Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Model S Premium Center Console - Only in Black

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Ok Tesla,

You could have at least asked your customers on the waiting list whether they wanted to substitute for the piano black. I'd like to do so but now I have to scramble and compete with everyone else learning the news and the web site says "sold out"...

Not impressed here.
 
It seems strange they could apply the "lessons learned" to the rear console and not the front.

It's just one little piece. How could they not redesign just that piece with the knowledge they gathered from these "lessons".

I'm very disappointed they made the call to kill the project. I've waited a year and a half, I would rather wait longer than have a console that does not match my trim. I have mat Obeche trim, specifically because I don't like glossy trim.

I have not received the letter yet, but I'm already pretty angry/frustrated about this whole thing.
 
Last edited:
What I'm least impressed with is that they must have thought it was too much trouble to ask customers on the waiting list whether they wanted to substitute and then process the remaining customers in-order?

They might as well have written:

Dear customer,

We we have decided to discontinue a product we had marketed for a few years and for which you are on the waiting list. We have cancelled your reservation. You can substitute for an alternative product, however that one is currently sold out and we do not honor your position on the original waiting list. Please feel free to compete with everybody else and be aware that we do not know when it will become available again. Please check back often on our web-site as we do not know when or if it'll be available. We do not operate a waiting list for this product and do not know whether it'll be days, weeks or years for it to become available again if it does.

The Tesla Team.
 
It looks like Tesla has known for a while that they were going to do this. Check out a post I made about two weeks ago:

And I just checked the store and for the first time could not find the finish options other than Piano Black shown anywhere. In the past, the other options were listed. (The video for the Piano Black console still shows the Obeche console.) Anyone think the removal of the other finish options from the store is an ominous sign? Or do you think this is just Tesla's way of reducing demand for parts that are in short supply?
 
Wow that is so overblown. Get the piano black and leave the door open and move on with your life.
Elon or whichever decision maker decided not to ship an inferior product: thanks for maintaining the brand integrity.

Comments like this make me think I know why most Germans still prefer to buy their premium segment cars from German manufacturers. We have a different definition of overall quality.

I mean really, as many others have pointed out, Tesla admits they have learned lessons from their rear center console but can't apply these to the production process for the front center console? That is simply ridiculous and impossible to believe.

I just hope that by the time Model 3 comes around, Tesla will have learned how to build a proper front center console. And even better, perhaps offer one as standard. How would that be for a novel idea, instead of this crazy "clean look" design philosophy, which to me looks just like a posh excuse for not being able to offer a proper interior storage concept in the first place, because time had run out when they wanted the Model S to hit the market without any further delays. Because let's be honest, everything points to that:

- no center console
- no usable cupholders in the standard trim
- no other usable storage facilities like in the doors, pockets at the rears of the front seats, etc. as standard
- no grab handles / coat hooks
- no fold-out rear armrest/storage facility/cupholder arrangement (but rather an incredibly expensive and inflexible option)

I mean Model S is a great car overall, but as we have discussed time and time again, the interior, especially the storage concept, still leaves a lot to be desired.

Let's just hope the endless delays in the Model X launch are not due to something similar like the seeming inability to provide something as simple as a lid of a center console in more than one trim option (and that after almost years of trying).

- - - Updated - - -

I have waited almost 2 years for this. Yes, it is completely unacceptable, and yes, they do "owe" those of us who were expecting a product to be delivered. They said they would make this, and now there are not? How in any world of business is this acceptable? It is not.

+1
Exactly. One might complain a lot about Audi, Merc, BMW, VW etc., but at least I have never experienced something like that center console fiasco with them.
Andyw2100 put it quite well in his email. How can Tesla be able to produce a superb EV but not a rectangular piece of plastic in a certain finish? Incomprehensible.
 
This almost certainly a supplier issue. Tesla had a hard time finding suppliers for interior parts because those suppliers thought that most likely only a few thousand cars would ever be built. so tesla had to simplify the interior design. I think the giant touchscreen was also born out of that necessity replacing lots of custom molded parts. That was a great way to turn a lemon into lemonade.

Tesla should be better able to convince suppliers about its capability to pull a large production run. It will then get better suppliers.
 
Comments like this make me think I know why most Germans still prefer to buy their premium segment cars from German manufacturers.

Give me a break. Tesla made a poor decision here but to say that this is the reason that "most Germans still prefer to buy their premimum segment cars from German manufacturers" is a real stretch. If Tesla had already got most Germans to buy Teslas than German brands it would be a miracle. But give it time.

I think Tesla should offer a center console in all trims for those who want it but not standard and I really like a car without consoles, hooks, pockets, etc. The clean and uncluttered look is so much better. You really don't need all the junk people store in all those nooks and crannies of yesterday. We no longer have tapes, CDs, newspapers, magazines, etc. and even wallets will become a thing of the past. Life is so much better uncluttered.

This is how Tesla has opened the door to 3rd party accessory providers. Missed opportunity. But they do have bigger priorities to deal with.

That door has been open for a while now. It just got opened wider though.
 
Last edited:
Give me a break. Tesla made a poor decision here but to say that this is the reason that "most Germans still prefer to buy their premimum segment cars from German manufacturers" is a real stretch. If Tesla had already got most Germans to buy Teslas than German brands it would be a miracle. But give it time.

Please read my original post properly. I didn't say this issue was the reason for (insert original quote here), but that comments like this (the comment by this other guy about "it's no big deal, get on with your life", showed me that we obviously have a different sense of overall quality. And I went on to comment about to whole interior storage concept, not just the plastic lid that doesn't come in any other colour than piano black.

The point I was trying to make was that quite a few here seem to just buy the console anyway and make do with what Tesla offers or just accept that behaviour as acceptable business practice, whereas I can't imagine anyone over here accepting such a behaviour, especially in the premium segment of cars we are talking about.

Perhaps we really need to give Tesla even more time, but some day, especially when Model 3 arrives, the enthusiastic and ever forgiving early adopter clientel will not be there any longer or at least not make up the majority of buyers of that "mass market" vehicle. So far, Tesla still seems to be on a very rocky road, see also endless Model X delay.
Maybe a little less overpromise, underdeliver would be in order by now.
 
Last edited:
@Austin
Good point. The audience TM is playing to is not the same as they have had in recent times. Although there have been a lot of previous MS owners upgrade to the new models. It is a matter of winning over new customers. A different animal to acquire new adaptors.
 
What I'm least impressed with is that they must have thought it was too much trouble to ask customers on the waiting list whether they wanted to substitute and then process the remaining customers in-order?

They might as well have written:

Dear customer,

We we have decided to discontinue a product we had marketed for a few years and for which you are on the waiting list. We have cancelled your reservation. You can substitute for an alternative product, however that one is currently sold out and we do not honor your position on the original waiting list. Please feel free to compete with everybody else and be aware that we do not know when it will become available again. Please check back often on our web-site as we do not know when or if it'll be available. We do not operate a waiting list for this product and do not know whether it'll be days, weeks or years for it to become available again if it does.

The Tesla Team.
I couldn't agree with you more. I am disappointed in Tesla in so many ways here. And then to not at least respect those who have been patiently waiting several years by at least giving them priority ordering before everyone else.
 
All -

I'm approx. 350 on the console waiting list (Obeche Matte) and didn't receive the email. If they were truly discontinuing all orders wouldn't they have email people in the order they were placed?

Aaron