Hello Everybody!
I absolutely love reading about the Model S and I have been quite obsessed with Tesla for a bit. I can't afford one of these bad boys now but I hope to in the next few years-- currently 24 so I hope to get one at some point soon
(hopefully a Gen III or when chargers go mainstream in residential complexes). I am an active Tesla Investor though and I hope and feel this company really makes it.
I decided to visit a Tesla store for the first time. I went to the NYC location to look at the Beta Vehicle Model S. I just had to see if it would pass my car look and feel tests in person. Currently I own a 2004 Honda S2000 and 2011 Hyundai Sonata Turbo 2.0T. Anyway onto my visit (much of which many of you will know but this is more for the noobs like myself)
The Store
Very Apple like and simple. Definitely not your conventional car dealership. No pressure from Sales people and they let me casually look and take photos of the car. I liked it very much and this really makes me think that this Mall Model will work for such a product that the common public doesn't know too much about. I think this store will have to expand at some point but who knows. I loved the color swatches and screen set up on the Wall. I notice a lot of car dealerships doing this but there is way less attention to detail in their set up and it seemed like a total after though (ie. Scion dealerships).
The Exterior
I absolutely LOVE the look of this car. It is like a Jaguar XF and a Aston Martin had a baby together. It is a large car but I think it is definitely manageable for people who live in the city. I've seen many Fisker Karma's and they are very sexy cars but I think Henrik when way too extreme on the front end. The Model S has that look that can instantly grab you and if it doesn't... it will grow on you slowly and one day you will wake up and go "wow that is a nice clean looking car." We all know this feeling I am sure.
It's all in the details... I love the concealed charging port in the taillights. I think it's a very sleek and sexy feature. Kind of like those old cars that hid the gas port behind license plates in the old days. LED's are extremely sexy and they are done right on the Tesla Model S. It doesn't look like an after thought like many other automotive companies who tried to copy Audi.
The Interior
I'm going to start this off with the interior storage space. Absolutely amazing. It would embarrass my friend's Forrester which I think is phenomenal. The "frunk" is a stroke of genius and extremely practical. This is going to appeal to a lot of people (especially those that like to park rear first into a parking spot). The rear trunk space is absolutely awesome. I used to have a 1996 Grand Marquis and this trunk space is way deeper and longer.
This is what I think was the most important part of my trip to the Tesla store. I know it was a Beta Model but I figure it would really give me a good indication of the car's quality. Panel gaps and all that stuff can be solved really easy. What I think is more difficult is the way the plastics "feel." I judge a lot of car interiors based on this. The first thing I do when I enter a new car is touch the dashboard and feel the materials of the door panels, headliner, etc. Every single plastic I analyze. I absolutely hate it when photographs make the plastics look good and then you touch it and it feels like garbage, many American cars and pre-Akio Toyoda's had this cheap feel. I know many companies make the plastics feel right at the "right places" but I inspect the whole thing.
The panel gaps weren't too bad but I'm riding under the assumption that a production model is tight and bolted down like a Germany car or a Honda. The plastics and leather felt absolutely PHENOMENAL. Even the plastics that lead to the screen in front of the wheel. The Steering wheel was thick and chunky and felt more perfect than my S2000's which I consider pretty darn good. The dash material was great and had the nice subtle leather stitching which is something I hugely appreciate in vehicles. The aluminum trim looked great and the leathers on the seats felt soft and supple and had the right amount of texture feel to them. The door panels I thought were really cool. They did not feel hard or "plasticky" and had leather in the appropriate spots. I also thought it was cool that they put a lip near the top instead of a door handle. It gives the car this clean look and feel.
The Screen... what more can be said about these things. It wasn't even running the Tegra 3 or full software but it was fast and zippy. I base my judgement on the performance of my new iPad and this thing was great. Switching the screens bottom to top had fluid animations and were snappy. The audio interface was clean and easy to use I picked it up in less than a minute (I can't imagine how great the production software is). The Maps blew me away and so did the websurfing and the digital display readout as the speedo was great. I loved that they incorporated cover art on music. I know it's something super infinitesimal but like I said it's all in the details and it gives you this luxury look and extra level of interaction. I think this was a play out of Apple's book with cover art and cover flow-- it just gives you that extra... special something. I cranked up the Sound System and though it was great and would be better in the production model with the fully programmable EQ. It was clear and distortion free. I've sat in my friend's v8 Vantage with the B&O system and other's LS460 with the Mark Levinson and this is right up there. I also loved the steering wheel controls for this. They were scroll wheels which I thought was really interesting. The whole hitting cruise control over blinker stalk. That can be over come pretty quickly... it's just force of habit.
I came away super impressed with the vehicle's interior (in case you couldn't tell).
I can't wait to test drive one of these bad boy's. I hope the Model S' handling is as awesome as my S2000's with the bank vault feel of a E class or something like that. I was looking at the structure of the car and it's suspension and am really excited to drive one. That battery pack is like a huge sway bar haha.
Anyway I was so excited I had to share this. Sorry if it's a regurgitation of things you already know
I absolutely love reading about the Model S and I have been quite obsessed with Tesla for a bit. I can't afford one of these bad boys now but I hope to in the next few years-- currently 24 so I hope to get one at some point soon
(hopefully a Gen III or when chargers go mainstream in residential complexes). I am an active Tesla Investor though and I hope and feel this company really makes it. I decided to visit a Tesla store for the first time. I went to the NYC location to look at the Beta Vehicle Model S. I just had to see if it would pass my car look and feel tests in person. Currently I own a 2004 Honda S2000 and 2011 Hyundai Sonata Turbo 2.0T. Anyway onto my visit (much of which many of you will know but this is more for the noobs like myself)
The Store
Very Apple like and simple. Definitely not your conventional car dealership. No pressure from Sales people and they let me casually look and take photos of the car. I liked it very much and this really makes me think that this Mall Model will work for such a product that the common public doesn't know too much about. I think this store will have to expand at some point but who knows. I loved the color swatches and screen set up on the Wall. I notice a lot of car dealerships doing this but there is way less attention to detail in their set up and it seemed like a total after though (ie. Scion dealerships).
The Exterior
I absolutely LOVE the look of this car. It is like a Jaguar XF and a Aston Martin had a baby together. It is a large car but I think it is definitely manageable for people who live in the city. I've seen many Fisker Karma's and they are very sexy cars but I think Henrik when way too extreme on the front end. The Model S has that look that can instantly grab you and if it doesn't... it will grow on you slowly and one day you will wake up and go "wow that is a nice clean looking car." We all know this feeling I am sure.
It's all in the details... I love the concealed charging port in the taillights. I think it's a very sleek and sexy feature. Kind of like those old cars that hid the gas port behind license plates in the old days. LED's are extremely sexy and they are done right on the Tesla Model S. It doesn't look like an after thought like many other automotive companies who tried to copy Audi.
The Interior
I'm going to start this off with the interior storage space. Absolutely amazing. It would embarrass my friend's Forrester which I think is phenomenal. The "frunk" is a stroke of genius and extremely practical. This is going to appeal to a lot of people (especially those that like to park rear first into a parking spot). The rear trunk space is absolutely awesome. I used to have a 1996 Grand Marquis and this trunk space is way deeper and longer.
This is what I think was the most important part of my trip to the Tesla store. I know it was a Beta Model but I figure it would really give me a good indication of the car's quality. Panel gaps and all that stuff can be solved really easy. What I think is more difficult is the way the plastics "feel." I judge a lot of car interiors based on this. The first thing I do when I enter a new car is touch the dashboard and feel the materials of the door panels, headliner, etc. Every single plastic I analyze. I absolutely hate it when photographs make the plastics look good and then you touch it and it feels like garbage, many American cars and pre-Akio Toyoda's had this cheap feel. I know many companies make the plastics feel right at the "right places" but I inspect the whole thing.
The panel gaps weren't too bad but I'm riding under the assumption that a production model is tight and bolted down like a Germany car or a Honda. The plastics and leather felt absolutely PHENOMENAL. Even the plastics that lead to the screen in front of the wheel. The Steering wheel was thick and chunky and felt more perfect than my S2000's which I consider pretty darn good. The dash material was great and had the nice subtle leather stitching which is something I hugely appreciate in vehicles. The aluminum trim looked great and the leathers on the seats felt soft and supple and had the right amount of texture feel to them. The door panels I thought were really cool. They did not feel hard or "plasticky" and had leather in the appropriate spots. I also thought it was cool that they put a lip near the top instead of a door handle. It gives the car this clean look and feel.
The Screen... what more can be said about these things. It wasn't even running the Tegra 3 or full software but it was fast and zippy. I base my judgement on the performance of my new iPad and this thing was great. Switching the screens bottom to top had fluid animations and were snappy. The audio interface was clean and easy to use I picked it up in less than a minute (I can't imagine how great the production software is). The Maps blew me away and so did the websurfing and the digital display readout as the speedo was great. I loved that they incorporated cover art on music. I know it's something super infinitesimal but like I said it's all in the details and it gives you this luxury look and extra level of interaction. I think this was a play out of Apple's book with cover art and cover flow-- it just gives you that extra... special something. I cranked up the Sound System and though it was great and would be better in the production model with the fully programmable EQ. It was clear and distortion free. I've sat in my friend's v8 Vantage with the B&O system and other's LS460 with the Mark Levinson and this is right up there. I also loved the steering wheel controls for this. They were scroll wheels which I thought was really interesting. The whole hitting cruise control over blinker stalk. That can be over come pretty quickly... it's just force of habit.
I came away super impressed with the vehicle's interior (in case you couldn't tell).
I can't wait to test drive one of these bad boy's. I hope the Model S' handling is as awesome as my S2000's with the bank vault feel of a E class or something like that. I was looking at the structure of the car and it's suspension and am really excited to drive one. That battery pack is like a huge sway bar haha.
Anyway I was so excited I had to share this. Sorry if it's a regurgitation of things you already know
