I have mixed feelings about our X. We have a six seat 90D with most upgrades.
Things I like:
- Electric drivetrain is great. No lag at all. I used to drive manual and felt automatic drivetrains were a compromise. Not any more.
- Handling is really good for a SUV.
- The steering is very precise.
- The door are really easy to get baby in and out of the car seat. You don't have to bend at all.
- 6 seat makes it really comfortable and airy in the cabin. It's like business class vs economy.
- Really easy with old people to get in and out vs any other SUV and Sedan.
- Frunk is great to put food and avoid filling the main cabin with the aroma.
- Not needing to go to the gas stations. The car is fully charged every morning.
- Always on backup camera. Substitutes for lack of blind spot monitoring.
Issues I don't care about:
- I don't have issues with premium feel of cabin compared to my Mercedes. I think it is good enough.
- I don't mind the panel gaps.
Things which I don't like:
- Extremely noisy at highway speed. Took it to service center and they said that it is within spec. I went on a drive with a technician and she was complaining that it was due to the huge windshield and wish Tesla had gone for a normal windshield.
- Bad reliability. I have been much more luckier than others. Still the issues I have faced as follows and no other cars I have owned have had issues like these. So I wonder what issues could pop up at an inconvenient time. Issues:
- Seat belt indicator didn't work on delivery
- 12V battery died within 2 months
- One of the key fobs suddenly stopped working
- Potential issues to keep in mind if you are driving a bit away from civilization:
- Battery power of course. You need to plan a lot more with electric car.
- Tires - no spare. Most cars which don't have a spare have Run flat tires. So technically you can drive 100 miles or so to get to a place which can fix it or at least to a place with cell phone coverage. With Tesla, if you have a flat and don't have cell phone coverage you are screwed.
- Usability issues:
- I don't know who decided to make the top of dash glossy. It shines on the windshield many times of day, blinding you.
- Sunshades are useless.
- Wish they had made a seven seater where you can remove the seat to make it 6 seater. It would have been best of both the worlds. Or at least have provided a separator from trunk if you want to use it in 4 seat mode.
- Glovebox doesn't have a lip.
- Issues compared to car in similar price range:
- No blind spot monitoring. Seriously, even 10k cars have it now.
- Lack of a 360 degree camera. Makes it a pain to park and I am very finicky about being exactly centered between the lines. I know Tesla is working on it. But there is no timeline.
- Too much unwanted attention. Even in the Seattle Area, almost every time I park someone would want to come up and chat about the car. It's really crazy when you are outside the urban area. In some cases people have stopped the car in middle of the road to look at the doors when we were parked on the side of the road.
- It can be a huge pain to repair your car, in case it is in an accident.
- You need to be a lot more careful with opening falcon wheel doors when you are parked on the side of the road.
- It is expensive. Make sure you want to spend this much on a car. I can easily afford this car, but I am frugal and keep thinking whether I should have spent this much on a car.
Overall, I think this is a great urban car if you have kids. It has space, is safe, good to drive. A tad too big, but I think you can live with that.
However, for longer trips there are other cars which are lot more comfortable. The noise at highway speed really bugs me. If I am going on a route which has super chargers, I am fine. Otherwise I would avoid taking this car, because I like avoiding worst case.
If our X had the following, it would be my dream car:
- More trust in reliability.
- Less noise at highway speed.
- Run-flat tires or spare tire.
- Blind spot monitor.
- Air suspension for choosing comfort vs sportiness.
Hopefully, in 4-5 years Tesla or someone else will have a car which has all of these and that would be my next electric car.
So, weigh all the pros and cons and don't make a rushed decision. In our case, we will soon be buying one more car for our longer trips.