Okay, since no one else posted their photos yet, here are a few of mine, sorry for the poor quality:
2012-08-11 Tesla Test Drive Event Houston - Photos
Random Stuff:
1) I mainly focused on the blue since I hadn't seen it in person myself yet plus a few people had asked about it. It looked great!
2) Space City Con was going on at the same time at the same hotel. Nichelle Nichols was there--who knows, she may have seen the Teslas. It would have been great to get a photo of Nichelle in the car. As it was, a LOT of people were walking over looking at the cars and asking if they could drive them. The future is now!
3) They parked the Brown Performance one behind the launch tent, and while I tried not to monopolize it, there was a lot of time when no one was waiting that afforded me time to pair my phone and play with the stereo with some test music. I'll post some reactions in the stereo thread, but let's just keep it to 'wow' here.
4) Lots of people migrated from the event to the store in the mall (just a few steps away). It was quite busy, although something was wrong with the air conditioning in that part of the Galleria (it was 100F outside, so it just might not have been able to keep up). That may have shortened the time people spent asking questions. However, as others have mentioned, Tesla really needs to hurry and replace the ragged out Betas with cars the quality of these test drive cars. I know having a lower quality Beta is probably better than nothing as a store attractor, but there is just no comparison between the 'real' cars and what is in the store. I know, I know--Tesla doesn't have a demand problem, but the guy who gave me a ride today only booked a month ago. People are reading the reviews and want to know more. There is a risk the current Betas will turn some people off.
5) I could tell the non-Texas staff struggled a bit with the legal restraint of not being able to mention any pricing compared with the Texas staff who get the question 1000x a day and are prepared for all of the approaches (even when people know not to ask, they forget). The big ask is easy to fend off ("How much is the car?") but the subtle ones aren't ("The tech package is $3750, right?").
Interesting that the event as at the Westin--just seconds away from the Tesla Store (and perhaps importantly, the chargers in the Green garage), but the Galleria can have traffic congestion on the weekends, so I'm looking forward to see what route they'll pick.
