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Tesla’s Model 3 build quality improvements discussed in video review

A Model 3 in the EU market is reviewed, delivery taken by Martin Welzl of Teslafinity. | Image: Martin Welzl/YouTube

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Tesla’s Model 3 build quality has received a fair amount of criticism since it began shipping to customers, particularly in terms of the finishing touches on seat stitching, paint, and lineups between panels and cabin components. However, a video review by Martin Welzl of Teslafinity assessing a recently delivered Model 3 indicated that significant improvements have been made to the midsize sedan. Overall, Welzl found that any quality variations in that particular Model 3 were in line with those found in cars produced by major auto manufacturers, none of which would recommend against purchase of the vehicle.

The white Model 3 in the video had a VIN in the 310,000+ range and was built in April 2019 for the European market. Only a few build quality issues were noted after the review. In particular, some corners and edges had a slightly uneven paint appearance, the driver’s side door speaker was hovered 1 mm above the door, and about 1 cm of stitching in the passenger seat was uneven. The Model 3’s panels were slightly off in spots, but significantly improved over older videos showing earlier builds. Given Tesla’s rapid rate of adjusting and improving its production process, any quality issues noted in the review may have already been addressed.

A Model 3 in the EU market is reviewed, delivery taken by Martin Welzl of Teslafinity. | Image: Martin Welzl/YouTube

Taking delivery of the European Model 3 was also described as a somewhat frustrating experience with schedule delays creating most of the issues. The Model 3 was purchased by Welzl’s parents, and he took over communications with Tesla on their behalf to ensure their experience with their new car wasn’t affected by any delivery hiccups. Once the car was in hand, though, the process became forgivable. “It’s just a beautiful piece of engineering,” Welzl said in the video, referring to his reaction to delivery of the vehicle.

Tesla often finds itself under a microscope as a new car maker, especially while producing all-electric vehicles intended to upend an industry deeply rooted in gasoline and diesel-powered products. Scathing reviews have been infamously produced by a few industry professionals, and the California-based automaker has addressed both their inaccuracies and their fair criticisms. Panel gaps, for instance, have now been fine tuned to be competitive with Audi, BMW, and Mercedes models, according to Tesla.

Quality is expected to continue to improve even further as Model 3 sales continue to grow and Tesla ramps up production. A recently leaked email from CEO Elon Musk suggested that the midsize sedan is being produced at a steady 900/day currently, resulting in a run rate of 6,300 vehicles per week with component production rates helping to quickly close in on 7,000 cars per week. If achieved and matched with delivery output, Tesla could beat its Q4 2018 record deliveries which amounted to over 90,000 vehicles.

Watch the full Teslafinity European Model 3 build quality review below:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd0lMgtOpGE

Accidental computer geek, fascinated by most history and the multiplanetary future on its way. Quite keen on the democratization of space. | It's pronounced day-sha, but I answer to almost any variation thereof.

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Tesla partners with Lemonade for new insurance program

Tesla recently was offered “almost free” coverage for Full Self-Driving by Lemonade’s Shai Wininger, President and Co-founder, who said it would be “happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla owners in California, Oregon, and Arizona can now use Lemonade Insurance, the firm that recently said it could cover Full Self-Driving miles for “almost free.”

Lemonade, which offered the new service through its app, has three distinct advantages, it says:

  • Direct Connection for no telematics device needed
  • Better customer service
  • Smarter pricing

The company is known for offering unique, fee-based insurance rates through AI, and instead of keeping unclaimed premiums, it offers coverage through a flat free upfront. The leftover funds are donated to charities by its policyholders.

On Thursday, it announced that cars in three states would be able to be connected directly to the car through its smartphone app, enabling easier access to insurance factors through telematics:

Tesla recently was offered “almost free” coverage for Full Self-Driving by Lemonade’s Shai Wininger, President and Co-founder, who said it would be “happy to explore insuring Tesla FSD miles for (almost) free.”

The strategy would be one of the most unique, as it would provide Tesla drivers with stable, accurate, and consistent insurance rates, while also incentivizing owners to utilize Full Self-Driving for their travel miles.

Tesla Full Self-Driving gets an offer to be insured for ‘almost free’

This would make FSD more cost-effective for owners and contribute to the company’s data collection efforts.

Data also backs Tesla Full Self-Driving’s advantages as a safety net for drivers. Recent figures indicate it was nine times less likely to be in an accident compared to the national average, registering an accident every 6.36 million miles. The NHTSA says a crash occurs approximately every 702,000 miles.

Tesla also offers its own in-house insurance program, which is currently offered in twelve states so far. The company is attempting to enter more areas of the U.S., with recent filings indicating the company wants to enter Florida and offer insurance to drivers in that state.

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Tesla Model Y gets hefty discounts and more in final sales push

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Model Y configurations are getting hefty discounts and more benefits as the company is in the phase of its final sales push for the year.

Tesla is offering up to $1,500 off new Model Y Standard trims that are available in inventory in the United States. Additionally, Tesla is giving up to $2,000 off the Premium trims of the Model Y. There is also one free upgrade included, such as a paint color or interior color, at no additional charge.

Tesla is hoping to bolster a relatively strong performance through the first three quarters of the year, with over 1.2 million cars delivered through the first three quarters.

This is about four percent under what the company reported through the same time period last year, as it was about 75,000 vehicles ahead in 2024.

However, Q3 was the company’s best quarterly performance of all time, and it surged because of the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit, which was eliminated in September. The imminent removal of the credit led to many buyers flocking to Tesla showrooms to take advantage of the discount, which led to a strong quarter for the company.

2024 was the first year in the 2020s when Tesla did not experience a year-over-year delivery growth, as it saw a 1 percent slide from 2023. The previous years saw huge growth, with the biggest coming from 2020 to 2021, when Tesla had an 87 percent delivery growth.

This year, it is expected to be a second consecutive slide, with a drop of potentially 8 percent, if it manages to deliver 1.65 million cars, which is where Grok projects the automaker to end up.

Tesla will likely return to its annual growth rate in the coming years, but the focus is becoming less about delivery figures and more about autonomy, a major contributor to the company’s valuation. As AI continues to become more refined, Tesla will apply these principles to its Full Self-Driving efforts, as well as the Optimus humanoid robot project.

Will Tesla thrive without the EV tax credit? Five reasons why they might

These discounts should help incentivize some buyers to pull the trigger on a vehicle before the year ends. It will also be interesting to see if the adjusted EV tax credit rules, which allowed deliveries to occur after the September 30 cutoff date, along with these discounts, will have a positive impact.

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Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’

“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla Full Self-Driving’s newest model is coming very soon, and from what it sounds like, it could be “the last big piece of the puzzle,” as CEO Elon Musk said in late November.

During the xAI Hackathon on Tuesday, Musk was available for a Q&A session, where he revealed some details about Robotaxi and Tesla’s plans for removing Robotaxi Safety Monitors, and some information on a future FSD model.

While he said Full Self-Driving’s unsupervised capability is “pretty much solved,” and confirmed it will remove Safety Monitors in the next three weeks, questions about the company’s ability to give this FSD version to current owners came to mind.

Musk said a new FSD model is coming in about a month or two that will be an order-of-magnitude larger and will include more reasoning and reinforcement learning.

He said:

“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026. We’re gonna add a lot of reasoning and RL (reinforcement learning). To get to serious scale, Tesla will probably need to build a giant chip fab. To have a few hundred gigawatts of AI chips per year, I don’t see that capability coming online fast enough, so we will probably have to build a fab.”

It rings back to late November when Musk said that v14.3 “is where the last big piece of the puzzle finally lands.”

With the advancements made through Full Self-Driving v14 and v14.2, there seems to be a greater confidence in solving self-driving completely. Musk has also personally said that driver monitoring has been more relaxed, and looking at your phone won’t prompt as many alerts in the latest v14.2.1.

This is another indication that Tesla is getting closer to allowing people to take their eyes off the road completely.

Along with the Robotaxi program’s success, there is evidence that Tesla could be close to solving FSD. However, it is not perfect. We’ve had our own complaints with FSD, and although we feel it is the best ADAS on the market, it is not, in its current form, able to perform everything needed on roads.

But it is close.

That’s why there is some legitimate belief that Tesla could be releasing a version capable of no supervision in the coming months.

All we can say is, we’ll see.

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