Model 3 Delivered!

Deliverance

Wow... The process of buying my wife's Model 3 was so much smoother and faster than what I went through buying my Model S! We pulled the trigger and ordered the car on February 19. We drove it home on March 2 - just 11 days later. And we could have actually had it as early as February 26, only seven days after ordering it, but we weren't ready that soon. (Because both of our names will be on the title, we both had to be present to pick it up and we just couldn't find a time we were both available.) Compare this with the 6 weeks it took to get my Model S!

I suspect the increased speed is because the options for the Model 3 are severely limited. Our only options were the paint color (5 choices), interior color (2 choices), wheel size (2 choices), and the enhanced autopilot feature. All cars have the enhanced AP hardware installed, so it's just a software configuration to turn it on. There is no difference in the build process. This means there are very few changes between each Model 3 produced, so they can roll off the assembly line faster.

The trade-in process was much easier as well. No photos of the trade-in were required, contrasting with my trade-in experience. As I mentioned last time, it seems how thoroughly they inspect your trade-in is dependent on how expensive your new car is.

As was the case with my Model S, the timing worked out such that we didn't need to waste money on licensing the old car for another year. My wife's registration on her Prius was set to expire 17 days after we traded it in. Unlike some states, Washington does not give you a refund if you sell or trade your vehicle before the registration expires, so this saved us $156.

I did run into one hitch. We were scheduled to pick up our car on Saturday, March 2. On March 1, we got an email asking us to log into our account and verify our pickup location and that we were trading in a car. This was the day after Elon Musk announced the $35,000 Model 3 was now on sale.

Friday morning, the Tesla website was getting hammered. I couldn't log in to verify our purchase info! After trying to about 30 minutes, I finally got logged in, only to discover my order was not listed! Considering I had just wired my deposit over the night before, that was a smidge disconcerting, to say the least.

I called Tesla and they said the site was swamped and they were having the same issues on their end accessing it. The person I spoke with said links weren't going to the correct pages and other weird behavior was happening. He confirmed he still saw my order and that they had people working to get the website fixed. He suggested I try again that evening.

After about 2 hours, I tried again and was able to get in and confirm my order.

The pick up went just as smooth as when I picked up my Model S. We signed some paperwork, handed over our old car keys and got our new Model 3 keycards. This time, the car was parked outside, instead of in the showroom like mine was. There were several other people there picking up cars, so space was limited. Since we already knew how most of the stuff worked, there was no need for anyone to give us an overview, so we got in and drove away!

Shiny!

Accessories

Once again, I ordered the all weather interior floor mats. We also bought a second high power wall charger. This will be wired in a load balanced configuration with my existing wall charger so they can share the same 100 amp circuit.

Due to the trade-in, we actually have an extra $5,000 or so we could have applied to our down payment. I didn't want to do this for fear of messing up the loan. I was afraid if the loan amount changed, even if it went down, the approval process would have to start over again. Granted, it went super fast and was completely transparent to me, but I didn't want to do anything that might delay the purchase.

The extra money will be used for the second high powered wall connector and its installation. There should be a couple thousand left over, which will go towards paying down the car loan and I'll send it in as soon as I get the electronic payment process set up.

My wife has been enjoying the last couple of days with the car. We're still configuring some of the options like the HomeLink garage door opener and connecting her phone, but it should be all set up the way she likes it in a few days!