2024 Tesla Model 3: What's It Like to Live With?
We bought the newest Tesla to test for over 20,000 miles
| Miles Driven | Average kWh/100 |
| 5,554 | 22.2 |
Latest Highlights
- We bought the new 2024 Tesla Model 3
- It's been seven years since we've owned a Model 3
- We're looking forward to seeing what's changed
What do you want to know about?
What We Bought And Why
• Our test vehicle: 2024 Tesla Model 3 Long Range
• Base MSRP: $47,740
• MSRP as tested: $60,630
• What we paid: $48,630
When it first hit the market roughly seven years ago, the Tesla Model 3 was the car that brought electric vehicles to the masses. These EVs are so common on the road these days that some have referred to the Model 3 as "the new Toyota Corolla."
Tesla finally gave the Model 3 a heavy refresh, so we decided to buy one for our long-term test fleet to see what's changed and how it holds up over the long run. The hype surrounding this car is never-ending, and we're excited to put it to the test.
What Did We Get?
This is the sixth Tesla and third Model 3 that Edmunds has owned, so we decided to shake up the spec this time around. Our new Model 3 Long Range comes with Deep Metallic Blue paint ($1,000), 18-inch wheels, a black interior and Tesla's dubiously named Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. Tesla charges $12,000 for FSD; however, the automaker granted us a promotion to transfer the feature from our 2020 Model Y Performance for free. Throw in the $1,400 destination and $250 order fees and we paid $48,630 for this car.
Why Did We Get It?
There's a short way and a long way to tell this part, so let's start with the easy one. Ron Montoya, our senior consumer advice editor, who buys and sells all of Edmunds' long-term test cars, said, "Well, we wanted the Long Range this time and we liked the blue. Simple as that."
Of course, it wasn't just the color that drove us to buy this Model 3. We chose the Long Range because it's got a great mix of power and efficiency, and naturally, we want to hold Tesla accountable to its range claims. The standard 18-inch wheels are better for ride quality and give the car its maximum range potential.
Beyond that, our team wanted to buy a new Model 3 to see where Tesla is currently at as a company. We've reported issues and build quality problems with our past Teslas, and we're eager to see if the new Model 3 represents a meaningful improvement.
What's Happened So Far?
The new Model 3 has been in our garage for less than a month, but we've wasted no time putting it to the test. We put the Long Range through our Edmunds EV Range Test, where it achieved 338 miles of range. We ran a pre-refresh 2023 Model 3 last year and saw 341 miles, so the new Model 3 is slightly worse, by a mere 3 miles — not a huge difference in the real world.
On our test track, the Model 3 Long Range threw down some decent performance figures. It ran to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and hit the quarter mile in 12.3 seconds, making it the second-quickest Model 3 we've tested, only behind the 2018 Model 3 Performance. The car also pulled 0.92 g on the skidpad on all-season tires, matching a BMW i4 on summer rubber. We'll have more stats to share soon, including the speeds in the Edmunds EV Charging Test.
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purpose of evaluation.
Average lifetime consumption (kWh/100 miles): 22.2
Best consumption (kWh/100 miles): 22.2
Best range (miles): 332.0
Current odometer: 5,554
The Model 3 is proving to be quite efficient
"After driving our Model 3 for about two weeks, I was using an average of 235 Wh/mi for city driving and 250 Wh/mi for highway driving (based on the trip computer's energy usage display). Converted into the EPA's more standardized form, that's 23.5 kWh and 25 kWh used for every 100 miles of driving. (Note that these are just my observed numbers; our official calculations, based on charging data and different, will undoubtedly be different. But still, impressive!) Low energy use translates to greater range and less money spent on charging up the Model 3 to drive it. For comparison, our long-term F-150 Lightning uses about 40 to 60 kWh/100 miles depending on how you're driving it." — Brent Romans, senior manager, written content
A vote of confidence from a one-pedal driving hater
"I really dislike one-pedal driving. It's an unnecessary gimmick that generally makes modulating your speed twitchy and annoying. And since the brake pedal in all EVs activates regenerative braking before physical braking, you can get 100% of the same regen as one-pedal just by not driving like an ass. Ahem. That said, the Model 3 has the best one-pedal tuning I can remember driving. It doesn't make the car feel jerky or twitchy, and it's really easy to drive almost as naturally as you would with two pedals. Almost. Tesla might have the best one-pedal driving in the game." — Will Kaufman, manager, video
The Model 3 is refreshingly easy to drive
"This might sound like a strange comment, but one of my first impressions of our Model 3 was: 'Wow, this is nice. It's like driving a ... car!' At Edmunds, we test a bunch of SUVs and trucks because those are what the majority of Americans are buying these days. Get into our Model 3 and it's a refreshing change of pace. Besides being, yes, a car, it's also easy to park, (relatively) easy to drive, comfortable, nimble and quick. Plus, it has enough storage space that I think it's a viable alternative to the Model Y." — Brent Romans, senior manager, written content
"I'm going to say some positive things about the Model 3 to balance out my other critiques. First: I love the way this car drives. Even in Chill mode the Model 3 has plenty of power to get up hills or pass other vehicles on the road. The default regenerative braking setting is probably the smoothest I've experienced in any EV. The ride quality is probably the best I've experienced in a Tesla in recent memory. It's been over a decade since I drove a Model S, so I can't compare it to that one, but it is a night-and-day improvement over the Model Y Performance we have in our long-term fleet. The cabin is exceptionally quiet. I cannot hear any whines from the electric motors, and wind and road noise is impressively dampened.
"If you've had your eye on a Model 3 for some time, I can tell you this is the best it has ever been." — Ron Montoya, senior consumer advice editor
And it's extremely quick
"Say what you want about our Model 3's turn signal buttons (which I have, as have my co-workers) but you don't need them when you're going straight. And dang, this thing rips when you mat the accelerator. At our test track, it accelerated from zero to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and cleared the quarter mile in 12.3 seconds at 114 mph. I know that 'wow, an EV is fast!' comment isn't fresh news but, still, this is properly quick. My personal car is a 2019 BMW M2 Competition with the manual transmission. When Edmunds tested one back when it was new, it posted 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds and the quarter in 12.7 seconds at 111 mph. Line up in my M2 against this unassuming see-it-everywhere Model 3 and I'm getting smoked." — Brent Romans, senior manager, written content
Another vote against glass roofs on cars
"The glass roof is stunningly awful, and on its own should be a complete deal-breaker for anyone who lives in the American Southwest. Today the temperature in LA was a pretty moderate 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but by the middle of my commute the glass roof panel was uncomfortably hot to the touch and radiating enough heat that the top of my head was starting to overheat. The A/C was doing its (loud) best to moderate the cabin temperature, but unfortunately it couldn't blow directly at my baking dome. In midsummer, the temperatures can break 110 here, and short of sticking an ice pack on my head, I don't know how on earth the car is going to be comfortable to sit in. I'm honestly not even sure the A/C will be able to keep up at that point." — Will Kaufman, manager, video
But we appreciate the cooled seats
"I think I know why Tesla added cooled seats as a standard feature on this updated Model 3. They're necessary because the cabin gets so hot in the summer months due to the glass roof. It's been a while since I drove our Model Y, but I don't remember this being an issue on that one. I wonder if the roof tint percentage changed since then. I live in a part of LA where 90-100 degrees during the day is common for the summer months.
"When you hop inside the car on one of these hot days, having the A/C at full blast (and cooled seats at max) is a must. It takes roughly 25 minutes or so to bring the cabin to a comfortable temperature. In the meantime, I was sweating up a storm. It's so uncomfortable that my wife asked me to take her car (a Kia Niro) instead while we ran errands since the AC was quicker to cool and the Niro has a covered roof that doesn't overheat the interior.
"It's ironic that a company that seeks to reduce greenhouse gases ends up creating a greenhouse effect through the glass roofs on its vehicles. Which in turn causes you to turn up the A/C higher and creates a higher chance to leak hydrofluorocarbons. And depending on the refrigerant the Model 3 uses (R1234yf or R134a), the R134a variant can actually contribute to greenhouse gases." — Ron Montoya, senior consumer advice editor
We're impressed by how quiet the Model 3 is
"The noise management in this car is very, very, very good. Tire, road and wind noise is really muted, to a degree that a lot of luxury cars I've been in can't match. There's a stretch of my commute where construction moved the lanes over by about a foot, and the spot where the paint along the boundary of the road was scraped up is now a miles-long strip of rough asphalt that, in most cars, makes the tires absolutely sing. It's an exquisite form of sonic torture, and you can watch as every car crowds the lane to the right to try and stay off that strip. I tried it out on the Highland, and while there was still audible noise it was dampened to the point where it was not only tolerable, I didn't even have to turn my podcast up. Real kudos to Tesla for the noise management." — Will Kaufman, manager, video
And the refreshed Model 3 has fans
"Just an unbelievably powerful update across the board. The 'Highland' Model 3 refresh has improved the car markedly across all aspects: handling, comfort, range, acoustics, build quality, technology. For the money, you cannot buy a better electric vehicle." — Andy White, social media senior director
"This car is frustratingly good. Every Model 3 I had driven or ridden in to this point had been loud, stiff, and cheap, saved only by impressive range and an accessible price point. The Highland revision is a dramatic improvement. Much quieter, damping is more refined, materials feel higher-quality, all in addition to the already impressive range and accessible price point. If I had no qualms with folks giving money to Tesla and Elon Musk, I'd be able to recommend this in a heartbeat." — Duncan Brady, script writer
Not sold on Full Self-Driving
"I can't think of a single car I've driven recently that has a more frustrating ADAS suite than the Model 3's Full Self-Driving system. This is the thing that Tesla diehards salivate over? Maybe it works perfectly on more rural highways, but with crawling Los Angeles traffic, its flawed logic causes far more stress than relief.
"My biggest problem with FSD is that it initiates automatic lane changes far too frequently and its logic isn't bulletproof. It works like this: If you're traveling below your target speed because of traffic, and the car determines that other lanes would allow for faster travel, it will signal an alert immediately before it starts executing the lane change. On multiple occasions, I had to pull the Model 3 back into its original lane because a vehicle was approaching quickly and the Tesla's sensors either hadn't recognized the approaching car or clocked its higher rate of speed. I experimented with changing the FSD setting so that automatic lane changes were kept to a minimum — a setting that resets every time you turn the car off — but it still attempted a lane change every few minutes.
"Another issue: If you give more than the mildest tug at the steering wheel (like to pull the automatically lane-changing Model 3 back into its lane), the entire FSD system deactivates, including adaptive cruise control (ACC). Imagine being behind a Model 3 when it starts to change a lane, then it's pulled back into the original lane, at which point it begins to stop because ACC deactivates and regenerative braking kicks in to slow the car down. Then the Model 3 driver has to immediately jump on the accelerator to get back up to speed. It's unbelievably frustrating.
"Given my experiences with the Model 3 not readily identifying approaching traffic from behind, and the system completely deactivating the second you disagree with it, I eventually turned off FSD and reverted to simple adaptive cruise control.
"But even ACC isn't perfect. To start, the car doesn't react quickly enough to the lane state of the car in front. Again on multiple occasions, the car in front would slow slightly in order to perform its own lane change. A driver fully in control might slow down a bit to match speeds, but the Tesla would nearly stop in its lane — even after the car that used to be in front completed its lane change — before laying into the accelerator. These were jarring experiences to me as a driver, and it must have been odd for others who I was sharing the road with. With all of the inexplicable braking and sudden acceleration, I must have looked like a terribly inexperienced driver.
"And when you finally do get out of frustrating bumper-to-bumper traffic, you'll likely notice that your speed isn't scrubbed in turns. In BMWs and Minis, even the most basic (non-adaptive) cruise control system will lower the speed as you turn the wheel. You do this without even realizing it while driving on the highway; even on long, sweeping turns, you'll instinctively let off the throttle to lessen the lateral g-force and make your ride more comfortable. The Model 3 doesn't do this at all. If you set cruise control to 65 mph, then you're going that fast no matter how many turns a snaky highway has.
"Was I expecting too much? Are other systems just as bad? I returned the Model 3 yesterday and jumped into our new long-term Kia EV9. I drove home with the similar Highway Driving Assist 2 suite active the entire time. Not only does it not slow to a crawl as the car in front changes lanes, it also doesn't disable the entire system whenever you add steering input. I know that Tesla people get excited that their cars are the only ones that offer a level of auto-steering capability on city streets, but I can't imagine tooling around with FSD on given how it can't even perform basic highway actions properly." — Cameron Rogers, manager, news
The promise of Full Self-Driving
"I largely agree with my co-worker Cameron's assessment of using Full Self-Driving on the highway. I too found it awkward and ultimately just turned it off in favor of using our Model 3's regular adaptive cruise control. But I've also tested it out on city streets and found the experience to be, well, interesting. Sure enough, the car pretty much does 'drive itself.' For example, I entered my home address into the navigation system after running an errand and the Model 3 drove me all the way across town and home. The car changed lanes, stopped at turn signals and stoplights, and generally drove just fine. I've certainly witnessed worse human drivers on the road. Certainly, no other automaker has a system that gets you closer to the experience of what we've been promised for self-driving cars all of these years.
"But it's not quite the future yet. You still have to keep your hands on the steering wheel because it's still a Beta version. Plus, I still feel compelled to fully pay attention and be ready to react quickly to a possible situation because I don't fully trust FSD. I might as well just drive at that point. It's hard to justify paying thousands of dollars for something that is tantalizing but still not quite reality yet." — Brent Romans, director, written content
We're starting to see some early wear and tear on our Model 3
"1,400 miles on the odometer and the steering wheel is already starting to discolor and there's a pronounced rattle from the sun visors. Neat." — Steven Ewing, director, editorial content
We long for normal turn signals
"The turn signal buttons are not good. And it's not just a matter of 'getting used to it'; they're small buttons with small activation areas and no real tactile differentiation from each other or the panel they're on. I spent the first 10 minutes of my commute trying to swipe a stalk that wasn't there, sure, but then I spent the next hour regularly missing the button I was trying to push and having to look away from the road to make sure I hit it properly. That's not innovation, that's not forward-thinking, it's just plain bad design." — Will Kaufman, manager, video
"It's early in our testing of our 2024 Model 3 and I can already envision the future look of the page you're reading here. It's going to be full of snarky, negative comments on the turn signal buttons. My first impression of them was, 'These things are stupid.' But I wanted to give this design a fair test. So I drove our Model 3 for two weeks. 'Maybe I'll get used to them or see some sort of hidden advantage,' I thought. And what was the result after two weeks? Still stupid. (See, snarky!)
"To be clear, I don't necessarily mind the concept of buttons; after all, I don't have problems using steering wheel buttons on most other cars for audio controls and the like. It's the execution of the design that is faulty. For two reasons: 1) The button surfaces are smooth, so you can't intuitively feel where your thumb is supposed to go; and 2) You have to press them just right; otherwise they won't activate the turn signal. Because of these two issues, I found that even after two weeks of driving I frequently had to look down to find the buttons to press them and then take extra concentration to make sure I pressed them right. And sometimes, even that didn't work. Turn signal buttons like this are something that nobody was asking for." — Brent Romans, senior manager, written content
"OK, everybody, I'm doing a full frog splash off the top rope and landing on the dogpile of Model 3 turn signal button critiques. I already thought the prior turn stalk that returned to center position (as seen in BMWs too) was annoying, but it looks like Tesla's designers were like 'Hold my beer ...'
"These buttons are simply not intuitive. Why put both buttons on one side, millimeters from each other and a fat finger press away from signaling in the wrong direction? Until I get used to this (if ever), I am constantly having to look away from the road and glance at the steering wheel to make sure I'm pressing the right button. I'm proposing a solution for Tesla here, free of charge and with my limited Photoshop skills. Take a look at my proposed wheel redesign image.
"What I did here is removed one turn signal from the left side of the wheel and placed it on the other side, by itself, to prevent any accidental button presses. The left side is for the left signal; the right side is for the right signal — genius!
"The camera button is not a feature you'd often use, as it comes up on its own in reverse, and if you needed to manually do it, there should be an option in the center screen settings. I moved the wiper button in its place, then moved the microphone button to be a function of clicking the right roller button, as it was on our Model Y and past Model 3.
"Could all of this be solved with a simple turn stalk, Yes. Is that the Tesla way? Not anymore, it seems. At this point, I'd settle for the old turn stalk that I hated." — Ron Montoya, senior consumer advice editor
"I can picture the first comment that would appear on our Model 3 turn signal buttons story- (https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/2024-tesla-model-3-turn-signals-long-term-update.html), assuming we had a comment section.
"'This is a dumb complaint. If you owned the car, you'd get used to it.'—TeslaBro420-4lyfe
"Let me pose this question: How long does it take to unlearn a habit you've been doing for 30 years? I can tell you it isn't two weeks, which is how long I've been driving our Model 3.
"This is how I've attempted to 'get used to' this feature. Let's say I'm driving along the road and a turn is coming up. I need to start thinking about signaling, much sooner that I would on a vehicle with a turn stalk. In that time, I'm feeling for the right button and trying to remember if the top one is right or left. Oops, I forgot. OK, let me look down, taking my eyes off the road for a second, and see which button is which. The button press is successful, but did I press the right one? Wait, give me another second to check on the screen that's out of my sightline.
"Side note. English-speaking Americans read left to right. Shouldn't the top signal button be pointing left? It isn't. Top is left; bottom is right. And I'd argue that turn signals are more crucial for a left turn than a right turn, so wouldn't it make sense to put that button in the easier-to-reach upper location?
"This is all assuming the wheel is perfectly straight. You know those times when you're in the process of turning but need to quickly signal in another direction? For example you came around a corner and spotted a parking space you wanted to hop into. In these moments, I have lost track of where the buttons are, and oftentimes I end up not using the signal at all. And that's not the way I typically operate. I'm a habitual turn signal user but it's hard to activate something if you can't find the button in the heat of the moment.
"Would I eventually get used to it? Probably. Was this a problem that didn't need solving? Yes." — Ron Montoya, senior consumer advice editor
But there is something to like about them
"I'm on record as hating the turn signal buttons — they are objectively bad UX. BUT, there is something about the turn signals that has impressed me. The car is very good at telling whether you're just changing lanes or pulling into a turn lane. So far, it's turned off the signal with every lane change and successfully kept the signal on every time I've pulled into a turn lane. That's impressive. It's dumb that the car needs to be able to do that because Tesla made a bad interface decision to save themselves a few cents a car, but it's still impressive that it works." — Will Kaufman, manager, video
But we have an early endorsement of the touchscreen shifter
"I'm going to say something exceptionally controversial: I like the touchscreen shifter. It's really easy and intuitive, and actually less awkward than rotary shifters or even most push-button setups. The caveat is that I hate the backup shifter. The capacitive buttons on the roof are hidden until you touch them, which means the only times I've tried to use it I wound up selecting the wrong gear just to get the buttons to appear. That's dumb." — Will Kaufman, manager, video
Rear visibility isn't great
"Visibility out the back is not the best. I've found it's hard to fully see what's behind me through the rearview mirror because of the rear window's tinting at the top and the short overall view you have through the window." — Brent Romans, senior manager, written content
The Model 3 is surprisingly roomy
"The Model 3 can hold an impressive amount of stuff. I've loaded suitcases into the trunk for an airport run and lowered the rear seats to slide in a folding table. I also like the hidden cargo area below the floor; it's ideal for holding a few grocery bags in place. Of course, there's also the Tesla signature front trunk where you can stash a few more items." — Brent Romans, director, written content