P85 vs a Buick

[dave]

Had to get a rental for work this week. Too far to take the Tesla to St. Louis.

Some sort of Buick. It was actually the most luxurious car I've driven. Things I really liked that I didn't know I was missing:

Blind spot detection ( really liked this )
Auto sensing cruise control
Way comfier leather seats
AC outlet in the back seat
parking sensors, directional lines on the parking cam

Didn't miss the power too much... Until I went to pass someone on the highway and realized how spoiled I've become withe instant power in the Tesla. I was really shocked at how long it took for the engine to shift down and muster up enough power to pass.

just thought I'd share. Missed my Tesla's power, but did notice some of the luxuries she's missing. Of course I had to endure jokes from my coworkers the whole time about how we couldn't take my car because it couldn't make it that far, and still cost twice as much.

Tired of no Superchargers in the Midwest...

 

[passion4audio]

The Buick LaCrosse is nice. Nice styling and very comfortable.

 

[kevincwelch]

Tired of no Superchargers in the Midwest...

I hear you.

Soon...soon.

 

[caddieo]

Tired of no Superchargers in the Midwest...

Me too. Especially in western KY and IL. Even if all the dots on the SC map are built up, my normal route from FL to Chicago is still short-changed and I would have to take a longer route to use the available superchargers.

 

[dave]

Yeah, that was the one we had. It had a HUD display for your speed which was neat too.

- - - Updated - - -

I have to get another rental to go to Cleveland next week because it is 250 miles, which is too close to cut it in the cold, and I can't risk the charging drama when I have work associates with me.

 

[MikeL]

Fear Not dave! The way I have come to think about it is that every driver, every day checks his or her range whenever they go somewhere. If they determine they need more, they go get (buy) some. The only difference for us today is that we just spent the last hundred years making sure there is a gas station on every corner, everywhere. The supercharger network is a total game changer. I just hope that Coasts-then Crosscountry-then Most Interstates doesn't stop there. Tesla needs to keep it growing -Spur Routes- right!? ML

 

[jyc]

Certainly agree with the lack of certain features, but some of those can be retrofitted with aftermarket parts (if you're willing to find a good installer and spend extra on top of what you've already spent). The thread on the retrofit of the factory parking sensors makes me wonder if that will ever be available and at what price, but... If you're willing to go aftermarket and can find a good installer to do some of the work, the results can be pretty good if you're keeping your car for a while.

We ended up going aftermarket with
1. Front and rear parking sensors (some unbranded thing from China, whom the installer either couldn't or wouldn't name the supplier)
2. Blind spot sensors (Gosher's premium)
3. MobileEye system

The front and rear parking sensors are great; the audio is more than enough. Can't say that I personally use the visual displays beyond the numerical distance in inches, but they are there for the side of the object with escalating LEDs for distance.

For the blind-spot sensor, though, you might be satisfied or not with the aftermarket Goshers Premium system, depending on what you were used to from that rental Buick. The Goshers system is ultrasonic, so it really needs a vehicle to be specifically positioned in your blind spot to warn (unlike radar based systems that can warn you of incoming vehicles BEFORE they actually get to your blind spot). It also doesn't seem to know if you're in motion or not, so if you have your turn signals on at a stop, and a car or other object (tree, concrete barrier, etc.) is in your blind spot, it will flash repeatedly at you with no way to stop it (unless your turn off your signal). The system we love on our other vehicle was built into the car and radar based, so it only activated when we were in motion and also had the benefit of knowing the relative speeds of cars coming in behind you. We love warning of incoming vehicles for our blind spot so that we could avoid changing lanes in a potentially dangerous situation/cut someone else off. We've never had any false alarms with this system that we've noticed. The Goshers system is good, but the radar based system we have in another vehicle is better. The visual alert is also +/-. It is not quite bright enough in bright sunlight, but way more than bright enough at night. Your installer might find a good place to put it, as the pillar between the front quarter window and drivers window isn't quite as nice as either within the side-mirror itself or along the side panel of the mirror. The difference in distance isn't that much, but for me, it's harder to notice. By now, there might be another aftermarket system that you could look into for blind-spot sensing.

There's a thread on the directional lines on the parking cam and whether or not it will be possible based on people's theory of whether the video is a hardware or software overlay, etc. Hopefully it'll be solved and we'll get that.

As for comfier seats, totally with you there; haven't found a good aftermarket solution to that one yet.

Hopefully one day we'll get the option of your autosensing cruise control. I suppose for your AC outlet, you could run an DC inverter from the 12V outlet to the back, but that would probably be pretty darned ugly. I bet if you really want, a good aftermarket installer could make it pretty!