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Comment by joenathanone | Hacker News Reader

I own a 2013 S85, and a 2018 LR 3. I'm looking to get a new X in 2022 and letting go of the other two.

My 2 cents, biggest pros of Tesla ownership is the tech, I'm constantly using AP and the FSD Beta, and the biggest cons being fit and finish, Tesla's do not have the fit and finish matching their price tags.

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I've had a P3D. If I get another Tesla it will be because of the charging network. No other reason. The competition is producing cars that have normal car features that work. I want normal wipers, or at least traditional rain-sensing that works. I want CarPlay. Comfortable seats, dash screen (in front of the driver), normal door handles, HUD, analog controls for certain things, etc. The regular manufacturers have built up a huge amount of experience in those areas and until Tesla steps it up the rest of their tech isn't going to make me into a repeat customer. Especially when they do dumb things like remove the radar and double down on trying to make the cheap cameras do even more tasks inadequately. Traditional manufacturers have lane keeping and adaptive cruise too. "FSD" doesn't tempt me in the slightest.

There is tendency to suppress this in discussions, but Model 3 sucks in so many ways - everything rattles, even a empty coffee cup in the holder. The car is good as long as I drive on a smooth road. The seats are not very comfortable, the car is absolutely stripped of any artistic detail. On the other hand, AP rocks(invaluable in high traffic commutes like bay area), and I don’t think other cars do it just as confidently. And it keeps updating. The steering is extremely precise and handles like a champ in corners. It feels like we have a to choose between traditional comfort and tech, which sucks. It’s almost like it is a specialist car like a subaru wrx

I had relatively good experience in mine for rattles -- just the usual dash rattle from something to do with the HVAC. But I only owned it 18 months, and most cars are really solid for the first few years anyway.

I had really great luck early on with AP but ended up not using it much towards the end of my ownership experience because my wife didn't want me using it on road trips -- too many panic braking events on our usual route. Something changed in the algorithms, they may have worked that out by now.

> we have a to choose between traditional comfort and tech, which sucks

100% agree. Choosing any car comes with some amount of give & take, but right now with EVs there seems to be a major subset of features you have to give up depending on which option you go with.

My dream daily driver would be if the Model Y got the driver screen and analog(ish) knob that Ford put on the Mach E, and a pair of Recaro seats. And CarPlay, ha! I'd buy that today. But if I were looking right now for something in that segment I'd probably end up with a Mach E and I'd just deal with the less convenient road-trip charging (99% of the time I charge at home anyway).

Interesting. I have 95,000 miles on a 2018 Model 3. No rattles. The maintenance has been a windshield, underbody cover for the rear wheels (got torn when I hit abou 6" of standing water), and one bad SW update that required a hard system reset that put the car back to factory settings (had to re-configure Homelink, audio, etc).

Otherwise, it's been a fantastic experience. Incredibly fun to drive.

> maintenance has been..

Nitpick, but the things you listed aren’t maintenance items. That would be like new tires or fluid changes that you’d expect on most any car.

Sounds relatively problem-free though.

Oh, Right. I’ve used up three sets of tires.

BTW, the car came with 310 mile range. Tesla upgraded that to 325 after about a year.

Now, range is 290.

Tech has a higher barrier to entry than the comfort elements. If it wants, Tesla can easily have the interior look like the traditional car, but instead it does away with the clutter of cars that came before it. Other carmakers on the other hand have a lot of years to catch up in with the tech, charging network and autopilot/fsd.

I own a 3 LR and a performance Y, and both cars are great to drive. The seats are comfy to me. I do agree Tesla could have used better quality components in the interior for the price of the car but what you are paying for is the tech. Not sure if I would pay more for a better looking interior, and I think that’s the audience Tesla targets.

Also notice that the Chinese-built 3 have much better build quality and finish than California-built ones.

Fit and finish have really improved over the years IMO. 2021 3/y fit and finish are as good as any similarly priced fossil vehicle, if you like the minimalistic interior.

That seems to be the consensus. They aren’t the car a car enthusiast would want but a commuter would love.

Almost no American car does anyway.

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