Return to Power: the 2013 Tesla Model S - Road & Track

[PureAmps]

An excellent review by Road and Track:

Return to Power: the 2013 Tesla Model S - Road & Track

 

[StephenM]

Another awesome review of the Model S. Game changer indeed. Funny comments about the door handles :biggrin:

 

[LuckyLuke]

The part about pulling fuses cracked me up, with all the tire smoking pictures included in the article :biggrin:
And I guess the writer is factually wrong about the seat memory missing?

Edit: the vehicle log will probably show some "driving in circles on a parking lot" as well, but slightly different this time :wink:

 

[Todd Burch]

Great review. Not quite finished reading it yet, but "The Model S's power seats don't have a memory setting."

Whuh?

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Another super-minor quibble:

The Model S has no ignition switch-the car turns on and is ready to go when you sit in the driver's seat and hit the brake pedal-and that means you can't easily turn it off when, say, you're sitting in the car waiting for someone and don't want the climate control or radio on.

Power off button?

 

[montgom626]

Our car did the deed in 4.1 seconds

Best line is " Tesla is wrong. Our car did the deed in 4.1 seconds. "

 

[Todd Burch]

I think Tesla would be well off to start advertising a faster than 4.4 0-60 time for the performance model. To performance buyers, that number really means something--and shaving off a few tenths...to 4.1, as several magazines have achieved--would probably be measurably beneficial to sales.

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Beautiful, well-crafted, cool, and seriously fast, the Model S isn't just the most important car of the year. It's the most important car America has made in an entire lifetime.

For a respected, gear-head auto magazine to write that is a really big deal.

 

[Norbert]

They must have been deeply impressed. Model S might have more potential than became visible so far.

 

[johnnyS]

Nice review, I wonder how much tread was left on the rear tires when Road and Track returned the car.

 

[Doug_G]

Best line is " Tesla is wrong. Our car did the deed in 4.1 seconds. "

I disagree. The best line is: "When you're in a supercar-fast electric car like the Tesla, the driving experience is an odd cognitive mash-up-somewhere between shouting Greenpeace-approved obscenities at Toyota Priuses and dusting Corvettes from stoplights on a cruise night."

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Many of their gripes are simply wrong! It does have seat memory via the driver profiles. Cargo cover is just backordered. It's easy to turn off the car from the touchscreen. Someone needs to read the manual. (What's with the comment about weak headlights?)

Funny that they hated the door handles.

 

[ElSupreme]

I disagree. The best line is: "When you're in a supercar-fast electric car like the Tesla, the driving experience is an odd cognitive mash-up-somewhere between shouting Greenpeace-approved obscenities at Toyota Priuses and dusting Corvettes from stoplights on a cruise night."

I absolutely agree with this!

 

[Elshout]

I have never seen Road & Track make such a bold statement in the 30 or more years I have read this magazine:

"Beautiful, well-crafted, cool, and seriously fast, the Model S isn't just the most important car of the year. It's the most important car America has made in an entire lifetime."

 

[jcstp]

I think this car has textile seats, that is why no seat-memory! (2012 Model S)

 

[TokyoRush]

Sorry folks - my favorite quote was: "Traction control is partially defeatable, but stability control isn't-unless you take drastic moves like cutting wires or pulling fuses. We're not going to admit to either, but in the hypothetical event that we did pull a fuse to facilitate a photo, we'd be able to report that the Model S is nearly neutral at its limit and supremely easy to drift."

LOL

 

[Beavis]

High praise indeed. Their gush is showing.

 

[artsci]

High praise indeed. Their gush is showing.

It's as much and much more than I expected from R&T. With them this is as good as it gets.

 

[vfx]

Comment on battery replacement assumes that in 10 years the car's range would be untenable. With 177 worst case miles with a loss of 2% a year makes the new 144 range worst case.

A lot less range but hardly a requirement to replace.

 

[Merrill]

Wow!!!!! In all my years of subscribing to automobile magazines, never heard this high praise. Especially from ICE guys. Very cool

 

[dsm363]

Comment on battery replacement assumes that in 10 years the car's range would be untenable. With 177 worst case miles with a loss of 2% a year makes the new 144 range worst case.

A lot less range but hardly a requirement to replace.

I agree. Assuming the car still is in ok condition otherwise, I think you'll see EVs like that being moved to people as more of a commuter car since over 100 miles would work for many people still.

 

[napabill]

Typically when one sees a glowing review like this one, you look for the 3 dbl-truck, full color ads in that issue. But we know different. I will sleep well tonight!

 

[Raffy.Roma]

Comment on battery replacement assumes that in 10 years the car's range would be untenable. With 177 worst case miles with a loss of 2% a year makes the new 144 range worst case.

A lot less range but hardly a requirement to replace.

I would agree with you if the battery degradation was linear, that is to say a constant loss of 2% each year for 10 years. But I very much doubt that it is like this.
It it was like this nobody would get the second battery replacement because after 10 years the battery would be still ok. Right?