Have you reserved your Model S or do you plan on it?

[Model S_HKG]

Finally I got EMSD to get involved in my case. Apparently there are many cases in Hong Kong applying for installation of a EV charging unit in apartment private car park spaces. EMSD will visit my apartment today and hopefully there is good news.

How are yours going? Did you have any success?

 

[ckessel]

For anyone that's reserved a Sig, I'm curious if you have any concerns about initial bugs? Tesla consistently mentions they're run more like a high tech company than an auto company and it's pretty common to avoid buying 1.0 of any software package (being a software programmer, I can't help but acknowledge the truth in that). Part of me wants very much to put the money down on a Sig. The other part of me wonders if the first 6 months of early Sigs on the road are going to reveal something that really makes me wish I'd waited.

What sorts of problems did the first few hundred Roadsters have than got fixed in later iterations?

 

[Doug_G]

For anyone that's reserved a Sig, I'm curious if you have any concerns about initial bugs? Tesla consistently mentions they're run more like a high tech company than an auto company and it's pretty common to avoid buying 1.0 of any software package (being a software programmer, I can't help but acknowledge the truth in that). Part of me wants very much to put the money down on a Sig. The other part of me wonders if the first 6 months of early Sigs on the road are going to reveal something that really makes me wish I'd waited.

What sorts of problems did the first few hundred Roadsters have than got fixed in later iterations?

I'm not all that concerned about hardware issues because they learned a lot by building the Roadsters. Yes it is a new car and there will probably be some glitches, but most of those will probably be firmware. And that can be flashed.

 

[Cobos]

I will problably get my car Q1 2013 and thus in the middle of winter season. I just hope that early Canada customers will have made sure daily winter use is working flawlessly. Mitsubishi did some quick learning with the MiEV when it come on sale here in Norway during this winter. One thing the fact that the range easily fell down to around 50-60 miles on the coldest days. Like ckessel I'm happy with my P-series production number.

Cobos

 

[Jaff]

I plugged my Roadster in (110v) when I got to work...sometimes the car would sit out for 8 hours...I did not experience any perceptible loss of range...

I will problably get my car Q1 2013 and thus in the middle of winter season. I just hope that early Canada customers will have made sure daily winter use is working flawlessly. Mitsubishi did some quick learning with the MiEV when it come on sale here in Norway during this winter. One thing the fact that the range easily fell down to around 50-60 miles on the coldest days. Like ckessel I'm happy with my P-series production number.

Cobos

 

[Doug_G]

I will problably get my car Q1 2013 and thus in the middle of winter season. I just hope that early Canada customers will have made sure daily winter use is working flawlessly.

My Roadster worked just fine on one of the coldest February nights in Ottawa, so I think Tesla knows what they're doing.

 

[Cobos]

My Roadster worked just fine on one of the coldest February nights in Ottawa, so I think Tesla knows what they're doing.

Don't get me wrong the MiEV does work fine during winter, the only problem is that you can't preheat the cabin and actual range is more like 50-60km (yes km not miles as stated above) not the stated 150km of the MiEV. That's one of the reasons the Think is so popular in Norway. It's actual range is a lot closer to it's stated range, especially during winter with the molten salt Zebra batteries.
Though I'm glad to hear that shouldn't be a problem for the Model S, I thought I'd heard the Roadster was good in winter.

Cobos

 

[Tesla HKG]

Model S_HKG

I have PM you, check your mailbox.

 

[marco2228]

just got my reservation confirmation... but where do I find my reservation nuber? It s only written that it s a general production Model S

 

[dsm363]

just got my reservation confirmation... but where do I find my reservation nuber? It s only written that it s a general production Model S

They should follow up with an e-mail at some point or it'll show up when you log into the owner's area of the Tesla website. Congrats.

 

[smoothoperator]

Was thinking about going with the Model S but had a chance to sit in the Fisker Karma recently and wow the fit and finish is unbelievable. I am leaning towards the Karma although I would like the experience the Model S. There are a couple poor fitting items in my roadster (i.e. shaky center console) and cheap silver plastic etc. If the Model S fit and finish wise is anything like the Roadster it will be tough to not go with the Karma.

 

[NEWDL]

You are not comparing apples to apples here...

The Roadster is not a reflection of the Model S in any way shape or form other than drivetrain success. Tesla used some existing Lotus parts as well as some parts made "just for them" in order to build the interior they wanted. This is not even close to the way the Model S will be built. Having seen Model S details up close and personal, I can guarantee that the Model S's fit and finish will be of the highest standard.

Don't compromise. Grab a Sig. Model S reservation before they are no longer available...

I truly believe you will be happier with a Model S than a Fisker Karma... Especially if you have a Roadster.

 

[smoothoperator]

You are not comparing apples to apples here...

The Roadster is not a reflection of the Model S in any way shape or form other than drivetrain success. Tesla used some existing Lotus parts as well as some parts made "just for them" in order to build the interior they wanted. This is not even close to the way the Model S will be built. Having seen Model S details up close and personal, I can guarantee that the Model S's fit and finish will be of the highest standard.

Don't compromise. Grab a Sig. Model S reservation before they are no longer available...

I truly believe you will be happier with a Model S than a Fisker Karma... Especially if you have a Roadster.

Here are a couple reasons other than fit and finish that I am a bit weary of purchasing a Tesla....

1. Lack of Loaner Cars - this is unforgivable for any luxury car, if I am going to spend 90k on a car I better be getting a loaner car when the vehicle is in for service/warranty work
2. Lack of tactile feedback for the buttons- I like to have physical buttons or at the very least buttons that I can feel
3. Warranty- If the warranty is the same 3 year 36k mile warranty this will be unacceptable, I know the fisker has a 4 year 50k mile warranty which is industry standard for luxury cars.
4. Push Button Shifting, I want a normal shift lever not a fan of pressing the buttons and consistently getting "gear shift failed" error messages when I do not depress the brake pedal down all the way.

 

[Jaff]

Smooth, with respect to the lack of a loaner car, do you have any references points that support your assertion that Fisker will have loaner cars and that Tesla won't...(I have not seen anything to date.). Also remember that the ICE in the Fisker would more than likely be the cause of you needing a loaner car...not so in the Model S. :wink:

Also, I agree with NEWDL insofar as the Roadster's shortfalls that you point out are in reality, mostly Lotus shortfalls.

When considering the additional cost of gas for a Fisker, and the extra cost of servicing the ICE, the push button transmission and lack of feel for the touch screen control buttons seem insignificant to me....I guess to each his own...

A 4 year, 50k warranty would be a bit of a canard to most using the Model S as a daily driver in Canada...most folks put on about 15,000 miles / year...thus a 50k warranty expires in 3 years, 4 months...an extra 4 months, albeit nice, would not be a deal-breaker for me...

Here are a couple reasons other than fit and finish that I am a bit weary of purchasing a Tesla....

1. Lack of Loaner Cars - this is unforgivable for any luxury car, if I am going to spend 90k on a car I better be getting a loaner car when the vehicle is in for service/warranty work
2. Lack of tactile feedback for the buttons- I like to have physical buttons or at the very least buttons that I can feel
3. Warranty- If the warranty is the same 3 year 36k mile warranty this will be unacceptable, I know the fisker has a 4 year 50k mile warranty which is industry standard for luxury cars.
4. Push Button Shifting, I want a normal shift lever not a fan of pressing the buttons and consistently getting "gear shift failed" error messages when I do not depress the brake pedal down all the way.

 

[smoothoperator]

Smooth, with respect to the lack of a loaner car, do you have any references points that support your assertion that Fisker will have loaner cars and that Tesla won't...(I have not seen anything to date.). Also remember that the ICE in the Fisker would more than likely be the cause of you needing a loaner car...not so in the Model S. :wink:

Also, I agree with NEWDL insofar as the Roadster's shortfalls that you point out are in reality, mostly Lotus shortfalls.

When considering the additional cost of gas for a Fisker, and the extra cost of servicing the ICE, the push button transmission and lack of feel for the touch screen control buttons seem insignificant to me....I guess to each his own...

A 4 year, 50k warranty would be a bit of a canard to most using the Model S as a daily driver in Canada...most folks put on about 15,000 miles / year...thus a 50k warranty expires in 3 years, 4 months...an extra 4 months, albeit nice, would not be a deal-breaker for me...

The local fisker dealer here is also a BMW dealer, I am 100% sure that they will be providing loaners for Fiskers as I spoke to the GM. It drives me nuts to have to inconvenience someone to pick me up etc. At the very least it would be nice for some sort of shuttle (I think even Kia dealerships do this). I do not know if Tesla in the future will be offering loaner cars but they do not now as I recently had my roadster in for service.

My commute is less than 50 miles a day so theoretically I will rarely be using the ICE motor. A quick thought on service, I recently had my Roadster serviced (yearly I believe) and it cost ~$700 (I think) and took 3 days. I have 5k miles on the roadster. To me that does not seem that much cheaper than what I have paid on servicing some of my other cars. To be fair though the Tesla service was merely a bunch of inspections and firmware updates where as my ICE cars would usually get the oil/fluids changed. With the way the Tesla Service is setup I am not sure if there will be that significant of a difference in maintenance costs. The biggest expense thus far has been the rear tires, the roadster eats tires at a voracious rate (already on my third set!). I changed to toyo's and they seem to be wearing less rapidly.

To me ergonomics is a huge factor when choosing a car. If I am going to be interacting with the vehicle on a daily basis I want to be able to memorize where everything is so that I am not distracted. This is what I love about most german cars, they have honest to goodness buttons. You can easily change settings/ temperatures etc without taking your eyes off the road. I must admit having a huge 17 inch touch screen does look awesome in the pictures, but useability wise I am not so sure how great it will be.

A 4 year/50k warranty is a must, it makes a huge difference resale wise and it is pretty much industry standard for luxury cars. The Model S' skin is much more svelte than the Fisker, but from the pictures I have seen the Fiskers' interior looks better.

 

[richkae]

The challenge of Tesla selling and servicing 20,000 Model S cars per year through the network they plan to have is huge. We don't know how well it will work - it seems like a big risk.
I believe that the scale they currently operate on would make it very difficult to have loaners. Hopefully that will change.
They probably have all of 2012 to figure it out, because it seems like they wont have any problem selling the first years production. If the price of gas continues at the +8.5% per year pace it has been on for the last 10 years, I think their problem will always be not enough cars.

I don't think you can make any judgements on the Model S interior that has been seen. It was a one off hand built show car on an adapted chassis and platform. Neither have we seen real production Karmas. The Karma is $25k-$40k more, it is reasonable to expect more from it. But it is way too cramped for me to even consider one.

Tesla could probably for very low risk offer a 20 year warranty on certain drivetrain components like the motor. That would be bold.

 

[smoothoperator]

The challenge of Tesla selling and servicing 20,000 Model S cars per year through the network they plan to have is huge. We don't know how well it will work - it seems like a big risk.
I believe that the scale they currently operate on would make it very difficult to have loaners. Hopefully that will change.
They probably have all of 2012 to figure it out, because it seems like they wont have any problem selling the first years production. If the price of gas continues at the +8.5% per year pace it has been on for the last 10 years, I think their problem will always be not enough cars.

I don't think you can make any judgements on the Model S interior that has been seen. It was a one off hand built show car on an adapted chassis and platform. Neither have we seen real production Karmas. The Karma is $25k-$40k more, it is reasonable to expect more from it. But it is way too cramped for me to even consider one.

Tesla could probably for very low risk offer a 20 year warranty on certain drivetrain components like the motor. That would be bold.

I think Tesla will be pushing their mobile ranger service as more and more Model S' are sold. The annual service will probably just consist of inspecting 35 components and upgrading the firmware. Would people be willing to spend 5-600 bucks on one hours worth of work? TBD....You might run into a lot of "neglected" Model S'!

The Karma I sat in was much less cramped than my Roadster!:tongue: all jokes aside I really do not need the ICE of the Karma and would gladly get the Model S, I am just hoping that the ergonomic/fit and finish issue limitations are really Lotus ones as mentioned here and not Tesla ones. I still do not see why a 170K car (the roadster) has a physical key instead of keyless go etc. I have been toying with getting one of these aftermarket kits to get rid of the key. How hard would it have been for tesla to put something like this in the Roadster?

ididit inc - Key to Keyless Ignition Push Button System

I really hope they thought the Model S through and just don't throw something out there like they did with the roadster. I will reserve my judgement until after it comes out but I will not be pre-ordering and going goo goo gaa gaa like I did with the Roadster. This time they will have to earn my business by putting out a vehicle that is the complete package (ergonomics, technology, performance, luxury, service etc).

 

[dsm363]

I still do not see why a 170K car (the roadster) has a physical key instead of keyless go etc. I have been toying with getting one of these aftermarket kits to get rid of the key. How hard would it have been for tesla to put something like this in the Roadster?

ididit inc - Key to Keyless Ignition Push Button System

I was told it has a physical key due to the Lotus design (lockable steering column). They would have had to redesign part of the car and go through crash testing again I believe. At least that's what I was told.

Since they're designing the car from the ground up this time though, they shouldn't really have any excuse for not doing the simple things.

 

[Doug_G]

I think Tesla will be pushing their mobile ranger service as more and more Model S' are sold. The annual service will probably just consist of inspecting 35 components and upgrading the firmware. Would people be willing to spend 5-600 bucks on one hours worth of work? TBD....You might run into a lot of "neglected" Model S'!

From what I hear, it sounds like they'll be setting up additional maintenance facilities, separate from the stores.

 

[NigelM]

After less than one month of driving the Roadster, we placed a deposit on the Model S today.... (It also helped for my wife to see the prototype on TV the other night!)

Can't wait! :biggrin: