Premium is defined by price, not your desired feature set.

I think most people define premium by the build quality, interior design, options etc. But if you want to only define it by price, then the model 3 is definitely not in the premium segment. It's a very cheap car... So much so that I know a few people that literally joke at a white model 3 company lease as "your consulting job must suck"

FWIW, I drove a BMW 328i for 20 years. Paid $39,000 for it. Put 230,000 miles on it. I loved that car dearly.

I replaced it with a Model 3 and put 70,000 miles on it so far. Paid $49,000 for it, which is in the mid-point of what you'd pay for a new 328i. It's even more fun to drive, with operating costs at about 1/4 the BMW.

The model 3 looks like a $25,000 car when you buy it new though, and that's my problem with it.

I agree. Among other things, it's not shaped like other cars. I found the nose off-putting when I first saw the prototypes, and I was really skeptical about the display and mounting in the center of the cabin.

In all sincerity, after reading through the comments, it seems to me that the folks making negative claims are picking specific things they don't like, or relating what they've heard about the car. I expect that if they spent a week driving it in place of their current pony, they'd change their opinion. The overall experience is better than any other car I've driven.

Also, there are for sure people who simply don't care about the driving experience itself and see cars as nothing more than transportation. For them, I also can see the a Tesla would have much less appeal.

25k cars don’t have the sound system nor performance nor screens of a 3. Let’s sit side by side with a civic and compare...

So you're defining premium cars by the things that everyone hates about those cars, other than build quality.

The German car companies will nickle and dime you to death with options, they have terrible interiors/user interfaces, etc. Granted I wish the model 3 had cooled seats but meh.

Even a model S doesn't count with that logic.

They did patent a system for heating and cooling seats[1], so I suspect that will come eventually.

[1] https://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?PageNum=0&docid=20190291613&ID...

Compared to a luxury German car I think the model 3 has far worse isolation, more plastic and vibrations, fake leather, much less seat options in terms of adjustments, often misaligned panels. All OK for the mid range car that it is, but I was responding to Tesla calling it the best selling premium car.

'More plastic and vibrations...' Please be more specific. More plastic than the BMW or Mercedes?

And what parts are vibrating? Do you mean making an audible sound? Or the car is shimmying?

The rich get after market effects.