

Tesla Model S review: A good first impression - PaulMcCartney
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/23/autos/tesla-model-s-review/

======
bdfh42
A review does not include the words "Turns are accomplished (or so I'm told)
with hardly any body lean...". Not a review but a short ride in a $100,000 car
- so no surprises that the reporter found some elements nice.

Mind even this stage managed puff piece had to end with a reminder that "Tesla
faces the mundane challenges of producing the car profitably in relatively
high volumes...".

~~~
peeters
Puff piece? Did you read the whole article through a neutral lens? Here are
some excerpts you might have missed:

> At slow speeds the Model S feels disappointingly like a hefty, battery-laden
> electric car. With a light foot on the accelerator, it shuffles from stop
> sign to stop sign with all the eagerness of a fat man asked to change seats
> on an airliner. You can almost hear it sigh.

> Fortunately, for me, the brake pedal works just as well as the accelerator
> nicely preventing me from rear-ending cars ahead after each startling burst
> of speed.

Even the quote that you took out of context was a begrudging acknowledgement
that it was believable that the car would handle well given the low center of
gravity, but that he'd have to wait to say for sure.

------
majormajor
Am I the only one who's not impressed at all by the touchscreen-based interior
of the Model S? I can find the button I want to hit/knob I want to twist to
adjust the radio or AC by feel in my current car, so I don't have to look at
it while driving.

Buttons are good! I'd like buttons with little screens on them so that they
can always display their function in the current "mode," instead of having to
be labeled with multiple things in cases like that, but I'm not seeing the
benefit of going full touchscreen. On a phone or tablet it's extra screen
space for displaying content—but I don't expect to be browsing the internet or
looking at a photo slideshow on the center console of a car.

~~~
MartinCron
I predict that touch interfaces in cars like this is a fad that will pass and
people will look back on it as an embarrassment.

I'm patient, I can wait until Tesla figures it out with their 2nd or 3rd
generation sedan.

------
tocomment
What always goes through my mind when I imagine buying one of these is, "my
laptop battery died after two years". How do I know the same thing won't
happen with this car? If not two years, what happens to this car in 5 years,
10 years?

Is there any guarantee this car will be drivable in 10 years? Is there even a
process for replacing the battery? What would it cost?

~~~
Peroni
The tesla battery costs approximately $40k to purchase and replace. There was
widespread coverage of Tesla Roadsters being 'bricked'. Essentially more than
a few Roadster owners reported that if the car was left sitting idle for more
than a month or so it was rendered useless as the battery requires a constant
trickle feed of electricity if parked up over a long period of time.

It was discussed at length here on HN too:

[http://theunderstatement.com/post/18030062041/its-a-brick-
te...](http://theunderstatement.com/post/18030062041/its-a-brick-tesla-motors-
devastating-design)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3618946>

~~~
rjsamson
Yeah - this is FUD that was pretty quickly debunked:

[http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/23/0310255/why-
tesl...](http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/23/0310255/why-tesla-cars-
arent-bricked-by-failing-batteries)

[http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1073289_tesla-battery-
br...](http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1073289_tesla-battery-bricking-the-
real-story-behind-the-post)

[http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/23/tesla-bricked-
battery-s...](http://green.autoblog.com/2012/02/23/tesla-bricked-battery-
story-may-have-a-short-circuit/)

~~~
Peroni
You may wish to have another read of some of your sources which clearly
indicate that Tesla's can be bricked.

The argument is not about how easy they are to brick, it's about the fact that
the entire car is rendered useless if bricked unless you're willing to pay
$40k to get your vehicle back on the road again.

If the cars were easy to brick there would be a significantly larger number of
documented cases than what currently exist.

~~~
pbreit
While it's safe to assume the Model S could be bricked, we actually don't
know. And if it is suitably difficult to brick, it is no different from a
regular car being rendered inoperable due to mis-maintenance. Finally, 10
years of decent use would outdo many Audis (certainly my own).

~~~
Peroni
Correct. My statements are with the Roadster.

Claims that bricking is caused by mis-maintenance are false. leaving a car
idle for a few months in secure storage isn't mis-maintenance. The requirement
to leave the Tesla on a trickle charge is almost completely obfuscated in the
guidelines and Tesla purposely downplay the information.

------
tokenadult
An earlier (favorable) review of the Tesla Model S

[http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/07/06/review-tesla-
mo...](http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2012/07/06/review-tesla-model-s-
electric-sedan/)

also seems to have been based on a rather short test drive.

". . . . The car’s flat, floorpan-mounted battery pack (85 kWh) accounts for
about 30% of the significant total vehicle weight, 4,642 pounds. And yet, with
a C-of-G comparable to that of a Ford GT supercar, the Tesla corners like it’s
tethered with magic. What do you call that?

. . . .

"Out on the street, suspended with the speed-adaptive air suspension, the
Model S has an utterly unshakable, gantry-like vibe to it, even with the big
meats in the wheel wells. And yet, given the constraints of our test drive, I
can’t really describe the car’s handling. I’ll need at least three months to
be sure."

------
wittekm
Gearhead websites like Jalopnik and TTAC have taken Tesla to task for only
providing extremely short press junkets to reviewers - assumably so nobody
will ever get the thing down to empty and have something bad to say about it
in their review. To me it shows a lack of confidence in their own product.

I personally hope the best for them, but to this day it remains to be seen if
they can actually deliver the 50k Model S to a customer.

~~~
RobAtticus
"but to this day it remains to be seen if they can actually deliver the 50k
Model S to a customer"

I was under the impression that customers have been receiving the Model S for
the last month. Not all reservations have been filled, but they have started
filling them.

