Owners: what are the three biggest quirks or drawbacks that you have found?

[pguerra]

After hearing all the hype and being the ever-skeptic, I'd like to know what current Model S owners are disliking about their new Model S. Any quirks about the vehicle that really bother you? Example:

1) No power folding mirrors
2) No concealable storage space within cabin except for dinky glovebox.
3) $100k price tag

 

[Zythryn]

1. No charge timer yet.
2. ... Um... My wife drives it too much
3. ...hmmm. Vanity mirrors are to distorted, poor material.

Actually, move number 2 to number 1

 

[dsm363]

The 100K pricetag only applies to the Signature performance really but

1) being able to schedule a charge time (will be added later)

 

[ckessel]

The 100K pricetag only applies to the Signature performance...

A normal perf hits $100k when you add pano roof, tech package, sound system, and such. And that's without rear seats and a twin chargers. That's before tax credit.

 

[dsm363]

A normal perf hits $100k when you add pano roof, tech package, sound system, and such. And that's without rear seats and a twin chargers. That's before tax credit.

You're right, I was including the tax credit which I shouldn't since it doesn't apply to everyone and may not be around in the future. It basically is a $100K car.

Still, listing a fully optioned out performance model's price tag of $100k as a drawback doesn't make sense since it's the top of the line and not the average configuration.

 

[jerry33]

And you didn't add the sales tax (which not everyone is subject to).

 

[dsm363]

I don't want to take this too far off topic but didn't include sales tax since that applies to every car and isn't included in discussions in magazines or in media when comparing prices of cars.

Anyway, the gripes I've had have been so minor that they're tough to list. Almost all of them are things that will be or could be fixed in software. I want the iPhone app to remotely cool the car which should be on its way. The ability to store favorite destinations in the Nav would be nice too.

 

[jerry33]

I don't want to take this too far off topic but didn't include sales tax since that applies to every car and isn't included in discussions in magazines or in media when comparing prices of cars.

That's certainly true, but where applicable it makes just about every reasonably appointed 85 kWh car within throwing distance of $100K :-(

 

[Soflauthor]

IMO, there isn't too much wrong with the model S, but here are my quirks:

1. Doors that sometimes don't close completely.
2. Inability to better control the music imported from my iPhone via the display
3. Inability to scan phone contacts quickly (e.g., branch to the letter R)

BTW, OP item number 2) No concealable storage space within cabin except for dinky glovebox.

I've been driving with a solution to that "quirk," and it really is an improvement.

 

[unclfuzzy]

1. Doors that sometimes don't close completely.

Soflauthor - Ask your service tech to take care of this. Mine made an adjustment on both front doors and now they close easily and normally.

 

[CalEECS]

1) Lack of front storage options. The front chin would be perfect for my cell phone... if it had a USB plug. I'm hoping Soflauthor's console is available soon.
2) The music and navigation interfaces could still use some work. Easier ways to dive into a huge music collection would be helpful in keeping our eyes on the road.
3) The lack of rear mats is ridiculous at this price point, although I've ordered rubber Lloyd's mats for the winter.
4) My ambient lighting in the back makes a really bad buzzing sound, causing me to disable it. Hopefully the service center will take care of this.
5) No timed charging is a big issue for me, since we're moving to solar and TOU metering. This seems like a pretty simple software issue that I was hoping to have out of the factory.
6) My wife was having trouble closing the passenger door. I'll ask the service center to look at this as well.

I love the car, but there is no question that it's a 1.00.00 Service Pack 0 product.

 

[sueinsanjose]

1. Our heater is not working. Tesla customer service has been amazing. They logged in to check the issue and now we are waiting for parts to get it fixed. It has been a little cold in the morning and I have no defrost.

2. The visors are way too small....they don't help at all.

3. The charger was not ready. We messed up because we didn't catch this before we bought the car so we did not arrange for the outlet needed (electrician just came out tonight). So we have been getting a 30 mile charge per night..... . The charger should be ready for when you take delivery of the car.

Hopefully you see these as pretty minor inconveniences. The car drives amazingly and looks awesome! I have received many compliments on it. There are other little quirks, but these are probably the top for me.

 

[aviators99]

So we have been getting a 30 mile charge per night.....

I'm curious about this. I believe the published stats are 5 miles per hour of charging for 110v. Is this accurate? (i.e. have you only had 6 hours to charge per night)?

 

[dsm363]

I'm curious about this. I believe the published stats are 5 miles per hour of charging for 110v. Is this accurate? (i.e. have you only had 6 hours to charge per night)?

It's closer to 3 miles of range per hour of charging I believe.

 

[sueinsanjose]

It's closer to 3 miles of range per hour of charging I believe.

I believe this is accurate. I have been charging it from 5pm to 6am and get about 30 miles.

 

[AnOutsider]

Ouch. I considered not getting the temp outlet and just dealing with it until the hpwc came, but that would have crushed me.

 

[Ben W]

Ok, after 1000 miles with my Model S, here's my list of quirks and grievances. (No way to narrow it down to just 3.)

1) Sun visors need replacement. (Needs better mirrors, vanity lights, hopefully slightly larger?)
2) No way to open the charge port door from outside. (I've suggested to Tesla a quadruple-click on the fob; basically "open-open".) I don't have the Model S HPC, which is the only connector that can automatically open the port by proximity.
3) While driving, the same motion that on the Roadster activates the wipers, on the Model S puts the car in neutral. This can be very disconcerting at highway speeds; the first time I accidentally did this I thought the car died, and it took me a good 10 seconds to realize what was going on and correct it. The car should recognize this case (vehicle in motion, gear in neutral, accelerator pressed) and flash a warning or reminder to shift into Drive.
4) The floormats are starting to scuff and accumulate dust bunnies after just 1000 miles.
5) The key fob needs some sort of lanyard or clip; it's nearly impossible to attach to a keyring. (It also needs color-coding and LED headlights!)
6) At highway speed, sunroof whistles loudly during opening/closing.
7) Front doors and Frunk require a bit too much force to close. (I've gotten used to it, but passengers rarely close the door completely on the first try.)
8) Scrolling through iPhone contacts list takes forever; it needs an A-Z shortcut.
9) Changing radio stations, the slider tends to "rubber-band" and fly off in one direction or other when you let go...
10) Homelink: took forever to get it to recognize my clickers, even at point-blank range. Not sure if there's some other trick to this?
11) Daisy-chaining the Model S <-> Roadster HPC adapter to the Roadster 110v adapter doesn't work. It would be nice if it did.
12) Bricking the car for up to 2 hours during a software update is a bad thing. (What if you need to get to a hospital, or escape a fire?) There should be some sort of UI-less "emergency drive" mode accessible during an update.
13) While backing up, the camera feed covers up the HomeLink menu, making it difficult to back out of my garage and close the garage door.
14) The rear-view mirror field of view is somewhat limited. (You can't see to the horizon in the rear-view mirror, because the roofline is too low.) Keeping the backup camera active while driving is a marginally effective substitute.

All that said, I wouldn't give up my Model S for anything Love it!!!

 

[contaygious]

Didn't know about the backing up cam covering home link. I too will be using it when I back up daily, does that still happen if you leave the camera on all the time?

Also, the neutral thing sounds scary if my wife or someone else is driving. You should never be able to go to N while moving. Probably only from park.

 

[Jason S]

Didn't know about the backing up cam covering home link. I too will be using it when I back up daily, does that still happen if you leave the camera on all the time?

Also, the neutral thing sounds scary if my wife or someone else is driving. You should never be able to go to N while moving. Probably only from park.

Ask one of those runaway Toyota drivers if they'd like the car to lock the shifter into drive...

Agreed on the homelink vs backup cam. Is this true for the top of screen shortcut? I think dragging the backup cam to lower part of screen would help that, but I'd prefer the backup cam at top of screen anyhow.

 

[Ben W]

Ask one of those runaway Toyota drivers if they'd like the car to lock the shifter into drive...

Agreed on the homelink vs backup cam. Is this true for the top of screen shortcut? I think dragging the backup cam to lower part of screen would help that, but I'd prefer the backup cam at top of screen anyhow.

I didn't (and don't) recommend that neutral be unavailable while driving; just that if you do select it, and then try to accelerate, it should pop up a warning. I can't think of any cases where you would intentionally want to do this.

The problematic backup cam / HomeLink overlap only happens when the backup cam is NOT selected as one of the two panels. (Though if it is selected as the top panel, a smaller part of the HomeLink menu still gets chopped off.) Presumably a forthcoming software update will fix this, as well as several of my other points, but the more noise we make to Tesla, the sooner it will get fixed! :tongue: