I just realized, I didn't say in the OP but I put down the $1000 to get in the line. Not too happy that the line isn't first come, first served because they're going to give priority to current Tesla owners (OK, I suppose) and west coast delivery first, but better to be somewhere in that line than not. The west coast thing seems too much though. They already have nationwide sales, distribution and service, so there's no technical reason why they can't do first come, first served across the country. I'm sure CA alone will soak up a big chunk of the first year's production leaving us east coasters out in the cold.
I was encouraged by how advanced the car seems to be in development. They were giving rides in fully functional dual-motor ones after the event. Maybe it was a hacked-together prototype on a cut-down S floor chassis, but it didn't seem like it. Having functional cars now makes me more confident that they'll be able to be in production by "late 2017", given that they've been terrible at hitting production deadlines up to this point (you still can't configure a model X on the website for instance).
The "look we don't need a grille" styling was a bit in-your-face for my liking, but we should start getting used to cars that don't need vents in the front I suppose. I think that slab front looks better in darker colors, so maybe the dark blue or black would look good in person.
As with current Teslas, the thing I like least seems to be their signature feature - the big touch screen. I still think it's easier and safer to have physical controls for some things, like temperature and air distribution, but Tesla obviously feels differently. In the demo drive I saw video of, the Tesla employee driver was pointing out that with the landscape 15in screen in the model 3 they can put information in the top left corner that's in the driver's peripheral vision, so it seems they're putting the speedo there and doing away with any instrument binnacle straight ahead. Maybe there will be HUD options when it launches. I think that will take some getting used to but I think it's a price I'd be willing to pay for the other aspects of the car.
I did notice that Musk said it would have Supercharger hardware built in, but did not say that it would have free access to the Supercharger network. Maybe by late 2017 none of the network will be free, or maybe the $35, 000 car will have to pay by the hour when using it. I'd be OK with that as I don't do a lot of road trips and I'd rather pay less up front and pay for charging as needed.
