Today I sat in the driver's seat of a Model X. Two things I learned:
First, I rented a new Ram 1500 pickup two weeks ago while my Mercedes E500 was in the shop. The pickup had a much higher seating position than the MBz.
When I sat in the Model X driver's seat today, it felt higher in a substantially similar way to the pickup (but maybe a few inches less high than the pickup).
Second, I realized the big windshield allows me, a tall trunked person, to see the upper level of stop lights without having to crouch. This is a huge safety factor for me. Those stoplights would be in the tinted portion of the windshield, but I hope the red, yellow and green colors would be obvious to me. (My significant other is color blind but they don't drive so that's not a consideration today for me; my eyes' abilities are what I'm concerned about now.)
Further, I asked about handling compared to the S as I had test driven those. The gentleman with the X stated it drove similar but heavier than a model S (my paraphrasing what he said). It is a bigger heavier vehicle and behaves such. But he said it was similar to the S in how it drives substantially. I'll have to assume he's right because it shares a similar sled to the S. Basically, I'm thinking body roll might be less than the pickup I rented because of X's lower center of gravity, but more roll (more higher weight) than the S, I guess by a little but not much.
Safety (air filter!) and towing are why I want an X rather than S at the end of the year. X has that great air filter. Otherwise I'd probably be as content if not more so in an S all other things being equal. I'm planning to pick up a newish S now (~2 weeks), then reserve for X and trade in when the X is ready, either 2 years from now to hit max value or 1 year from now for early switch. Nothing's final; other things are going on too, but that's my plan, at least.
