Owning a Model S Tesla by Zara

[MMASSASSIN]

Hi Playgrounders,

MM asked me to write about my experience as an owner of the Model S since I’ve had it for a few months now.

First of all, let me say that I am by no means a car enthusiast, am not an expert on luxury sports or electric cars. I am a middle class professional, wife, and mom of 2 young kids.  My prior cars were Toyotas and Hondas, and most recently, it was a Toyota Minivan.  My husband has had a Nissan Z, a BMW 3 series, and currently drives an Audi S5. I bought a Model S mainly because I believe in clean energy, am a Tesla investor, and am a huge fan of Elon Musk. So when financing became available and my Toyota lease was up, I decided to close my eyes and make the leap.
 
The Model S has been a great investment that I am glad I made every time I drive the car.  It is a great car. Below, I will list the things I love about it as well as the few things that could be improved upon. The honors the car has gotten speak for itself; here is just my own experience.
 
“Driving a Tesla is like marrying a supermodel and then finding out that she can cook too!”, is my husband’s response when asked how it’s like to drive a Model S. 
 
The best thing about the Model S is that not only does it look great, it really drives great.  The acceleration is absolutely incredible.  When you press on the go pedal, it responds immediately, and because you don’t hear the engine revving, it’s at 60 or 90mph even before you realize it.  The handling is very good for a big sedan, enough that I would feel comfortable weaving in and out of traffic with 2 young kids in the car (not that I do that, or at least not very often ☺).  Although the Model S feels to me like a very heavy and solid car, it literally glides on the road.  You don’t really feel the bumps in the road you would normally feel with a low lying car.  I love this gliding feeling.  The closest I can compare this to is like riding in one of those electric trams/trains at amusement parks or at one of the newer more modern airports.  And because it feels so sturdy and solid, you also feel very safe driving in it.  In an accident, it feels like the Model S will hold its own.
 
Driving the Model S feels very efficient and effortless.  Once you get in the car, the sound system and AC will turn on automatically.  To put it into driving mode, you need only step on the brake.  To switch gears, you gently push on the gear shift, no actual clunk or physical shift like you would feel with most other cars.  While driving, once the go pedal is released, the car will slow down immediately and could come to a stop. This took a little while for me to adjust to, but once you get the hang of it, there is actually little braking that needs to be done.
 
The 17 inch center console is touted as the highlight of the Model S.  I haven’t played around with it very much and probably am not using it to its max potential, but it is very easy to operate, is very intuitive, and you can control practically all car functions with just touches on the screen, very much like a smart phone. That minimizes a lot of the knobs and handles you would see in other cars.   I don’t surf the web very much on it.  I tried once or twice from the garage and the connection was slow.  I know Elon Musk meant it to function very much like a big tablet, but I still prefer to just go to my iphone.  The screen is super clear.  The navigation system uses Google maps along with real time traffic display, which is very convenient.
 
This is a small thing, but I love how you can set the car to sense the key (which is shaped like a small Model S), so that the handles will open and close immediately once you approach or leave the car. Therefore, you don’t need to actually have the key out (of your purse or pocket) or click it.  I love that the handles will disappear, so that theoretically, there is no way to actually open the door if you don’t have the key.  I also like that the side mirrors will automatically “tuck” themselves in once the door locks.


 
The interior is very spacious with lots of leg room, and there is, of course, plenty of storage, both in front and back of the vehicle.  The back seats will also fold down so that you could really help your neighbors move big bulky things if they asked you to (although I would never personally do that to my Model S ☺).
 
One of my favorite things about the Model S (and I think some other cars have this feature also) is the voice control features, “drive”, “play”, and “call”.  The Model S uses Slacker radio, and you can ask it to play practically any song.  My kids love this feature. They’ll take turns calling out song requests.  The sound system is also very good.
 
A few other things that I like about the model S are that being a fully electric car, you can use it to drive in the HOV lane (with a sticker from the DMV, at least in California), and of course, it’s always fun driving past gas stations, especially those with long lines, knowing that your gas filling and oil changing days are over ☺.
 
Finally, the Tesla iphone application is very useful. It allows you to track your vehicle’s location at any time. It’s kind of like an anti-theft device, but I use it more to track where my husband is at all times. Why do you think I let him drive the car? ☺ You can also use the app to check the battery status, charging status, and turn on the AC a few minutes before you enter the car if you live somewhere really hot like I do.
 
One thing I did not expect about owning a Model S (and this can be good or bad, depending on who you speak to), is that it gives you an almost immediate celebrity status.  Others will look at you on the road, and just about everyone who sees you with the car will ask you about it.
 
Now on to the areas where I think there could be improvement.  Honestly, the great things about the car are so great that the “bad” things are tolerable, negligible, but I guess anything can be improved on.  MM asked me to mention even the little things.
 
The main drawback that’s always struck me when I saw the Model S for the first time in person and that still sticks with me, is that the interior, while simple and clean, lacks the richness, the sleekness that I would expect a Model S to have.  The dashboard, though I couldn’t tell you how exactly to improve on it, could have a better design, something that would go along more hand in hand with the “wow” factor one gets from the exterior of such a “technologically advanced” car.  The seats could be plusher and more comfortable, although they really are not “uncomfortable”.
 
Although the interior is roomy, I would like it to have more usable compartments for storage.  There are no cup holders in the back.  I think even something simple like netting attached to the back of the front seats would be good for storing loose books or paper (for the kids).  Maybe it is not a problem for the average American, but the center arm rest with the 2 cup holders also sit too far back, at least for a petite person like me.  I find my elbow bumping up against the cups instead of being in a position where I can actually rest my arm.  The center storage space is large, but I think it needs to be better compartmentalized, maybe a second layer added on top.  I recently saw on the website that there is an extra addition that can be purchased and installed in the center space, to create an area where iphones and other things can be placed without sliding. 
 
Other things:  If the car is parked in the home garage, as soon as the car is turned on or as it’s approaching home, an icon will automatically appear that allows you to touch to open the garage door.  That’s great. However, this icon disappears once the garage door is opened, when instead it should stay displayed to be touched a second time to close the garage door.  This should be a simple software fix.  Also, if you want to play songs from your iphone, you have to control that through the iphone, when I think it should be easy enough to make it so that you can control that from the center console as is done with phone calls. This should also be a simple software fix. Finally, although the back-up camera is very clear and wide, additional tire/track lines can be added that would show you where the car will continue to back up to (my husband’s Audi S5 has that), as well as a beeping sound for when the car gets too close to another object.
 
The sealing in a few spots can also be improved on:  A few days after getting the Model S, I noticed condensation in one of the small back lights.  This occurred after washing the car, with water seeping in and causing the condensation.  It’s a small problem, but seen with other people on the Tesla forum, and Tesla service center took care of that easily enough for us.  The other thing I noticed when washing the car is that some water tracks into the sealed space of the windows.  These are not major problems, nothing interfering with the electrical wiring or anything that would get the interior wet.  The final negative point that I have is that there is no spare tire. So, if there’s a full flat, the vehicle would likely have to be towed.  I’m not sure why Elon decided not to include this; does it weigh down the car significantly?
 
Sorry this is running long.  I’m trying to be as complete as possible.  A few additional miscellaneous points I wanted to add. 
 
The car buying experience was unbelievably easy.  Direct purchase by customers should be a norm for all car purchasing.  The experience I had with the Model S was completely different from purchasing cars at dealerships which is an extremely long, tedious, and draining process that I hate.  Too bad there’s all that crap going on in states like New Jersey.  Financing was also easy. I found the best rate to be with Alliant Credit Union, except that you don’t get the repurchase price guarantee that you’d get if you went with Tesla’s financers.  One thing I did not anticipate was that the car insurance is quite expensive. The Model S is considered a “sports luxury” car, but it’s like no one knows what to expect and treats it like an exotic car with a high replacement cost.  I believe my premium more than doubled.  There is also a service plan of $600/yr (cheaper when purchased for 4 or 8 years), which I did not expect, but purchased anyway, because who knows if or when you’ll need it, right?
 
If I had to do it over again, I would probably have gotten the 85kw battery instead of the 60.  On a daily work commute, the range has not been a problem, but there was a day when I needed to drive my mom across the city a few times and would have needed about 150 miles of range, so I chose to drive the gas guzzler instead.  Tesla recommends charging the battery up to 90% on a daily basis and that you do not take it too much below 50 mile range.  So, I usually start out with a 180 or so mile range, and probably would not feel comfortable driving more than 150 miles on it.  I have never used a supercharger.  We took a trip to San Diego, at which time I considered taking the Model S.  Unfortunately, the charging station between LA and San Diego had just finished construction but was not yet open.  We go to Vegas maybe once a year, and I would definitely consider taking that road trip with the Model S next time.
 
Last note on the colors:  I have a brown car, which I love.  You don’t see many browns around, but I’ve seen just about every color on the road, except green, and I think they all look very nice.  You probably can’t go wrong with any of them.
 
So, in summary, I love my Model S.  I really think it is a car of the future and will only get better with time.  A few improvements could be made, but they are not major and don’t detract from how awesome the car is. I can tell you this, once you’ve owned a Tesla, you can’t go back to driving any other car.