Plaid Impressions, Road Noise & Real Solutions

[Ash83]

I have spent the previous 2 weeks renting various Teslas on Turo. Model X P100D, pre-raven Model S P90D, Model S Raven Performance, and most recently a Plaid. Wanted to post my thoughts before asking for possible solutions in regards to wind noise and road noise.

The Plaid is the only car I have really connected to emotionally during my time testing out various Teslas for long periods of time, the pre-raven P90D came pretty close. But the yoke, the comfort, sound system, and quiet ride (under 50mph at least) make it the perfect daily driver for me.

LIKES:
1. Love the yoke. I thought I would hate it, and I adapted to it and loved it within 2 hours of driving the car. The elbow rests are perfectly placed so you can comfortably set your hand on the top nub of the yoke while cruising. Additionally, no reviewer seems to have mentioned the benefit of being able to cruise at low speeds around town without having to place a relaxed grip around a wheel. For people with carpal tunnel like me, being able to make a turn simply by extending an open palm facing upward and lifting the flat bottom of the yoke instead of having to actually grip a wheel is phenomenally relaxing way to drive, super comfortable. At least it is for me. This is a bonus, and if given a choice I would not want to trade it for a wheel. I also did not find 3 point turns or u-turns frustrating in anyway, it's rather fun.

2. Love the ability to swipe the screen to quickly go into drive or reverse. I prefer it over a stalk driver selector.

3. Love the seats. Far more comfortable and cushy while also being more supportive than any of the previous models I've driven. Really love them

4. Good ride quality. Not fantastic, not an S class, but still good. Compliant over rough roads, you can still feel the road but it's just enough to strike that balance between luxury and sport. I will say that I still prefer the suspension in the pre-raven P90D. It's slightly more comfortable and compliant, seems to absorb the road better. I'm not convinced that the new air suspension was done to provide more comfort, it seems to be focused on flexbility.

4. Love the cabin noise at speeds under 50mph. Feels like a luxury car until you go over 50mph

5. Love the new sound system. I'm an audiophile with quite a setup at home, I have litearlly walked away from buying a range rover because their so called "top of the line" Meridian system was trash. This is one of the best sound systems I've heard in a car at this class. It's not audiophile level, but it's so enjoyable with such a wonderful sense of space and air around the music, with very tight bass. Sold

6. Speed and launch control. Obviously

DISLIKES:

1. Windshield wiper button placement. I've activated the windshield wipers 5 times in the course of 24 hours. Taking a perfectly detailed car, and dirtying it up with fluid. Not good. I hope a software update makes this button a long press which would fix this issue. They need better QA at tesla because this seems like there was no thought put into this.

2. Auto drive selector. Twice the car defaulted to the incorrect driving mode when their were clearly obstacles behind or infront of me and began accelerating in the wrong direction. This is a very dangerous feature. Regardless of the arrows that appear on screen to inform the driver what direction the car is about to go, this car is designed to convince the driver to sit back relax and let the car make decisions. Not a good habit to get into at this stage of the vehicles development.

3. Door unlock via cellphone. The car only detects me standing in front of it half the time, therefore it will not open the door when i need it to. Someitmes I have to swipe my cell phone in front of the door to open it.


HATE/DEALBREAKER:
Road Noise and wind noise at speeds above 50mph. This is the real deal breaker for me and the only thing preventing me from placing a deposit and buying the car. Totally unacceptable on a car of this price that is marketed as a luxury car.

I'm having an odd love/hate with the Plaid because it has two distinct personalities. Under 50mph it's everything I want in a daily driver. Quiet, compliant, butter smooth on roads, and I love the steering when set to sport. Above 50mph however, I hate it. I am extremely auditory and very sensitive to road and wind noise, it causes tension and aggravation, and reminds me the vehicles I hated in the 90's and early 2000's.

The wind noise is so distracting at speeds above 70mph on the highway, that I actually conteplated buying another car just for comfortable freeway driving, and relegating the Plaid to city streets. I HATE driving this car on the highway, it reminds me of my 2010 BMW M3. All the other Tesla models I've driven at highway speeds measured 69-71db on a a meter. The pre-raven P90D was the quietes on the highway at 69-70db above 70mph. The Plaid is measuring 72-73db above 70mph. The wind noise is just too much. It's not deafening, but it distracting and drowns out the music playing on the sound system. Hyundai and Ford do better than this at under half the price, and my moms BMW X3 SUV from 2009 certainly does. It's truly an embarrassment, and I do not think a noise cancelling feature is the answer.

I'm aware there are multiple threads on various weather strip solution, but I'm not interested in any solution that does no result in at least a 3db reduction in noise. Has anyone successfully mitigated road noise over 3db on a Model S using Dynamat, window treatments or similar solutions? The noise seems to be coming from the areas surrounding the windshield and the small triangle windows between the windshield and the side windows. If I can truly mitigate it, I would buy the car. But not in it's current state. It's a literal dealbreaker. Thanks

something wrong with that Plaid, as other said it is for sure the quietest model S compared to the pre refresh. I did measure it at 68-69dB with AP 75MPH on a good new asphalt

 

[mohanman]

I was very sad to get my 2023 Plaid X. I feel entirely ripped off for the price. Seats are narrow and uncomfortable, the ride is rough even with comfort mode and 20" wheels. Worse is the wind noise on the highway. Significantly worse then my 2016. Seals are same old cheap *sugar*. Feel completely jipped.

 

[Jpandes]

I wonder if something was amiss with that Plaid. With my LR most of the noise comes from the tires.

The wind noise on my MS P100D was primarily coming from the little triangular windows on the front doors. I manually “adjusted” (read: bent them) outward about an 1/8”. This made a big difference on my car.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Same, no wind noise, all tire. First ev but it is very distracting. Just wondering if it’s so much more noticeable because of the lack of engine noise.

Name a $100K luxury car that you can even hear the tiniest amount of engine noise when cruising at freeway speeds? There are none.

It's a cop out for EV's to say there's no engine noise to drown out rattles and road noise. Almost all modern family cars have next to no noise from the engine at cruise speeds. Only sports cars that are designed to have engine noise have any in those conditions, or old cars like the 60's VW Bug. I'll give you that one.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Your comments about road noise reinforce my long-term dislike of Tesla's repeatedly choosing to use frameless windows on the doors of all their models.

It's not the frameless windows that are the problem, it's the adjustments during the build that the factory gets wrong.

Frameless windows are only as good as their alignment on the seals. The windows are fully adjustable to tilt, in/out, up/down, and twist. If Tesla can't even get a front fender aligned properly, would we expect them to get every window on every door adjusted correctly?

On my Model 3, it was so bad that there was an air gap between the window and the door seals. Taking off the door panels on these cars is easy (plenty of YouTube videos to show how), so I adjusted the window myself on that car.

That's the first thing I would check and adjust if I had excess wind noise around the windows. I lucked out and don't on my '23, even though I have a laundry list of other common problems.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

1. Windshield wiper button placement. I've activated the windshield wipers 5 times in the course of 24 hours. Taking a perfectly detailed car, and dirtying it up with fluid. Not good. I hope a software update makes this button a long press which would fix this issue. They need better QA at tesla because this seems like there was no thought put into this.

This is the main reason why I am going to switch to the round wheel as soon as it's available. Having have to hold the yoke next to the spokes puts my wide hands too close to the overly sensitive touch buttons.

 

[supermac]

I had an X with a similar issue. Service squirted some foam into below the front A pillars and that really quieted the wind noise down. Said it was a known problem and foam was an effective solution. Loved how quiet my Tesla was after that.

hmmI want to ask someone about this... my plaid has loud tires.. this would be cool. It is noticably louder than the 2019 loaner x they gave me.