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2015 Tesla Model S Pros and Cons at TrueDelta: Is it a performance car, a tech marvel, or a luxury car? by sydweinstein

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Introduction

The Tesla Grin even applies to the non performance models, but I have to classify the car as a tech marvel and not a luxury car. And it meets that need of trying to blend performance and tech in a clean modern package.

Reviewed: 2015.5 Tesla Model S

4dr Hatch 417-horsepower Electric 1-speed automatic AWD

2015.5 Tesla Model S Love Letter

The interior is clean, modern simplicity. It works, its enough, and you learn to adapt. But the piece that wins you over is that the car improves month to month. The over the air updates are great. Auto-steer works well enough even as a beta to make the long drives more relaxing. The car behaves in the cold. The car behaves in the heat. The superchargers make trips meet my need for bio-breaks and really only add a minor amount to the travel time, based on the stops I would have made anyway.

This style is a classic sedan, but with a hatch. The lines flow, the languageis all Tesla. However, the nose is old school Tesla and a throwback to the non electric era. The car does attract attention for it's styling and rightfully so. People have pointed out to me, "It's sexy"

Like many new cars, the car needed a single 'tweak' run back into the shop to correct two minor items. And Tesla was wonderful about doing this and dealing with it. They tech diagnosed the problems promptly, admitted they were there and they handlied them. Since then the car has had no returns to the service center except to rotate the tires and check out the car.

I've owned other cars in the past, and at least one, they told me "They can't reproduce the issue" and I had to live with the problem for the life of the car. Tesla actually replaced the door handle even though they could not immediately reproduce the issue.

I find that I don't know what gas costs anymore. And the solar panels on my house power the car just fine. I enjoy being "green" in this way, and the difference in electric costs vs. gas costs help make the solar payback even quicker. (Running an electric car is 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of a gas one in my area of the country).

I drive a dual motor car. In this car, the frunk is small, but it holds my laptop and expensive cameras in 'secure storage' just fine. The hatch holds a ton of stuff, and the pickup never notices when I load things into it. The weight difference just isn't enough to matter compared to the power the car has.

What one has to get used to is the lack of a spare tire (all my prior cars have had one so far). Also one needs to accept that Tesla makes changes every week to the production cars, and sooner or later you'll see a change you wish you had. It's not a model year car.

All in all, Yes, I'd buy it again, and I am happy I did this and didn't wait for the Model 3 (or Model X even)

Conclusion

If:
you can't afford a car that is 70,000-100,000 then the Model S isn't for you. (Skipping the P series which can go to 140,000).
You can't let go of "range anxiety" and stopping for 5 minutes longer than the gas station fill-up and bio-break every two-three hours on a trip irks you
You need something smaller, as this is a large car

Then the S is not for you.
If you like technology, hypermiling and performance, and a good looking car... don't wait for the 3, but it now.

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