Just finished posting another thread about the issues I was having with my car (solved by replacing the left and right half shaft) so if interested in that please go to that one
When I did turn in my car I was really pleasantly surprised that the loaner I received was a Signature Red Model S (apparently car #234).
My first reaction was what a beautiful color it was, a deep rich burgandy and amazed how well it retained the appearance after all these years (I'm presuming this was from 2012). I have the multicoat red and although I love this color a lot I'm not sure which one I would have gone with if I had the choice of both. Both very beautiful in their own right, but the deep burgandy color was definitely appealing visually.
Definitely was impressed how well the car looked and handled despite being one of the first couple hundred off the assembly line.
My car is a dual motor and immediately noticed some fairly large differences between that and this RWD model.
1) The cabin was so much quieter than AWD, barely a perceptible turbine whine with hard acceleration
2) Definitely there was less stability with RWD compared to AWD. The roads were somewhat wet from earlier rain and with hard acceleration even in straight line the back end wanted to kick out a few times (never had that issue with my AWD on wet roads before)
3) Definitely an increase in energy consumption. Not sure if it was because dual motors are that more efficient or that my car had 19 inch rims vs the 21's on this car, but even accounting for a little more heavy foot driving in the loaner, I would estimate an added 50 watts/mile increase
4) Speaking of rims, it was pretty awful, but all 4 had serious curb rash on it. Can't imagine it is that much more prone to curb rash than normal 19s or if it really is due to careless drivers. The rims did look beautiful otherwise. Didn't notice a dramatic drop off in ride quality
5) The first generation seats definitely are nowhere near the comfort level or have the looks of the next generation seats
6) I hated the fact that this car had no Hill hold feature. I could see it could be a bit dangerous as those owners used to having hill hold think that they have it on this loaner and not pay attention and on a grade might roll backwards and hit car behind if don't act quickly. I don't know why this hill hold feature could not be sent over as a software update, don't know why it would be a hardware issue
7) Coming from a 2004 C320 Mercedes I used to have the cruise control stalk like this old model S version and when I first got my car it took time getting used to the levers flipped in position. Now I am so happy that it is the way it is on newer version. But many times during my drive when I wanted to put cruise on I accidentally put the turn signal on instead.
8) Definitely noticed how spoiled I got with autopilot (I have version 1).
9) Did not like how the cruise control was less precise than on the newer models. You sort of had to fiddle with the lever up and down and try to get it to the speed you want (I love how it is set up now where a small tap in either direction changes it by 1 mph and a longer hold does 5 mph increments)
10) On regeneration display it looked like it got it to 60kwh levels. I think mine tops out at 50 kwh. Do you think that this is just a function of the display rather than one vehicle actually getting more regeneration than the other?
But all in all, it was cool to be in essentially the granddaddy of all Teslas. Even when pressing the display T on the center display it popped up with a graphic with Signature on it. For a first run of production they really did an impressive job.
When I did turn in my car I was really pleasantly surprised that the loaner I received was a Signature Red Model S (apparently car #234).
My first reaction was what a beautiful color it was, a deep rich burgandy and amazed how well it retained the appearance after all these years (I'm presuming this was from 2012). I have the multicoat red and although I love this color a lot I'm not sure which one I would have gone with if I had the choice of both. Both very beautiful in their own right, but the deep burgandy color was definitely appealing visually.
Definitely was impressed how well the car looked and handled despite being one of the first couple hundred off the assembly line.
My car is a dual motor and immediately noticed some fairly large differences between that and this RWD model.
1) The cabin was so much quieter than AWD, barely a perceptible turbine whine with hard acceleration
2) Definitely there was less stability with RWD compared to AWD. The roads were somewhat wet from earlier rain and with hard acceleration even in straight line the back end wanted to kick out a few times (never had that issue with my AWD on wet roads before)
3) Definitely an increase in energy consumption. Not sure if it was because dual motors are that more efficient or that my car had 19 inch rims vs the 21's on this car, but even accounting for a little more heavy foot driving in the loaner, I would estimate an added 50 watts/mile increase
4) Speaking of rims, it was pretty awful, but all 4 had serious curb rash on it. Can't imagine it is that much more prone to curb rash than normal 19s or if it really is due to careless drivers. The rims did look beautiful otherwise. Didn't notice a dramatic drop off in ride quality
5) The first generation seats definitely are nowhere near the comfort level or have the looks of the next generation seats
6) I hated the fact that this car had no Hill hold feature. I could see it could be a bit dangerous as those owners used to having hill hold think that they have it on this loaner and not pay attention and on a grade might roll backwards and hit car behind if don't act quickly. I don't know why this hill hold feature could not be sent over as a software update, don't know why it would be a hardware issue
7) Coming from a 2004 C320 Mercedes I used to have the cruise control stalk like this old model S version and when I first got my car it took time getting used to the levers flipped in position. Now I am so happy that it is the way it is on newer version. But many times during my drive when I wanted to put cruise on I accidentally put the turn signal on instead.
8) Definitely noticed how spoiled I got with autopilot (I have version 1).
9) Did not like how the cruise control was less precise than on the newer models. You sort of had to fiddle with the lever up and down and try to get it to the speed you want (I love how it is set up now where a small tap in either direction changes it by 1 mph and a longer hold does 5 mph increments)
10) On regeneration display it looked like it got it to 60kwh levels. I think mine tops out at 50 kwh. Do you think that this is just a function of the display rather than one vehicle actually getting more regeneration than the other?
But all in all, it was cool to be in essentially the granddaddy of all Teslas. Even when pressing the display T on the center display it popped up with a graphic with Signature on it. For a first run of production they really did an impressive job.