Model S standard vs. performance!

[Raven5000]

I recently got to test drive both cars side by side. I drove the standard first and was totally blown away by the power. No more driving I'll be flying! When we got back I nagged the sales guy to let me try the performance right after. I got a smaller test drive in the performance but it was enough to see the difference. It was a little nicer off the line and I definitely felt the acceleration a little bit more. The question is, was it worth the extra 10k. Honestly I don't know if it was but frankly I don't care, I'm buying a performance. Also a standard fully loaded with 21" rims is already in the 90k mark and if you have that kind of money why not spend a extra 10k. Bottom line I felt enough of a difference to justify the cost, plus I think I want those carbon grey rims with my black model s.

Down side is I have to wait a year

[goyogi]

Welcome, Raven. I'm of a similar mindset. I'm already spending quite a bit of money might as well go all in. Damn you, Tesla! Before MSP was available I was content with 0-60 in 5.6 seconds!

Funny thing is when the MSP was announced I had the plan that if it was 10k more I'd be in. 15k would be too much. Anything in between I'd have to think about. Tesla read my mind.

[contaygious]

Performance all the way! I'm glad you got to compare both. My wife and I both drove, but wanted to experience performance only. A standard Nissan has the same 0-60 as standard S and Infinitis and bmws are much faster so we had to go all out with performance. There's nothing wrong with being slower if you don't need the performance, but many cars out there are faster than a standard S. It depends what car you are coming from and if you already wanted the included options of performance like we did.

[rcc]

The thing about the standard is the instant acceleration. With an ICE you have to put the engine in the right rpm range, etc. Whereas with Model S, you hit the accelerator and it goes.

I drive a BMW 330i. The 330i has an awesome (inline 6) engine that spins up really quickly. But the standard Model S has more easily usable real-world acceleration.

[Baltimore Tesla]

I think the justification for Performance is simple. While I don't need the extra acceleration, my only hope for some resale value may be the highest performance unique vehicle.

1) We don't know if Tesla will even be in business 5 years from now. How that will affect the value of our cars cannot be determined.

2) Battery technology will be vastly improved in 5 years. Cheaper, more powerful batteries that perhaps even charge faster will replace the type of batteries we will get on these first cars.

3) Even assuming the best case, that Tesla is wildly successful over the next few years, will only mean that Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, etc. will quickly copy the technology and offer competing cars. Right now Tesla is the only game in town.

I'm hoping that in five years my Sig Performance will have some reasonable residual value because there won't be many like it, but I'm afraid the odds are not great. The chance that our cars will become "collectible" won't be know for a very long time. In the meantime, I'm going to have some fun.

[Gigemags]

Just changes my sig order to performance today just for the fun factor. Had a blast driving and checking the cars out in Dallas last weekend and it convinced me to go "all in."

[steve841]

Just changes my sig order to performance today just for the fun factor. Had a blast driving and checking the cars out in Dallas last weekend and it convinced me to go "all in."

LOL.. I finalized my upgrade to the perf model as soon as I got out of the drivers seat!

[dbullard]

If I recall right, Daimler-Benz is licensing it's EV technology from Tesla. Good for the stock (and the company) either way.

Elon's pretty smart about stuff like this - check out Stratolaunch (http://stratolaunch.com/) - it directly competes with SpaceX's ground launch activities, but it's still SpaceX's hardware. And, it's cool to boot.