I drove the Model 3 for a couple of hours and it's now my favorite Tesla

[Zorro]

I've driven every car Tesla has ever made, from the original Roadster to the Model X SUV. I've sampled Ludicrous Mode acceleration, experimented with Autopilot self-driving tech, and even once "run out of gas" in a Model S.

And while it's true that I'm very much looking forward to the bonkers-fast next-generation Roadster, ever since last July I've been salivating about some more seat time in the Model 3.

The Model 3 is Tesla's car for the masses, with a base price of $35,000 and range of over 200 miles. It has been touted for years, finally arriving in 2017 — and is now roasting in what CEO Elon Musk calls "production hell." Tesla has something like half a million advance orders for the car. Thus far, it has officially delivered about 3,000.

But does being bad at making the Model 3 mean that the car itself has problems?

http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-first-drive-impressions-pictures-2018-2

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I don't get it. For the same price you can go down to your Chevy dealer and get...

a Bolt or a Volt but they're sitting on the lots.

Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Mercedes... Everybody's got electric cars these days, but Tesla gets the press.

[Fred Sanders]

4. The battery only range is not comparable is my understanding.

On edit: they seem comparable now:

You can find a Chevy Bolt — $37,499 base price, about 240 miles of range — for $25,000 if you do a dealer search. It's also versatile and fun to drive, with lots of nice high-tech features. So at $44,000, you're paying a Tesla premium for the Model 3, and Tesla doesn't do discounts.

But with Model 3 you're getting a much better-looking car with a cooler interior, a steady stream of Tesla over-the-air software updates to look forward to, the Supercharger network, Autopilot, stouter performance, and whatever intangibles you associate with the Tesla brand.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. The Tesla is nicer looking, but...

let's face it-- people buy cars to satisfy their egos. Does anyone really buy a Mercedes because they appreciate the tech? If you really want an electric car, you don't have to put down a deposit and wait a few years until the company gets around to it while it's trying to get to Mars.

Buying habits are odd. Barnes and Noble has been selling books online for years, but somehow it became a new thing when Amazon did it. Catalog sales go back to Sears and Montgomery Ward, but, again, Amazon is something new...

[X_Digger]

13. Point to note, the kindle came out before the nook.

The nook was too expensive and crashed too often. But more importantly, amazon got more authors and more titles, faster than the nook did.

B&N did try to sell the sony e-reader, but.. well, it was garbage.

[TreasonousBastard]

15. Two years before, and at the time the points, good and bad, were argued...

to death. Amazon may or may not have had a larger book selection in its proprietary format, but the Nook accepted pretty much all formats, so I got one back then.

Now, I have the Nook software on an Android tablet, so I can read anything.

[X_Digger]

18. And I have the kindle app on my android tablet :)

And with calibre, I can read any format.

There is no may or may not about the titles and authors.. facts don't quibble.

[BSdetect]

2. No car priced at $35000 is for the masses. The target market is people with too much cash to spare.

[jmowreader]

3. Or more exactly, no car priced at $50,000

They will probably make a day’s worth of $35k Model 3s to avoid false advertising charges, but almost all those cars will cost $50k.

My favorite excuse for the delay: we’re having trouble welding the steel frames together. Uhh...dude, MIG welding sheet metal is the easiest thing in the world, and you had two years to figure out you needed to hire some race car fabricators until your CNC welding line was ready.

Come to think of it, Tesla is the perfect name for his company. That guy couldn’t deliver on his ideas either.

[evlbstrd]

5. Yeah...

Alternating current was such a bust.

[jmowreader]

14. Tesla didn't invent alternating current

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_current

The first alternator, the machine used to make AC current, was made in 1832. The first practical use of AC current, electrotherapy, was made in 1855. Nikola Tesla was made in 1856.

Tesla's most important inventions were the induction motor, which made AC useful to industry, and the polyphase system, which made it more efficient to generate.

[ProudLib72]

8. Are you sure they are MIG welding frames?

Even if the tubes are ferrous metal, I'd think they would go with TIG. I know the guy who builds mt bike frames locally used to fab F1 cars, and he uses TIG on the bike frames. Makes for a much better looking and supposedly superior weld. But, hey, if they need someone to MIG weld, I'll bring my little Hobart 140 right over!

[jmowreader]

17. It's worse than I thought. They're spot welding it.

The most popular industrial welding process is MIG welding - especially on robotic welding systems. TIG makes a REALLY good, and really pretty, weld - but it's really expensive. If they TIG welded the bodies of these cars together, you'd have to add about $5000 to the price.

[joshcryer]

12. The vast majority of the pre-orders will be the $35k model.

What they do is they "upsell" to the higher end model so people, who are impatient, will just shell out another $15k so they can get their car "earlier" (even though their cars are not even in production). If people wait it out either Tesla will have to deliver or there will be a class action.

Tesla and Solar City have very shady upselling practices and misrepresention in their products. Solar City in particular doesn't just sell you solar panels, they continue to own them for the duration of the contract, which is many years. They act as a "utility" and you lease them from Solar City, this complicates things if you want to sell your house, because the buyer has to then take over your Solar City contract. If they won't, you have to eat the cost of the full install up front. It's very shady.

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Trouble welding? What trouble do they have that no one else has?

[BannonsLiver]

11. Accords and Camrys are in the same ballpark

I’m not sure there’s a better example of cars for the masses than those two vehicles. You may have noticed Toyota and Honda have sold a few of them. New cars are expensive, Tesla or otherwise.

[greytdemocrat]

7. Well

Sorry to say it looks like a very
average, boring, stripped down
car. I wouldn't even consider it for
the price.

[ProudLib72]

9. If I sink any money into a car

it's going to be into my 1985 4Runner. Any environmental damage sustained in its manufacture has long ago been amortized, unlike certain batteries I can think of that power certain other vehicles.

[joshcryer]

10. All criticis of Tesla figured the mass production of this vehicle would be hard.

500k preorders = 13k cars a day if they are to meet them in a year. As it stands now they are backlogged for years and years. They must build far faster and in much larger numbers than they could've ever imagined. If they can pull it off they will be in a very competitive position. Do what Ford did with Tarus and just build Model 3 for a decade (small variants but overall the same vehicle, optimize the production pipeline). A third of the cars on the road would be Tesla's.