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Went for a test drive today.
£100,000 Tesla Model S P90D. Test drive event at a hotel outside Warwick. They had a (Dutch LHD) Model X too, with its fancy doors (and £10k higher pricing).
As a Model 3 pre-orderer, they're keen to upsell me a Model S which they can deliver 2 years earlier (apparently about a third of new Model S sales have been upselling people with Model 3 cash on the table). This wasn't an absolutely bare-spec Model S 60, which I could maybe afford next year - it was the dual motor performance model (the top of the line from last year, before the L suffix and 100kWh battery models appeared).
What do I think?
I think it's the best, fanciest car I've ever driven. And I think the base Model S 60 isn't worth the £20-30k premium over the upcoming big-battery affordable models, like the Model 3 (and 2017 iterations from Renault, GM, etc).
Switching from a petrol, diesel, or conventional hybrid to something with an electric drive train is a revolutionary change in how journeys "feel". The acceleration profile, regenerative braking, smoothness, are all worlds apart from the glorified farmyard equipment at a VW dealership. And yet, when all is said and done, the difference between say a Prius and a Volt is enormous - the difference between a Volt and a Model S is incremental. It's not "exciting" to drive, other than the ability to be fast at a moment's notice, as the power is so well-controlled you could almost call it dull.
Oh, sure, the trim is nicer, the buttons are better, there's all sorts of fancy crap and the big touchscreen... but the core experience of *driving* is just "electric car, but with MOAR FASTS". Which in a way is excellent, and in other ways is a bit boring. It's... a good nice car to drive. But so is any electric-drivetrain car. Even a Leaf, with its 0-60 10 seconds slower than the P90D, has more in common with that P90D than it does with something like a Micra.
It's incrementally better than what I'm already driving, not revolutionarily better (which my current was vs. its predecessor).
I guess what I'm saying is: electric cars are just better, full stop. And the Model S is pretty damn expensive. Wait for the 3. Unless you're into BMW 7-series money anyway.
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Originally Posted by directhex
