The good, the bad and the totally my fault!

Thought I would kick off our blog with a look at at the first 10,000 miles in our Tesla Model 3, from pick up to the present day. 

Our spec - Long Range - All Wheel Drive, Aero Wheels, Full Self Driving, Midnight Silver

This will make many reservations holders and other patient future Model 3 drivers feel a bit sick, but amazingly we waited just 15 days from ordering to collection. The reason for this fast turn around was never explained and even the advisor (is that what they call them?) at the Leeds Service Centre (where we collected our car) was shocked and had no explanation for this. My theory, was probably a cancelled order that just happened to be our spec. 
We weren't going to argue with them about getting the car sooner than expected, we just accepted our good fortune and headed to Leeds for collection on 22nd August. 

As the title of this blog entry suggests, I'm going to summarise our first 10K miles under 3 headings, Good, Bad and Totally My Fault 😞

The Good
Let's start with the positives and there's lots of them!

We're not new to EVs having owned 2 Hyundai Ioniq fully electrics and a Renault Zoe, as well as having driven a range of other electric cars, but the Tesla really is a cut above the rest. We will look back at our electric car driving history in a future blog post. 

The level of technology in this car (in any Tesla really) is amazing and really quite intuitive. Most functions are accessed through the large 'iPad-style' touch screen and anyone familiar with touch screen devices will soon be wizzing through the menus like a pro. It does take some time to fully appreciate the level of customisation on offer, let alone all the extra features. Having different driver profiles which the car remembers really puts all these customisation options to good use and adds immensly to convenience factor. There are certain bits of tech missing that we were quite fond of in our Ioniq, such as the heated steering wheel and cooling seats, but there are plenty of extras that our Ioniq didn't have, so you soon forget about these. 
The fact that the technology in this car regularly gets better, without extra purchases or returning to a service centre, is nothing short of incredible. In the short time we have had our car there have already been multiple updates which have added features such as improvements to the Autopilot, more entertainments options (you can get Netflix in the car man!!!) and more speed! We will look at some of the tech in more detail in future posts.

Next up is the driving experience, again not new to cars that drive well having owned the Ioniqs but this again is something else. The Ioniq in Sport mode was a force to be reckoned with but the speed that the Model 3 is able to deliver will bring a smile to any one's face. Sticking your foot down slams you to your seat in a controlled and sure footed way. The amazing power is available at any stage, whether it be from a standing start or already travelling at 30mph. Apart from the obvious fun of leaving so called 'sports cars' 😏 standing at the lights, it makes you feel safe knowing that you have the power to get out of trouble. Add to the speed the incredible road handling capability and pin-point steering, and you have a combo that makes you feel like a Formula 1 driver! Unlike some high performance cars out there, this one's genuinely comfortable. We've really munched the miles in this and not experienced a numb bum once. 

Last but not least in the brief summary of the good points of the car, the range! I never really worried about range at all with the Ioniq and it's faultess charging capabilities (no Rapidgate with them!) but this car just makes any roadtrip that little bit easier. Coupled with the Supercharger network, you really can just get in and drive with no planning needed (not that I ever do that as I am a bit of EV geek and always like to look at charging options). 

The Bad
........................ right, that's all the good points over with so lets move on. 
Now, I will try and be objective. 
The car does get a little buggy at times from a software point of view, which is not surprising given the level of tech. However this is usually easily solved by resetting the system, a simple process of holding down both scroll wheels on the steering wheel. 
As you will have no doubt read in many Twitter and Facebook posts, you do occasionally experience some 'phantom braking' when in Autopilot. I have found that you overcome this to a large extent by getting to know the system and how it is likely to respond to a given situation. You can then anticipate and position the car to a point where this is less likely to happen or encourage the car along with some pressure on the accelerator. 
I really can't think of any other negatives right now, maybe I'll return to this topic as and when they occur. 

The Totally My Fault
This is where I have to be brave and own up to my mistakes and what a mistake it was!
They say a picture paints a thousand words, so...... 

TRIGGER WARNING This might upset you!

Like the prized plum I am, I missed a small bollard in Tescos car park and this was the result. Obviously a very traumatic experience but luckily it's not the drivers side so I can pretend it's not there! As I write this, the car is due to finally go into the body shop tomorrow (30th December). The whole incident and repair process/experience will form the subject of it's own blog entry as soon as I get the car back from the shop. 

So that completes our first blog post, sorry if it was a bit long!
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