Just the opposite here. I would scrape EVERY time coming into my driveway if I did not raise suspension or approach at a fairly radical angle.
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to those WITHOUT air suspension: do you scrape often, wish you had it?
- Thread starter gnychis
- Start date
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
I've not scraped any driveways yet, but I did scrape a speed bump once (I was going a bit too fast. I've gone over the same bump dozens of times at a slower speed and not scraped).
Without some sort of auto raise triggered by sensing approaching speed bumps and steep drive ways (or at least GPS location triggered auto raising), I think non air is preferable due to it's higher clearance.
Without some sort of auto raise triggered by sensing approaching speed bumps and steep drive ways (or at least GPS location triggered auto raising), I think non air is preferable due to it's higher clearance.
10 months, and over 17,000 miles with coil suspension. I haven't scraped yet. I am happy not to stress about expensive air suspension repairs down the line. I like to keep things simple.
Thanks for all the great info here. I think with time that we will see more and more people electing for the coil suspension. My Tesla rep said NOT to the buy the air suspension. He said many prefer the coil spring suspension for the reasons many have outlined above, and for those who still like the feel of the air suspension, the marginal difference in feel is not worth the increased complexity and risk of reliability issues in the future. EVERY air suspension designed will wear out quicker than coil. Here's his summary of coil vs. air.
1) Ride: subjective. Many prefer the coil. The number that do will increase now that Air is an option and not standard. My wife prefers the air.
2) Reliability: coil
3) Cost: coil
4) Ride height at slow speed: Coil. Ride height is higher than air when in default normal mode. The Model S does not sit very low, so few people will ever having any scraping issue (I've noticed a lot of air folks saying they are happy because they could raise the car to avoid scraping, but almost none actually know if they would have scraped if they were in a coil equipped car).
5) Tire wear: coil. Any energy savings from a lower ride height is more than offset by having to replace a set of tires more often with an air suspension.
6) Ride height at cruise: air. No denying this is a nice feature, but before the software update, the max lowering was only .79". Now that its about half of that, there's really not much difference.
7) Car leveling: air. Nice feature I think.
1) Ride: subjective. Many prefer the coil. The number that do will increase now that Air is an option and not standard. My wife prefers the air.
2) Reliability: coil
3) Cost: coil
4) Ride height at slow speed: Coil. Ride height is higher than air when in default normal mode. The Model S does not sit very low, so few people will ever having any scraping issue (I've noticed a lot of air folks saying they are happy because they could raise the car to avoid scraping, but almost none actually know if they would have scraped if they were in a coil equipped car).
5) Tire wear: coil. Any energy savings from a lower ride height is more than offset by having to replace a set of tires more often with an air suspension.
6) Ride height at cruise: air. No denying this is a nice feature, but before the software update, the max lowering was only .79". Now that its about half of that, there's really not much difference.
7) Car leveling: air. Nice feature I think.
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@#4: I have had coils since March 2013. With 25,000 miles, I have never scraped on any driveway or anything.
