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70D - great improvements in quality over my 60

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jskenney

Happy Member
Mar 22, 2013
97
49
Maryland
I picked up my White 70D today (VIN 87xxx) and traded in my S60 (VIN 33415), and there were significant refinements throughout. Things I have noticed so far:

- absolutely no motor noise, I have had this very loud motor whine with the S60 for quite some time, I heard it more when going by anything that could reflect the sound back (other vehicles, road walls, etc) and it was rather embarrassing.
- fit and finish throughout is much nicer, body panels appear closer together (no significant gaps).
- both screens look more clear.
- Only one latch on the frunk (and no crease, my S60 was delivered with a frunk crease), lots less space in the front, but I consider that crumble zone area and never use the front anyhow.
- The seats and the arm rest have alot more cushion in them, with the arm rests it is really noticeable - feels a bit odd, I am used to a rather hard surface.
- The positions of the cruse control and blink have switched, and there is this weird little button in the back.
- The paint looks perfect, no swirls, scuffs, or marks.

- That little space in the glovebox where I put the charging adapter is gone.
- The trunk without the power liftgate is surprising lightweight and easy to close, I thought that this was going to be one of the biggest things I would miss, but I am not worried anymore.

- My window apparently has no area for an ezpass... DS sighed when I asked where to put it, said to try the same spot as before, but was not hopeful, suggested getting the external one to mount behind the nose cone. I got the impression that he was either hoping, or had some knowledge, that they were going to bring back the area on the windshield for the ezpass. Checking online, I don't think it was read on the way home...

It seams clear to me that a year of small fixes is coming along well for Tesla, I'll give it a good ride tomorrow, but right now it looks and drives great. Anyone noticing similar improvements in the upgrades?
 
Congrats!

Do you notice any difference in regen and the brakes?

My comparison point was my 2012 Volt so... not much to compare :) It was more like your S60, swirl marks, dents, etc. There is one significant aspect, the inverter/motor noise on the Volt was less. It is not that the 70D is loud, it is that the front inverter/motor buzz is audible even at low power.
 
@vdiv, regen feels the same, but the brakes react quicker - not sure if this is just a new-car thing or if the brakes have been upgraded (which is why I didn't bring it up).

The noise in the 70D appears no-existent, I will go for a long drive tomorrow, but this is a great change over the 60.
 
I picked up my White 70D today (VIN 87xxx) and traded in my S60 (VIN 33415), and there were significant refinements throughout. Things I have noticed so far:

- absolutely no motor noise, I have had this very loud motor whine with the S60 for quite some time, I heard it more when going by anything that could reflect the sound back (other vehicles, road walls, etc) and it was rather embarrassing.
- fit and finish throughout is much nicer, body panels appear closer together (no significant gaps).
- both screens look more clear.
- Only one latch on the frunk (and no crease, my S60 was delivered with a frunk crease), lots less space in the front, but I consider that crumble zone area and never use the front anyhow.
- The seats and the arm rest have alot more cushion in them, with the arm rests it is really noticeable - feels a bit odd, I am used to a rather hard surface.
- The positions of the cruse control and blink have switched, and there is this weird little button in the back.
- The paint looks perfect, no swirls, scuffs, or marks.

- That little space in the glovebox where I put the charging adapter is gone.
- The trunk without the power liftgate is surprising lightweight and easy to close, I thought that this was going to be one of the biggest things I would miss, but I am not worried anymore.

- My window apparently has no area for an ezpass... DS sighed when I asked where to put it, said to try the same spot as before, but was not hopeful, suggested getting the external one to mount behind the nose cone. I got the impression that he was either hoping, or had some knowledge, that they were going to bring back the area on the windshield for the ezpass. Checking online, I don't think it was read on the way home...

It seams clear to me that a year of small fixes is coming along well for Tesla, I'll give it a good ride tomorrow, but right now it looks and drives great. Anyone noticing similar improvements in the upgrades?

My early 2013 85 had numerous little issues: bigger panel gaps, an increasing inverter whine as it aged, door and door handle problems (that were fixed after several service visits), headliners edge fraying, terrible paint condition at delivery, knocks and rattles that developed pretty quickly.

My Mar 2015 85D has better panel gaps, poor alignment of chrome in one spot, front gearbox whine (though pleasant and I kinda like it), two significant creaks/rattles from day one, same headliner fraying, much much better paint condition. No functional issues though. So a modest improvement maybe. I need to take it to service when enough things accumulate.
 
@vdiv, regen feels the same, but the brakes react quicker - not sure if this is just a new-car thing or if the brakes have been upgraded (which is why I didn't bring it up).

The noise in the 70D appears no-existent, I will go for a long drive tomorrow, but this is a great change over the 60.

The brake system is massively different - all of the Autopilot cars have the Bosch iBooster system where an electric motor directly pushes on the master cylinder piston instead of the more traditional booster systems (Tesla says it can react 3x faster than older systems and they needed that for Autopilot.)

I have no experience with either system, but your description is not unexpected.
Walter
 
@Saghost. Really, the breaks were reacting faster than I expected, but I just assumed it was the new-car-ness. Very cool. The radar cruise control is somewhat interesting as well, I gave it a short go today on the interstate, the slowing down was nice and gentle (I assume it just used regen in these places).
 
Any hint of LTE instead of 3G?

+1 to that request :) did you get LTE or 3G, also when did your car enter build, and what is the firmware you are on (.236 or .239?).
I am super excited about my very near future 70D as well. I have been observing studying lusting drooling over teslas for a while now.
Yes the build quality has improved a LOT, and even though my 70D isn't here yet, I can confirm, I noticed all those improvements you mention.

BTW, the frunk - yeah its smaller, but I'm gonna use it as a bigger glovebox, so I can use the inside glovebox for stuff I access more frequently, like coins, tissues, access cards, etc.). Also lotion - for girls I mean, as a macho guy I'd have no use for that half empty bottle, now would I?
 
@Kuttakamina, Car came with .245 firmware and I assume 3G (at least I didn't see any glaring notification of LTE) it went into production the week of 20May.

_20150606_062502.JPG
 
Near the signal strength bars on the top of the screen it will either say "3G" or "LTE".

It seems like right in that last week of May, even middle/end of last week is when we may have seen the first builds with LTE by default, and even then it may just have been enabled by mistake. Not much we can do to even be sure some after that didn't get a lot/batch of screen units with 3G but you would think that definitely everything that started June 1st forward may have LTE chips. Going to be hard to tell until we see the deliveries that come in next week and the week after - e.g. Late June deliveries like us. I'm crossing my fingers for LTE but won't count on it just yet.
 
Actually I have always found the 3G to be sufficient, I get my music via slacker and the google maps (with imagery turned on) load in about 2 second initially, and then are nice and smooth as I drive. I'd be ok if I didn't have LTE.

On a side note, I got to drive a bit today, and at high speed I could hear the motors, but it is definitively a much better sound then the loud whine of the 60. The really cushy seats and armrests are taking a while to get used to.
 
After roughly a month, I have to say I am quite happy with the 70D. Looks like my timing on the trade in was spectacular - especially after looking at the current CPO prices and with Inventory cars now online as well. I have been waiting to see the old S60 would be sold for, but it is still not for sale yet; assume that it will be up after the June rush. Curious to see if they will sell if for less than I traded it in.

I am getting used to closing the hatch manually, the power lift gate was really nice and I feel like I am shutting it to hard (slamming) each time, I never used the front, and now that it is smaller I doubt I will - I've only opened it a few times to show people, which is a bit of a waste. Fear of the crease, i guess.

On a side note the roof rack (the whispbar) is amazing, quiet without any attachments - with the bike attachment there is a bit of road noise, only fear is that it will have left scratches when I take it off in the winter (to be covered back up the following spring).

Looks like my EzPass is being detected after all using the area directly to the right of the visor.
 
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Care to disclose what they gave you for your 60? What year and how many miles? I'd love to trade my 60 for a 70D but I'm afraid I'll take a bath. I have a 2014 with 18K miles. No Supercharging and no tech package. Only options are the pano roof and upgrade paint.

How much did the upgrade cost you?