I did an initial assessment of my P85D here: Tracking P85D delivery thread - Page 317 on 12/21. Now that I've had it for a couple of months, I thought I would share my feedback for those who want a more educated assessment of the P85D.
For reference, the P85D was my 2nd Tesla Model S. My first was an early model S85 delivered in March of 2013. I sold the S85 just before buying the P85D. The key summary after 2 months and 2k miles of ownership is that I'm very happy with the purchase and I definitely would have regretted not doing it. While I had some original concerns with the car, Tesla has made up for it with software updates and the car is now definitively better than what it was than I bought it, and most definitely better than my S85. Finally, Tesla has gotten much better in initial quality.
More detail...
So, in my initial assessment, I had the following thoughts on the P85D:
Now here are the things I would add:
- Range is no longer an issue
- Initial quality has proven significantly better than my earlier S85
- Acceleration really is pretty bad-ass
- Autopilot features have just made the car better
Let's start with the BIG update - Range. My original gripe with the P85D was that the range SUCKED. It was HORRIBLE. I averaged 348 Wh/m in my S85 and was VERY disappointed by the P85D where I was averaging 400 Wh/m in my initial assessment. I read the JB blog post which stated that my 21" wheels would add an additional 3% (ok) and that fresh tires would add an additional 5%. As I got to my first 1000 miles I was very disappointed to see that my range got NO better, and in fact seemed to be much worse. This was more than just range anxiety for me. I travel to St Helena from Los Altos, quite frequently, and the trip is just on the range of my S85. The range of the P85D would not make the trip. Neither would it work well for a trip to Monterey and forget about trying to make a go at Tahoe.
Then came .139 and all of a sudden things changed - dramatically. I reset one of my trip counters after the upgrade. At the time my lifetime Wh/m was at 398. Long story short, since .139, I have averaged 355 Wh/m which considering the 3% penalty from my 21" tires would put me in better range than my S85. I've been pretty happy with this. Now the difference is much more pronounced on freeway and slower/steady driving than in city/aggressive driving. But we didn't buy the P85D to drive ms daisy did we. The point is that if you drive conservatively, you can get decent range out of this car. On declines it seems to provide better range than the S85, and below 65mph I have seen efficiency ratings as low as 250 Wh/m which I NEVER saw with my S85. All in all, I'm no longer paying a range penalty to drive the car (that said the range isn't better than my S85 which I had expected when the D was announced). More importantly - I've made a few 200 mile + trips with plenty of range to spare, and I could do so driving at 75mph - not driving like a grandma in my super fast sports car, just so I could make the range.
Now, let's talk about initial quality. In the first 3 months of owning my S85, I had to take the car in for service five different times. Most of this was manufacturing defects (one time for weather stripping with the sunroof, one time for a trim issue, one time for problems with the TPMS sensors, one time for problems with door rattles, and once because the rear window just broke). Since buying my P85D, I have had no need for service. Now, in fairness, my S85 was one of the first 5k ever made, and therefore lots of manufacturing kinks to be worked out, but they have definitely done so. It is also true that there are little annoyances that I have had with rattles and wind noise with my P85D which I would like to get fixed, but they are not significant enough to want to go in for service. But the car is in much better shape than my S85 was. Wind noise is one of the biggest differences. My S85 made a loud noise from the sunroof above 70mph. My P85D is silent. Moreover, it has stayed solid through the first 2,000 miles of driving.
Acceleration: I originally complained that the P85D's acceleration wasn't "insane" enough. I can say with confidence that the acceleration hasn't changed. However, I have found that if I ever get into another car, I MISS the acceleration of my P85D SOOOO much. and this was not the case with my S85 - I just noticed it. The fact of the matter is that I just love the fact that my car is faster than anything else on the road, and no matter what kind of jerk tries to out accelerate me off the line, I will dust them without even thinking about it. Happy customer.
Autopilot: along with the range updates, this is the part where Tesla does what Tesla does best - make the car better with software updates. When I picked up the car, it had no traffic aware cruise control. Now it does. It had no lane departure warning, now it does. It had no collision warning, now it does. It had no auto brights - now it does. Maps are better, slacker is better, the car is better. Now some of this would have also been true with My S85, but because of the new hardware, it is more pronounced with the P85D. And, more is to come.
While some of it might be stockholm syndrome, I've become really satisfied with my P85D purchase and I'm really glad that I did it. What is even cooler is that I still haven't received the new seats, and there are software updates coming that will improve the top end and the acceleration of the car. This is the kind of stuff that made me a VERY satisfied S85 customer and I'm glad to share that my P85D experience has been just the same.
I'm not a fan boy - I will rip Tesla for where they make a crappy product, but the P85D - with the software updates - was a good buy for me.
Hope this helps you if you're trying to figure out what to buy.
For reference, the P85D was my 2nd Tesla Model S. My first was an early model S85 delivered in March of 2013. I sold the S85 just before buying the P85D. The key summary after 2 months and 2k miles of ownership is that I'm very happy with the purchase and I definitely would have regretted not doing it. While I had some original concerns with the car, Tesla has made up for it with software updates and the car is now definitively better than what it was than I bought it, and most definitely better than my S85. Finally, Tesla has gotten much better in initial quality.
More detail...
So, in my initial assessment, I had the following thoughts on the P85D:
Now here are the things I would add:
- Range is no longer an issue
- Initial quality has proven significantly better than my earlier S85
- Acceleration really is pretty bad-ass
- Autopilot features have just made the car better
Let's start with the BIG update - Range. My original gripe with the P85D was that the range SUCKED. It was HORRIBLE. I averaged 348 Wh/m in my S85 and was VERY disappointed by the P85D where I was averaging 400 Wh/m in my initial assessment. I read the JB blog post which stated that my 21" wheels would add an additional 3% (ok) and that fresh tires would add an additional 5%. As I got to my first 1000 miles I was very disappointed to see that my range got NO better, and in fact seemed to be much worse. This was more than just range anxiety for me. I travel to St Helena from Los Altos, quite frequently, and the trip is just on the range of my S85. The range of the P85D would not make the trip. Neither would it work well for a trip to Monterey and forget about trying to make a go at Tahoe.
Then came .139 and all of a sudden things changed - dramatically. I reset one of my trip counters after the upgrade. At the time my lifetime Wh/m was at 398. Long story short, since .139, I have averaged 355 Wh/m which considering the 3% penalty from my 21" tires would put me in better range than my S85. I've been pretty happy with this. Now the difference is much more pronounced on freeway and slower/steady driving than in city/aggressive driving. But we didn't buy the P85D to drive ms daisy did we. The point is that if you drive conservatively, you can get decent range out of this car. On declines it seems to provide better range than the S85, and below 65mph I have seen efficiency ratings as low as 250 Wh/m which I NEVER saw with my S85. All in all, I'm no longer paying a range penalty to drive the car (that said the range isn't better than my S85 which I had expected when the D was announced). More importantly - I've made a few 200 mile + trips with plenty of range to spare, and I could do so driving at 75mph - not driving like a grandma in my super fast sports car, just so I could make the range.
Now, let's talk about initial quality. In the first 3 months of owning my S85, I had to take the car in for service five different times. Most of this was manufacturing defects (one time for weather stripping with the sunroof, one time for a trim issue, one time for problems with the TPMS sensors, one time for problems with door rattles, and once because the rear window just broke). Since buying my P85D, I have had no need for service. Now, in fairness, my S85 was one of the first 5k ever made, and therefore lots of manufacturing kinks to be worked out, but they have definitely done so. It is also true that there are little annoyances that I have had with rattles and wind noise with my P85D which I would like to get fixed, but they are not significant enough to want to go in for service. But the car is in much better shape than my S85 was. Wind noise is one of the biggest differences. My S85 made a loud noise from the sunroof above 70mph. My P85D is silent. Moreover, it has stayed solid through the first 2,000 miles of driving.
Acceleration: I originally complained that the P85D's acceleration wasn't "insane" enough. I can say with confidence that the acceleration hasn't changed. However, I have found that if I ever get into another car, I MISS the acceleration of my P85D SOOOO much. and this was not the case with my S85 - I just noticed it. The fact of the matter is that I just love the fact that my car is faster than anything else on the road, and no matter what kind of jerk tries to out accelerate me off the line, I will dust them without even thinking about it. Happy customer.
Autopilot: along with the range updates, this is the part where Tesla does what Tesla does best - make the car better with software updates. When I picked up the car, it had no traffic aware cruise control. Now it does. It had no lane departure warning, now it does. It had no collision warning, now it does. It had no auto brights - now it does. Maps are better, slacker is better, the car is better. Now some of this would have also been true with My S85, but because of the new hardware, it is more pronounced with the P85D. And, more is to come.
While some of it might be stockholm syndrome, I've become really satisfied with my P85D purchase and I'm really glad that I did it. What is even cooler is that I still haven't received the new seats, and there are software updates coming that will improve the top end and the acceleration of the car. This is the kind of stuff that made me a VERY satisfied S85 customer and I'm glad to share that my P85D experience has been just the same.
I'm not a fan boy - I will rip Tesla for where they make a crappy product, but the P85D - with the software updates - was a good buy for me.
Hope this helps you if you're trying to figure out what to buy.
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