Tesla Model 3 COTY Review: Standard and Performance Models Bookend the Lineup

Since it launched, the Tesla Model 3 has been a perennial bridesmaid at our Car of the Year competitions but never the bride. This year, it hopes to break that streak with a very affordable base model and a supercar-slaying Performance model.

The Model 3 last joined the bridal party for our 2024 award judging, and we found it was leaps and bounds better than the first-generation car it replaced. Improved build quality, ride quality, and materials quality went a long way, but a lack of physical controls and half-finished software colluded to keep it off the altar.

Tesla, as we know, loves to iterate, and today’s Model 3 is materially different than the car we had three years ago. On the software front, Full-Self Driving (Supervised) has gone from “good” to “best on the market,” providing point-to-point hands-free driving with only a couple mistakes throughout the entire judging process. Where it previously struggled to park itself, it now does so with ease. Meanwhile, the Auto Shift (Beta) feature has evolved from half-baked party trick to useful feature that chooses correctly far more often than not.

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When it comes to award worthiness, though, judging FSD isn’t as straightforward. While it certainly adds a great deal of value to the car, it’s not exclusive to the Model 3, so its weighting must be accounted for. Further, at $99 per month (which works out to $1,188 per year), the value proposition wanes. Adding that on top of the monthly loan or lease payment might be worth it to a $56,630 Performance buyer, but it’s a lot harder to pencil for someone who can only afford a $38,630 base model Standard. Yes, you can start and stop the subscription as you like, but that doesn’t change the monthly payment math—especially for the buyer on a budget—just the annual tally.

Set FSD aside, though, and the Standard model is a fantastic value. There’s a long list of convenience features Tesla removed from the car to get the price down, and the only one we really missed was the cooled front seats on account of the 103-degree ambient temperature during testing. That and the physical seat controls. Moving them to the touchscreen (Standard model only) and using that or the steering wheel rollers to move the seat was a roundly hated move that can’t possibly save much money. Thankfully, the system remembers your presets, so you only must do it once.

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Losing the front motor, meanwhile, makes the car palpably lighter, and the steering returns the most feedback we’ve ever experienced in a Tesla. Still, if it’s performance you want, it’s hard to beat the Performance model. For slightly more than the average selling price of a new car, it out-accelerates supercars. The Track mode makes a meaningful difference in how the car behaves in limit handling, and the two-mode active dampers are so effective at balancing ride comfort and handling they should be offered on the mid-tier Premium model.

Look past those things, though, and it’s largely the same Model 3 as it was before. The interior is still stark, the tires are still noisy on bad pavement, and the updated user interface that lists all the apps in a screen-filling alphabetical grid of small, similar-looking icons is a regressive ergonomic move that’s now harder to use while driving. The question for us was this: Are a rounded-out model lineup and updated software enough to finally get hitched to the Model 3?

This review was conducted as part of our 2027 Car of the Year (COTY) testing, where each vehicle is evaluated on our six key criteria: efficiency, design, safety, engineering excellence, value, and performance of intended function. Eligible vehicles must be all-new or significantly revised.