So, I completed my test drive in a M3P (blue) in Brisbane and wow – what a blast. Apologies for wall of text and I’m not a reviewer person just your average Joe. I’m sure there will be hundreds of you-tubers that will go into a hell of a lot more detail than below.
Firstly, regards my previous post about the seats being perhaps a little to tight on the base – at first noticeable but after driving the car for a few minutes you kind of get used to it – at least I did so no problems there.
Having said that the car I drove did have an odd clunking noise in the seat coming from what seemed like between my shoulder blades. Had nothing to do with the ventilated seats operating as I had it turned on and off and the noise was present in both scenarios. Could be just a minor quality thing in their demo car to be fixed by service.
The ride comfort was excellent – almost the same as our existing M3LR (non-highland). This was a good thing because I was worried about those huge 20” wheel. Prior to the M3LR, my wife had a Golf R-Line with 19”s with sports suspension and the ride in that was horrid – felt every bump – not so with the M3P. Further, the test drive loop in Brisbane takes you on very bumpy and IMHO horrid roads and it handled all this very well – no discomfort issues at all.
Now the fun part, and I thought our M3LR was fast. Hmm…now I know what fast really means in car terms. Yes, this thing is an absolute beast. Certainly, the fastest car I have ever driven (and I have had a lot of cars).
The acceleration is super fun and literally left me laughing out loud (to myself) every time – what a hoot. Some reviewers are saying the car just isn’t fun – I have no idea what they are talking about, but then again, they get access to all the toys like BMW M3s etc. They always seem to compare this car with the BMW for some reason… Is the M3 the benchmark in this segment (mid-sized sports sedans)?
Anyhow at least from my experience, this was a fun ride to say the least.
The standard acceleration mode (not insane mode) felt about the same as our M3LR – still fast enough to put a smile on my face (and it still does every time I drive our LR).
Handling wise, well the small amount of time they give you for the test drive wasn’t enough to give any kind of meaningful coverage suffice to say that I felt it was very planted on the road at any of the speed I got to.
Another thing that I guess is a side benefit is that you can really hear that new performance motor in the rear going nuts with any kind of acceleration. Very noticeable but in a very nice way – kind of sounds like a spaceship or something kicking into warp drive – sounds nice in my opinion.
HW4.0 (with 5MP cameras) as compared to our 1.2? I think in our current car is very nice. The traffic display (with all the objects) is far less ‘wobbly’ than our current model and the images from the cameras are top notch. The car of course does not have any sensors. A camera-based top-down view would have been nice. Even our dog taxi (Prado) has that feature.
The indicator buttons I picked up on almost immediately and was not a problem however there was a few times I went for the stalk and go nothing but air
Shifting in P, N, R, D – all piece of cake – no problems. They even have the backup mode (in case the screen fails) in the roof section near the rear-view mirror – another nice to have.
Sound system – Awesome! The demo car equaliser was left in too much low-end base so I flattened the range and sounded fantastic. I also noted that Disney+ was not present on the media playback options however the Tesla rep said you can just download it – Elon had it removed. The net is full of the reasons why.
So wrapping up – yeah can hardly wait for mine. Almost tempted to spring for the 3K acceleration boost on our M3LR in the interim …. Hmm …
Firstly, regards my previous post about the seats being perhaps a little to tight on the base – at first noticeable but after driving the car for a few minutes you kind of get used to it – at least I did so no problems there.
Having said that the car I drove did have an odd clunking noise in the seat coming from what seemed like between my shoulder blades. Had nothing to do with the ventilated seats operating as I had it turned on and off and the noise was present in both scenarios. Could be just a minor quality thing in their demo car to be fixed by service.
The ride comfort was excellent – almost the same as our existing M3LR (non-highland). This was a good thing because I was worried about those huge 20” wheel. Prior to the M3LR, my wife had a Golf R-Line with 19”s with sports suspension and the ride in that was horrid – felt every bump – not so with the M3P. Further, the test drive loop in Brisbane takes you on very bumpy and IMHO horrid roads and it handled all this very well – no discomfort issues at all.
Now the fun part, and I thought our M3LR was fast. Hmm…now I know what fast really means in car terms. Yes, this thing is an absolute beast. Certainly, the fastest car I have ever driven (and I have had a lot of cars).
The acceleration is super fun and literally left me laughing out loud (to myself) every time – what a hoot. Some reviewers are saying the car just isn’t fun – I have no idea what they are talking about, but then again, they get access to all the toys like BMW M3s etc. They always seem to compare this car with the BMW for some reason… Is the M3 the benchmark in this segment (mid-sized sports sedans)?
Anyhow at least from my experience, this was a fun ride to say the least.
The standard acceleration mode (not insane mode) felt about the same as our M3LR – still fast enough to put a smile on my face (and it still does every time I drive our LR).
Handling wise, well the small amount of time they give you for the test drive wasn’t enough to give any kind of meaningful coverage suffice to say that I felt it was very planted on the road at any of the speed I got to.
Another thing that I guess is a side benefit is that you can really hear that new performance motor in the rear going nuts with any kind of acceleration. Very noticeable but in a very nice way – kind of sounds like a spaceship or something kicking into warp drive – sounds nice in my opinion.
HW4.0 (with 5MP cameras) as compared to our 1.2? I think in our current car is very nice. The traffic display (with all the objects) is far less ‘wobbly’ than our current model and the images from the cameras are top notch. The car of course does not have any sensors. A camera-based top-down view would have been nice. Even our dog taxi (Prado) has that feature.
The indicator buttons I picked up on almost immediately and was not a problem however there was a few times I went for the stalk and go nothing but air
Shifting in P, N, R, D – all piece of cake – no problems. They even have the backup mode (in case the screen fails) in the roof section near the rear-view mirror – another nice to have.
Sound system – Awesome! The demo car equaliser was left in too much low-end base so I flattened the range and sounded fantastic. I also noted that Disney+ was not present on the media playback options however the Tesla rep said you can just download it – Elon had it removed. The net is full of the reasons why.
So wrapping up – yeah can hardly wait for mine. Almost tempted to spring for the 3K acceleration boost on our M3LR in the interim …. Hmm …
