Enterprise Rent-a-Car has a Manager’s Special in the South San Francisco Bay area for April 2019 of $150/day for Tesla cars including Model S. I upgraded my rental while my car is in the shop, and I’m enjoying the Model S 75D right now. It is far better than the car I was going to get from the rental company, so I am happy with my choice. However, it also gets me to review the car and compare it to the November 2016 build Model S 60D that I owned in 2016-2017, and to the 2003 Mercedes S500 4Matic (hereinafter referred to as MB) that I own today. Here are my comments, related to the differences and wishes in the Tesla, compared to literally everything.
Note that the car I rented does not have: Autopilot features activated (although it has a screen of them behind the steering wheel); bioweapon air filter; new suspension system and other features announced April 23, 2019 in Tesla's blog. The screen on the car indicates the following data: 9,139 miles, VI#5YJSA1E2_JF25___ (2018 Model S), software v9.0 (2019.8.3 da116a6), 75D (75 battery, dual motor).
Since this is the first time I've had a Model S in many months, and I'm freshly comparing it to my MB, I'd like to log my comments when they are fresh in my mind, since I found that when I owned my Model S in the past, I forgot most of the comparisons except for the most painful ones, and that is a lost opportunity for Tesla to learn what they can improve, so here are my immediate comments, a lot of which I and many others have posted before, and some that are fresh or unique:
The rear seat headrests are in the way of the rear view via the rear view mirror or when turning the neck all the way around (if backing up, but the view out back is so narrow it’s better to use the rear view camera which is quite good). Compared to my MB, my MB allows the dropping of its headrests, taking them out of my rear view. Many of us have mentioned this in the past.
The rear view is a slit of a window compared to the MB. Many of us have mentioned this in the past.
The rear view camera is quite good, so using it is good. Many of us have mentioned this in the past.
I do not like that the car takes away the rear view camera when I go forward again, since often I am doing a multi-point turn and would like to see out back still during my pull forward. Most competitive cars I’ve rented have this feature (keeping rear view camera on during pull forward, for a period of seconds or until a certain speed or both, so that you don’t have to do extra stuff to see out back when in a multi-point turn even when you’re driving forward a bit); this bothered me quite a few times yesterday. I think a workaround is putting rear view camera on full time, but that interferes with other uses of the screen, obviously something I had trouble with yesterday since I didn’t turn that feature on during multipoint turns.
The forward windshield is a slit compared to my MB. Most specifically, my tall trunk puts my view such that I cannot see the top of my view out of the S. Obviously, this was fixed in the X since that portion of windshield continues up in a great panaromic view; I’ve long recommended getting the Model X rather than the Model S for almost everyone, including tall-trunked people like me. I should have never bought the Model S, rather should have gotten X or 3, or Y when it comes out. I have mentioned these things in the past.
The Model S I’m renting is very noisy, and very noisy compared to the MB. There are two sources of this problem: first, Tesla sees their cars as quiet compared to other cars, due to engine noise issues. They take advantage of this by spending less on firewall and other car insulation. However, this attitude causes road noise to come in, from other noise such as noisy vehicles outside (trucks, buses, motorcycles, pickups, hoodrat cars, etc.), jackhammers, etc., and it causes road noise such as tire and asphalt and concrete noise to come in readily. Furthermore, there are a lot of window seams that are causing noise, such as the nice panoramic glass roof seam, and the door window seams. While this is not much worse than some lower end cars, compared to existing luxury vehicles, this is pretty deplorable. Many of us have written about this in the past.
The seatbelt is inferior to the MB. I have mentioned this in the past. While I’d love the full MB feature list for the seatbelts including the PreSafe features, the thing I noticed today is that when I’m wrapping up a box in the front seat, once I pull the seatbelt out partially, it doesn’t come out any more; the MB one does. I think the MB seatbelt is just more sophisticated, and expensive.
The seats jut me in the sides of my abdomen. That is painful in only a short drive, and after a long drive would become very painful. I’ve always had trouble with this seat style and Tesla. I’ve commented that it was better with the original Model 3 seats, but I fear the most recent Model 3 seats are awful since I’ve heard they give “better support”, supposedly to regular-framed people; I am wide. I’ve commented that I had less trouble with Model X I’ve test driven, but I don’t know if the newer Model X are also for small framed people. Tesla doesn’t offer seat options for swap-out; I’ve always said this is a HUGE mistake. 3rd party seats are difficult because Tesla doesn’t offer compatibility testing for 3rd party seats, and there are some important safety features in Tesla seats that would need to be compatibility tested (airbags, mainly). This is one of the reasons I originally sold my Model S; I could not make financial sense of owning and paying for upkeep of such an expensive health-damaging vehicle. This is a continuing ongoing issue, but it fits in with Tesla’s statement that you can return their cars within one week (for a full refund), so I fully insist that any Tesla car buyers THOROUGHLY test their cars during that one week; do NOT just accept delivery and then be busy with something non-car oriented, since that will take you away from fully testing the Tesla during this return window. Do not look at the car with rosy-colored glasses during this review period; A/B test the car with the car you previously owned, take detailed notes, take it to the limits of the way YOU use cars, and be honest. For instance, a lot of people have very small frames and would fit in the Tesla Model S PERFECTLY; if this is you and your passengers, then great, you bought a great car. This also applies to Model X and Model 3, keeping in mind that I recommend both Model X and Model 3 theoretically for any larger-framed person, and still you should thoroughly test it out within the 1 week return window.
The rear view mirror doesn’t dim bright lights (compared to my MB). I’m wondering if there is an aftermarket feature of installing MB rear view mirrors on Tesla Model S’s (or other Teslas) that would do this. This probably also applies to the side rear view mirrors.
The standard cabin air filter is worse than my MB filter. I smelled a lot of ICE car pollution that I never smelled in my MB, and I got some poisoning (including headaches) due to this inferior Tesla filter I would not have experienced in my MB. Since this car is a refresh face, if I owned it, I would have bought the bioweapon filter upgrade; I recommend that for everyone. It’s ok if you buy a refreshed Model S or Model X car without that filter as long as you go and upgrade it after purchase. I heard the Model 3 has a better filter than a filterless Model S, but that it cannot take the bioweapon defense filter; someone else will have to report a comparison between the Model 3 cabin filter and the MB cabin filter. I HOPE that the Model 3 cabin filter is about the same as the MB cabin filter. Note that pre-refresh Model S cannot take the bioweapon defense filters. (If memory serves, Model X always had that availability.)
The main screen in my rental car is often unresponsive; I’ve had to reboot it twice in one day. Furthermore, it doesn’t give me any error messages that indicate the reason for the freeze for further debugging. It should send that info into Tesla so their SW people can fix it.
I can’t upgrade to the latest car software on demand in the car. (Others have pointed out this problem.)
The car doesn’t tell me my HPWC firmware version and available firmware upgrade options. I would like to know this. It also doesn’t tell me the HPWC status such as hardware version, install settings, etc. This would be useful in planning HPWC upgrades and diagnosing HPWC compatibility, installation, and maintenance problems. We have seen this be an issue before many times on the forums. I left my rental plugged into my HPWC all night in an attempt to let them upgrade the HPWC firmware, but I have no idea at all what, if anything, the two did to attempt to do that.
There doesn’t appear to be an interior camera for full self driving taxi operation. Since this car has the HW lanes necessary to do FSD, the interior camera should be installed in this car to allow taxi operation. Is this an inexpensive upgrade in the future? Tesla hasn’t committed to anything about this that I am aware of. This should be committed in writing by Tesla to existing >=HW2 Tesla car owners. (Also see my comment above about dimming bright lights above; they could be part of the same upgrade, even though they are for opposite reasons (better computer robot driving vs. better human driving); it would be the same unit being replaced, so possibly a good idea to package both together. A third party solution would also work for this for both or either purposes.)
The hardware in this car is fully available to see road height issues coming up and respond with the suspension, yet, twice my rental car scraped the bottom. In one case, I was coming up very slowly off of a turn-off and the step up was more than the current suspension setting was at, and I scuffed the forward plastic diaper of the car, but if the car had seen that coming and raised the suspension, I would not have. Even though new suspension features are in new hardware, these older air suspension cars do have the ability to slowly raise and lower the car for slow driving situations, so the car should detect these problems using the same software as the new cars and tell the driver to slow down until suspension can respond and give estimate until the driver can proceed. I have no idea why this feature isn’t already installed. I request it!
Since this is a rental car, I notice the following rental car features missing. Note that Teslas are good to rent; there are all sorts of cases where someone would want to possess a Tesla car when they do not own one or are not using them for robotaxi, such as not having to wait for robotaxi, and having the possibility to apportion the inside cargo of the car to their own specifications in a way robotaxi would not allow (due to space, storage, and time considerations, general logistics). Here goes:
This would be applicable also to loaner cars from Tesla service, to any peer to peer rental service, and to any rental company service (such as Enterprise):
First, I’d like a way to use as many features as make sense in the Tesla app. This would include unlock and lock for Model 3. This would include charging, climate, and status for all Tesla vehicles. This would include mapping, calendar, and other planning features for all models. This would include anything in the app that makes sense. Some of the features could be optional according to the specifications of the owners, such as upgrading software version; many owners would not want renters to be able to upgrade software version in the car. Some owners such as rental car agencies that don’t have full-time Tesla staff probably DO want to let renters upgrade software, whereas some owners such as rental car agencies, peer to peer owners, would not. Tesla might want to allow this for loaners. Also, there are some situations where the Tesla app should control things such as climate and destination that make sense for robotaxi, but could be an even more limited feature set than a Tesla rental or loaner.
Second, car rental agencies like to check milage of their vehicles in and out. Many of them don’t know to hit the T on the main screen; they look under the wheel. Such rental cars could have a “rental” mode that includes that information more readily so that rental car owners could more easily manage their fleet operations.
I’d like the ability to lock and unlock the car, just as I did with the car I owned. I could check the status of it when I am in a store.
Any Sentry mode features available should work as well for the renter. Also, any pet mode features (that is part of climate, I think).
Ok, that’s today’s review. I’ll return tomorrow with more after I’ve had the car for another day.
Note that the car I rented does not have: Autopilot features activated (although it has a screen of them behind the steering wheel); bioweapon air filter; new suspension system and other features announced April 23, 2019 in Tesla's blog. The screen on the car indicates the following data: 9,139 miles, VI#5YJSA1E2_JF25___ (2018 Model S), software v9.0 (2019.8.3 da116a6), 75D (75 battery, dual motor).
Since this is the first time I've had a Model S in many months, and I'm freshly comparing it to my MB, I'd like to log my comments when they are fresh in my mind, since I found that when I owned my Model S in the past, I forgot most of the comparisons except for the most painful ones, and that is a lost opportunity for Tesla to learn what they can improve, so here are my immediate comments, a lot of which I and many others have posted before, and some that are fresh or unique:
The rear seat headrests are in the way of the rear view via the rear view mirror or when turning the neck all the way around (if backing up, but the view out back is so narrow it’s better to use the rear view camera which is quite good). Compared to my MB, my MB allows the dropping of its headrests, taking them out of my rear view. Many of us have mentioned this in the past.
The rear view is a slit of a window compared to the MB. Many of us have mentioned this in the past.
The rear view camera is quite good, so using it is good. Many of us have mentioned this in the past.
I do not like that the car takes away the rear view camera when I go forward again, since often I am doing a multi-point turn and would like to see out back still during my pull forward. Most competitive cars I’ve rented have this feature (keeping rear view camera on during pull forward, for a period of seconds or until a certain speed or both, so that you don’t have to do extra stuff to see out back when in a multi-point turn even when you’re driving forward a bit); this bothered me quite a few times yesterday. I think a workaround is putting rear view camera on full time, but that interferes with other uses of the screen, obviously something I had trouble with yesterday since I didn’t turn that feature on during multipoint turns.
The forward windshield is a slit compared to my MB. Most specifically, my tall trunk puts my view such that I cannot see the top of my view out of the S. Obviously, this was fixed in the X since that portion of windshield continues up in a great panaromic view; I’ve long recommended getting the Model X rather than the Model S for almost everyone, including tall-trunked people like me. I should have never bought the Model S, rather should have gotten X or 3, or Y when it comes out. I have mentioned these things in the past.
The Model S I’m renting is very noisy, and very noisy compared to the MB. There are two sources of this problem: first, Tesla sees their cars as quiet compared to other cars, due to engine noise issues. They take advantage of this by spending less on firewall and other car insulation. However, this attitude causes road noise to come in, from other noise such as noisy vehicles outside (trucks, buses, motorcycles, pickups, hoodrat cars, etc.), jackhammers, etc., and it causes road noise such as tire and asphalt and concrete noise to come in readily. Furthermore, there are a lot of window seams that are causing noise, such as the nice panoramic glass roof seam, and the door window seams. While this is not much worse than some lower end cars, compared to existing luxury vehicles, this is pretty deplorable. Many of us have written about this in the past.
The seatbelt is inferior to the MB. I have mentioned this in the past. While I’d love the full MB feature list for the seatbelts including the PreSafe features, the thing I noticed today is that when I’m wrapping up a box in the front seat, once I pull the seatbelt out partially, it doesn’t come out any more; the MB one does. I think the MB seatbelt is just more sophisticated, and expensive.
The seats jut me in the sides of my abdomen. That is painful in only a short drive, and after a long drive would become very painful. I’ve always had trouble with this seat style and Tesla. I’ve commented that it was better with the original Model 3 seats, but I fear the most recent Model 3 seats are awful since I’ve heard they give “better support”, supposedly to regular-framed people; I am wide. I’ve commented that I had less trouble with Model X I’ve test driven, but I don’t know if the newer Model X are also for small framed people. Tesla doesn’t offer seat options for swap-out; I’ve always said this is a HUGE mistake. 3rd party seats are difficult because Tesla doesn’t offer compatibility testing for 3rd party seats, and there are some important safety features in Tesla seats that would need to be compatibility tested (airbags, mainly). This is one of the reasons I originally sold my Model S; I could not make financial sense of owning and paying for upkeep of such an expensive health-damaging vehicle. This is a continuing ongoing issue, but it fits in with Tesla’s statement that you can return their cars within one week (for a full refund), so I fully insist that any Tesla car buyers THOROUGHLY test their cars during that one week; do NOT just accept delivery and then be busy with something non-car oriented, since that will take you away from fully testing the Tesla during this return window. Do not look at the car with rosy-colored glasses during this review period; A/B test the car with the car you previously owned, take detailed notes, take it to the limits of the way YOU use cars, and be honest. For instance, a lot of people have very small frames and would fit in the Tesla Model S PERFECTLY; if this is you and your passengers, then great, you bought a great car. This also applies to Model X and Model 3, keeping in mind that I recommend both Model X and Model 3 theoretically for any larger-framed person, and still you should thoroughly test it out within the 1 week return window.
The rear view mirror doesn’t dim bright lights (compared to my MB). I’m wondering if there is an aftermarket feature of installing MB rear view mirrors on Tesla Model S’s (or other Teslas) that would do this. This probably also applies to the side rear view mirrors.
The standard cabin air filter is worse than my MB filter. I smelled a lot of ICE car pollution that I never smelled in my MB, and I got some poisoning (including headaches) due to this inferior Tesla filter I would not have experienced in my MB. Since this car is a refresh face, if I owned it, I would have bought the bioweapon filter upgrade; I recommend that for everyone. It’s ok if you buy a refreshed Model S or Model X car without that filter as long as you go and upgrade it after purchase. I heard the Model 3 has a better filter than a filterless Model S, but that it cannot take the bioweapon defense filter; someone else will have to report a comparison between the Model 3 cabin filter and the MB cabin filter. I HOPE that the Model 3 cabin filter is about the same as the MB cabin filter. Note that pre-refresh Model S cannot take the bioweapon defense filters. (If memory serves, Model X always had that availability.)
The main screen in my rental car is often unresponsive; I’ve had to reboot it twice in one day. Furthermore, it doesn’t give me any error messages that indicate the reason for the freeze for further debugging. It should send that info into Tesla so their SW people can fix it.
I can’t upgrade to the latest car software on demand in the car. (Others have pointed out this problem.)
The car doesn’t tell me my HPWC firmware version and available firmware upgrade options. I would like to know this. It also doesn’t tell me the HPWC status such as hardware version, install settings, etc. This would be useful in planning HPWC upgrades and diagnosing HPWC compatibility, installation, and maintenance problems. We have seen this be an issue before many times on the forums. I left my rental plugged into my HPWC all night in an attempt to let them upgrade the HPWC firmware, but I have no idea at all what, if anything, the two did to attempt to do that.
There doesn’t appear to be an interior camera for full self driving taxi operation. Since this car has the HW lanes necessary to do FSD, the interior camera should be installed in this car to allow taxi operation. Is this an inexpensive upgrade in the future? Tesla hasn’t committed to anything about this that I am aware of. This should be committed in writing by Tesla to existing >=HW2 Tesla car owners. (Also see my comment above about dimming bright lights above; they could be part of the same upgrade, even though they are for opposite reasons (better computer robot driving vs. better human driving); it would be the same unit being replaced, so possibly a good idea to package both together. A third party solution would also work for this for both or either purposes.)
The hardware in this car is fully available to see road height issues coming up and respond with the suspension, yet, twice my rental car scraped the bottom. In one case, I was coming up very slowly off of a turn-off and the step up was more than the current suspension setting was at, and I scuffed the forward plastic diaper of the car, but if the car had seen that coming and raised the suspension, I would not have. Even though new suspension features are in new hardware, these older air suspension cars do have the ability to slowly raise and lower the car for slow driving situations, so the car should detect these problems using the same software as the new cars and tell the driver to slow down until suspension can respond and give estimate until the driver can proceed. I have no idea why this feature isn’t already installed. I request it!
Since this is a rental car, I notice the following rental car features missing. Note that Teslas are good to rent; there are all sorts of cases where someone would want to possess a Tesla car when they do not own one or are not using them for robotaxi, such as not having to wait for robotaxi, and having the possibility to apportion the inside cargo of the car to their own specifications in a way robotaxi would not allow (due to space, storage, and time considerations, general logistics). Here goes:
This would be applicable also to loaner cars from Tesla service, to any peer to peer rental service, and to any rental company service (such as Enterprise):
First, I’d like a way to use as many features as make sense in the Tesla app. This would include unlock and lock for Model 3. This would include charging, climate, and status for all Tesla vehicles. This would include mapping, calendar, and other planning features for all models. This would include anything in the app that makes sense. Some of the features could be optional according to the specifications of the owners, such as upgrading software version; many owners would not want renters to be able to upgrade software version in the car. Some owners such as rental car agencies that don’t have full-time Tesla staff probably DO want to let renters upgrade software, whereas some owners such as rental car agencies, peer to peer owners, would not. Tesla might want to allow this for loaners. Also, there are some situations where the Tesla app should control things such as climate and destination that make sense for robotaxi, but could be an even more limited feature set than a Tesla rental or loaner.
Second, car rental agencies like to check milage of their vehicles in and out. Many of them don’t know to hit the T on the main screen; they look under the wheel. Such rental cars could have a “rental” mode that includes that information more readily so that rental car owners could more easily manage their fleet operations.
I’d like the ability to lock and unlock the car, just as I did with the car I owned. I could check the status of it when I am in a store.
Any Sentry mode features available should work as well for the renter. Also, any pet mode features (that is part of climate, I think).
Ok, that’s today’s review. I’ll return tomorrow with more after I’ve had the car for another day.
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