Two years with a Tesla Model 3 as the family car

There are plenty of first-drive reviews of the Tesla Model 3. This is not one. This is what the car has been like after two years of school runs, supermarket car parks, a fortnight in France and one memorable weekend with a wet dog in the boot.

Start with the thing it does best, because it is not the thing the internet argues about. It is a genuinely relaxing car to cover distance in. The seats suit long stints, the ride settled down considerably on the version we have compared with the first one we drove years ago, and the drivetrain has the effortlessness that makes an electric car feel like it is doing you a favour on a Friday afternoon. Four hours of motorway in this is less tiring than two hours in most of what we owned before.

The efficiency is the other quiet strength. It is one of those cars where the number on the display and the number you actually achieve are close enough that you stop checking. That matters more than headline range, because a car you can predict is a car you plan around without anxiety.

Now the things you adapt to. Almost everything lives on the screen, and everyone in this community has an opinion about that. Ours, after two years: you learn it, you stop thinking about it, and then you drive somebody else's car and reach for a stalk that is not there. Whether that is elegance or stubbornness depends entirely on the day you are having. Two years in, we have made our peace with it; we would still take one physical control for the wipers.

The boot is bigger than it looks and smaller than an estate. The frunk swallows the charging cables, which is a better use of it than anything else we have tried. Rear headroom is fine for two teenagers and tight for three adults on a long trip. The glass roof is lovely in April and requires the sunshade in July.

Charging has been the least dramatic part of ownership, mostly because the car handles the planning. Plug in at home overnight, top up on a trip when it tells you to, and the whole business fades into the background. That is the highest compliment we can pay it, and it is worth saying that owners of several other makes in this community now describe their cars the same way — the gap has narrowed a lot.

Would we buy it again? Yes, with the caveat that the choice is much harder than it was two years ago, and that is a good problem. The Model 3 is still the benchmark for how little effort an electric car can ask of you. It is no longer the only car that gets there.

This is one household's experience, not a verdict on every car built. If yours has been different, we would genuinely like to read about it — that is exactly what this community is for.