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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • Not a second hand owner here but I can speak to buying and ownership from the other perspective. 2018 Tesla model 3 lr rwd. Buying process was straightforward, place order online, fill out forms online, bring required papers and checks to pickup, leave with vehicle. I did have some paint chips/scratches from shipping which I raised as an issue to the delivery manager. They put me in a loaner while car was out for repair at body shop. Content with repairs no cost to me.

    Looking forward, the past 5.5 years of ownerships have been pretty smooth. No major issues. Some buggy software back in 2018/2019, when they were making tons of new features and updates. It’s now pretty stable/mature. All of which were OTA updates. The only physical recall I had was the cable for the backup camera can rub and wear through. So they replaced the harness there during one of my other visits at no charge.

    Bring in twice a year for winter/summer tire swap and brake lube. Have had lower control arms go under warranty and a crack in a control rod out of warranty.

    Service centers were hit or miss in terms of smoothness. They seem to have gotten better with my more recent experiences.

    One of the three 16amp onboard charges has failed. Technically in warranty, but I didn’t address it for over a year due to other factors, which is on me. So I’ve just been riding it out with 32amp charging instead of 48. Still plenty fast for home charging and I don’t really see the value in replacing it right now. This doesn’t affect supercharging (fastdc charging).

    As for software, I did get the FSD package when it was $5k. And got the retrofit 3.0 hardware upgrade (no cost). It’s great on highway and I use it pretty regularly. City streets, which is in beta, has been pretty janky but has shown continued improvement. It’s not quite smooth enough for passengers imo, but it does some impressive maneuvers at times. I expect some further refinement in here, but I don’t expect it to ever achieve what the name it was marketed under. I wouldn’t pay much more than $5k for its current capabilities.

    My biggest gripe with the car honestly is the auto wipers can be pretty sub par due to their vision based system. Have to use manual mode somewhat often.

    No significant battery degradation at 55k mi. Get about 305 on charge. Was 310new and they technically bumped it to 325 sometime afterwards. It’s charge as high as 317, but I road trip fairly infrequently to have many data points here.

    TLDR, I’d buy another Tesla, but I’d also shop around in 15 yr when I expect to be in the market again.














  • My biggest issue with version v11: On highways it preemptively merges into the passing lane because it is approaching an on ramp with no one on it. This happens even with “minimal lane changes” turned on. This is annoying because quite frequently it has just merged into a line of cars approaching at a much higher speed trying to pass. Then I look like an ass because I’ve got no one in front of me and no reason to be merging into a passing lane.

    I interrupt it when it happens, but it doesn’t give you any warning. Blinker goes and it’s merging immediately. Not a good behavior when there are zero vehicles entering it’s space. Driver wouldn’t expect the merge so it’s always a bit of an abrupt intervention. I’m extra cautious on this current build around on ramps. Looking forward to the next release, but they’ve certainly slowed down their releases. Been waiting to get off this build for awhile now.





  • Lotta hate in the comments here. I’ll speak to the car objectively. TLDR: it’s a great car, BIC and competitively priced, auto wipers are hit or miss. I’d buy it again given today’s options.

    I have a 2018 M3 RWD. 50k miles on it. Maintenance wise it’s one set of tires, a couple air filters, tire rotations and brake caliper lubes in that time. There was one mechanical failure, lower control arms which were covered under warranty.

    This excludes folks smashing into the parked car twice and related bodywork repairs.

    I did pay out of pocket for new side repeater cameras that don’t have the blinker occlusion at night. I sold the old repeaters on eBay so it was basically break even. Little bit of hassle for something I felt should have been covered under warranty.

    Software wise it was unstable in some of the early 2019 releases. Things like cellular disconnecting, backup camera lag, have all been sorted out now. Yes the UI changed a bunch over that time and not always for the better. But generally it’s advanced in a good direction. I’m considering these items early adoption issues and now that they’ve been resolved, do not factor into my opinion of the car.

    My biggest issue with car is the auto wipers not functioning consistently. Very hit or miss and have to switch to manual mode.

    FSD beta: I paid $5k for it. I don’t think it’s worth more than that. Did they deliver what was promised? No not really, it was over hyped. Highway driving is pretty solid I use it frequently though stop and go can be a bit rollercoastery at times. City streets has a ways to go still. Sometimes it navigates complexitys impressively well. Other times it fails on the most mundane task.

    That being said it’s been an absolute blast watching it progress over time. It’s made massive steps forward, but every two steps forward there was always a regression elsewhere.

    I don’t think FSD really influences my car purchase at this point. Do I regret buying it? No, not for the price I paid. If we exclude it for a moment, the M3 is still a best in class car in my option. I don’t see another model on the market with the same range and price point. Even when comparing it to say a Toyota Camry hybrid. It’s the same price with current incentives. And you don’t have to deal with a dealership their markups and high pressure sales BS.


  • Agree with this post here. Adding to this thought:

    Outside of initial provisioning/firmware updates. This server should only need to reboot once a month for OS/firmware security updates and maintenance. Maybe less/more depending on your organizations security posture. OP said they’re running VM’s so I don’t understand the concern with the boot time. Once you provision the host you don’t really tinker with any setting unless your adding hardware to updating firmware/os.

    If the boot time is really that big a deal, get a second host and setup replication/vmotion with your VM’s to eliminate the host boot time from affecting your uptime entirely.