I've been on these forums for several years. Not owning a Tesla anymore, I don't check it daily as I used to. Sure, all vehicles probably have their fanboi's, but with "many" of the Tesla forum fanboi's, they get so offended at even the slightest hint of criticism toward Tesla. Again, I put my money where my mouth was having owned at least 10 Tesla's in 9 years. Clearly loved the cars and for 9 years, nothing stacked up well enough for me to be able to give up what they offered. But, that doesn't mean I thought they were perfect by any means. Far from it. I've always been one that speaks my mind, good or bad. On this site, SO MANY members were offended by the truth. All the other forums, people may disagree with me and that's absolutely fine, but they reply in a constructive manner and have a conversation / debate about opinion differences. Obviously, I'm far less active on this site than I used to be, but I remember that as soon as I would post something, the same 10 members would insta-respond. Like they had the website up and were hitting refresh every 30 seconds all day long, just waiting to pounce on the next person that didn't agree with the "Elon said it, so it's perfect" attitude.
Just my take on it. They still build incredible cars. The Yoke experiment was more of the same. The "majority" didn't like it, but if you asked them, they'd "say" they like it because it was in their $100,000+ car and Tesla is great so it must be the best thing for us. My statement is that, of many of those people that said they like the Yoke, now that they've been given a choice, they've made the switch, or plan to. I'm sure for some, they actually do like the Yoke. But, if you ask non-Tesla owner's who are naturally going to be biased, the majority are not fans. And yes, for me personally, the way I use my car for work (not just to and from work), the shifter, blinkers, horn are all deal breakers for me. The last car I ordered that I loved everything about was my 2015 Model S Performance. That was when you still had the option to create the interior the way you wanted it, select options you wanted and not pay for options you didn't. Shortly thereafter is when it started going downhill for me as they removed most "choices". At this price point, I want some of my own personality and choices in it. I still bought 2 or 3 more after that car, but didn't love the interior choices that were forced upon us.
For those that just drive to and from work mostly, these things aren't a big deal to deal with a couple times a day. For those like me that work out of their vehicle where I'm in and out 10+ times a day, these little annoyances become more amplified. I tried a Model 3 one time in those 9 years and hated it, compared to my Model S's. It lasted only a few months. The refresh however, went more in the direction of the Model 3 and well beyond with the removal of the stalks and shifter. That's also when prices were sky high. I knew that the 2019 would be my last. Loved the car. Loved the mix of the minimalist interior that still had some normal every day functions left over. As I noted, wasn't a fan of the lack of choices on my later Model S cars, but lived with them. For the increased price points and an interior that didn't suit my needs in any way, shape or form, just couldn't justify paying more and more for a car that still looks generally the same as my first one did 9 years ago. Was hoping the Cybertruck would bring me back. But, they're doing a Model 3 type interior, so not a chance I'll consider one. Again, based on my own personal use needs. After 9 years, the sacrifices became too many to offset the positives and it was time to move on. Now that there's some genuine competitors on the market, hopefully Tesla will consider catering to the masses and offer more personal choices to bring in a larger buyer group, especially considering how many cars they want to sell every year. The Tesla way is loved by many, but doesn't work for a large buyer group as well, thus they won't consider one. Competition is a good thing for the customer. Happy that it now exists. Maybe, some day, Tesla will build another car that works for me and for the customer group that doesn't mind a few strategically placed buttons here and there for ease of use. In the meantime, other than a couple of rarely used features the Tesla had, I honestly haven't missed having one. I thought I'd be giving up a lot by going in a different direction, but now having actually done it, I realized that, I really don't miss it and LOVE that I'm finally looking at something shiny, new and DIFFERENT in my garage after 9+ years!
Back on topic.......
Didn't T-Sportline offer a conversion that included stalks? I remember seeing it somewhere that they converted a Model 3 wheel / stalk package to work on the Model S. It also utilized the center for the horn. Maybe it was a one-off? If I were to consider a Tesla again, but "IF", that would be the first thing on my list to change, immediately.
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