The Falcon - One year on

A year ago today, my wife drove me to an industrial unit outside Edinburgh to pick up a new Tesla Model 3. Up to that time, it had been a long wait filled with anticipation. From March 2016 when the Model 3 was launched, I watched for over three years; the hints about its features, the changes in its specifications and the initial reviews by bubbling-over Tesla fans.

Charging at Broadford, Isle of Skye.

The first few cars that came out in 2017 were praised and slammed in equal measure depending on the biases of the reviewer. The fanboys lauded its exceptional styling, minimalist interior and its friendly UI and super-quick performance. Those outside the Tesla bubble found easy targets in wildly inconsistent panel gaps and shoddy paintwork. Two years later and I had my own example sitting on the driveway.

I'm a bit of a fanboy. I'm not uncritical but I think the car and company deserve it. In this essay, I want to discuss some plus and minus points that I have come across while owning 'The Falcon' for one year.

Let's be up front about this. I think the positives far, far outweigh any negative feelings I have towards the car. It is quick, comfortable and capable. It is a tech wet dream. It is clever, cheeky and knowing with software written by a company of people with a sense of humour. I delightedly grasp any opportunity to take it out on the Scottish roads and when I do, I'm not poisoning those around me like some Russian dictator. My first year is full of 20,000 miles of very pleasurable motoring.

Black marks

My first negative. I was warned that the paintwork is soft. It seems that Californian environmental laws affect the grade of paint that Tesla use and I've discovered that a Scottish winter is a tough test for that finish. As a result, there is a rash of paint chips across the car, exposing a white undercoat below the black gloss. I'll see about getting a touch-up kit and start addressing the worst of these before the car's second winter sets in.

That's not dirt. That's impact damage!

More concerning has been the abrasion, or sandblasting, of the paintwork by debris in certain areas. This is mostly seen at the outward flare just forward of the rear wheels and on the wheel arch directly behind those wheels. There is also a small area of abrasion on the leading edge of the rear nearside door. It so happens that the alignment of this door is slightly off and the lower ten centimetres sticks out slightly into the slipstream. Hence this edge has suffered a lot of damage.

Profound impact damage at the windward edge of the door sill.

My response has been to apply gloss black vinyl wrap to these areas, a solution that, while a little amateur, has turned out to be reasonably successful. For that reason alone, I'm glad the car has a simple flat colour that doesn't require careful matching.

I learned that in cold countries like Canada and Norway, Tesla was giving away mud flaps to owners in recognition of the large quantities of salt that are spread on the roads there. Sometimes even grit is used. I enquired about these flaps and was delighted when a Tesla Ranger (a mobile service engineer) drove up and fitted them for me. It wouldn't be the only time this mobile service solution would visit.

Ceramic coating... or not

When I was waiting for the car, my intention had been to get it ceramic coated while new. I'm reasonably convinced that applying this treatment will mean that caring for the car's finish will be a lot easier with dirt less likely to accumulate. I'm not one for preening cars so a simple solution that saves me effort seemed worthwhile. Circumstances were to foil me. As soon as I had the car, I was away for weeks on a job that involved some driving through heavy winter weather. When that was finished, I had more winter driving to support a hillwalking challenge. Around this time, I did ask someone to do it but they never engaged with the task. They worked outdoors and atrocious winter weather got in the way and then they stopped responding. Then the Covid-19 pandemic visited us all. At least in springtime 2020, I had plenty of time on my hands to polish the car regularly.

More negatives

While admitting that I am a fanboy and that I love the car, I'll keep bringing up the negative points. Next one; it's very low! Not for me though. Despite being in my seventh decade, I'm fairly supple and have no problem getting in and out of the car – except for that time a month after I got it when I had pulled a back muscle and doing anything was agony, never mind sliding into a sleek saloon. However, others around me of a similar age do find it a bit tricky, something I hadn't thought of when ordering it. I've no intention to change the car but if I did, I would perhaps choose a Tesla Model Y. It is very similar to a 3 but 18cm taller and more suited to older folk getting in and out.

My next negative is slowly turning positive. When I got the car, it came with no rain sensor. A button on the indicator stalk gave a single wipe and brought up a control panel on the screen for the wipers. I would then be expected to select a wiper speed on the screen. This is an unacceptably fiddly way to control wipers when conditions are tough and you have to keep your eyes on the road.

Thankfully, despite the lack of a sensor, there is an auto wiper function and Tesla has endeavoured to use the output of the car's cameras to sense when it is raining. At first, this didn't work at all well but this is where one of the Tesla's unique features comes into the story. Similar to a smart phone, every few weeks, owners find that an update is available to download into their cars. Usually this is just for bug fixes but often it is to add new features or let owners preview features that they might want to pay to add to their cars permanently.

Since I got the car, Tesla has added YouTube, Netflix, Twitch and a handful of games. The climate control has been enhanced with Dog mode (for keeping a dog in a climate-controlled car) and Camp mode (for owners to sleep in the back of a cosy car, no matter the outside temperature). The rear space is long enough for this and I have a mattress especially for the occasional camping out adventure. Tesla even upped the car's maximum power by 5% without me having to pay for it. Happily, they also improved the routines that control the wipers and a recent long road trip in very wet weather proved the effectiveness of the current system. Only once in a thousand miles did I need to ask for a flick wipe. I never needed to use the touchscreen.

Autopilot

That thousand-mile road trip was a good example of the power of Tesla's Autopilot system. The car comes with two flavours: basic Autopilot and, for an extra £8K, their 'FSD' package which they say will one day offer full self-driving. I have my doubts. Although I get that they are applying massive machine learning to vast amounts of data coming from the hundreds of thousands of Teslas already out on the roads, I think the task is just too hard for machines. The corner cases are too many. I can't help feeling that FSD is a bit of a unicorn – or maybe I'm too old and set in my ways.

Basic Autopilot, however, is great – usually. Get on the open road, two presses of the right stalk and the car as good as drives for you. This freaks most people out the first time they see it but it is a genuine and huge help to long distance driving. With basic Autopilot, the car senses the road's lane markings, other road users and objects. Everything from lorries and buses to bikes and people. It senses traffic lights, traffic cones, roadside bins and stop signs. Further, it shows you what it is sensing on its display. It is like you are seeing into the mind of a machine.

Using this information, the car maintains a central position in the lane, steering smoothly through the bends. If there is a road user in front who is travelling slower, the Tesla smoothly slows to match, maintaining a distance that the driver can set. (I prefer a setting of '5'.) Should the traffic become congested and of a stop/start nature, the car will tirelessly stop and start with the rest of the traffic.

What am I doing all this time? Like any good pilot, I'm monitoring the system, ensuring that it is behaving as I wish. The car wants to know that I am there and it does so by sensing an unbalanced torque on the steering wheel from me having my hands on it. Therefore I keep one hand at about the 5 o'clock position, exerting a mild torque on the wheel, ready to take over should any need arise – and they do! Occasionally poor markings will cause it to start up a sliproad, requiring it to be yanked back onto the main lane. If I need to, say, open a bottle of water, the car will give me about 15 seconds of hands-free driving before it begins to nag me to hold the wheel again.

The car will happily eat up the miles on Autopilot but there are times when I do have to intervene. The car won't overtake on the motorway. (It will in the US if the owner has bought FSD.) I have to manually execute an overtake manoeuvre. By indicating to pull out, the car drops its Autosteer function while maintaining cruise control. I change lanes and maybe accelerate a little. When appropriate, I reengage Autosteer.

Occasionally, a lorry will slightly wander out of its lane, edging into mine just as I'm passing it. This can freak the car out and makes it slow heavily. (I avoid saying 'slam on the brakes' because that exaggerates the situation.) Another instance is what's called 'phantom braking' which is where the car suddenly slows for no apparent reason. A press on the accelerator overcomes both of these situations but nonetheless, they are very disconcerting for all in the car.

Despite the phantom braking glitch, Autopilot is great. I reckon more than 95 per cent of my recent road trip was driven by the car. This removes a lot of the mental burden that a driver bears from constant speed and steering adjustment. After hours of driving, the result is to arrive more alert and ready to enjoy the remainder of the day.

My many trips through the Scottish Highlands have also been made easier by the more boring sections being handled by the car. Often, I'm happy just to let the car sit behind the vehicle in front and go with the flow of traffic. I'm not aggressive in my desire to overtake at every opportunity but the astounding response and speed of the car means that when ultra-safe overtake opportunities arise, they are completed quickly and without fuss.

Autopilot doesn't handle cities well, including roundabouts. But on anything except fast main roads and motorways, I'm more than happy to drive the car myself. The twisty sections of road in the Highlands are especially fun. The car is precise, firm, very well planted and responsive. "It's like it's on rails," is a comment I hear often, thanks to the very low centre of mass provided by the battery and some very solid design. The steering never, ever feels jittery, whether applying prodigious amounts of power or when at speed.

Continuing negatives

One month after getting the car, the visor broke.

A broken visor clip.

The place from where the visor clip broke.

To be more accurate, the clip broke that holds one end of the visor in place but which allows the visor to be pulled out if the Sun is shining from the side, The first time I tried to pull the visor out, the clip snapped and flew off to the back of the car. The problem was entered into the Tesla App on my phone and a service appointment arranged. At the due time, a Tesla Ranger showed up and replaced the clip.

Then one month ago, I opened the car door and heard something fall down inside the door's innards. Again, I used the app to report the problem, gaining an appointment three weeks hence. One week later, I get a phone call. A Ranger is in the area and can check the door now. This was during the Covid-19 pandemic and I wasn't planning going anywhere.

A Tesla Ranger repairs my door.

The door was quickly dismantled and a little gear arrangement retrieved from inside. Rather than fix the existing door handle, a new complete handle mechanism was fitted. 

The offending damping gear.

The function of the gear is to damp the sprung movement of the handle. I have no idea how it managed to fall out of the handle assembly. There didn't appear to be any broken plastic associated with it.

Overall, that's three Tesla Ranger visits in a year, all for relatively minor issues. Once the 4-year, 50,000-mile guarantee is up (8 years, 100,000 miles for the drive train), I guess I'll find out the hard way how expensive owning a Tesla long term costs.

Speaking of costs

A commonly stated benefit of electric car ownership is the savings in fuel. When I drove cars with internal combustion engines, my typical fuel cost was about 10 pence per mile, and I drove very frugal cars in a frugal fashion. My current arrangement for electricity is as follows. If I charge at home, I have two choices. Either I charge during the day in which case the cost is 15p per kilowatt-hour (kWh). If the car is doing 4 miles per kWh, a reasonable average, then I'm paying 3.75p per mile. But I have solar panels and if they are able to contribute to the charge, that reduces the cost.

If I charge at night, my cost goes down to 5p/kWh. That equates to 1.25p per mile. In the summer, the Falcon can easily achieve 5 miles/kWh which means that, for a lot of the time, I'm paying a penny per mile.

I have the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (the cheapest version I could get) which is reputed to have a 50kWh battery. The range of that battery varies wildly depending on use scenarios but having had the car for a year, I've got a good handle on seasonal averages. In winter, with cold dense air and the need to warm the interior of the car, my range is about 170 miles. In summer, the range rises to about 250 miles. This is because the air is thinner and less heating is required.

Happily, the car has good trip meters that let me keep long-time records of its consumption.

This represents the first six months of ownership through the car's first winter. 270 Wh/mile is equivalent to 3.7 miles/kWh.

The second six-month period of car ownership. 238 Wh/mile is equivalent to 4.2 miles/kWh.

The figures for the first complete year. 257 Wh/mile is equivalent to 3.9 miles/kWh. 

In that first year, the car has done 19,951 miles on 5,124 kWh of power. At my typical daytime power cost of 14.7p/kWh, that works out as a 'fuel' cost of £750. In reality, some of that was from my night rate, some was from my free supercharging referral that I got when the car was new, much of it was travelling up and down to Skye where most of the chargers were (and still are) free, some was from when my solar panels had spare power available and a lot was from when my day rate was slightly lower. At a guess, I suspect my actual spend was in the region of £300.

For the aforementioned road trip, the car would suggest charging stops at about 150-mile intervals, something that worked well for us. Rest stops were welcome after a couple of hours driving and two stops were all we needed for a 400-mile destination. A good charge at a Tesla supercharger would require about 35 to 45 minutes, easily the time we would require to go to the loo, browse shops, get coffee and lunch and eat it. While we refuelled, so did the car. No need to then go to a petrol station. The cost at a supercharger is 24p/kWh which makes motorway trips at 70 to 75mph cost about 6p/mile after the first 150 miles.

But get back to the negatives!

The car has two types of key. I can either use an RFID card, two of which were supplied with the car, or I can use my phone. The car works with an app on the phone and uses Bluetooth to detect the phone's presence, allowing me to just walk up to the car and enter – except it doesn't. It used to, flawlessly, but whatever happened, either through a Tesla update or a phone update, the phone and car fail to achieve this about 90 per cent of the time. I fumble for my phone, switch Bluetooth off then on and this is usually, not always, sufficient to make the connection and I can get in. It's starting to rankle me, especially in heavy rain as I grumble in the wet trying to get the two pieces of tech to communicate. I really am too tolerant.

I could start using my cards to get in or I can buy a dedicated key fob that will apparently work flawlessly until its battery needs to be changed.

I'm running out of negatives...

Oh yes, the cruise control. It's great and is part of the Autopilot feature. One press of the right stick and it comes on, traffic aware and all. In my limited experience, conventional cruise control will read the car's speed at the moment it is engaged and hold that speed until modified by the driver. The Tesla cruise control doesn't bother with the car's current speed. Instead, it looks at what it thinks the speed limit of the road is, and proceeds to smartly accelerate to that speed.

The problem with this arrangement is that very often, I don't want it to do that. On many motorway journeys, I'm happy to sit at 60 whereas the car wants to take me up to 70mph. I have to twice flick a thumbwheel on the steering wheel to override this behaviour. Worse, on many roads I travel, although the legal speed limit is 60, the appropriate speed is far less, perhaps due to their winding nature or the quality of the tarmac. I think Tesla ought to revisit their assumptions of how cruise control should work.

Panel alignment

I mentioned at the start of this article that early examples of the Model 3 were criticised for inconsistent panel gaps. If I were to switch on my own critical brain cell, I could complain about some of the panel issues on my own car. For example, the top of the car from windscreen to rear window consists of three sheets of glass. As an aside, I think the all-glass roof is a wonderful feature. The ambience and airiness, particularly for back seat passengers, is a delight. Anyway, the central sheet of glass is slightly narrower than the adjacent rear sheet.

The two are perfectly aligned on the left side of the car, but on the right, there is a clear 5mm discrepancy. Such issues really don't bother me and I'm not going to lose sleep over them. But having lurked in a forum or two online, I know that some folk really lose their heads over issues like this.

A first birthday present

As I was writing this essay, I happened to look out of the kitchen window at my car and noticed a circle on the front left tyre.

I thought, "That's either a flower petal or there's a screw right on the shoulder of that tyre." Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, it was the latter. I have no idea how long the screw has been there. Did I drive my thousand-mile road trip with it in? The car monitors tyre pressures for me and hasn't shown any problems. Nevertheless, the Falcon is going to get a birthday present of two new front tyres. This isn't too bad. Having done 20,000 miles, there was only 2mm of legal tread remaining on those tyres.

I started to monitor the declining depth of my tyres' tread a couple of months ago and as the graph shows, I only recently got to swap the tyres over. Those front tyres used to be on the rear. Since the car is rear wheel drive, they had taken most of the wear and were nearly ready to be replaced. At 5mm, the other tyres are only about halfway through their life and I'll look to replace them after a few more months.

One interesting issue came up. It turns out that the factory-fitted tyres have internal foam to suppress road noise. However, this adds about £40 to £60 to the price of each. I'll take the non-acoustic version and see what they are like.

Fanboy

In this essay, I've honestly tried to be as negative as possible about my Model 3, but the truth is that as a piece of well-designed and well-integrated engineering, it is very impressive. There are solid reasons why the company is growing rapidly even during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are innovative and vertically integrated. They are able to react quickly when problems are found in their products, redesigning and implementing immediately. The design of their cars is compelling and I am always looking forward to my next trip in the Falcon. I have absolutely no regrets having bought it and look forward to many years of driving it.

No, I didn't electrocute the dog!

To butcher a line from James May when he recently discussed his Tesla Model S on You Tube (6 things James May hates about his Tesla), that is about nine things that I don't like about my Tesla Model 3 standard Range Plus. There are also 2,837 things I love!