Next Gen Seat Change

jmb0629 · Mar 19, 2015

Morning all

First time post. Ordered a P85 last summer and cancelled (cold feet during drive unit issues). Ready to jump back in on an 85D and just noticed a change on the next gen seats. Seats appear now to be front only, with price reduced from $3,500 to $2,500. Anyone have a sense if this is a perm change due to rear visibility or a temp issue due to availability?

Thanks. Great forum and very informative!

ecarfan · Mar 19, 2015

Could be just an easing of the supply and delivery problems Tesla was having with the Next Gen seats last year.

Or maybe the supplier dropped the price. There is no way for us to know what the reason is for the price drop. Just be glad they are now cheaper! I've sat in them and I think they are awesome.

Rockster · Mar 19, 2015

Not again! The appearance and disappearance of the rear next gen seats is becoming almost comical.

dirkhh · Mar 19, 2015

Odd. I was told last month that they had decided to have both front and rear seats as Next Gen seats again.
But yes, looking at the design center they are back to "front only" with a $750 delta between old style leather and next gen leather seats... weird.

Klaus42 · Mar 19, 2015

I'm considering changing my order to save those $750 (or $1200 as it actually is, in my country) and only get front next-gen seats. It will be many years (5+) before anybody needs to sit daily in the back seats anyway, so until then, I figure it's better to get better view through the rear-window as well as seats that can fold more (compared to next-gen) and also seats that apparently are easier to fit a child set into. I've read that next-gen rear seats are bit more tricky to find suitable child seats for, due to the side padding.

breser · Mar 19, 2015

Klaus42 said:
I'm considering changing my order to save those $750 (or $1200 as it actually is, in my country) and only get front next-gen seats. It will be many years (5+) before anybody needs to sit daily in the back seats anyway, so until then, I figure it's better to get better view through the rear-window as well as seats that can fold more (compared to next-gen) and also seats that apparently are easier to fit a child set into. I've read that next-gen rear seats are bit more tricky to find suitable child seats for, due to the side padding.

You're not getting a better view through the rear window. The increased height of the headrests applies to the older seats and the next gen seats. You're also probably not getting something that can fold flatter, responses from people with the rear seats is that they fold as flat as the old seats. You may be right about the child seat issue.

Nevek · Mar 19, 2015

I can't be sure due to the angle the pictures were taken at, but the current picture in the Design Studio (lower larger picture from 03/19/15) appears to have rear seat headrests lower than the next gen ones (upper small picture from 03/03/15) from my build confirmation.

That doesn't mean the pictures are correct.

dirkhh · Mar 19, 2015

I have the next gen seats front and back and can say that all four family members love them. I guess I'm glad that I ordered my car during the apparently not very large window where one could get next gen rear seats...

breser · Mar 19, 2015

Nevek said:
I can't be sure due to the angle the pictures were taken at, but the current picture in the Design Studio (lower larger picture from 03/19/15) appears to have rear seat headrests lower than the next gen ones (upper small picture from 03/03/15) from my build confirmation.

That doesn't mean the pictures are correct.

I can assure you that the old style backseats pictures have not been updated to match the current backseats. The middle headrest is largely unchanged but the side ones are much taller.

Nevek · Mar 19, 2015

dirkhh said:
I have the next gen seats front and back and can say that all four family members love them. I guess I'm glad that I ordered my car during the apparently not very large window where one could get next gen rear seats...

Good to hear. Is the rear center headrest the same height as the outer ones or is it lower?

dirkhh · Mar 19, 2015

Nevek said:
Good to hear. Is the rear center headrest the same height as the outer ones or is it lower?

lower, but definitely taller than with the old seats. I got to switch back and forth between loaners with old seats and my car a couple of times with all the little issues around my delivery.

Nevek · Mar 19, 2015

breser said:
I can assure you that the old style backseats pictures have not been updated to match the current backseats. The middle headrest is largely unchanged but the side ones are much taller.

Thanks. It's a good thing we have so many helpful people here, because the Tesla configs move in mysterious ways.

breser · Mar 19, 2015

This is the new "old style" rear seat headrests (some have been calling them revision 1.5)

ecarfan · Mar 19, 2015

You really need to rely on the rear view camera with those higher rear seat headrests.

It is strange that the Tesla website Model S order page definitely does not show that rear seat style when the Next Generation seats are selected. I'm still not convinced that Tesla is currently offering that rear seat style you show in your photo. They may have dropped it and that is part of the reason the Next Gen seat option cost has dropped.

Klaus42 · Mar 19, 2015

dirkhh said:
I have the next gen seats front and back and can say that all four family members love them. I guess I'm glad that I ordered my car during the apparently not very large window where one could get next gen rear seats...

Thanks for the info (and to other posters as well). I'm now leaning towards just keeping my order as it is, getting next-gen rear seats as well. Weird why they decided to stop them again though.

breser · Mar 19, 2015

ecarfan said:
You really need to rely on the rear view camera with those higher rear seat headrests.

From a photo it looks bad. In actual driving I really don't notice it much. I had the old shorter headrests on the first car. I expected it would be a problem, it just isn't. Most of the vision you lose is on the edges that would actually be blocked anyway by the edges of the rear hatch.

Before I got the car I figured I'd drive around with the seats folded down to deal with this. But I haven't once felt like doing that because it's just not as big of a difference as it might appear.

It is strange that the Tesla website Model S order page definitely does not show that rear seat style when the Next Generation seats are selected. I'm still not convinced that Tesla is currently offering that rear seat style you show in your photo. They may have dropped it and that is part of the reason the Next Gen seat option cost has dropped.

Yeah I can't comment on what Tesla is offering. My replies were mostly in trying to bring awareness to the fact that the "old seats" don't really help you with the shorter headrests.

danp · Mar 19, 2015

Hmm, I'm picking my car with the next gen front and rears seats on Sat, and didn't even think about whether our child seat + booster will fit. Anyone have any first hand experience with this?

mdevp · Mar 20, 2015

I'm surprised this is not getting more attention. So that's it? No more Next gen rear seats anymore? Most people seemed to like the next gen rear seating, I was hoping Tesla would still have them when I purchase my next Tesla. :wink:

gpetti · Mar 20, 2015

breser said:
From a photo it looks bad. In actual driving I really don't notice it much. I had the old shorter headrests on the first car. I expected it would be a problem, it just isn't. Most of the vision you lose is on the edges that would actually be blocked anyway by the edges of the rear hatch.

Before I got the car I figured I'd drive around with the seats folded down to deal with this. But I haven't once felt like doing that because it's just not as big of a difference as it might appear.

Yeah I can't comment on what Tesla is offering. My replies were mostly in trying to bring awareness to the fact that the "old seats" don't really help you with the shorter headrests.

Totally agree the rear seats visibility is a non issue. Not sure exactly why but I was thinking maybe the mirror angle reduces the issue somehow.
I think @ecarfan was suggesting that maybe tesla had switched back to seat version 1.0 but I don't think that is likely. When this happened before people still received 1.5 seats despite the picture showing 1.0 flavour.

Lloyd · Mar 20, 2015

danp said:
Hmm, I'm picking my car with the next gen front and rears seats on Sat, and didn't even think about whether our child seat + booster will fit. Anyone have any first hand experience with this?

That is a federal requirement that they have to fit. You won't have any issues.

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