So, six months ago tonight, I was lucky enough to pick up one of the first Model S Plaid to be delivered to customers. I thought folks might be interested in how things are going.
This is my post from the night I picked up the car: Wiki - Model S Delivery Update
Some statistics:
- 5,191 miles
- Running 2021.36.8.9 and FSD Beta 10.6
- Quickest I've gone 0-60: 2.1 sec (1 ft rollout)
- 1/4 mile: 9.6 sec @ 150 mph (at drag strip)
- Fastest I've gone: 156 mph (at drag strip)
- Lifetime efficiency: 335 Wh/mi
- Name: "HellPony" - named through a thread here on TMC
- Wind noise from passenger a-pillar area
- Triangular glass loose in its bracket
- Replaced by mobile service
- Rattle from rear of car during turns
- Play in latches for rear seats
- Temporarily fixed by Service using tape--waiting on permanent fix from Engineering
- Side mirrors do not properly return to auto-tilt set position
- Service validated issue and replaced both mirrors but did not resolve the issue
Exterior:
- Car was great at pickup in terms of pant quality, fit and finish, and panel gaps and that has held up--in fact car looks great (car is OptiCoated and I hand wash)
- There was some concerns around stone chips on the rear quarter panels, but I have not encountered that so far
- Widow tint is highly recommended
Interior:
- Having lived with the new interior for a while, I more appreciate the time and effort someone took son picking materials, textures, etc
- White seats are still while--easy to clean, no creasing, puckers, etc
- The wood trim nicks easily--ended up getting some touch-up
- Still impressed by the low noise floor--the double-paned glass and all the soft surfaces help.
- Like the fixed glass roof--opens up the interior and does a good job blocking heat. I do, however miss the open air driving of the pano roof
- Coming from a 2013, there is an embarrassing amount of storage--the center console is nice in that it is has little cubbies to help keep things organized
- Acceleration never gets old, but beyond 0-60, the rollin acceleration is great for merging on freeway, passing, etc
- The new suspension is superb--the car is poised in every situation I have thrown at it from curvy river roads to flat-out acceleration runs
- Vision-only AP worked well. The only thing it seemed to struggle with for me is keeping proper distance with a lead car
The Yoke!:
- I love mine, I would not trade it for a round wheel, even if Elon himself offered to come swap mine out
- It took a while to get used to it--some of you have seen the video of my travails as I got acclimated
- My best advice it to approach the yoke as a different control interface--treating it like a wheel will lead to more challenges
- For the actual yoke, I am pretty much driving like I my old wheel--one handed, palming, etc
- The stalkless piece took a bit longer -- what I really like is having key controls under my thumbs--the ergonomics are like an Xbox or Playstation controller. It is compact and efficient--going back to my wife's X seems awkward now
- The force touch controls are a work in progress--they have made tweaks to both the control and the haptic feedback that have improved the experience, but there is still opportunity to improve
- Big thing is I wish they were further along with the software:
- There are still a number of features from the launch that are still outstanding like games (Witcher, etc), ANC, IIRC torque vectoring
- The Bluetooth implementation, in relation to the rear seat audio appears unfinished
- V11 - the current UI seems cobbled together and unfinished
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