Premium Interior & Lighting, wife and I can't agree, please help

[valkeriefire]

My wife and I are considering purchasing a new 2016 90D. We've been looking at private party sales and CPOs, but my wife is so frustrated she's ready to pull the trigger on a new purchase. She wants cloth or vegan leather seats (which I support), but we can't agree on the Premium Interior Lighting package. She wants to save the $3000 (which makes sense, it's overpriced, although it does subsidize Tesla doing other good things). I really want the Power Lift Gate because I've been missing not having a power lift gate on our 6 year old Toyota Sienna, and I'm afraid I'll regret not having it every time I load groceries (the alumni license bracket on our Sienna rattles every time you close the hatch and it's annoying).

Opinions? Thoughts? Wife wants to buy a new car we can't agree LOL.

 

[steph280]

Power liftgate is the only regret we have not getting the premium package. But having extra $3K to spend on other options negates the regret. Everything else in that package is useless anyway.

 

[deonb]

How tall is your wife? A lot of women have a problem closing the hatch without the power liftgate. Did you try a car without one already?

Most showroom cars have the power liftgate, and that's not necessarily representatives of the real hatch, since the powered doors don't always open up all the way - people in the showrooms tend to play around with it, and it's easy to inadvertently set an upper limit on the liftgate.

 

[jmsurpri]

I wish I had the power liftgate, but it's not a deal killer. My wife and I have no issues closing the hatch, but it does take a bit of force to close. I think the standard interior looks great. Since your wife wants cloth or vegan seats, you should also be aware that the premium interior adds leather to the doors and center armrests.

There is one thing that surprised me when I got the car- there's less chrome-y bits on the exterior of the car. For example, the lower accent front light housing has chrome horizontal lines when you get the premium interior, and just black without. Same with the lower rear bumper center accent piece.

 

[kort677]

being that so many components are bundled into the new tech/premium package, my answer would be yes buy the very expensive package. some of the components you could live without but some of them you'd regret not having YMMV

 

[BaileyDog12]

I dont think the premium interior is necessary. But the wife required the auto lift gate. We sampled both options at the store before buying. She loved that a button touch could open and close the trunk. She was even more convinced after testing both options. Made life easier for her she says. Ive opened and closed trunks by hand my entire life.

I think 3k is alot for the auto lift gate but its a cool bell and whistle to add to a long list of other bells and whistles.

If anything get air suspension. I never sat in a coilover model before buying and wish i had been more thorough. I was told there's no difference but i think air suspension gives a much smoother ride.

 

[sandpiper]

I dont think the premium interior is necessary. But the wife required the auto lift gate. We sampled both options at the store before buying. She loved that a button touch could open and close the trunk. She was even more convinced after testing both options. Made life easier for her she says. Ive opened and closed trunks by hand my entire life.

I think 3k is alot for the auto lift gate but its a cool bell and whistle to add to a long list of other bells and whistles.

If anything get air suspension. I never sat in a coilover model before buying and wish i had been more thorough. I was told there's no difference but i think air suspension gives a much smoother ride.

Is it possible to have a vegan premium interior? I have it, and a lot of it replaces plastics with leather wrapped panels.

 

[valkeriefire]

Thanks everyone for your responses. My wife is 5'6" and fairly athletic, so closing the hatch isn't an issue for her (she handles the Sienna just fine).

@BaileyDog12, I'd love to get air suspension just for the fun factor of moving the car up and down, but it isn't in the budget, we'll only get it if we buy private-party or CPO. Hopefully the standard suspension isn't too bad. The local Tesla Store only seems to have fully loaded cars available for demo. My wife doesn't want the sunroof either (she thinks it will be too hot here in Vegas with all the sunlight pouring through the roof), but the Tesla Store didn't even have one without the sunroof to show us

@sandpiper, great question about how the Vegan leather affects the Premium interior, I'm going to call our Sales Rep and ask him today.

 

[Skotty]

My wife and I have test driven several S's with smart air suspension and currently own an S without it. Honestly, we don't really care either way, and were happy to go without. But it's one of those things you almost need to experience for yourself, as people have differing opinions on it.

 

[GuyGadois]

I totally regret not getting this option for the power liftgate. Our hatch hits the garage roof. With the power option it wouldn't!

 

[jerry33]

Being able to set the opening height of the hatchback so it won't hit the garage door will save you thousands in repairs. Far more than the cost of the option. (There are some threads with what a hatch repair costs).

The interior lighting really helps make the car seem special. I know it's overpriced but...

The main thing about the air suspension is that you can raise the car for problematic situations and snow. It's also helpful for those who are much less agile than most (my elderly father in law for example). That couple of inches can make exiting far easier, and because it remembers where you raised it, you only have fiddle with it once for your more common places.

 

[mspohr]

I dont think the premium interior is necessary. But the wife required the auto lift gate. We sampled both options at the store before buying. She loved that a button touch could open and close the trunk. She was even more convinced after testing both options. Made life easier for her she says. Ive opened and closed trunks by hand my entire life.

I think 3k is alot for the auto lift gate but its a cool bell and whistle to add to a long list of other bells and whistles.

If anything get air suspension. I never sat in a coilover model before buying and wish i had been more thorough. I was told there's no difference but i think air suspension gives a much smoother ride.

Power lift gate is definitely useful. I can't imagine the car without it.
Also second the air suspension. I originally bought it to raise suspension for deep snow but now appreciate that it has a smoother, quieter ride in all conditions (much less high frequency road noise).
I didn't get the premium lighting and I'm fine with that except for the trunk where I added extra lighting which is much brighter than even the premium package. It cost me about $10 for two small LED panels which really light up the trunk nicely.

 

[mrElbe]

Be aware that without the sun roof, head room is a bit lower.

 

[nanimac]

Go try one without the PLG..I did and I hated it so had to get the premium interior pkg just for that even though I didn't really care about the other stuff...I know I would have regretted not getting it.