to cost at least 45k. It's going to take a lot more than that to completely get rid of combustion engines that are still way easier, convenient, and quite frankly, more affordable. With that being said, companies will need to adjust to the market change and I honestly think that will benefit us way more than it won't.

I leave this review with this: My 335i > Model 3.

[arciga18]

[TemjinX2]

thank you for the review.

the aggressive braking is from the regenerative brakes that charges the car when you take your foot off the accelerator.

the sounds your hearing exist in the 335i as well, but you have a combustion engine to cover up the noise.

There was a interview with the nissan leaf projector manager and he stated it was a lot more difficult to create a quieter cabin in the leaf then the altima because without the combustion engine, you hear a lot more road noises in comparison.

[sleepydinosaur]

While EVs currently suffers from lack of ubiquitous charging compared to gas stations, I always wondered if in the not so distant future the situation will be completely reversed.

Consider how many parking structures, shopping malls, and office complex are setting up their own charging stations. It seems like when EV becomes more mainstream and there is incentive for these venues to install charging stations, the locations could outnumber gas stations eventually. These venues are not gonna set up their own gas pump and run a gas station business.

Maybe in 5 years or so, people will start complaining, "oh come on, I have to drive to the corner of the block to get gas?"

[PKL]

Originally Posted by arciga18

+1

[Bmw_Crazy]

Originally Posted by arciga18

[halik008]

Originally Posted by sleepydinosaur

While EVs currently suffers from lack of ubiquitous charging compared to gas stations, I always wondered if in the not so distant future the situation will be completely reversed.

Consider how many parking structures, shopping malls, and office complex are setting up their own charging stations. It seems like when EV becomes more mainstream and there is incentive for these venues to install charging stations, the locations could outnumber gas stations eventually. These venues are not gonna set up their own gas pump and run a gas station business.

Maybe in 5 years or so, people will start complaining, "oh come on, I have to drive to the corner of the block to get gas?"

Nobody is setting up their own stations. Feds are subsidizing it. Just like every single EV sold.

[hassmaschine]

^ sure, but the feds also subsidize every gallon of gasoline sold in the USA.

[jeddo45]

Originally Posted by Bmw_Crazy

I'll try and get pics on Sunday when I see him again. Should've thought of that already!

[jeddo45]

Originally Posted by sleepydinosaur

While EVs currently suffers from lack of ubiquitous charging compared to gas stations, I always wondered if in the not so distant future the situation will be completely reversed.

Consider how many parking structures, shopping malls, and office complex are setting up their own charging stations. It seems like when EV becomes more mainstream and there is incentive for these venues to install charging stations, the locations could outnumber gas stations eventually. These venues are not gonna set up their own gas pump and run a gas station business.

Maybe in 5 years or so, people will start complaining, "oh come on, I have to drive to the corner of the block to get gas?"

Eventually this will be the case, but not as soon as you may think. Ironically, the company I work for sets up supercharger stations for Tesla in California, and I have to say Tesla is definitely pushing for more of these, but it's not an easy process. It take months to set up one supercharger station, at least here in California. Can't speak for the other states because of different codes and laws but I wouldn't imagine it to be much different.

With that being said there will come a day where you don't have to go far to charge. I just don't see that happening for the next 10 years or so.

[jeddo45]

Originally Posted by TemjinX2

thank you for the review.

the aggressive braking is from the regenerative brakes that charges the car when you take your foot off the accelerator.

the sounds your hearing exist in the 335i as well, but you have a combustion engine to cover up the noise.

There was a interview with the nissan leaf projector manager and he stated it was a lot more difficult to create a quieter cabin in the leaf then the altima because without the combustion engine, you hear a lot more road noises in comparison.

That makes sense. I guess you just expect it to be quieter because of the lack of engine but you get so used to the engine noise it just becomes "white noise."

It's not unbearable by any means, it just seems to be noiser. Good explanation.

[halik008]

Originally Posted by hassmaschine

^ sure, but the feds also subsidize every gallon of gasoline sold in the USA.

by taxing the snot out of it?

[jeddo45]

Here are some pics (part 1)

EDIT: pics aren't attaching from my phone. Will do so when I get to my computer.

[jeddo45]

Ok here are the pictures.

[cdgatti]

No not that one... we wanted to see the 335!

[jeddo45]

Originally Posted by cdgatti

No not that one... we wanted to see the 335!

Haha I'll post pics when I'm done with getting her painted. She isn't in the best looking condition. After my turbo chargers get installed

[vincedea]

I drove my friends model 3 and I agree it was super weird to use the touch screen for everything.definitely takes some getting used to. I was actually excited but I told my gf to just cancel her spot or sell her spot on the list.

[e90yyc]

Nice pics!!!

Damn man, I thought the interior would be way nicer.

The hand controls on the steering wheel look soooo cheap. And the wood trim looks so mickey mouse. It reminds me of the bamboo inside the i3, but doesn't look nearly as good. And the i3 is made from recycled garbage, so that is saying something.

Very cool car, I can respect it for sure, but if it looks in person like it does in those pics, it leaves much to be desired.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Zarrachan]

Great review

[SnowGlobe]

Originally Posted by jeddo45

Ok here are the pictures.

I see you've kept the fabled BMW parking skills alive
Just kidding! Nice pictures

[jeddo45]

Originally Posted by e90yyc

Nice pics!!!

Damn man, I thought the interior would be way nicer.

The hand controls on the steering wheel look soooo cheap. And the wood trim looks so mickey mouse. It reminds me of the bamboo inside the i3, but doesn't look nearly as good. And the i3 is made from recycled garbage, so that is saying something.

Very cool car, I can respect it for sure, but if it looks in person like it does in those pics, it leaves much to be desired.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

The interior is alright. It's extremely simple. I definitely wouldn't describe it as "luxurious" as there are cars who do that better. But it's simple and decently comfortable.

I just think the car is overhyped, so when you actually see it, it's almost a let down.

[Antetokounmpo]

You lost me at “911 knockoff”