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Which door style would you prefer, given what we know today

Which rear door style would you prefer, given what we know today


  • Total voters
    174
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In several threads the question about rear doors has come up (and I certainly have been vocal on this one). There are certain consequences that come with the falcon wing design. No roof rack. No option to have a solid roof / panorama roof. Possible hight issues. When I called the falcon wing doors "gimmicky" I was told that they were the best solution because sliding doors are not sexy and standard doors make it hard to get into the third row.
 
In several threads the question about rear doors has come up (and I certainly have been vocal on this one). There are certain consequences that come with the falcon wing design. No roof rack. No option to have a solid roof / panorama roof. Possible hight issues. When I called the falcon wing doors "gimmicky" I was told that they were the best solution because sliding doors are not sexy and standard doors make it hard to get into the third row.

Other. I don't hate them, but not all that gung-ho on them either.

We also don't yet have a lot of info on what we are sacrificing by having them. It could come to pass that the second row will fold even with the doors. The falcon doors seem to be a bit much for my tastes, but, having kids, I fully appreciate how they should enable far easier in/egress and, mixed with the Model X height, make it so much easier to load/unload kids into their seats.
 
\We also don't yet have a lot of info on what we are sacrificing by having them. It could come to pass that the second row will fold even with the doors.
Yeah, I intentionally didn't mention the second row question in my comment. The things that we KNOW are
a) no roof rack
b) no solid roof / panoramic opening roof
I think those aren't debated. We also know about the additional height needed to open them, but until people have cars in hand and can test / post videos we don't really know if / how much of an issue this will be.

A completely non-scientific objection that my wife has raised is "I'd be so embarrassed with these show-offy doors opening when dropping off the kids at school." - I understand the sentiment. This will turn a lot of heads and I wonder how much of that will be "in a good way".
 
I voted standard door on 2 points.

1. The speed to open and close the standard door is way faster as you can fling it open and slam it shut.

2. You also can get in to the standard door car without the standard door being open the whole, even half way. You will however need to wait for the falcon doors to open almost the whole way (over 75% imho) to get in and out of as they open from the base.

It may shock people how impractical the falcon wing doors will be when they use the for a period of time.
 
Hate to keep repeating myself, but I'm hoping they prove to be immensely utilitarian and I get to post here about how wrong I was.

One downside that is rarely mentioned is that it plays right into the "toy for the rich" argument. At least, that's a downside for me, because I hate that argument and go to great lengths to explain the practicality of my MS anytime someone insinuates it.
 
I voted standard door on 2 points.

1. The speed to open and close the standard door is way faster as you can fling it open and slam it shut.

2. You also can get in to the standard door car without the standard door being open the whole, even half way. You will however need to wait for the falcon doors to open almost the whole way (over 75% imho) to get in and out of as they open from the base.

It may shock people how impractical the falcon wing doors will be when they use the for a period of time.

There are still conventional doors up front, though.

Given both the frunk and the rear, using the second seats as extra storage will be quite rare (if you need all that much space, you're going to be spending so long loading up the Model X that the door open time will not matter).

Similarly, with so many passengers the relative time spent opening/closing the door is much less of an issue. It's not quite the same as loading two people in the back and going, if you've ever had 6-7 people (especially kids) in such a vehicle you know those extra bodies substantially add to loading time.

Plus, the doors are electrically operated (last I heard) and not hydraulically operated, stuffed with sensors for safety. I wouldn't be surprised if opening/closing time is configurable and can be sped up rather considerably, given that the wings also will move vertically before swinging outward.

They're not as fast as conventional doors, but they serve totally different purposes and situations. My old gas smart car's doors were extremely light (plastic) and opened 90 degrees and you could quite literally jump inside without any effort; my parent's Subaru CUV doors are much heavier and provide a more narrow ingress, slowing down that entry greatly by comparison. You don't see smart car doors taking over the entire auto market even though I'm very confident when I say that smart car doors are the best front doors ever created.
 
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Falcon wing doors are, for me, essential. Would cancel order if not available. Aesthetics are beautiful and believe in just about all scenarios of ingress and egress they will prove to be functionally superior. I have a tandem garage (2 deep, 1 wide) and the rear doors stick out so much that adults have to get out prior to entering garage. Falcon wings will solve this. When exiting the car after parallel parking on a busy street will be much easier. Windy scenarios should also be easier as the door should handle the wind gracefully without having to worry about the door flying open and hitting a nearby car or slamming suddenly. Same goes for when parked on a slope where the door might suddenly slam shut or you need to hold it open with your foot when the detent doesn't hold it open.

For extra storage I intend to keep the rear bike rack and wouldn't use the roof as it causes significantly more drag.
 
I voted sliding or standard, but it's a tough call.

To me the X seating wise is more MPV than SUV, but I can see there is no way Tesla could price an MPV at $100k.

So as an SUV it would be regular doors. For an MPV sliding.

One thing that really worries me is how kids will treat them, especially exiting the car. The number of times I've shouted at mine for trying to force the boot open/closed on my Model S leads me to think they will be pushing them in an attempt to get out quicker.

Kids are great at breaking things!
 
As I mentioned a few years ago, I love the falcon doors as a design experiment.
I really wonder what sort of door shenanigans it may lead them to try out on model 3
A quick Google didn't find it, but I seem to remember that Elon said at some point in the last few months that Model 3 would not include any "experiments" but instead be a straight forward design to reduce risk / cost.
 
A quick Google didn't find it, but I seem to remember that Elon said at some point in the last few months that Model 3 would not include any "experiments" but instead be a straight forward design to reduce risk / cost.
Here's the reference:
"We got quite adventurous with the [Model X]," Musk said during Tesla's recent earnings conference call. "We're not going to go super crazy with the initial version of the [Model 3]."
http://www.leftlanenews.com/elon-musk-tesla-wont-go-super-crazy-with-model-3-initial-design.html
 
So far the Falcon Door votes far outweigh everything else.

I would be happy with sliding doors. I am also worried about the flashy factor.
I love the Falcon wing doors. Perfectly fine with the "flashy" and will likely lead to talking to people about Tesla.

I know it's been said before, but if these doors are so good, why aren't they used up front also? If it's tight to get in for passengers, it'll be the same for the driver. My wife would love a sunroof. I would love my skis up top.
They allow easy access to the 3rd row and getting by the 2nd row. The argument for the front is completely illogical in comparison.
 
I know it's been said before, but if these doors are so good, why aren't they used up front also?
Very good question. Why doesn`t the whole side of the car open at the same time? Why have two conventional doors and two falcon doors if the falcon doors are so superb?
The only definitive positive thing with falcon doors over conventional doors is easy access to the 3rd row seats. A conventional door would have to be very long to cover both rows, or 2nd row would`ve had to be able to slide forward. Narrow parking is a moot point as the front doors are conventional. By making 3rd row seats standard, Tesla avoids the "why falcon doors for 3rd row access when no 3rd row seats are installed" question.

Also I hope the doors quickly and also support remote opening from the key so you can walk up to an open door and jump right in.
And possible sw deactivation of one or both doors in case of using seasucker on the roof for long items.