The first trip out in the  Model 3 was in a Long Range model.

There was myself, my friend Sally and two of our teenage daughters.  Tesla have a standard thing where they set 'Home' and 'Work' destinations in their Sat Nav systems.  You are asked to navigate to one and use this as your half way point.  You then navigate to the other, which takes you back to the starting point.

We were test driving the car to assess whether it might be the right car for Sally.  As with the other drives we did, Sally asked me to drive first and so I drove to the halfway point, which was at the West Wellow Services, a short distance off the M27 (junction 2).  Everyone was immensely impressed with the Tesla and we stopped and had a walk around the car.  We opened up the boot and were quite surprised at just how big the luggage space was.  We remarked at the fact that there was room for Sally's daughter to get in and, quick as a flash, she did just that.  With her in the boot, we remarked at how there was still plenty of room, but my daughter declined the opportunity to get in at the same time.

Sally then took over the driving and she quickly fell in love with the car.  By the time we arrived back in Southampton, she was seriously believing that this would be her next car.  She remarked afterwards that this was the first time in her life that she had actually felt excited about buying anything!

Having taken our eldest daughters out initially, Sally and I returned another time to also include my youngest daughter, when we also drove the Long Range model, and the I went back one further time to take Sally's son and his friend.  On this last occasion, it was the Performance model that I drove; ad the performance of this car is really quite remarkable.

On the Road

Sitting behind the wheel of the Model 3 is quite a pleasant place to be, even if, for most car drivers, there's an unfamiliarity to it.  There is no instrument binnacle in front of the steering wheel.  Instead, there is a large central screen that displays information, including the car's speed.  Some people say that they don't think that they would like to drive without an instrument binnacle putting that information right in front of the driver, but you do get used to it.

It is at complete odds with the legacy car manufacturers' approach though.  Not only do they all still have that familiar cluster of dials and information in the usual place, but on the higher end models, they frequently have a heads up display projecting key data onto the windscreen in line with the driver's view of the road.

Setting out in city traffic, the car is easy to manoeuvre through the streets and, whilst there is startling power available, it is easy to drive in a moderate and calm manner.  If you want to dial down the power, you can select the 'chill' mode in the car's settings and this will reduce the power available.  As you pass other traffic, you will see the vehicles replicated on the large screen to the left of the driver.  This distinguishes between different vehicle types, so a large truck will be displayed far differently to just another car.  As you pull up to the traffic lights, the lights are also shown on the screen, including their colour.  I've experienced the issue before of actually being unable to see the lights, maybe because the car's roof line or interior mirror are in the way.  In other cars, you might have to lean forward to see the lights, but this isn't the case in the Model 3.  You can just look at the screen to see when the lights change colour.

If you happen to be in conversation with your passengers and don't notice the lights change to green, the Tesla will announce the change with a chime, drawing your attention to the fact that you can, if safe, move off.  It's all very clever and quite helpful.