I have just came back from my test drive of the Tesla Model S P85. There is a lot to say about this experience, but I'll condense to what I didn't expect. I'm sorry for the english error, my native language is french and I didn't bother to spell check it
I've been obsessed about Tesla and electric car since their Roadster, but I always retain myself from trying it, but I've lost the will to not do it and so I did !
To begin with, I must say that I'm a men with a height of 6'4", so a big part of my review are affected by this.
My first thing I notice (a part from it beauty), is how short the car is. I open the door and it when I notice at how small the door opening is. Getting in the car was not possible in a fluid movement.Once I was in the car, I found the seat to be ok, but my head was inside the cavity for the sunroof, a big pothole and I'll probably hit the glass, but it actually wasn't as annoying as I expected though, but not ideal. I have lot of worried about the safety of this car for me, since I'm REALLY close to the frame of the sunroof, and I don't think testing with someone tall as me was in their test parameters, so my head being less than 1 inch to the border of the system is probably dangerous.
He started to show me the touchscreen panel, in true, I saw so much of it on the web that I was only interested at how good did it look and how responsive and fluid it was, and it was much better than I expected. I worries that the actual map is not stored locally as it still show the square loading like on a desktop computer, but maybe that just slow generation of the map with traffic info in the overlay. So even the dash screen is beautiful, and really show lot of upgrade possibility in term of skin and features.
The Tesla staff FINALLY let me drive this thing First step is trying to get into the driver seat. I actually had to try 3 time and the last I force myself into. This is where my excitement bubble busted ! I was extremely disappointed that the car I wish so much to get was so hard to get into. But anyway, I adjust the mirror, started to adjust the steering wheel since I notice it is way to far to the right, but no adjust for this sadly (This probably what caused me problem to get in also). I also notice quickly that my general field of vision is very limited. Maybe it the fact the car is lower, or that the inside height was lower... What ever the reason, I was a bit worried to drive the car. Especially when it came to look to my left, all I saw was the door frame and required big movement to see if anything was there.
But hey, let try to move forward a little bit. I started slowly, and I loved the low and smooth speed control of this car without the creap mode. My automatic driving pedal control quickly make me discover regenerative breaking. I didn't like the actual driving experience with it on, but it because of my habit on how I normally drive my car, and I'm sure I would just get used to it pretty quickly.
And now I pressed the peddle to the floor, if that only for a second, I was already close to the speed limit. Instant reaction as if the car was an extension to my body. I was now hook to the Tesla lure.
During the drive, I had issues with my visibility, and even tried to move my chest forward to see pass the door frame, but the seat bealt was in lock position probably from a previous fast acceleration.
When I came back, I wanted to plug the car in, and I really felt like a little kid at that point Compared to Nissan Leaf video of the charging port location and process, the Tesla charging is really painless and fun. The lock sound is also nice and strong, I liked how it felt.
Look at the storage space and it look pretty good. The only thing that I was disappointed is that the frunk require spacial care to close so not to create bend. I wish they improved this before I buy one.
A part from the super nice 2 screen, the amazing acceleration and the fact if fully powered by water and wind (In Québec, Canada), I was mostly disappointed of the car.
The field of view is pretty horrible and unsafe based on my short experience. I stressed a lot in my drive because there were more than 1 dead spot and looking at 1 of them and switching to the other could have a car come back in the first, so I'm wasting way too much time checking dead spot than where I'm going. The problem with the seat beat that remain locked also made the problem worst as the second deadspot couldn't be check well.
Entering the car require change in how I do it. I normally put my right feet in, then slide in the seat and finish with my left leg. But I can't do it in the Tesla Model S. I think it because the steering wheel is too much to the right, and can't slide under it. With the Tesla Rep. we did play a little bit and found with a profile to work 'ok' if I sit first and turn around in the car. One feature request would be a profile with multiple seat position. For example, getting in the car, and once in, when I press the break peddle, it would switch to the driving profile. And when I park the car, switch back to the profile to get out of the car. But I still have to do lot of trial on seat position to see if I can make it workable.
The inside of the car also left to be desired even on a fully equip model. It not horrible, but nothing great from it. One thing I was really disappointed is the quality of the paint on the silver plastic in the door. It gray paint already started to fade and show the gray plastic color under it.
So I found my overall experience disappointing.
My current car is the Nissan Versa Hatchback, and when I drove back home, it was day and night compare to my previous driving experience with the Tesla. I mean by that my Nissan Versa was better! A part from the super acceleration, noise, and gas use. Getting into the car, the field of view, the interior finish for me was better on the Versa than the Tesla. It kind of sad to compare a Tesla to a Versa though, and it not was I was expecting.
I'll have to go back to give the Model S another try and take more time on the seat adjustment and try to see how much I can squeeze the seat forward and see if my field of view improved before my leg are lock. I'll also bring my winter stuff so I can see if I can drive with my normal boots one.
I've been obsessed about Tesla and electric car since their Roadster, but I always retain myself from trying it, but I've lost the will to not do it and so I did !
To begin with, I must say that I'm a men with a height of 6'4", so a big part of my review are affected by this.
My first thing I notice (a part from it beauty), is how short the car is. I open the door and it when I notice at how small the door opening is. Getting in the car was not possible in a fluid movement.Once I was in the car, I found the seat to be ok, but my head was inside the cavity for the sunroof, a big pothole and I'll probably hit the glass, but it actually wasn't as annoying as I expected though, but not ideal. I have lot of worried about the safety of this car for me, since I'm REALLY close to the frame of the sunroof, and I don't think testing with someone tall as me was in their test parameters, so my head being less than 1 inch to the border of the system is probably dangerous.
He started to show me the touchscreen panel, in true, I saw so much of it on the web that I was only interested at how good did it look and how responsive and fluid it was, and it was much better than I expected. I worries that the actual map is not stored locally as it still show the square loading like on a desktop computer, but maybe that just slow generation of the map with traffic info in the overlay. So even the dash screen is beautiful, and really show lot of upgrade possibility in term of skin and features.
The Tesla staff FINALLY let me drive this thing First step is trying to get into the driver seat. I actually had to try 3 time and the last I force myself into. This is where my excitement bubble busted ! I was extremely disappointed that the car I wish so much to get was so hard to get into. But anyway, I adjust the mirror, started to adjust the steering wheel since I notice it is way to far to the right, but no adjust for this sadly (This probably what caused me problem to get in also). I also notice quickly that my general field of vision is very limited. Maybe it the fact the car is lower, or that the inside height was lower... What ever the reason, I was a bit worried to drive the car. Especially when it came to look to my left, all I saw was the door frame and required big movement to see if anything was there.
But hey, let try to move forward a little bit. I started slowly, and I loved the low and smooth speed control of this car without the creap mode. My automatic driving pedal control quickly make me discover regenerative breaking. I didn't like the actual driving experience with it on, but it because of my habit on how I normally drive my car, and I'm sure I would just get used to it pretty quickly.
And now I pressed the peddle to the floor, if that only for a second, I was already close to the speed limit. Instant reaction as if the car was an extension to my body. I was now hook to the Tesla lure.
During the drive, I had issues with my visibility, and even tried to move my chest forward to see pass the door frame, but the seat bealt was in lock position probably from a previous fast acceleration.
When I came back, I wanted to plug the car in, and I really felt like a little kid at that point Compared to Nissan Leaf video of the charging port location and process, the Tesla charging is really painless and fun. The lock sound is also nice and strong, I liked how it felt.
Look at the storage space and it look pretty good. The only thing that I was disappointed is that the frunk require spacial care to close so not to create bend. I wish they improved this before I buy one.
A part from the super nice 2 screen, the amazing acceleration and the fact if fully powered by water and wind (In Québec, Canada), I was mostly disappointed of the car.
The field of view is pretty horrible and unsafe based on my short experience. I stressed a lot in my drive because there were more than 1 dead spot and looking at 1 of them and switching to the other could have a car come back in the first, so I'm wasting way too much time checking dead spot than where I'm going. The problem with the seat beat that remain locked also made the problem worst as the second deadspot couldn't be check well.
Entering the car require change in how I do it. I normally put my right feet in, then slide in the seat and finish with my left leg. But I can't do it in the Tesla Model S. I think it because the steering wheel is too much to the right, and can't slide under it. With the Tesla Rep. we did play a little bit and found with a profile to work 'ok' if I sit first and turn around in the car. One feature request would be a profile with multiple seat position. For example, getting in the car, and once in, when I press the break peddle, it would switch to the driving profile. And when I park the car, switch back to the profile to get out of the car. But I still have to do lot of trial on seat position to see if I can make it workable.
The inside of the car also left to be desired even on a fully equip model. It not horrible, but nothing great from it. One thing I was really disappointed is the quality of the paint on the silver plastic in the door. It gray paint already started to fade and show the gray plastic color under it.
So I found my overall experience disappointing.
My current car is the Nissan Versa Hatchback, and when I drove back home, it was day and night compare to my previous driving experience with the Tesla. I mean by that my Nissan Versa was better! A part from the super acceleration, noise, and gas use. Getting into the car, the field of view, the interior finish for me was better on the Versa than the Tesla. It kind of sad to compare a Tesla to a Versa though, and it not was I was expecting.
I'll have to go back to give the Model S another try and take more time on the seat adjustment and try to see how much I can squeeze the seat forward and see if my field of view improved before my leg are lock. I'll also bring my winter stuff so I can see if I can drive with my normal boots one.