2kwik4u
Jetboaters Fleet Admiral
- Messages
- 7,825
- Reaction score
- 10,544
- Points
- 577
- Location
- Buffalo, NY
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2017
- Boat Model
- AR
- Boat Length
- 19
So, I've been a HUGE critic of Tesla vehicles for some time. Like, a big critic. They aren't worth the premium, they're more of a tech company than a car company. All kinds of things like that. SO, I had to take a work trip this week to Tuscon, AZ. Renting an EV was less cost than the "midsize". I signed up for a Polestar 2, but was quickly told those weren't available despite being on the website, so I opted for a Tesla Model 3 instead. I was initially less than please with that option (I really wanted to try the Polestar), but thought it would be a good time to really evaluate my criticisms, since I would have the car for 3 days, and was planning a shade over 500mi of driving with it.
Below is my review of the car in both general and specific terms. I acknowledge that SOME of my complaints are because it's a rental, and it doesn't have some of the integration features like phone as a key, and things like that. I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom as well for those that don't want to read the wall of text below.
First impressions were horrible. Like really bad. It took a solid 30min for me to get out of the parking lot. Mostly because of missing "common" interfaces with a car. No key fob to unlock the doors is a good starter. You have to know to swipe the card against the B-Pillar to get into the thing. I didn't know that, and had to go get help. Luckily another Tesla renter with experience was nearby and they showed me. OK, no I'm in the car, HTF do I get the A/C working? Tucson is HOT, and so was I. Well, the screen animated me a little show of where to put the keycard, again, not really intuitive here, but once you know, it's easy. NOW, I'm presented with the giant screen and have to get the settings right to cool off. I get my vents on and work (more on this later), and started cooling. Great. Now, HTF do I adjust the steering wheel. That took a few minutes of clicking and prodding to find the settings. Now, how do I unfold the mirrors? OK found those settings too. Great.......and keep going on and on for 30 min to get the car basically adjusted to a new driver. Sure, the next time I do this, it'll be easy, but WOW there are SOOOO many things that are NOT the same as any other rental car I've ever had.
Once I was moving and driving it's not bad. I got used to the size/shape of the car pretty quick. Thing had 160-ish miles of range when I picked it up, and that was enough to get me to the hotel and dinner. I would have to charge in the morning before setting out 75mi south with no chargers between departure and return. i was able to find a supercharger nearby using the internal navigation. It appeared on the way to my destination, so I set out to find it, and was pleasantly surprised to see it mostly empty. Charging was far less complex than I anticipated. I plugged it in, it charged, someone got charged $15.72, and at 95% full, I unplugged and drove away. I made that trip for 2 days straight, both days with a quick stop for electrons on my way out to the jobsite, and back. After site work yesterday I hit a different supercharger as I was going to drive to the top of Mt Lemmon to check out the sites before heading home this morning. Charged to 100% this time, as the internal navigation was (what I thought) pretty confused.
SO, the internal navigation is OK.......not great, just OK. If you know the exact address, it's great. If you don't, well good luck googling it first, then typing it in. Even then I had two times in three days where it didn't know the address. I had to try to find something nearby on the screen and just drive there, then figure it out. One was a factory that has been there since the mid '90s. The other was the ski resort on the top of My Lemmon. Likewise, as I was setting up the route to Mt Lemmon, it thought I would get there from 90% to 30%, then back home on the same 30%. I didn't believe it, so I charged to 100 and took my chances. It did fine. climbed to 9k ft elevation using a shade over 50% of the battery, then came back down and GAINED 5% in the 6.5k ft descent. So it's estimates were pretty close on target, despite not being directly intuitive. Also, it wouldn't show me how long to charge to make that trip, so I had to guess on that 100%.
Overall.......It's a fine conveyance. It works as a car acceptably. I remain firm on my premise that it's a crap vehicle for $50k. Acceleration was great even for being a base model, and I was really surprised at how smooth the driveline was in general. No real "jerking" or weird sensations during throttle transitions. It's SIGNIFICANTLY over sprung and damped for a daily driver. My kidneys hated me driving around town. Canyon carving up/down Mt Lemmon was like nothing I've experienced. Above about 7/10 effort it was well balanced, very neutral, tons of power, instant throttle response, and plenty of brakes. Probably the flatest cornering car I've ever driven. Quality control was atrocious with panel gaps on interior and exterior. The road noise felt deafening at times, and the interior generally felt cheap despite the obvious attempt to be upscale. The ergonomics were bad, with that center screen being an absurd distraction, even after I got used to it. It's missing some super easy features (cooled seats, and HUD are most glaring). There's a lot of "different" ways of doing things that are changes for the sake of change (stupid key, and no "start" or "power" button)......I've honestly never hated and loved a car at the same time like this. The powertrain is absurdly good. The package it's wrapped up in, is, well, really not great.
So I'll go segment by segment here:
Exterior:
It's not a bad looking car. Has a few quirky lines, but overall it's not bad. I'm not a fan of the dark red color, but that's no big deal, it's a rental. The panels were poorly fit, with the trunk making a weird creak every time it opened. This example only had 5k-ish miles on it and it was already breaking. The drivers door handle was poorly fit as well and would wobble in my hand each time I pulled it.
Interior:
Styling is subjective, but cheap plastic feel is not. The steering wheel and center console have a nice leather feel to them. The dash is plastic and it shows. Even the fake woodgrain looks, well, fake. The console is cavernous, and nice to have. The phone holder with wireless charging is awesome. Cupholders were OK, and generally fit everything I had with me. I'm 6'2" tall and the armrest on the drivers side of the seat was non-existent. it didn't go back far enough to rest my elbow on. Steering wheel was OK, but felt a little small, and only did 3 turns lock to lock (which felt weird). I really disliked the little round rolly button adjuster things. they're neat, but they don't work well for my giant fingers. Side movements required a lot of pressure to keep my finger from sliding off. The seat were OK, but not great. They were a little small for my legs, and they had too much lumbar, even after adjusting all the way down. Holy crap they were hot as well. I'm sure some of that is AZ heat on black leather, but ugh they were bad.
Controls:
That giant screen. WOW. it looks great, and there's a lot of sizzle there. In practice, it sucks. Adjusting the vents is horrendously terrible. I couldn't find a position with the vents that didn't blow in my face. Also, why in the love of dammit, did they NOT turn on ALL the vents. I ahd to go in and turn on the passenger and rear vents EVERY SINGLE TIME I got in the car. Dude, it's a 110deg in the shade around here. I need the whole damn car to be cool, not just the vents near me. The FSD preview was distracting and a complete NON value add. Again, it's neat to look at, but way more sizzle than steak. Bluetooth calls were easy enough, nav was easy enough, bluetooth streaming worked as expected. Typical car stuff, and they did that fine. The power utilization screen was neat to look at.
Let me turn the car on and off. I could not for the life of me figure out how to exit the car and keep the HVAC running. I stopped like 6 times on the way UP Mt Lemmon to take pictures and look over vistas. Each time I had to reconfigure the A/C when I got back in. Total PIA to deal with. Same thing with getting it to lock/unlock. Swiping the key on the B-Pillar was a PIA. A traditional fob with perimeter sensing is a proven tech that doesn't need to be reinvented. This left a sour taste in my mouth EVERY SINGLE TIME I entered or exited the car.
Chassis:
The chassis superb if you're near the limit. 7/10 or more effort and you're rewarded with a very flat cornering experience, super neutral handling, exceptional responsiveness, and great power delivery and brakes. Anything below that, and it's rubbish. it was significantly overdamped and overspring for commuter duty. Often times the chassis would "hobby horse" on he expressway, as the wheelbase was a multiple of the expansion joints. The steering was nice and taught for high speed and fast turns. Anything else and it was twitchy and easily excited. Even on the lowest settings it was too much for commuting. The turning radius is horrible, and the shifting is slow when you inevitably have to change your U-turn into a 3-point-turn. Maybe I'm spoiled with 4WS on the Q7, but WOW the turning radius felt HUGE on this car.
Charging:
I really expected this to be a giant PIA. I've read about the electrify american challenges. I've also seen Tesla people have the app setup to make it work. Well, I'm not sure what Hertz has going, but I backed in. plugged in. and received electrons. It billed someone. I'm not sure, but I used about $25 in electricity while I was there, and I didn't pay for it. Not on my bill from Hertz either. This was hands down the easiest part of the experience for me. Honestly easier than a gas pump, aside from the premise of driving 5miles to the nearest one and passing 14 gas stations on the way. This is the way it should be. I probably spent a total of 45min charging over 3 days and 3 sessions. It wasn't as fast as a fillup, but the time passed quickly each stop. I took the time to check email, text the wife, and throw some trash away. On the last one I walked 200ft to the Circle K and got a snack and a drink.
Overall impression:
I'll give the car a solid 6.5-7/10. There are some parts that I could seriously get used to. Other parts were complete garbage. The interior and that center screen are, well, terrible. So much shit on that screen to look at and be distracting, It was response with great resolution, but it's still a screen in a car that HAS to be used for everything. The proximity entry shit was a pain. I HATED getting into/out of that car. Meanwhile, the driveline was amazing. Instant torque is addicting, and the "point and shoot" driving dynamic is fun. The chassis is great if you're really getting after it, but it's harsh for a daily driver.
I'd love to discuss, as I think I moved it up a little from what I thought it was before. It's not the complete garbage I thought it was, but it's also not the pinnacle of automotive tech that some say it is either. Like all things it's largely subjective, and in the end, it's still not for me.
TL;DR
I hated Teslas, so I took an opportunity to rent one. It changed my mind enough to not hate it anymore, but still don't think they're for me any time soon.
Below is my review of the car in both general and specific terms. I acknowledge that SOME of my complaints are because it's a rental, and it doesn't have some of the integration features like phone as a key, and things like that. I'll put a TL;DR at the bottom as well for those that don't want to read the wall of text below.
First impressions were horrible. Like really bad. It took a solid 30min for me to get out of the parking lot. Mostly because of missing "common" interfaces with a car. No key fob to unlock the doors is a good starter. You have to know to swipe the card against the B-Pillar to get into the thing. I didn't know that, and had to go get help. Luckily another Tesla renter with experience was nearby and they showed me. OK, no I'm in the car, HTF do I get the A/C working? Tucson is HOT, and so was I. Well, the screen animated me a little show of where to put the keycard, again, not really intuitive here, but once you know, it's easy. NOW, I'm presented with the giant screen and have to get the settings right to cool off. I get my vents on and work (more on this later), and started cooling. Great. Now, HTF do I adjust the steering wheel. That took a few minutes of clicking and prodding to find the settings. Now, how do I unfold the mirrors? OK found those settings too. Great.......and keep going on and on for 30 min to get the car basically adjusted to a new driver. Sure, the next time I do this, it'll be easy, but WOW there are SOOOO many things that are NOT the same as any other rental car I've ever had.
Once I was moving and driving it's not bad. I got used to the size/shape of the car pretty quick. Thing had 160-ish miles of range when I picked it up, and that was enough to get me to the hotel and dinner. I would have to charge in the morning before setting out 75mi south with no chargers between departure and return. i was able to find a supercharger nearby using the internal navigation. It appeared on the way to my destination, so I set out to find it, and was pleasantly surprised to see it mostly empty. Charging was far less complex than I anticipated. I plugged it in, it charged, someone got charged $15.72, and at 95% full, I unplugged and drove away. I made that trip for 2 days straight, both days with a quick stop for electrons on my way out to the jobsite, and back. After site work yesterday I hit a different supercharger as I was going to drive to the top of Mt Lemmon to check out the sites before heading home this morning. Charged to 100% this time, as the internal navigation was (what I thought) pretty confused.
SO, the internal navigation is OK.......not great, just OK. If you know the exact address, it's great. If you don't, well good luck googling it first, then typing it in. Even then I had two times in three days where it didn't know the address. I had to try to find something nearby on the screen and just drive there, then figure it out. One was a factory that has been there since the mid '90s. The other was the ski resort on the top of My Lemmon. Likewise, as I was setting up the route to Mt Lemmon, it thought I would get there from 90% to 30%, then back home on the same 30%. I didn't believe it, so I charged to 100 and took my chances. It did fine. climbed to 9k ft elevation using a shade over 50% of the battery, then came back down and GAINED 5% in the 6.5k ft descent. So it's estimates were pretty close on target, despite not being directly intuitive. Also, it wouldn't show me how long to charge to make that trip, so I had to guess on that 100%.
Overall.......It's a fine conveyance. It works as a car acceptably. I remain firm on my premise that it's a crap vehicle for $50k. Acceleration was great even for being a base model, and I was really surprised at how smooth the driveline was in general. No real "jerking" or weird sensations during throttle transitions. It's SIGNIFICANTLY over sprung and damped for a daily driver. My kidneys hated me driving around town. Canyon carving up/down Mt Lemmon was like nothing I've experienced. Above about 7/10 effort it was well balanced, very neutral, tons of power, instant throttle response, and plenty of brakes. Probably the flatest cornering car I've ever driven. Quality control was atrocious with panel gaps on interior and exterior. The road noise felt deafening at times, and the interior generally felt cheap despite the obvious attempt to be upscale. The ergonomics were bad, with that center screen being an absurd distraction, even after I got used to it. It's missing some super easy features (cooled seats, and HUD are most glaring). There's a lot of "different" ways of doing things that are changes for the sake of change (stupid key, and no "start" or "power" button)......I've honestly never hated and loved a car at the same time like this. The powertrain is absurdly good. The package it's wrapped up in, is, well, really not great.
So I'll go segment by segment here:
Exterior:
It's not a bad looking car. Has a few quirky lines, but overall it's not bad. I'm not a fan of the dark red color, but that's no big deal, it's a rental. The panels were poorly fit, with the trunk making a weird creak every time it opened. This example only had 5k-ish miles on it and it was already breaking. The drivers door handle was poorly fit as well and would wobble in my hand each time I pulled it.
Interior:
Styling is subjective, but cheap plastic feel is not. The steering wheel and center console have a nice leather feel to them. The dash is plastic and it shows. Even the fake woodgrain looks, well, fake. The console is cavernous, and nice to have. The phone holder with wireless charging is awesome. Cupholders were OK, and generally fit everything I had with me. I'm 6'2" tall and the armrest on the drivers side of the seat was non-existent. it didn't go back far enough to rest my elbow on. Steering wheel was OK, but felt a little small, and only did 3 turns lock to lock (which felt weird). I really disliked the little round rolly button adjuster things. they're neat, but they don't work well for my giant fingers. Side movements required a lot of pressure to keep my finger from sliding off. The seat were OK, but not great. They were a little small for my legs, and they had too much lumbar, even after adjusting all the way down. Holy crap they were hot as well. I'm sure some of that is AZ heat on black leather, but ugh they were bad.
Controls:
That giant screen. WOW. it looks great, and there's a lot of sizzle there. In practice, it sucks. Adjusting the vents is horrendously terrible. I couldn't find a position with the vents that didn't blow in my face. Also, why in the love of dammit, did they NOT turn on ALL the vents. I ahd to go in and turn on the passenger and rear vents EVERY SINGLE TIME I got in the car. Dude, it's a 110deg in the shade around here. I need the whole damn car to be cool, not just the vents near me. The FSD preview was distracting and a complete NON value add. Again, it's neat to look at, but way more sizzle than steak. Bluetooth calls were easy enough, nav was easy enough, bluetooth streaming worked as expected. Typical car stuff, and they did that fine. The power utilization screen was neat to look at.
Let me turn the car on and off. I could not for the life of me figure out how to exit the car and keep the HVAC running. I stopped like 6 times on the way UP Mt Lemmon to take pictures and look over vistas. Each time I had to reconfigure the A/C when I got back in. Total PIA to deal with. Same thing with getting it to lock/unlock. Swiping the key on the B-Pillar was a PIA. A traditional fob with perimeter sensing is a proven tech that doesn't need to be reinvented. This left a sour taste in my mouth EVERY SINGLE TIME I entered or exited the car.
Chassis:
The chassis superb if you're near the limit. 7/10 or more effort and you're rewarded with a very flat cornering experience, super neutral handling, exceptional responsiveness, and great power delivery and brakes. Anything below that, and it's rubbish. it was significantly overdamped and overspring for commuter duty. Often times the chassis would "hobby horse" on he expressway, as the wheelbase was a multiple of the expansion joints. The steering was nice and taught for high speed and fast turns. Anything else and it was twitchy and easily excited. Even on the lowest settings it was too much for commuting. The turning radius is horrible, and the shifting is slow when you inevitably have to change your U-turn into a 3-point-turn. Maybe I'm spoiled with 4WS on the Q7, but WOW the turning radius felt HUGE on this car.
Charging:
I really expected this to be a giant PIA. I've read about the electrify american challenges. I've also seen Tesla people have the app setup to make it work. Well, I'm not sure what Hertz has going, but I backed in. plugged in. and received electrons. It billed someone. I'm not sure, but I used about $25 in electricity while I was there, and I didn't pay for it. Not on my bill from Hertz either. This was hands down the easiest part of the experience for me. Honestly easier than a gas pump, aside from the premise of driving 5miles to the nearest one and passing 14 gas stations on the way. This is the way it should be. I probably spent a total of 45min charging over 3 days and 3 sessions. It wasn't as fast as a fillup, but the time passed quickly each stop. I took the time to check email, text the wife, and throw some trash away. On the last one I walked 200ft to the Circle K and got a snack and a drink.
Overall impression:
I'll give the car a solid 6.5-7/10. There are some parts that I could seriously get used to. Other parts were complete garbage. The interior and that center screen are, well, terrible. So much shit on that screen to look at and be distracting, It was response with great resolution, but it's still a screen in a car that HAS to be used for everything. The proximity entry shit was a pain. I HATED getting into/out of that car. Meanwhile, the driveline was amazing. Instant torque is addicting, and the "point and shoot" driving dynamic is fun. The chassis is great if you're really getting after it, but it's harsh for a daily driver.
I'd love to discuss, as I think I moved it up a little from what I thought it was before. It's not the complete garbage I thought it was, but it's also not the pinnacle of automotive tech that some say it is either. Like all things it's largely subjective, and in the end, it's still not for me.
TL;DR
I hated Teslas, so I took an opportunity to rent one. It changed my mind enough to not hate it anymore, but still don't think they're for me any time soon.
