TR4ffic wrote:Silk wrote:Well, I went for the test drive, but it seems no one cares, so I won't waste my time telling everyone how I got on. If you want to know what it's like to drive, find out for yourself.
Sorry, Silk, I didn't realise I needed to reply with an expression of interest...
After my test drive back in August, I'm interested to hear your thoughts/impressions of the Model S. Feedback tends to be generally positive... They're still out of reach financially, but...
Ok, here goes, my first outing as a motoring journalist.
I believe it was the same car that Martin drove, and I agree with most of the other comments. We left Cribbs Causeway at 5pm, in the dark, in the wet and in heavy traffic - not good, but my wife's grandson wanted to come along, and he's still at school, so it was the only practical time.
The first thing to comment on was the interior. Very spacious, but I felt it lacked a certain "luxuriousness" that you would expect from a similarly sized and priced German car, and build, although good, didn't shout quality in the same way that, say, an Audi does. I also felt that the large centre screen wasn't really to my taste and was very distracting - I would prefer to have turned it off, or at least muted it down to the point where only the basic controls were visible.
As I wanted to get on with it, I left everything in normal mode, carried out a full "cockpit drill" (in case Geoff is reading this
) and set off.
I was the last one of the day, so they let me have an hour. After driving out of the car park and through the local traffic, I joined the M5 (Managed 60 limit in force due to time of day and traffic) and then headed for the M48 via the M4. After that, I took a route back through a mix of country lanes.
The driving experience itself was very good. Pulling away from a standstill was smooth and effortless, pulling into traffic and roundabouts in particular was simply amazing - it was very easy to drive smooth and to keep the car moving. Joining the motorway was the first chance I had to see what it could do and it didn't disappoint. Even though this was only a "normal" model, the acceleration was simply awesome - this is easily the quickest car I've every driven (although I have to admit, the fastest one I've driven up to now is probably my current A3 diesel, so I don't really have much to compare it with). I liked the slightly hard regenerative braking effect on lift off (this can be disabled) as it was a bit like driving in a low gear, which made keeping control in the "twisty stuff" a joy (It was dark and wet, so making progress was hampered somewhat, but I did the best I could). If I was going to criticise it, I would say there were occasions where I felt it didn't feel very sure footed and I found myself holding back a bit as a result (this is probably partly down to lack of ability and partly being used to a smaller car - perhaps "sport" mode would have helped if I could have worked out how to engage it whilst moving in the dark and the rain).
In summary: -
Good points: Performance; space and practicality; equipment; running costs; the only automatic I've ever driven that works properly (even if strictly speaking it doesn't really have a gearbox); good looks (but conservative enough to go largely unnoticed - which I like); price (although this isn't a cheap car, it actually represents good value when compared to its obvious competitors, especially when you consider the running costs).
Bad points: Too much sensory overload from all the flashing lights and gizmos (although I'm sure this could be muted after some playing around; interior was more techy than plush (some people may prefer this, I didn't); real world range is still a bit of an uncertainty and it wouldn't suit me as I regularly cover more miles in a day than even the most optimistic quoted range (I doubt this would be an issue for the target market though).
To be honest, anyone who's just gone out and spent their retirement lump-sum on a big Audi, Merc or Jag (especially if it's an auto) has probably made the biggest mistake of their lives not getting a Tesla instead. It's that simple.
Not really practical for me, for the reasons given, but I'm going to be watching closely as more affordable mid-sized models are on the horizon. While this won't be my next car, I'm not ruling out a Tesla of some description for the one after that, assuming the sums add up.
There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is the future and it's looking a lot better than when we all thought it was going to be a Toyota Prius.