Definitely worth a read for all Model S reservation holders that haven't gotten their vehicles yet.
Model S Deliveries - latest actual info on dates and vehicles being delivered | Forums | Tesla Motors
Model S Deliveries - latest actual info on dates and vehicles being delivered | Forums | Tesla Motors
Rod and Barbara said:August 1, 2012
Our Model S was delivered to our house on July 27!
We were SSL #4. In April 2012, we were offered the opportunity to transition to the Founders list as a result of a long-standing business relationship we have with Tesla Motors. We, of course, accepted and became Founders #17.
On July 6 we received an email from the Tesla Delivery Experience team saying that we could expect delivery of our Model S between July 29 and August 4. On July 25 we received an email and call informing us that our Model S was ready slightly early and could be delivered on July 27. Rod was out of town on July 27, so Barbara accepted delivery of our car last Friday.
Our Model S is equipped as follows: non-performance, signature red exterior, tan and obeche wood gloss interior, pano roof, 19” wheels, rear-facing seats, paint armor and Roadster HPC adaptor.
Our VIN is …FF00017. A senior Tesla representative told us that the Special Signature VINs will start with …FS00001 and count up. When the Signature cars are manufactured the VIN sequence will continue to count up from the last Special Signature car manufactured (i.e. Signature #1 will have a VIN on the order of …FS00250).
Tesla worked with us to complete the California registration paperwork ahead of time and delivered our Model S with California license plates attached. Tesla also volunteered to complete the California Clean Air Vehicle Decal application on our behalf provided we gave them an $8 check when the car was delivered.
Our Model S was transported to our house on a flatbed truck. It arrived with a full standard charge. The personal delivery took about 2.5 hours to complete. Ours was the first delivery in Southern California. Our Delivery Experience Specialist was very accommodating. He returned on July 30 to go over the car and field questions from Rod.
We had never driven a Model S before taking delivery, but had ridden in an Alpha during the factory tour in October 2011. The car is very smooth and quiet, has great handling characteristics, and has substantial acceleration capability for a car of its size. I (Rod) personally do not feel like it begs to be driven hard the way our Roadster does, but that just seems fitting to me as it fills the spot of a family sedan in our household. In my opinion, the standard setting of regenerative braking is too weak. It should be beefed up or a third, sport setting, should be added.
In no particular order, here is a list of interesting things we have learned during our personal delivery and first couple hundred miles of driving:
A technician installed the front license plate frame on July 30 at our house. He said he thought the current design was slightly different from the design used at the June 22 delivery event, but still required drilling holes into the front part of the Model S. He was not aware of any design effort at Tesla to create a front license plate holder that did not require drilling holes.
Here are a few things the car does not currently have that we feel it should have. All of these items are available on the Roadster. Our Delivery Experience Specialist reported this information to Tesla and he felt some of these items would be incorporated into future software updates:
Individual tire pressure readouts on the touch screen
kWh drawn from grid during while charging
Elapsed time while charging
Charge history screen
Display of the current software version
Our Delivery Experience Specialist reported that significant improvements have been made to the fit and finish of the interior over the Release Candidate cars used in the test drive events. The overall interior fit and finish of our car appears excellent with a few exceptions. The dashboard trim running above the touch screen sags slightly so that the time display in the upper right hand corner is slightly obscured. As noted in the discussion forum the covering of the pano roof interior cross bar is not very elegant. Our Specialist said he did not know if Tesla was working to improve the finish of the cross bar.
Hardware items not delivered with our car (due bill):
Cubby under the touch screen
Rear-facing seats
Pano roof sunshade
J1772 adaptor
Roadster HPC adaptor
Software items not included in software delivered in our car (due bill):
Creep and hill hold
Voice activation
WiFi capability
Homelink
Digital owner’s manual (available for computer and vehicle touch screen)
Automatic keyless entry
Key fob memory for seat, mirrors and steering wheel positions
The ribbed bottom center space between the front seats that is present on many of the Release Candidate cars (used for the drive events) is not part of the production vehicle. Our car has plain black carpet in this area.
Problems discovered in our car that Tesla is working to fix:
Obeche wood trim around cup holders is matte finish vice gloss finish
Navigation system sticks in initialize mode when navigation is requested
The rear lift gate would intermittently not close via the powered mode. The technician stated that sitting in the full sun could cause the metal to expand enough to affect the lift gate hook mechanism. He adjusted the position of the hook latch and the lift gate powered mode now works consistently.
Three hard copy manuals were provided: A Guide for Owners, Owner Safety Information, and New Vehicle Limited Warranty. Our Specialist said that the digital owners manual would contain more complete information that is present in the hard copies.
Our Specialist stated that the hum or squeal heard when the motor was under load at some ride events was electronic in origin and was eliminated by making appropriate adjustments in the drive train system.
Our Specialist stated that the intermittent problem of rear seat belts not retracting during drive events was caused by the seat belts getting caught in the corner of the slit which they pass through. This slit was redesigned to eliminate this problem.
Our Specialist stated that NHTSA official crash test ratings are not currently available because the NHTSA has to purchase cars without bumping any other purchasers. He said that results are expected to be announced in early 2013.
Our Specialist said that Tesla is not currently working on powered folding mirrors as far as he knows.
The touch screen hardware is capable of 4G, but the current service provided to Signature owners for the first year is only 3G.
Our Specialist said that software updates will be downloaded to the car by the car connecting to the Tesla servers via 3G/4G or WiFi.
When we added our Model S to our auto insurance policy our company asked if the vehicle had a LoJack, or similar system, that the police could use to locate the vehicle. We asked our Specialist to inquire whether the police could easily work with Tesla to locate a stolen vehicle. He answered, “If the car is stolen, currently the police cannot work with Tesla service support to locate the vehicle, only very high level executives can approve opening this capability in customer cars. But there is a possibility that the iPhone/Android apps may be able to locate the car for you. Those apps will be coming in a software update.”
There are vanity mirrors on both the driver’s and the passenger’s sun visors but they are not lighted.
We asked about extended warranty options and our Specialists said there are no extended warranty options available at this time.
The Guide for Owners states the following regarding car washes: “If washing in an automatic car wash, use “Touchless” car washes only. These car washes must have no parts, such as brushes, that can touch Model S. Using any other type of car wash could cause damage that is not covered by the warranty”
The Guide for Owners states the following regarding Battery Limited Warranty: “Subject to the exclusions and limitations described in this New Vehicle Limited Warranty, the Battery Limited Warranty covers the repair or replacement necessary to correct defects in the materials or workmanship of the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery (“Battery”) manufactured or supplied by Tesla that occur under normal use for a period of 8 years or for the miles specified below for your vehicle’s Battery type, whichever comes first:
40 kWh – 100,000 miles (160,000 km)
60 kWh – 125,000 miles (200,000 km)
85 kWh – unlimited miles/km
The Battery, like all lithium-ion batteries, will experience gradual energy or power loss with time and use. Loss of Battery energy or power over time or due to or resulting from Battery usage, is NOT covered under this New Vehicle Limited Warranty. See your owner documentation for important information on how to maximize the life and capacity of the Battery.
Hope this information helps. Looks like Special Signature deliveries will begin the week of August 18! Enjoy your Model S when it arrives – it is like being part of the future!
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