Verdict While it still carries its share of small frustrations and flaws, the Model 3 Rear Wheel Drive is simply the best value EV on the market right now considering its range and features for the price, and deserves its place at the top of the electrified sales charts. It’s fast, fun, futuristic, and efficient, and while the ride is unnecessarily hard and the tech goes a bit too far in some places, it’s clear that its competitors are still playing catch-up. Verdict It is fun. It is fast (actually, it's incredibly quick). It is functional. But it's also flawed. The interior ergonomic quirks may be something you get used to, or you might actually appreciate. But the quality of workmanship - or lack thereof - is something that is harder to overlook, especially for a car at this price point. Design The Model 3 is slick, modern, inoffensive, but perhaps a bit featureless? To me it looks a little bit like a wireless mouse, but it speaks volumes that despite being a sedan, the Model 3’s curvy, garnish-free design is seemingly universally appealing across many markets. There’s certainly something slick about its nose which dips inward as though taking influence from Porsche. It comes as no surprise this design has an extremely low drag coefficient of just 0.23cd. Character is added back through the distinctive light profile, both front and rear, and the base 19-inch wheels on our car, which I know from various social media pages are seen as so stupendously cool that people buy them, or even steal them to put on other makes and models. It’s wild the cool bit is just a plastic aerodynamic cover for the alloy wheel beneath. The cabin takes minimalism to the extreme, with just the single massive centre tablet interrupting the clean lines of the dash. The dash itself is low and finished with an appealingly simple woodgrain panel, and the directional air-vents are hidden away and controlled digitally rather than on full display. This pairs with the abundance of glass to make for a space which is very… Apple Store. It’s spacious and pleasingly minimalist, but cars need to display information and have controls… more on this in the practicality section. The mix of textures and materials is also pleasing, with soft surfaces where there needs to be soft surfaces, a neutral colour palette of blacks, greys, and silvers interrupted only by the woodgrain piece. Again, I can see why this design is seemingly universally appealing. It’s simple, well executed, and feels modern. Design It might seem harsh for the design score to be so low, but this is more about quality and physical fit and finish than the aesthetic of the car. I actually like the look of the Performance model, even if it is a bit amorphous at the front. But it was the panel gaps and joins that were of most concern to me. If this particular model had come down the production line of one of the German brands, it would have been sent to the recycling centre. The workmanship for a car of this price is appalling. One shouldn't be able to fit the tip of their finger in the gap between the front and rear doors. Nor should one be able to see a shadow on the rear door based on poor fitment of the front door. It was so poor on our test car, it made me think of a vehicle that had been crashed and put back together... and not very well. This type of shoddy workmanship makes you wonder what other corners may have been cut. It has been widely reported that Model 3s were being assembled in a makeshift marquee-style tent in order for the company to hit its ambitious build targets. The interior isn't without its fit and finish issues, either. Our car had a squeaky centre console (even though it had less than 700km on the odometer), and some of the plastics inside weren't fitted as well as they should have been. See the interior images below for a closer look. Practicality As modern as the interior feels though, it comes with a few drawbacks. Primarily, the fact that about 90 per cent of this car’s core functions are controlled solely through the multimedia screen. It’s a huge tablet with very impressive software that runs lightning fast, but its crisp resolution means the touch areas for some core features are a little too small to be comfortable to use while you’re on the move. Unlike other cars where even a small button can at least be sought out by feel and provides tactile feedback once it’s been pressed, in the Tesla you are forced to take your eyes from the road at times to make sure you’re doing exactly what you want when you adjust things like the climate controls, steering tune, and radio. The same can be said for the centrally located speedometer and power/regen indicator. With no dash or even a holographic display, these two key items have moved to the edge of the centre display. It’s not like this hasn’t been done before. Old versions of the Toyota Yaris, Nissan X-Trail, and Mini Cooper spring to mind, but it is annoying to have to constantly look to the centre of the car to reference something as important as your speed. I’m seemingly fighting a losing battle on this one, with Tesla acolytes in the comment section roasting me every time I mention it, but for some buyers coming out of a car with a more traditional layout, it’s worth mentioning. The same can be said for the touch panel, and to be fair here, Tesla is a trend-setter with brands like Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Polestar, and others moving to similar fully touch interfaces. For the record, I don’t like them in those cars either, but at least the Polestar had the good sense to maintain an actual instrument cluster and make the key functions have enormous touch regions in its menus. Moving on, the Model 3’s interior is spacious for front passengers with some clever storage options. There’s a bottle holder in the door, two more in the centre console (although without adjustable ridges to hold smaller bottles in), dual wireless charging pads which help you have a cable-free interior, and two huge storage areas, one under the wireless chargers with a retracting lid, and another under the armrest console box. The back seat is a less impressive story, with a more confined space courtesy of a descending roofline and seats which have bases much taller than in the front. I fit okay at 182cm tall, but if you’re any taller than me there’s a good chance your head will be touching the glass ceiling. The seat trim is comfortable though, and it's a neat touch to have every position, even the centre position, heated. The flat floor gives you plenty of space for your feet, and amenity-wise there is a small bottle holder in the door, two more in the drop-down armrest, small pockets on the backs of the front seats, dual adjustable air vents, and dual USB-C power outlets. The boot measures 561-litres (VDA) but this includes the large compartment under the boot floor which may not fit more unwieldy objects. We needed to use it to house the smallest (36L) CarsGuide luggage case to fit the whole set, but there was a little extra space to spare on either side once the larger two were loaded. The frunk is 88-litres and was also able to fit the smallest luggage case, although this space is probably best saved for charging equipment. Practicality