Would the interior lights not provide enough light? Granted you may have to be parked for the person in the passenger seat to apply makeup but that's probably a good idea anyway. While it may not be ideal, I think driving an EV, never going to a gas station again, and reducing our dependence on oil far outweigh a vanity mirror. I understand it may have been a feature that some desire but think you have to look at the car as a package.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
There's only so far "but it's an EV" will excuse things. On one hand, it's good Tesla is considering driving view impacts for taller folks, but lighted vanity mirrors are standard on every car. I think my daughter's Hyundai Accent has it. Not having something like that is like not having adjustable AC vents or something else so standard you don't even think about it.
That one thing alone wouldn't make me stop my purchase, but it's the sort of thing that makes me want to sit in the car for a very long time and find out what else I'm giving up for the sake of an EV. Elon talks about not having to compromise to have an EV. Not having really basic features is compromising.
bonnie
I play a nice person on twitter.
Did I miss an official confirmation from Tesla? .... Or is this all speculation about what one rep said? It might be true, but people are getting wound up over something that hasn't been confirmed.
Not that I know of, just the original rep's email being discussed. I'll certainly wait to see a "final" interior, though it seems like it's hard to know what that is given the changes still underway. An example of a small compromise, the lack of "oh ****" handles was a big complaint from my passengers in my test drive. The rep in the car said that's 3 for 3 test drives that day where passengers complained about that.
Last edited:
Did perhaps they just removed it from "standard features" to help stem the loss from the 40 Kwh base models?
I agree we should probably wait for official confirmation and that you can't explain everything away by saying it's an EV. Tesla is under a time crunch to get the car out and it sounds like they've hit the ball out of the park in all major categories other than the interior cup holder/storage/vanity mirror section. We could ask Tesla to burn through another few million in development costs to revise the interior but at this point we may have to move forward. Once the production car is actually out and people have lived with it for awhile then we can see what truly needs to change. For some, lack of a vanity mirror light or rear seat cup holders is a deal breaker and the Model S in its first iteration might not be the car for them. Tesla will have time to further work on the Model S down the road and refine the interior but if they stop now to tweak every little thing that each car must have because a cheaper car has it then they won't deliver any cars and Tesla will struggle.
If it's true, I don't think it would be a big deal for most people but that's just a guess (even if it is a basic feature on cheaper cars). Even a $100,000 S class Mercedes can't start up to warm the car in winter with the garage door closed. I find that a much more useful feature that vanity mirror lights but everyone has different wants and priorities.
bonnie1194, the LED lights were removed from the Specs sheet sometime between March and now. I emailed my Tesla rep asking for a confirmation and received an email back on Friday 7/27 with the wording exactly as on the first post in this thread confirming the LED lights have been removed. This was not an offhand remark by a store rep or test drive rep. It was an in-writing reply. Nonetheless, it would be a good idea for people to write their own reps on Monday for double confirmation in case the information that my rep was given is inaccurate. It is always possible that his source was in error. Further confirmations would be sensible since this topic seems to be so emotionally loaded. Who knows, maybe Tesla will reconsider even if their current intent is to forgo the LED lights for their reasons given.
Last edited:
Your points make perfect sense. There is a little bit of a time limit with respect to cash burn. BUT, while waiting for supplier details and tweaks, a console with concealed storage and four, fold-out cup holders (two for front and two for back) could be sourced now. They could also NOT shelf the two rear seat LEDs that I saw in the Get Amped tour (case in point just now I took groceries out of my Hybrid Escalade in the back. It is dark outside and I wanted to see so I know where to grab the grocery bags. Thank goodness Cadillac had the foresight to install rear seat lights overhead...).
Elon's goal is to make the EV the best car. Better than ICEs. He wants to show that the EV can be the best car on the road. To this end, Telsa must not skimp out on seemingly trivial items. The Model S must be better in every respect b/c that is what is expected and provides the most convincing argument that an EV is a better choice over ICE cars. If Tesla sacrifices too much on the interior which it is appearing more and more likely that is the case, then I guarantee you that the 20k units he intends to sell in 2013 (+/- EU Spain, Greece, Italy contagion or poor economy) will NOT be met.
People aren't stupid and they know what they want: freedom from gas, making a statement about the environment and OPEC, good performance, an acceptable price, and no interior sacrifices.
SCW-Greg
Active Member
VIN 112 and 114 just came off the line 10 days ago, I watched them pull the plastic wrap off the driver's chair at our Amp Tour. One of the lead Tesla reps, confirmed it to all the employees there that day. These are production units built after the founders cars. One would have assumed a week ago these are final units. Though I think we're all beginning to hear from the Elon at the shareholder's meeting more refinements are coming.
These models also mirror the configuration in the email from Ddruz.
Edit: VIN 115 (Sig red performance) at PDX - not VIN 114. (Thanks AndyM for catching this)
Last edited:
I meant more in the sense that the VINs may not line up with the production VINs since they are being produced for test drives/marketing cars (the customer cars may start over with 0001 for example). That's what I was told at least. It does sound like things are pretty locked in though.
SCW-Greg
Active Member
I agree with you, I think these were rushed out for the drives... but I think Tesla hasn't been that transparent of this production process/schedule. One would think with the June 22nd launch, that everything was done. I'm hoping for all kinds of fixes, tweaks, and upgrades by he time my number (10608) comes up.
Remember there were supposed to be ' Alphas, Betas, and then "Release Candidates". ' I believe that we have seen Release Candidates thus far!
SCW-Greg
Active Member
Okay, if these are "supposed" to be RC1's... then I'm feeling better. We should be voicing our concerns in spades then.
However, I'm not sure the TM employees are being very clear about that at the test drives, or at the stores. No doubt, they're walking a tight rope.
AndyM
Member
I doubt the in-store reps are kept that well-informed at this level of detail. Not their fault; they'll be transparent with all the information they have, that's been consistent and welcome.
If we all feel so strongly about the rear lighting, we should be writing earnest, polite, request letters to Tesla, not bantering on the forums.
Things should be locked in by your car I would think. Any production tweak should be in place by then so you're set. Of course there could be changes later but I would think that would be bigger revisions further down the road.
....If we all feel so strongly about the rear lighting, we should be writing earnest, polite, request letters to Tesla, not bantering on the forums.
Great suggestion.
This also would be a good time to include your top five requests for version 2.0 features, since Tesla will have to decide on these soon.
GSP
Charged_Up
Member
All true, and for $100k or more (sig performance), you do expect certain basic amenities. If there will be fixes for basic items that are part of early production runs, then Tesla should provide them gratis to early big $ buyers and should let them know. Later on, when all suppliers are properly sourced and the "little details" about which Elon spoke are all fixed, there should be no give. Just seems sometimes like the first adopters are charged more for less, even when they are reasonably responsible for getting the company to this point. As far as I know, a bunch of Roadster upgrades were provided free, but maybe I'm off base there. Btu does anyone think Tesla would have gotten DOE funding takedowns without demonstration of reservations, including $40mm of sig reservations and a few thousand early P reservations? I'm getting the car and love the ride and exterior looks but there is a very small part of me that feels a little sandbagged by the possibility that, after paying a premium and waiting more than 2.5 years, I will have to purchase a console or provide an aftermarket vanity mirror. Not saying that's completely rational, it's just how I feel.
At the test drives, when I've asked, I've been told that these are "production" cars. When I've pressed, I've been told that they are very early production cars and that stuff is still being tweaked, but I haven't been able to get any specifics as to exactly what is being tweaked. So, I think the messaging is rather unclear.
strider
Active Member
Your fanboi-ism/water-carrying is showing
The bottom line is that Tesla will be able to ship Model S v1 to EV fanatics with nothing but a wooden box for a seat assuming the battery/drive train are excellent which I believe it is. That gives them a year or 2 before that market plateaus to come out w/ v2 which will have all the of the features necessary to attract BMW/Audi/MB/Lexus drivers.
That being said, pulling things late in the game smells bad to me. People are basing their purchasing decision on cars and features they've been shown and it sucks that things are being changed afterwards.
We have received our time to build email and we were very excited about finally doing so until we read the report about there being no vanity mirrors with lights in a car which was going to cost us over $109000(before rebate) and was touted as the world's best "Premium"/Luxury car. It was the last straw for my wife. She was ready to put up with the lack of cup holders in back, cheap console etc. but no vanity mirrors with lights did it. Now she wants me to cancel and get an ICE car like a MBZ, BMW or Jag etc. What a shame! I really enjoyed the handling and performance but they are removing features which are standard or optional on $20K cars. It just so happens that my wife is a senior exec with an international news wire and knows a lot of columnists and media people. She had been excitedly telling them about our new car but now you can imagine reading articles with headings like "Tesla customers canceling orders over no vanity mirrors and cup holders in rear" or 'Tesla makes a great car for the extinct Spartans" etc. etc.
I wonder who made this "brilliant" decision at TM.
I wonder who made this "brilliant" decision at TM.
Similar threads
