By Whether you just picked up your Tesla Model 3 or are still waiting for delivery, there are a lot of accessories to consider buying for you car. Here’s my top 5 recommendations.
Brighter LED Lights
As much as I love the Model 3, I’ve found myself disappointed by the car’s lighting, which is pretty dim. There are lights in the trunk, glove box, ambient lights in the footwells, door holders, and puddle lights on the bottoms of the doors that shine on the ground. As for brightness they’re adequate at best. I find the trunk lights particularly bad because they’re such weak lights trying to cover such a large area, but thankfully there’s a simple solution. Abstract Ocean offers replacement bulbs that are identical to the originals, but are 16x brighter.
Installing them is extremely easy. All you need is a spudger, which Abstract Ocean also sells, or a screw driver. Something to help you pry and pop the light from the socket.
The trunk has two lights located above the wheel areas. Just pop the one side of the light that has the indentation until the whole thing pops out. Disconnect the wire. And then attach the wire to the new bulb and pop back into place. There’s a small rectangular plastic frame on the other side of the trunk liner. Do your best to pull that onto the back side of the bulb, which helps to secure it into place.
Swapping out the glovebox light is just as easy. There’s a single bulb located on the top edge of the compartment. Just pry one side out and and pop the new bulb into place. Again, dramatically brighter.
The last bulbs that I switched out were the puddle lights on the bottoms of the doors. There’s one bulb located on the underside of each door.
I’m extremely happy with Abstract Ocean’s lights, which come with a 2 year warranty. It only take 5 minutes to swap them out and offers a lot more light. If you use my referral code, you can get 15% off your first order.
TuxMats
For those of us that live in northern climates, we have the joy of dealing with winter weather. Getting all weather floor mats for our cars is pretty much a must. On my previous cars I’ve been a big fan of WeatherTech all weather floor mats, but they haven’t released their own yet. However, they do manufacture Tesla’s own all weather floor mats. I’m not a big fan of how they look and they don’t offer as much coverage as I’d like.
There are some great alternatives from Evannex and MAXpider, but I landed on Tuxmat. I’ve had these since day 1 of my car and have been very happy with the quality and look. Based on the pictures, I wasn’t sure I’d like the look of them, but they look great in person. I still have to get through a winter with them, but they’ve done really well with heavy rains and keeping water contained. Wiping them down to clean them is also very easy. Excuse the dirt in the videos … I thought it might be good to see them with some dirt and wear.
Installing them is a piece of cake. They fit like a glove and include some clips that you attach to the edges and slide up under the car’s door trim. The driver’s mat also comes with a locking hook that holds the center of the mat into place against the floor, preventing it from sliding around or moving as you drive. My one complaint is that the sides that hug the center console required some Velcro stickies to keep it against the inner wall, which Tuxmat provides. However, those adhesive velcro pads don’t stick to the mat backing well and I had to superglue them into place on the mat … not the car. Not great, but my solution worked.
Tesla Model 3 Trunk Mats
Again, for those of us with rougher winters or wet climates, getting trunk mats is probably a good idea too. Unlike the floor mats, I went with Tesla’s own liners here, which are made by WeatherTech. I think they look great and provide some great coverage in the trunk. They do a good job of containing water and protecting the trunk lining. And I’m sure some of you have experienced this too, but when it’s raining and you open the trunk, the water that’s rolling down the back window has a tendency to jump the trunk lid gap and stream into the trunk. It hasn’t been a big issue, but since I have these liners it not a big deal if and when that happens.
Aluminum Pedals
I really like the look of the Performance Model 3’s red calipers and aluminum foot pedals. In fact, my previous car, a Ford Fusion Energi, had similar aluminum pedals which give the car a nice refined look. The pedal covers that come by default with non-Performance models are … very utilitarian. They get the job done, but aren’t super pretty. For less than $50 you can pick up TopFit Performance Pedal covers, which give you the same look as the Performance Model 3. They’re easy to install as you just pull off the brake’s rubber cover and slide the new one on. The accelerator pedal cover just slides right on top of the existing cover. The Daerik YouTube channel has a great installation video attached to the Amazon product page. I absolutely love the way these look in the car.
Central Console Wrap
I mentioned this in my AWD Model 3 review, which I’ll link to here and in the description. The piano black glossy surface looks great, but is not forgiving when it comes to dust and finger prints. I ended up getting a matte black vinyl wrap from Abstract Ocean, which actually blends really well with the color & texture of the vegan leather of the car. If this isn’t your taste, you can pick up anything from brushed metal to carbon fiber. Abstract Ocean has quite a few great looking options and they’re relatively easy to install. It’s a pretty forgiving material to work with and just takes a little patience. And if you screw up a piece and need a new one, Abstract Ocean will send you your first replacement piece for free. In the end, I’m very happy with how it turned out and think it looks like the car came from the factory this way.
Final Thoughts
One thing that’s surprised me about being a Tesla owner is how vibrant the Tesla community is, and how many options we have when it comes to aftermarket parts and accessories. It feels a lot like the Apple community in that way. There’s a lot more options for Teslas than other car manufactures from my experience. All of these choices makes it really easy to customize the look of your car and give it a little of your personality and style.
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