Purchased Model S 60 (RWD) in December 2016 (ordered in October and waited anxiously for 3 months!).
Now has 95K miles. Has lifetime supercharging and connectivity. Recently upgraded to a 75. While it was a 60, battery degradation on 90% charge went from 188 miles to maybe 178. Now as a 75, full charge is 227, and 80% (my normal charge limit) is 182. I’ve done quite a few supercharging sessions, but normal charging is at work and some at home.
Overall, it’s been a fun car. Several road trips from DFW Texas, including Florida, Missouri, west Texas, and many weekend trips to Houston, San Antonio, and OKC. Of my regrets, I truly wish the car were quieter. Wind and Tire noise are far too much, especially on concrete roads at highway speed. I’d also like a smoother ride (I have coil springs). I’m not into “road feel” or sporty handling. I originally had enhanced autopilot, and that was sufficient. So far FSD hasn’t been worth it (even at the fire sale 2K upgrade price). I do like lane keeping and traffic-aware cruise on road trips. Overall I preferred the original split-screen UI that gave me the ability to customize to my liking, but the newer traffic visualizations (including traffic lights) are amazing to watch.
I’ve experienced most of the expected failures for a car of this vintage, specifically eyebrow light failure and yellow border on touchscreen. Haven’t experienced issues from earlier days such as door handles and 12v battery failure.
I’ve seen value over the years from this forum, so as “payback”, a diary of my experiences follows. Given that the cars nowadays are vastly different, as the stock brokers say, prior experiences are not indicative of future results.
12/16
7/17
8/17
12/17
4/18
5/18
10/18
3/19
x/19
6/19
9/19
2/20
9/20
9/20
12/20
1/21
Using the chat feature within the app is satisfactory for simple things like this, but irritating as all get out for complex questions where verbal synchronous dialog is immensely faster. Did take me a while to figure out that I had to make the keyboard “floating” in order to expose the text input area in the app chat. That’s a UI mistake in my opinion.
So there you have it. 4 years with my Model S. Too cold and rainy and virusey to go outside today, so thought I’d write an essay! Maybe TMC connect will return someday so I can go?
Now has 95K miles. Has lifetime supercharging and connectivity. Recently upgraded to a 75. While it was a 60, battery degradation on 90% charge went from 188 miles to maybe 178. Now as a 75, full charge is 227, and 80% (my normal charge limit) is 182. I’ve done quite a few supercharging sessions, but normal charging is at work and some at home.
Overall, it’s been a fun car. Several road trips from DFW Texas, including Florida, Missouri, west Texas, and many weekend trips to Houston, San Antonio, and OKC. Of my regrets, I truly wish the car were quieter. Wind and Tire noise are far too much, especially on concrete roads at highway speed. I’d also like a smoother ride (I have coil springs). I’m not into “road feel” or sporty handling. I originally had enhanced autopilot, and that was sufficient. So far FSD hasn’t been worth it (even at the fire sale 2K upgrade price). I do like lane keeping and traffic-aware cruise on road trips. Overall I preferred the original split-screen UI that gave me the ability to customize to my liking, but the newer traffic visualizations (including traffic lights) are amazing to watch.
I’ve experienced most of the expected failures for a car of this vintage, specifically eyebrow light failure and yellow border on touchscreen. Haven’t experienced issues from earlier days such as door handles and 12v battery failure.
I’ve seen value over the years from this forum, so as “payback”, a diary of my experiences follows. Given that the cars nowadays are vastly different, as the stock brokers say, prior experiences are not indicative of future results.
12/16
- Delivery was smooth, near the end of the "swag era". I think I scored an umbrella, glass water bottles, and maybe a few other things (ballcaps?).
- Delivery was inside the building in the special presentation area.
- On the way home, got some error message about needing service, so brought back. Service replaced some electronic component due to infant mortality. No problems with that since.
7/17
- First scheduled service. In the olden days, they recommended scheduled service, and offered a pre-paid plan which I had purchased.
- Besides the planned service, I had some niggles from delivery fixed: USB port not working, misaligned headlights, liftgate trim rattle, floormats without Velcro.
8/17
- Chargeport didn’t want to unlatch. This happened on a roadtrip to Missouri. Was resolved with mobile service.
12/17
- 2nd scheduled service
4/18
- 3rd scheduled service
5/18
- New tires at NTB at 40K miles (waited too long!). Sumitomo Tour Plus – not the greatest tire, wish for more quiet operation.
- Alignment.
10/18
- 4th scheduled service
- Replaced both headlight assemblies due to parking light (eyebrow light) fade. So far hasn’t recurred.
- Replaced touchscreen due to yellow border. Issue recurred later.
3/19
- Purchased FSD during the $2000 fire sale.
x/19
- Somewhere around this time would have been the 5th scheduled service, but it was no longer recommended, so my appointment was unilaterally cancelled. However, no mention was made of a way to refund my remaining 4 services. Very difficult to discuss with anyone. Finally found the form to request the refund. This was even worse for my wife. For her X we bought both the service package and the extended warrantee. They ignored my service refund request emails (perhaps got confused with my car), and finally refunded the extended warrantee instead of the service package. Took several months to resolve. Good grief.
6/19
- Airbag recall
9/19
- Failed software update. $97 (perhaps first sign of eMMC failure that Tesla has yet to acknowledge on my car)
2/20
- Yellow border on touchscreen again. UV treatment seems to have worked, although there was and still is a tiny bit remaining. I wish it had baked longer, but it’s small enough not to fuss about.
9/20
- Touchscreen occasionally reboots. They did some kind of memory refresh or maybe reflash $99. I don’t think this is the permanent resolution. I can recreate the issue if I’m in and out of the car for maybe 10 times with really short drives between.
- Received FSD computer
- Paid the $2K to upgrade from 60 to 75
- Experienced FIA (forum-induced anxiety) and had them check the original 12v battery. They say still fine, and it has been.
9/20
- New Tires again at 90K. This time Discount Tire Pirelli Cinturato Strada Sport. Seem quieter.
12/20
- Bought the touchup paint kit from Tesla. I do wish I’d purchased PPF on at least the hood. Probably have 10 tiny chips. The paint fixes seeing the visible white from the primer, but doesn’t completely fix the divots without me spending way more time. Not worth the time to me.
1/21
- Scheduled appointment for the 4 year maintenance, including brake fluid check, cabin air filter, and AC desiccant. Also will have an alignment. Also reported “blank screen” issue, where I get into the car and the touchscreen stays blank (no auto reboot, but manual reboot after 10 minutes resolved it). I was expecting that I’d get diagnosed for the eMMC replacement warrantee extension program, but free (goodwill) remote diagnosis says 2 things at $9.75 each:
Correction: Repair Plan Confirmation
Correction: Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) - Media Control Unit (Reflash)
Correction: Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) - Media Control Unit (Reflash)
Using the chat feature within the app is satisfactory for simple things like this, but irritating as all get out for complex questions where verbal synchronous dialog is immensely faster. Did take me a while to figure out that I had to make the keyboard “floating” in order to expose the text input area in the app chat. That’s a UI mistake in my opinion.
So there you have it. 4 years with my Model S. Too cold and rainy and virusey to go outside today, so thought I’d write an essay! Maybe TMC connect will return someday so I can go?