I'm seriously looking forward to seeing a Model S in the flesh, but based on photos there's a few design quirks that I'm unsure about. Perhaps others on this forum can offer their opinions :- Firstly, whenever I see a photo of the Model S side on, my eye catches upon the strip of something that’s running along the underside of the doors, and seems to make the doors look like they are an inch too big compared to the rest of the sill area. The lines of the 2009 prototypes look much cleaner with the body and sills integrated Can anyone who has seen a Model S in the flesh describe what it is - is it a polished steel strip ? or body coloured ? Will it carry over to the final spec cars ? Secondly, I'm hoping the choice of interior materials will match the quality level you get with BMWs / Audis in the same price bracket. Whilst interior options are very much a personal choice I personally don’t like the look of the "banana leaf veneer" used on some of the dashboards of the beta cars - it reminds me of the veneer plastered all over some furniture and arcade games from the mid 70's. Does anyone else feel this way ?!
It's been mentioned a few times over the last year. I agree with you, it looks odd in pictures. I'm hoping it looks more natural close up.
I thought the same thing but its actually chrome on the bottom of the door sill that stick out a little. It's actually quite cool. The frunk and hatch back have the same chrome sill. See the Sig Red Model S has the same chrome colored sill on the bottom of the door. Seeeeeeeee!
I've been told that on the Performance model, that bottom strip will be body color (the car body, not your body). So if you're going Performance, you may be in luck.
But that would still have that "over-sized door" look. I think it should just be black, or the rocker panels should also be the body color like PV4EV suggests.
Unfortunately, it seems like the performance models will also have the silver strip. I think it'll look best on a dark car like the red or black:
You can probably use your one-time deferral to be a later Sig that might be late enough to have a test drive car available. As for the trim strip, I'll go on record and say that the car has way too much chrome trim. Makes it look like a late 20th century car (say 1997). Not something produced in the second decade of the 21st century. But, tastes vary.
+1 to everything onlinespending said. Note that the Model X on display has a light interior and has some kind of pocket in the door. So Tesla is listening, just not changing Model S. As for the chrome, well, perhaps vinyl wrap to the rescue?
That is why they make sharpies! :tongue:. I agree the chrome door strip looks odd on the white. I think it looks marginal on the silver. But all the dark colors I tend to like it.
Ya know, we actually probably could just cover it in matte black vinyl. How that would hold up remains to be seen, but it would likely solve the visual problem.
Some of the Model S cars at the Santana Row event did not have that chrome like in this pic. The Tesla rep I asked does not know why. I hope that won't be a Sig-only feature because I actually happen to like it.
I saw a Toyota Highlander Hybrid yesterday....it has the same chrome strip: This pic was from the Toyota website, but in real life it looked fine, didn't bother my eye at all.
Agreed, the wife and I really dislike the way it makes the doors look too long. Not near as bad as the Volt's front door, but still it just doesn't look right on light colors. Hope it looks better when it see it on a RC or production spec (whichever we'll need to make our decision on color) since it will keep us from getting White or Silver.