I picked up my car today. It was a very good experience, excellent. I had a great DA in San Francisco who knew a lot about the Model 3. She taught me a lot! We checked over the car and there was a small scuff on the front nose. She called over someone who buffed it out in a minute or so. Everything else looked very good. I mean very good. I did not go over it precisely - but rather as I would when picking up any car.
Papers took about 5-10 minutes, mainly because she wanted to explain what I was signing. I did, wrote a check and the Tesla was mine.
We went over the various systems, paired my phone, went over the phone app (I REALLY like that app!). Total time for delivery was about 1 hour.
I can't emphasize how excellent this person was in delivering the car. I seemed to be the only one there picking up and it was at 2:30pm. They are waiting for the storm of cars coming soon. They certainly seem bored right now!
Driving the car home, through SF traffic and freeway and traffic home, I had a few observations about my new Model 3 P3D-. The car is
better than I remember it from test drives. When it's your car, it hits home - and it is a really one fine car. It drives like a sports car, but is comfortable and solid as any luxury car I have ever seen. It is faster than hell, but not in a dangerous way.
It takes a bit of time to understand all the nuances of the car. This will take a bit of time. But, on the 30+ mile ride home, it was pretty straightforward. Tesla's design and engineering is really on the mark. Everything is intuitive to use, and a lot of good things that took a lot of time and effort of a lot of people. This car is definitely a winner.
Was the car worth the wait (approx 2 months)? YES. The wait was tough, but the car is totally worth it. It really helped in my case that Tesla came through with an absolutely shining delivery experience. It made up for all prior BS. I really don't think there is any other car that I would rather over my Model 3 - and I can pretty much get whatever I want.
Just a few bits of information I picked up in the showroom while I was waiting (my Uber made good time and I was early).
- At least in San Francisco, no P3D+'s have been yet delivered in Q4. Sad, but they are coming.
- No one knows why Tesla spat out a bunch of P3D-'s, but everyone is glad they did. I certainly am.
- Things are expected to pick up in a week and get to the point where 15 minute appointments are absolute. I got lucky and got early delivery because I snagged a P3D- that had been produced. They do expect to deliver all cars, but cringe at the though of delivering them. It will be fast and furious, but all cars are expected to show up. It's unfortunate that the US really got stuck in the X-mas rush. I dreaded it, but was lucky to avoid it.
Either way it is worth it.
Good luck!