Just got home from Hawaii and, as promised, my Model S was in my driveway after Tesla had picked it up while I was away and installed the center console. Nice that they washed and vacuumed it as well!
The good: The center console appears very sturdy. It feels solid, like it's part of the car and doesn't wiggle when you try to move it. There's still a lot of storage in the forward compartment in front of the adjustable drink holder(s). I'm happy to have drink holders that aren't where my elbows are supposed to go. Remains to be seen how functional these new holders are as the drinks will sit inside of the console compartment.
The bad: The sliding doors are a bit tricky. At first I tried REALLY hard to open them and they would only open really loudly as the locking latch disengaged with a "SNAP". Then I realized that you should push down a bit on the silver grip while pushing the doors toward the front of the car. A little instruction sheet would have been nice. My wife, seeing how I forced the sliding mechanism tried to force the piano black rocker panel shut, WHILE MY PHONE WAS IN THE DOCK !*&#^#*. The lightning connector seems to be damaged now and it won't charge my phone. Guess I'll call the SC on monday and find out how easy it is to replace this module. Bit of a design flaw here as I can see others trying to do the same. One of the tracks for the sliding doors is also visible and a bit distracting.
The stitching is white on black leather. This bothers me a little as the only other place in my car that looks like black leather is the dash. The stitching on the dash is black. I'm being nit picky here as I'm overall very pleased with the looks of the unit.
The piano black rocking cover has sort of a spring loaded mechanism for opening it. Push down on it and it pops up slowly. So I don't think that I'll try to remove it if I go with trying to find a wrap or veneer for it. But it's pretty accessible so it should be easy to apply such a thing in situ.
That's it for now. Can't really think of much more to write about a console. Wish me luck on getting that lightning connector replaced.
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I created
this post with instructions and pictures for disassembling the USB/Lightning connector.
