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Model S reservation holders: What is your top concern?

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bonnie

I play a nice person on twitter.
Feb 6, 2011
16,429
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Columbia River Gorge
I'm seeing a lot of various concerns in different threads, mostly from people buying their first EV. So let's talk about it :). What is your top concern? I sure had some before purchasing my Roadster. I worried about where to charge, range (all a distant memory now, I've made the transition to EV owner).

Here, I'll get you started ... with the purchase of the Model S, are you most concerned about ...

  • Battery life,
  • Range,
  • Charging away from home,
  • Interior finish
  • Resale value,
  • or?


What's your #1 concern?
 
I'd still say charging away from home. It's much easier now than even a year ago so it's less of a concern to me now. The 85 kWh Model S will have even a great range than the Roadster making the trip I do most often a breeze. I and I don't think anyone else is criticizing those that have concerns about the interior or the lack of active cruise control or a heads up display. If it's a concern to you then it's real to you. If it rises to the level of you not getting the Model S or canceling your reservation you have to consider what you're going back to (an ICE). To me, after over a year of driving the cramped/can't tilt the steering wheel/can't really adjust the seat/can't see the odometer without tilting my head down/crappy Alpine stereo Roadster, I'd still take the Roadster over a more comfortable ICE at that price. It really is that fun for me. Other people buy cars soley on how many cup holders there are. Others on how nice the paint finish is....etc

This is a transition process. As much as people may want the Tesla to be perfect in every way (even Tesla says it's be the best performance sedan on the market), I'm sure you can find a sedan in the $60-100k range with a nicer interior from a company like Mercedes with over 100 years of experience. Are you making some compromise by getting a Tesla? Sure but I'd argue that most people, after owning and driving an EV, would feel like Bonnie and myself that the compromises will seem more minor as time goes on. No car can be perfect and the Model S is still a very expensive car so you need to be happy with your purchase. The people telling you that driving an EV makes it all worth it are speaking from experience though and do have a valid point. Wether or not those experiences and your own will be enough to outweigh concerns about lack of a good place to store change, sun glasses...etc are for each person to decide on their own of course.
 
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In the book "The Art of Racing in the Rain" (a must-read for just about anyone), the protagonist, a race car driver, says, "The car goes where the eyes go." That's absolutely true—about cars and about life in general (as a metaphor:)

But when the car stops, your eyes go to the interior. Day after day you're inside the car, and what you see and how you interact with the inside affects your driving experience.

My main concern is a sub-par interior. It'll be hard to forget, 'cause my eyes will go to it every day.
 
Biggest concern is that TM will rush out a product and not make it the perfect EV that it needs to be. I'm less concerned about the software and hardware, and generally more concerned about the interior quality. I wish I could be at Santana Row this weekend, but I'll wait patiently for VIN >42 to arrive at the Bellevue store.

So here's the test: I'm going to put my car guy friends in the car and they better say "This is nicer than an S-class or 7 series". That is my biggest concern. No cheap plastic anything or imperfect stitching in the leather or any hinge, light, carpet...etc that isn't functioning perfectly.

After watching the Karma owner's youtube diatribe I feel that TM will not do that to it's customers. GM called us "family" at the October event. I take that to heart and if I get let down then shame on me.

I know, without a doubt, the software will be light years better than Ford Sync and the panel will be better than an Apple Cinema Series Monitor.

And the car will drive fantastically while looking fantastic and being ridiculously quiet. Also, not concerned about the sound system.

Also, my wife loves the open space for center console :love:
 
That it just won't seem worth it as a package. I've got 3 kids, all in college, a mortgage, in an economy that's less than rock solid. It's a huge amount of money and it really needs to be damn near perfect in every aspect for me.
 
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While I want the interior to be nice and having more functional storage would be nice, the tech gadgets and EV torque will be what sell me and many others on the car. Anyone looking at the Model S is obviously considering an EV and will hold that up as a plus and need to decide if the interior is lacking enough to send them back to the gas station.
 
That is just won't seem worth it as a package. I've got 3 kids, all in college, a mortgage, in an economy that's less than rock solid. It's a huge amount of money and it really needs to be damn near perfect in every aspect for me.

It is a lot of money. No car will be perfect in every category though so you'll have to come to some decision. This is Tesla's first car and odds are there will be at least little hiccups and bumps along the way and hopefully that's all.
 
Short term, I do have concern's about the interior fit and finish and ergonomics not meeting the bar set by the German automakers whom I consider the standard bearers. Long term I have concerns about the affordability of the car in regards to the unknowns in maintaining the car such as: insurance rates (an unknown given the propensity of roadster owners to crash their cars) , battery replacement costs, electric rates (I live in CA) relative to gasoline and at $175 hourly rates, any work outside of warranty that needs to be done.

Charging is not an issue for me as I have another car I would prefer to take on long road trips.
 
For me it's charging. CHAdeMO in particular. We live in the OC with family in San Jose, road trips are often and I'm assuming it's quite common route with many others here on the board. If CHAdeMO gains ground then us Tesla owners maybe SOL or worse yet Model S 1.0 will be SOL, but Tesla will cave-in and Model S 1.5 will have CHAdeMO compatibility (maybe a port on passenger tail light), leaving us early adopters in the dust or we can "upgrade" for another $3000.

However, I'm hoping we'll have Superchargers from San Diego up to the Bay Area off the 5 and 101 possibly every 75 miles or so.

The other is 3G vs LTE. I know it's minor for some, but anything mobile internet related 3G is way too slow. I don't want my maps refreshing in 10-20 seconds, hopefully the modem is modular in the S to make it easy to upgrade to whatever is coming beyond LTE. I know the tech will have some offline, but I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly) that satellite view is probably pulling off the internet in google maps.
 
For me it's charging. CHAdeMO in particular. We live in the OC with family in San Jose, road trips are often and I'm assuming it's quite common route with many others here on the board. If CHAdeMO gains ground then us Tesla owners maybe SOL or worse yet Model S 1.0 will be SOL, but Tesla will cave-in and Model S 1.5 will have CHAdeMO compatibility (maybe a port on passenger tail light), leaving us early adopters in the dust or we can "upgrade" for another $3000.

However, I'm hoping we'll have Superchargers from San Diego up to the Bay Area off the 5 and 101 possibly every 75 miles or so.

The other is 3G vs LTE. I know it's minor for some, but anything mobile internet related 3G is way too slow. I don't want my maps refreshing in 10-20 seconds, hopefully the modem is modular in the S to make it easy to upgrade to whatever is coming beyond LTE. I know the tech will have some offline, but I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly) that satellite view is probably pulling off the internet in google maps.
Tesla has said that a CHAdeMO adapter is possible I believe but hasn't said if they'll support it. I think they'd go the adapter route than add an additional port.

The 3G vs LTE issue should be something they can easily upgrade. Some have said the Model S this summer might have LTE but we'll see.
 
My #1 concern - to put it bluntly - is whether TM knows how to make a car. When it comes to manufacturing a car - as a whole - this is a brand new venture. As an ICE owner currently, i tend to rely heavily on the reputation of the manufacturer. Telsa is in essence asking me and others to give up years of engineering expertise by companies such as Toyota and Benz just because the engine is now electric. Underneath all the hype, the reality of a new and inexperienced manufacturing process is what I fear most...
 
My #1 concern - to put it bluntly - is whether TM knows how to make a car. When it comes to manufacturing a car - as a whole - this is a brand new venture. As an ICE owner currently, i tend to rely heavily on the reputation of the manufacturer. Telsa is in essence asking me and others to give up years of engineering expertise by companies such as Toyota and Benz just because the engine is now electric. Underneath all the hype, the reality of a new and inexperienced manufacturing process is what I fear most...

That is a valid concern. Tesla does seem to have hired an executive team with traditional automative world experience though. I'd imagine almost all of their workers are former NUMMI plant workers who have years of experience building cars too. I hope they can do it.
 
I'd imagine almost all of their workers are former NUMMI plant workers who have years of experience building cars too. I hope they can do it.

During the October factory event, I walked through the metal stamping, plastics, and paint lines. Just about everyone I spoke to was a former NUMMI employee, and many had more than a decade of experience. It was a great feeling meeting the people who are actually building your car, not to mention designing and engineering it.
 
I have read so many good things about TM and their customer service from Roadster owners on this forum. That is great, but that's for about 2000 owners. Will that customer service scale to 20k car sales/year? Can they find that many more great customer advocates once that many cars hit the road and all the inevitable edge-case bugs pop up?

The car is great, I'd take one of the betas if they'd let me, interior and all. But how will it look, sound, hold up in five years of intense driving? How will the battery hold up? Only time will tell... Early adoption will come with some sacrifice, and I hope TM continues to show appreciation like they have in the past.
 
Agree with Trnsl8r on this. I'll take the car as it is today, lack of storage, relatively sub-par leather interior/seats and all, but, I hope the long-term durability of the little things in and around the car is going to be acceptable. I don't have as many concerns about the powertrain, battery and such though - Tesla has that down pat!
 
My biggest concern is my kids messing it up. Seriously.
Second on my list is the rumor that my team is moving to a new building at work and it does not have EV parking spots/chargers.
Third is that PG&E will completely suck, and I will have to get solar and many other significant upgrades to my house (or get a new house).

Lastly, I am concerned that I won't get it soon enough, and will be on this forum even more than I already am :scared:
 
My biggest concern is that I'll live to see it! I learned last night that I won't be getting it until September. That's much later than I expected when I put my money down 3 years ago. I'm disappointed that it will apparently take 3 months to get through all of the Signatures. I thought I'd probably be in the same month. I probably would have gone with the Sig at the time I put my money down if I knew it would save me 3 months. I have some other concerns based on the "batching" of cars that has been described at Santana Row. Could this delay me even longer?

Obviously I have general concern about date slippage. TM has been very careful about not committing to things, so in that sense it is good. But they have missed a couple of commitments already:

1) Delivery starting late 2011
2) Delivery starting 1Q2012

I also sense that they are about to miss the commitment on the website for one or more of the "coming this winter" promises in the design studio. They could still prove me wrong on that; they have 4 days to get all three of those working for both Signature and non-Signature. I also think they failed their commitment for 0-60 in 5.6 for $49.9k. I still have brochures that say that. It won't impact me, because I am getting 85kw (partially because I don't want to wait yet an additional 6 months to get the vehicle).
 
I am most afraid that Tesla will never become mainstream. To me they seem to not pay much attention to a lot of things that are important to customers who are used to buying luxury cars. I am afraid they will only sell to the true believers. There also has been no indication that they know how to manage expectations for large numbers of demanding buyers.