While my Model S was in the auto body shop, I had a series of rentals. The first was a Camaro, which made all sorts of cool noises if you are into that but was all bark and no bite (base V6). Visibility was very poor and since we often needed to transport 3-4, it was cumbersome and we switched it after just 3 days. I can see why teenagers have are such accident prone in this vehicle, as the outward visibility is so bad it's almost baiting an accident to happen plus normal teenage hormones driving what-is-in-their-minds a sports car. Switched for a 2015 Cadillac ATS which has a nice turbo 4, but a terrible transmission. Even with 8 gears, or maybe because of 8 gears combined with an algorithm that switched to the 8th gear as soon as possible, it was always having a problem with gear selection. Plus, the Cadillac Cue system seems to be designed by Microsoft rejects. Switched after 2 weeks to a 2016 BMW 328i. Again, a nice turbo 4, a better transmission than the Cadillac, but the iDrive system is a far cry from Tesla's touchscreen + Mercedes switchgear. The 328i also has start stop which was novel and the engine sounds were pretty nifty, again if you are into that kind of thing. It sounded so good actually for a turbo 4, that I wonder if it was synthetic.
After all of that, it is clear that the combination of turbo charged systems with 8+ gear automanual transmissions just won't deliver the kind of experience that a BEV can offer. Essentially in a 8 gear transmission, the top 3-4 gears are overdrive gears. And so if I'm doing 40 mph at a steady pace, the transmission is in 8th gear which means the engine is spinning at 1300-1400 rpm. Say I want to then do 50-60mph. Press the gas pedal down and it resists downshifting for a bit, causing hesitation. Since the engine is a turbo 4 and it's spinning at under 1,500, there is no power at all. Nothing happens. Then it realizes that I really do want to go, then it starts to downshift. But if I was impatient with the negotiation and press the gas pedal further down, it then hesitates more as it downshifts again. Then it finally hits the right gear and then 250 or 300+ hp come to bear all of a sudden. Boom, 55 mph, so I back off. But the transmission thinks that maybe I want to go again and instead of shifting to an overdrive gear, it then holds something like 4 gear and so its loud and vibrating at 4,000 rpm until it finally realizes that all I wanted is 55 mph, so then it shifts to 8th again. Argh. Not a good experience. Now, if I used the paddle shifters, remember I'm in 8th... it's 4 downshifts to hit 3rd gear to get a good passing gear. In a Tesla, any Tesla, it's just a simple press of the accelerator and you're hooked up. Doesn't matter what speed or what the car was doing just before. No hesitation and I can easily choose a little or a lot of acceleration or anything in between. It would be interesting to see if the torque fill of PHEVs helps that situation a lot. Otherwise, these vehicles will need to tap into their autopilot systems to know the speed limit, what I'm likely to want to travel relative to the speed limit and the traffic around me in order for the transmission to have a better clue as to what I want to do.
Further, the user interfaces are quite lacking in both the Cadillac and the BMW. The Cadillac had a touchscreen and touch console controls that were terrible. The iDrive was actually better, but still terrible as I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled. It also never guessed properly, I'm always presented with overview menus and stuff tucked between this menu or that menu where the menus seem to be really close in functionality. It's not that menus themselves are bad, it's having too many that are too similar. I have older Infiniti and Mercedes systems, so I can't pass judgement on them in a 2015/2016 context, although I prefer the analog instrument cluster in the Mercedes over the Audi's and BMW's I've driven. Even with the Model S 7.0 issues, it's a far better interface and far less distracting to use.
Start stop in the BMW was interesting. It reinforces how awful it is to have the engine running. It is also disconcerting at times when it isn't available so it doesn't turn off. Other times, it turns off so aggressively that it's a pain... for example, pulling up to a light where people are slowly compressing in... so it's stop, engine off. Release the brake, stutter while the engine starts, move 10 feet, engine off. Release the brake, stutter while the engine starts, move 5 ft, engine off. Then, if the climate system is running for a while and the light takes a bit, it turns the engine back on since the battery is small. So it's a bit disconcerting. There isn't enough juice to start the engine and keep the windshield wipers running.
