From Prius to Tesla: My 2020 Model 3 Delivery Night

Nine weeks of waiting, and it all came down to a rainy Wednesday night in December. This was my first EV delivery — a 2020 Tesla Model 3 Long Range with Full Self-Driving and 19-inch Sport tires, picked up at the Buena Park, California dealership. Here’s everything that happened, including the parts I’d do differently.

The Trade-In: Prius vs. CarMax vs. Tesla

Before heading to the dealership, I had to wipe my 2016 Toyota Prius — three and a half years and 90,000 miles of data, destinations, contacts. That car had been faithful. Deleting everything felt like a proper send-off.

On the trade-in value: a lot of people suggest getting a CarMax quote first as a benchmark. I did. Tesla came in $500 higher than CarMax for the Prius. So I stuck with Tesla’s offer. That said, checking CarMax first is still worth doing — you want a number to compare against before you walk in.

A Detour to Porto’s

Before the dealership, my wife wanted dinner. We stopped at Porto’s in West Covina — Cuban bakery, one of the newer SoCal locations, right next to the mall. Parking is usually brutal there, but being December 23rd we got lucky. I had my usual: the Medianoche sandwich with fried banana slices and a Dulce de leche coffee. When you’ve waited nine weeks, you can handle one more hour.

Arrival and the Paperwork Problem

The dealership has valet parking. I skipped it and found a spot myself. After signing in, a rep came out, verified my info, and started the paperwork. So far, standard.

Then we went outside to the delivery area — a section right outside the showroom where other owners were seeing their cars for the first time. Mine wasn’t out there yet. Every white Model 3 I spotted I’d think “that’s it” until I noticed 18-inch Aero wheels or a black interior. There are a lot of white Teslas in a Tesla lot.

They used a device to flash the headlights remotely so we could actually locate the car. There it was.

That’s where the easy part ended. The trade-in info I’d submitted beforehand was sitting in their main system but hadn’t transferred to my profile — meaning they couldn’t apply the Prius credit to my purchase automatically. They worked around it by doing everything manually: calculated on paper, written out by hand. I made sure to get copies of everything and grabbed business cards. They said they’d upload it to the system the next morning once the issue was resolved.

It was past closing time when we finished. Late night, tired staff, December 23rd — not ideal conditions for a meticulous delivery inspection.

What I Noticed That Night — and What I’d Do Differently

The ground was wet, the cars were wet, the lighting was artificial. I found a door alignment issue on the passenger side — I initially thought it was the rear door but the service center later confirmed it was the front. They took care of it, no problem. But I almost missed it entirely.

My honest advice: don’t take delivery at night if you can avoid it. And definitely not in the rain. Go during the morning on a dry day, take your time walking the exterior, and inspect panel gaps and door alignment in daylight. No car is perfect off the lot — you want to catch anything before you drive away.

That said, standing there next to the car for the first time after two months of waiting — paperwork problems and all — it was hard to care too much about anything else.

I’ve put 30,000 miles on this car since that night. The alignment got fixed, and I have no regrets about the switch from hybrid to full electric. Nine weeks was worth it.