70D or 85D, rear vs 4 wheel drive: owner experiences?

[e-FTW]

In the end, try them for yourself extensively. We may be partly justifying our own choices here. I am an AWD, winter-enjoying, winter-tire advocate fanboy, but am driving a RWD S70 in California. Take our opinions with a grain of salt!
On speed: the s70 feels plenty fast to me, especially below highway speeds. Depends where you are coming from: my WRXs would not allow me to get below 6 seconds on the 0-60 (measured with an Accessport) simply because I did not want to abuse the clutch and transmission with extra-hard launches.
So to me, this "slow" Model S I have is fast. Fast enough that I can scare myself into a mad grin on switchbacks. Fast enough to hit triple-digits if not being careful on the 280.
YMMV!

 

[ForeverFree]

Similar experience to others:

85D has been rock solid, even in wet or snow.

P85+ loaner felt uncomfortably squirrelly under heavy (on-ramp) acceleration.

P85D loaner had no squirrelliness ... merely over-the-top, pass-out-from-the-Gs acceleration.

85D has been a perfect mix of stability, acceleration, and range.

 

[Model S M.D.]

I had both a 70D and a 90D as 24 hour loaners, FWIW. The 90D definitely "felt" much faster. In the 70D, when I accelerated, I didn't feel that G-force pull on my head as much, if that matters to you. I would have been happier with either--I mainly got the 85D for the extra range and bigger battery pack to help future proof the battery degradation. The faster acceleration is a bonus