Let's Talk PUP

[Buster1]

I'm looking for feedback and thoughts on the Premium Upgrage Package (PUP) on new S vehicles. Good, bad, worth it? Currently $3500.

From the website currently, PUP comes with:

Air Filters/Bio-defense
3-position headlights
LED fog lights
Leather arm rests and steering wheel
Soft interior lighting
Lighted door handles
Quick phone dock

 

[Alex D]

For the current price, absolutely not in my opinion. The only feature on the list I really enjoy is the Air Filters / Bio Defense. But for $3,500, no thank you.
I only got the Premium package for the automatic lift gate, which is now standard.
For the features the PUP offers now, I would maybe spend $1,000, but not even sure about that. I would strongly consider it for that price, but not more.

 

[ba2002]

I'm looking for feedback and thoughts on the Premium Upgrage Package (PUP) on new S vehicles. Good, bad, worth it? Currently $3500.

From the website currently, PUP comes with:

Air Filters/Bio-defense
3-position headlights
LED fog lights
Leather arm rests and steering wheel
Soft interior lighting
Lighted door handles
Quick phone dock

Pointless. IMO, of course.

 

[TurboBear]

I'm looking for feedback and thoughts on the Premium Upgrage Package (PUP) on new S vehicles. Good, bad, worth it? Currently $3500.

If pairing with a leather interior: Maybe, strongly leaning no.
If pairing with a white or multi-pattern black interior: No. There's no additional materials benefit with these interiors over non-PUP, to my knowledge.

I bought in late March with a white interior and barely justified it to myself; today (with power liftgate included): no. I'd spend maybe $1500 max at this point.

Plus, after spending all that, my rear passenger's side door handle light doesn't shine down on the door like the others, it's recessed a few mm (but enough to make it look like it's not working in the dark). Service center replaced the handle and then said it's a firmware-related problem, which makes no sense to me.

 

[ecarfan]

I'm looking for feedback and thoughts on the Premium Upgrage Package (PUP) on new S vehicles. Good, bad, worth it? Currently $3500.

I would absolutely get the PUP if you can afford it. I love everything on that list. The turning headlights are something I've wanted on every car I've ever owned in the past 40+ Years.

 

[ba2002]

I would absolutely get the PUP if you can afford it. I love everything on that list. The turning headlights are something I've wanted on every car I've ever owned in the past 40+ Years.

My understanding is that they are not turning/dynamic headlights that follow your turn.

Simply, when you turn the wheel past a certain point, static LEDs on the side light up, and when you turn back, they turn off. This is not the fancy system you see on luxury cars. I have them, and I only notice them when making a 90 degree turn such as into my driveway when I come home after dark.

Edit:
Found a video for the Model X. He clearly has 3 lights on each side, my classic/nosecone model S might only have 1? Not sure. His video makes them look more useful than I have found them on my model, so maybe they have changed in the newer cars.

 

[Buster1]

That's interesting on the adaptive lights. I actually think that Tesla's method is pretty smart. No moving parts, just different LEDs that illuminate in the turn. Pretty cool. Less stuff to fail with LED lights, and the same end result as 'old school' physically moving adaptive headlights.

Nice. Thumbs up to Tesla here for innovation.

Now I just gotta figure out if it's all worth the cost.

 

[Buster1]

Can anyone describe the Soft Interior lighting option?

 

[Cricket88]

Can anyone describe the Soft Interior lighting option?

Its a white LED strip, each under the door panel armrests. They turn on along with your headlights and you can turn them off via the 17" control screen if it bothers you at night. Looks great particularly if you have the white interior.

 

[David29]

Its a white LED strip, each under the door panel armrests. They turn on along with your headlights and you can turn them off via the 17" control screen if it bothers you at night. Looks great particularly if you have the white interior.

I have the PUP, from back in mid-2015 when it was much less expensive but was the only way to get the power liftgate. I would say the PUP is a desirable feature in a used car from that period if you prefer the powered liftgate, which I find very helpful and use very frequently.

As for the extra interior lighting -- The little LEDs in the door panels are subtle and are nice and possibly helpful, but even with the PUP package the interior lighting does not really seem adequate to me. Floor spaces are very dark. I happened to see a recent Mercedes sedan with the door open two nights ago, and the difference in the interior lighting made me envious. The lighted door handles on the Model S are sexy, but I am not sure if I would miss them.

As for the leather armrests -- The leather on the center armrest (i.e., between the front seats) is nice, soft, feels padded. But the leather on the door panels is hard to tell from vinyl. It is thin, no padding, and scratches very easily, as I have found to my dismay. (I actually had to ask a Tesla sales person to verify that there was leather on the doors in the PUP cars, because it is hard to tell.) The door leather in the Model X is either thicker or more padded and feels a lot nicer, IMHO.

The fog lamps are helpful sometimes, and the phone dock is (barely) handy, but I would certainly not spend today's prices to get features like those.

 

[ucmndd]

I would not buy it again now that the power liftgate is standard.

The "adaptive" headlights are a gimmick, they only activate on very sharp turns. The fog lights are pretty to look at, but pretty worthless in actual fog.

I gather you can buy the big hepa filter and install it in a non-bio-defense car and get 95+% of the benefit.

Materials differences inside are relatively small, particularly now with the discontinuation of the alcantara dash.

The phone dock is $30 on the tesla site.

 

[jelloslug]

It's overpriced for what you get now, especially if you don't get leather. I find the biohazard mode useful and I like the interior lighting but for $3500 it's not really worth it.

 

[ecarfan]

You are correct that the optional headlights do not physically turn, and your description of them is accurate. I tried them out recently and liked them very much. I found they activated in turns sharper than about 50 degrees (rough estimate on my part). I called them "turning headlights" because they illuminated the path of the turn.

My understanding is that they are not turning/dynamic headlights that follow your turn.

Simply, when you turn the wheel past a certain point, static LEDs on the side light up, and when you turn back, they turn off. This is not the fancy system you see on luxury cars. I have them, and I only notice them when making a 90 degree turn such as into my driveway when I come home after dark.

Edit:
Found a video for the Model X. He clearly has 3 lights on each side, my classic/nosecone model S might only have 1? Not sure. His video makes them look more useful than I have found them on my model, so maybe they have changed in the newer cars.

 

[J-Bus]

I tried to answer the same question when I ordered my car, and quickly came to the conclusion that to me it wasn't worth the cost. The phone dock looked like the thing I would miss most, but after I found out you can order that for $30 separately there really was no reason anymore. In all honesty, at this point in time it may very well be one of the worst options in terms of bang for buck I have seen in all the cars I have ever ordered

 

[CameronB]

This was also something I went back and forth on. Ultimately I did get it...but it was a tough pill to swallow. Power lift gate was part of the PUP at the time (just before it became standard). My car has the Alcantra dash...which was one thing I thought I would not like...but it turns out I do like it after all.

I really like ambient lighting...but not super impressed with Tesla's implementation as compared to other cars I have. I think in retrospect I should have paid more attention to what that lighting looked like in Model S at night. The ambient light is "ok"...but nothing great (unfortunately).

I think now that the power liftgate is standard, it makes the $3500 price extra crazy. I mean it was crazy before don't get me wrong, but now it seems extra crazy. And given that Tesla allows Model X to retroactively add "bio-weapon defense mode" for $750...I suspect that retroactive option may make it's way to Model S in the near future. My wife has some nasty allergies sometime, and I thought the extra filtering could be useful for her and that was another reason I sprung for it. We'll see how things are next spring and whether it is useful. Right now it's wait and see on that front.

PUP seems to be diminishing with each quarter. Used to have ventilated seats. Gone. Used to have Alcantra dashboard. Gone. Used to have power liftgate. Gone. But what hasn't gone (down) is the price ;-). I think it's fine to re-arrange options but then the package should reflect that. I think PUP would be an OK deal (now) at $1500-2000. At $3500 today? Value to price ratio is not very good.