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Various thoughts on Model S

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[mod note: Post moved from World Map of Model S Reservation Holders

@ModelS1079: great to hear this news (and, yes, we met! Glad to see you on TMC). Watertown service center is a great location for me.

@cinergi: Delivery party!! I look forward to it.


I had an amazing day Friday (yesterday). Visited the NYC and White Plains stores, spoke with two specialists in Palo Alto/Freemont. Spoke with six specialists in all, two of whom knew less about the car than me, four who were very helpful. Couple of thoughts, which I thought might be helpful to share:

Battery degradation will add up in 3-4 years, but not severe. Spoke with a specialist in Freemont who noted his Roadster range had lessened about 20 miles over just about 4 years. Our vacation place is 115 miles; so I am going 60kWh and saving a bit for my 2017, 600mile range replacement battery - Ha! The 60kWh battery will have supercharge hardware included (that is clear) BUT it appears that Tesla is debating about whether to ENABLE the hardware (by including the necessary software) without an additional fee. Seems punitive and I noted this. It appears there will be a fee for 60kWh battery to be supercharge ENABLED. Glad the Hardware will be included though. On charging, I plan to include twin chargers and add the HPWC at home later. There are some public charging stations that are well above 40Amps and the twin charger will significantly speed up travel time when this higher amperage is available. That said, it appears it will be easy to add twin chargers later, so not critical at all.

Air suspension a must for this car, and I also don't want to wait! Speakers upgrade an excellent value and a must (Mark Knopfler never sounded so good). Tech package is annoying as much should be included (at very least the proximity key, I mean Kia and Hundai have that!), but the satellite Nav with 7 years updates and the Xenon headlamps make up most of the value there.

I no longer care about the center console. Just hit me suddenly that it will work out well, however it arrives. Neither NYC nor White Plains had anything near the final concepts being bounced around.

I was pretty thrilled to see we can modify the air suspension, brake regen, and electric assist on the rack and pinion steering, all from the touch screen. Very nice touch. The touch screen at White Plains was significantly more advanced than that at NYC/25th Street, and Jeff the White Plains manager is just awesome.

19 inch tires are the practical solution for me, in New England. Maybe I'll add 21 inch rims some day for a nice Spring drive...
The roof Pano - I think it is a great touch - I use my sunroof now every time I drive except during rain or heavy snow, and I never pull the shade over it when closed...I am told it will have a pull-shade "like the Audi" by specialists.

Some have noted the Pano roof may add head room in the rear. I have certainly noticed rear headroom tapers quickly toward the rear side and corners. No secret that Tesla is working to whittle a few extra millimeters while revamping the (cheap, easily broken) rear lighting. Of note, in both showrooms the front visors had been removed - broken lights? If the Pano roof adds headroom, it must do it by changing the overall roof construction, as the Pano roof does not reach the rear at all - it stops well before the rear headroom area.

Color: Black or Green. Back and forth. Love the green - is a chameleon as others have noted. Have seen too much Blue in Roadsters, but it is gorgeous, the Brown is unusual but original, the deeper gray looks sweet with the chrome. Never had a black car and it is an easy-out as it will look "wicked good" and, heck, Elon chose black... Just not sure. Beige leather, and either matte or gloss Obiche. Lacewood is very nice in person. Carbon fiber a bit digital/cool for me, but may fit the car best is in some ways. Like the texture of the matte Obiche, like the depth and color of the gloss Obiche in ambient daylight (brought the samples outside). Is the gloss too Buick, or will it look nicely refined? I don't really care about finger prints, but they will happen on gloss. No rear seats needed as kids are older, or getting older fast. No need for privacy cover in back as I can toss valuables in the Frunk. Thoughts? Delivery party for Boston-area enthusiasts a must option as well...!
 
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Couple of thoughts, which I thought might be helpful to share:

Your thoughts are absolutely welcome and encouraged, however not in sticky threads that aren't for general discussion, and definitely not cross posted to multiple threads. Please post to a more appropriate discussion thread (or create your own), then edit these posts down to just a link to that post.
 
On charging, I plan to include twin chargers and add the HPWC at home later. There are some public charging stations that are well above 40Amps and the twin charger will significantly speed up travel time when this higher amperage is available.

It's rare to need the HPC at home.
Where are the public chargers that output more than 40amps? I only know of some in California.

...I am told it will have a pull-shade "like the Audi" by specialists.

The new Audis I poked around in a showroom had power sunshades.
 
Color: Black or Green. Back and forth. Love the green - is a chameleon as others have noted. Have seen too much Blue in Roadsters, but it is gorgeous, the Brown is unusual but original, the deeper gray looks sweet with the chrome. Never had a black car and it is an easy-out as it will look "wicked good" and, heck, Elon chose black... Just not sure.
I finally chose green. I've owned black, and it's really hard to keep looking great. The blue is so close to black that I'm sure it will present the same cleaning challenges. Also, I'm seeing a lot of the midnight blue on the road these days. Brown got vetoed by the family reviewing pics, and my wife's BMW is very close to the dolphin gray.

Beige leather, and either matte or gloss Obiche. Lacewood is very nice in person. Carbon fiber a bit digital/cool for me, but may fit the car best is in some ways. Like the texture of the matte Obiche, like the depth and color of the gloss Obiche in ambient daylight (brought the samples outside). Is the gloss too Buick, or will it look nicely refined? I don't really care about finger prints, but they will happen on gloss. No rear seats needed as kids are older, or getting older fast. No need for privacy cover in back as I can toss valuables in the Frunk. Thoughts? Delivery party for Boston-area enthusiasts a must option as well...!
I chose the tan/beige leather as well, with lacewood. The obeche (esp gloss) looks too similar to various fake woodgrain plastics I've seen from Detroit over the years, while the lacewood is very different. I wish Tesla hadn't chosen such a dark finish on the wood, but I still find the lack of strong grain pleasing. CF wasn't an option for me, as I opted for the standard powertrain.

Delivery date in my MVPA is "November, 2012 - December, 2012", which I'm reading as "late November/early December." A delivery party could be unwise in my neighborhood (Charlestown), but perhaps somewhere else fun.
 
What do you mean by this? I bought the HPWC, but is it for looks mostly or something? Why is it "rare" to need it?
What I suspect he's suggesting is that using a 14-50 directly is a fast enough nightly charging rate to be considered acceptable for general use. Only "rare"ly will you need a faster charging rate so that you can, for example, burn through the entire battery on Saturday, sleep less than 5 hours, and immediately burn thru the entire battery again on Sunday.
 
Yes, exactly. I have a 14-50 installed in my garage & have never needed faster charging. Only once it wasn't fully recharged when I got up in the morning - and I didn't need a full battery that day, anyway.

But I have donated towards the purchase of two HPCs, so that they could be installed in places out in the wild that might be where I'd want a faster charge.
 
What I suspect he's suggesting is that using a 14-50 directly is a fast enough nightly charging rate to be considered acceptable for general use. Only "rare"ly will you need a faster charging rate so that you can, for example, burn through the entire battery on Saturday, sleep less than 5 hours, and immediately burn thru the entire battery again on Sunday.

Oh I see....well darn it maybe I should not have bought the HPWC - although it does look pretty cool. Then I could then keep the mobile charger it comes with in the car - if it doesn't melt in the Texas heat. But I'll never have to charge it out in the wild b/c of it's long range. That would only be if I take a road trip. And if I didn't have the HPWC, I could then just bring the charger with me after making sure it had 9:26min of charging time. ...and then I couldve bought the little backward facing car seat for about the same price as the jump seats if I remember correctly.

Well whatever. I know I dislike having my iPad 3 take forever to fully charge, so Id probably feel worse b/c this is a car that needs to get me places. What if I come home late, need to leave early, and then drive far? (Admittedly, this would be such a super duper rare occasion. I've done this maybe three times in my life).

Anyway actually I'd prefer to have the HPWC just for it's looks and was thinking about adding the jump seat anyway just today. I wonder if it's too late to add that to my order once I've locked in?
 
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Yes, exactly. I have a 14-50 installed in my garage & have never needed faster charging. Only once it wasn't fully recharged when I got up in the morning - and I didn't need a full battery that day, anyway.

But I have donated towards the purchase of two HPCs, so that they could be installed in places out in the wild that might be where I'd want a faster charge.

More answers bring in more questions! What do you mean here? Does this mean that I could say, buy an extra HPWC and install in at some place with owner permission b/t Dallas and Houston? Forgive my naivety but I'm new at all this EV stuff.
 
Oh I see....well darn it maybe I should not have bought the HPWC - although it does look pretty cool. Then I could then keep the mobile charger it comes with in the car - if it doesn't melt in the Texas heat. But I'll never have to charge it out in the wild b/c of it's long range. That would only be if I take a road trip. And if I didn't have the HPWC, I could then just bring the charger with me after making sure it had 9:26min of charging time. ...and then I couldve bought the little backward facing car seat for about the same price as the jump seats if I remember correctly.

Well whatever. I know I dislike having my iPad 3 take forever to fully charge, so Id probably feel worse b/c this is a car that needs to get me places. What if I come home late, need to leave early, and then drive far? (Admittedly, this would be such a super duper rare occasion. I've done this maybe three times in my life).

Anyway actually I'd prefer to have the HPWC just for it's looks and was thinking about adding the jump seat anyway just today. I wonder if it's too late to add that to my order once I've locked in?

It might not be too late even if you've locked your order in for something like the seats or changing your mind on the HPWC. It sounds like you don't need the HPWC but it does look nicer and gives you the freedom to charge faster if you need it. It's also nice if you have other Model S friends visiting from out of town and want to get them charged up and on their way too. As Bonnie said, you can also install a HPWC in the wild with permission of the owner but you can't control who really uses it other than physical control of the land it's on.
 
What I suspect he's suggesting is that using a 14-50 directly is a fast enough nightly charging rate to be considered acceptable for general use. Only "rare"ly will you need a faster charging rate so that you can, for example, burn through the entire battery on Saturday, sleep less than 5 hours, and immediately burn thru the entire battery again on Sunday.

So let's make it simple: if all you're doing is overnight charging, that's right.

I do have a real use case for it though: frequently I'm out on business trips, and the St. Louis airport is ~65 miles from me (with no charging stations in the lot I park in). There are many trips -- a monthly basis or so -- where I come home on a Friday morning, the family packs, and then we head out for a run to my in-laws' roughly 150 mi away. I'll be looking for new parking lot candidates - ones that might offer a charging station - over the next year or so, but I'm not aware of any.

Take away the high-speed charging need then consider the convenience. Will you need to carry your UMC with you to charge elsewhere? Frequently? Will you mind unplugging the 14-50 and coiling the cord neatly in the trunk/frunk on a daily basis (I have a 14-50 welder that's a BEAR to unplug), or would you keep the first UMC in the car and buy another UMC (rumored $500) to coil up and hang in the garage? In the end the price differential for another UMC vs. the HPWC is on the order of $700 - would you pay for double-speed charging for that $$?
 


Some have noted the Pano roof may add head room in the rear. I have certainly noticed rear headroom tapers quickly toward the rear side and corners. No secret that Tesla is working to whittle a few extra millimeters while revamping the (cheap, easily broken) rear lighting.

What I wonder is if they need a little bit more headroom why not shave some foam off the seat cushion which lowers the seat height? I'd bet they could get a good half inch or more and not compromise comfort, especially with a good suspension. Or make a removable pad for taller people who need the headroom.
 
The 60kWh battery will have supercharge hardware included (that is clear) BUT it appears that Tesla is debating about whether to ENABLE the hardware (by including the necessary software) without an additional fee. Seems punitive and I noted this. It appears there will be a fee for 60kWh battery to be supercharge ENABLED. Glad the Hardware will be included though.

Perhaps I missed this, but I couldn't find any official Tesla statement that supports the highlighted statement. Can you please state the source for this remark?

Thanks.

Larry
 
ModelSxxxx,

You stated "Air suspension a must for this car..." - is this because of the weight of the battery?
Did you take a test drive?

/Ed

I took a test drive so I'll answer: it's a must-have because the handling is awesome and the ride is very smooth. Like combining the best of a sports car and a luxury car suspension. I think the Tesla rep told me that the car was originally designed for the air suspension and they added the standard suspension in after but don't know if that's really true. The rep considered the air suspension and the premium sound the two best "bang for the buck" upgrades.
 
What I wonder is if they need a little bit more headroom why not shave some foam off the seat cushion which lowers the seat height? I'd bet they could get a good half inch or more and not compromise comfort, especially with a good suspension. Or make a removable pad for taller people who need the headroom.

Ahhh but you are assuming that they have not already done that. :)
 
I took a test drive so I'll answer: it's a must-have because the handling is awesome and the ride is very smooth. Like combining the best of a sports car and a luxury car suspension. I think the Tesla rep told me that the car was originally designed for the air suspension and they added the standard suspension in after but don't know if that's really true. The rep considered the air suspension and the premium sound the two best "bang for the buck" upgrades.

I took a test drive too (video posted by Cinergi) but if you d0n't drive one without the air suspension how can you compare?
Presumably they all have it at this point?
 
Maybe I'm drinking the kool-aid but I don't see how you get that combination of very smooth ride and tight handling with a standard suspension.

I drive a BMW 330i with the sports suspension and I drove the test course with my BMW after I left the event. The Model S cornered flatter in the turns than my 330i, out-accelerated it up the hills and the ride was far far smoother on the rough roads. The 330i might out-do the Model S in a slalom given how heavy it is but I wouldn't bet on it.

I'm sure the standard suspension will be nice but I'm going to get the air suspension.

Edit: This was a non-perf Model S.
 
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I did the same on the Chicago course, driving it with my 328xi (non-sport) several times before and after the event. The non-Perf outperformed the BMW in all aspects of the course, and that was a vehicle I was completely unfamiliar with. I cannot wait to get a more substantial test drive, not to mention to truly take it through the paces as an owner.