Disclaimer: other Tesla owners please don't get too defensive, there are tons of good things about the car and its a great "first-attempt" at a new concept, but this is my feedback focusing mainly on the negatives and what I would change, its been almost a week/500 miles with the Tesla, here are my initial thoughts;
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I don't own any "green" cars like a Leaf, Volt, Prius etc.... I have spent alot of time driving those cars (my sister has a Prius) and driving those nearly make me cry :-(
We used to own a Jetta TDI, not a bad car for 45 mpg freeway, and now have a X5 35D (amazing that a sporty SUV can do 25-27mpg) but that's as close as I was to "green" cars prior to my Model S
A) Its a good car, decently well made with some cool features, but its not a revolutionary car....its not like flying a jet or piloting a rocketship, unlike what some owners, reviewers etc have said, its not "on a different planet"
B) It is quick, but its not "super-fast" (note I have the lowly 60kwh version, so yes a P85 version might be a little faster...I have driven P85s before are they are slightly faster, but not in a different league.) The car is very quick 0-40/50 mph (thanks to the electric motors), but my AMG Mercedes was a freight train from 60-120....and the Tesla isn't anywhere close to the same league as a ~600hp Mercedes silver bullet.
What I think makes people say this a "game-changing" or "on a totally different planet" is because most of these "green" car people are coming from really lame-ass cars like a Leaf or Prius. I have spent seat time in those cars and they make me want to cry...so yes compared to a Leaf or Prius etc, this might be "on a different level." But compared to my Nissan GTR...its quick, not mind-blowing fast
C) The Tesla is definitely premium priced, most Tesla Model S are between $75-110k...which is the same price as Mercedes E/S/CLS, Audi A6/7/8, BMW 5/7 series. But it lacks some of the optional features of those cars. My Mercedes CLS had heated/cooled/massaging/multi-contour/dynamic seats, where as my Tesla has just lumbar support and heated seats, nothing else available.
I would expect Tesla to have better seat options available. Yes I understand they probably wanted to save money/weight, but nowadays even $25k VW Jettas have heated seats with lumbar support, I expect a bit more from a high-5 to low-6 figure car, which brings me to:
D) What the Tesla is missing / i would change
1. center console, Tesla realized this quickly and will be releasing a center console this summer
2. better front cup holders, the two front cup holders are in the center armrest so you can either carry drinks or rest your arm, but not both
3. rear cup holders, since Tesla did such a good job with the flat floor and being able to seat three adults, now those three adults might want to store their water bottles somewhere
4. rear folding armrest, most every sedan has a rear arm rest for when only two people are sitting in back...not in the Tesla. I don't know if they were trying to save weight or be cheap and not build it, but the Tesla lacks it
5. seat back pockets... useful for families to put stuff, and can't cost that much, but the Tesla lacks these too
6. the LATCH anchors in the car suck, they are hard to find and the one on the backs of the rear seats are hidden in a cut slit in the carpet. This is how the first LATCH anchors were in the late 90s... high end modern cars like Mercedes and Lexus have easily accessible LATCH anchors where you don't have to dig in-between the seat cushions and the rear anchors are in surrounds with covers, not cheap ass carpet slits. I think Tesla was just being lazy/cheap here too
7. door pockets, seriously Tesla...was this an oversight? or just being cheap to save on production costs? but the inner door liners are super wide, there has to be room for some door pockets in there
8. the regenerative braking is cool, standard mod is pretty aggressive, so much so that you don't need to brake much around town, just coast up to the stop. But on the freeway standard regen is too aggressive (so much so that my wife thought I was braking b/c I saw cops) so I switch it to low-regen mode. Constantly switching it to low-regen is a PITA, it would be nice to have a function where I can set it to low-regen automatically above a certain speed. A software upgrade would address this.
9. my Tesla has air suspension, so I have the option of low, standard, high and extra high settings for the ride height. Since Tesla went to the trouble making this, then why not offer me the choice of sport, auto and comfort suspension settings? My VW Touareg and AMG Mercedes had this, seems like a software change could take care of it.
10. Some of the options are absurdly priced: $3500 up-charge for 21" wheels? adding that to the cost of the OEM 19's (lets say $2000-2500) is easily in the territory of HREs etc. Maybe a "plus one" 20" wheel package for $1500-2000 extra would be a good option. Instead I got standard 19's and will probably put aftermarket 20's on. Performance Plus Package for $6500 extra which just included uprated suspension, different tires etc?
11. the front seats need more bolstering, you can't make claims about your low center of gravity and flat cornering and include such pedestrian seats, how about a "sport seat" option with bigger bolsters and adjustable thigh support a la BMW
12. It would be really nice to have an adjustable headrest on the front seats, if not the rear. because the front seat-backs are one-piece, not unlike a race seat, you can't mount rear seat entertainment stuff (iPad mounts) or those kick-pads to prevent kids from kicking and scuffing up the seat backs.
13. Again the interior lacks many standard features, like grab handles for the front and rear passengers or coat hooks in case you might want to hang your dry cleaning....either an oversight or Tesla being cheap
14. Like other electronic laden cars, there will be bugs, on the first day my "tire pressure sensor" warning came up, only to disappear and never reappear again.
15. while the little nav screen in the dash does "flyover/birds eye" view facing the direction of travel, the main NAV screen only does pointed north (which I hate)... i would prefer the option of selection the main NAV view...just like most other car NAV systems allow
16. roll back / forward .... the Tesla will roll back / forward if you are on a slope and not applying gas (power? i guess in this car since there is no "gas").... Seriously? Tesla couldn't / didn't think there needed to be a "hill-hold function?"
Again don't get me wrong, I think its a good car, but there are a bunch of factors and features that Tesla missed that would turn it from a good car into a great car. I think some of these might have been left off in the name of "design" and "lightness" but others were left off in the sake of cost savings or just a straight oversight.
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I don't own any "green" cars like a Leaf, Volt, Prius etc.... I have spent alot of time driving those cars (my sister has a Prius) and driving those nearly make me cry :-(
We used to own a Jetta TDI, not a bad car for 45 mpg freeway, and now have a X5 35D (amazing that a sporty SUV can do 25-27mpg) but that's as close as I was to "green" cars prior to my Model S
