They're really fun to drive. I own one and don't regret it. Obviously no car will appeal to everyone but clearly Tesla has a market despite the nay-sayers.
edit: The purchase experience beats traditional car makers hands down. No high pressure sales tactics or scams like rust preventer.
Nay-sayers also under-rate Tesla's mobile service. Go into the app, create a ticket, attach pictures. Get an estimate within hours (sometimes minutes). Accept, schedule. Tech comes to your house with all the parts and tools. Super easy.
Not much to maintain... motor coolant (ATF), coolant system, etc are lifetime sealed. Brakes last forever thanks to regen. Basically replace air filters every 3-4 years and tires per normal... which can also be done by mobile service.
When tesla owners say "sporty" they mean acceleration. Yes Teslas have mad acceleration. Not disputing that. But thats not a sporty drive. If anything thats more what you would get from a muscle car, which offers pure torque at the cost of basically everything else, which is what Tesla offers. Tesla isn't a sports car, it is a muscle car trapped in a sports car body.
Drive a Porsche, or Mercedes (C or S classes, the A classes are a joke), or BMW. These give you a sports drive. Smooth suspension, finely tuned transmission shifts, snappy steering, etc. These traits make up sporty drives. While power plays a component in that, it's not pure torque.
I realize that Tesla doesn't have a transmission before someone spits that out to me. But look at the electric Porsches and BMWs who mimick a transmission range to give you that, it isn't just a linear line like a Tesla. That's the difference between a mechanical drive and an emotional one. This is also why neither of these company's current offerings can beat out Tesla in 0-60 time. They could come close or beat it if they wanted to, but their clientele isn't looking for that, they want a traditional shift and acceleration so they offer that instead.
I'm sorry, what? Who's to say a linear acceleration can't be an "emotional drive"? This is pure personal preference. You're extrapolating based on your own opinions, and I guarantee isn't a universal sentiment.
Personally, I'd want a electric car that behaves like an electric car, not trying to simulate a transmission that doesn't exist. This has the same vibe as "mount a speaker to play fake engine sounds on a near-silent EV, because that's what people who grew up with muscle cars expect to hear".
To be fair, a significant chunk of normal cars have this too.
>Who's to say a linear acceleration can't be an "emotional drive"?
Sometimes, you want to turn corners too (electric cars have a disadvantage in this area because they're a lot heavier) but in a typical city you don't really have to do that very much so the straight-pull power gets you 90% of the sports car experience.
Not that that's inherently a bad thing- Mustangs are the only car Ford still sells for a good reason (and the base Tesla wouldn't sell if it had economy-car horsepower)- but if you want a car like that capable of turning corners with that speed then you need to spend a little (or a lot) more.
When you live in a city, this is the only sporty thing you can experience. You aren't going to speed down the freeway at 90 MPH, if ever, you aren't going to practice drifting or anything fun like that.
It is a "sporty" sedan experience that is limited to leaving other cars in the dust as you quickly speed up to the 30 MPH speed limit. Oh, and it is still a sedan, so I can do that while taking my kid to his Chinese class.
Tesla made and will make an actual sports car (the Tesla Roadster and its successor), so it is not like that segment has been forgotten for EVs. BUT there just isn't a huge market for those, or maybe it is better served by the cheaper WRX or BRZ (a $30k small sport EV roadster? Ya, I could buy that).
For me personally, Teslas are some of the most fun cars I've ever driven. I've driven Mercedes C class and BMW 3 series. Teslas have way better acceleration, and the responsiveness of the steering is awesome for me.
I am very familiar with what sporty handling means.
That said car enthusiast types were never Tesla's target market post-Roadster and they've excelled at building a product the public likes for other reasons as you've mentioned.
If reports continue to be positive that it doesn't negatively affect handling I may give it a try (depending on the cost). Of course another great Tesla feature is mobile service... I'm curious if they'd be able to do a suspension swap. They can already do tire replacement and rotate/balance. You schedule it in the app and they show up at your house to do the work. It is extremely convenient.
A good car but not a great one as I had been led to believe.
On paper and all the glowing reviews had me believing it was something very special. Maybe on a track it is (I just drove it spiritedly on public roads)
I tried a few other cars that week and found the C8 to be lacking in comparison. (Mclaren GT, M3/5/8 competitions, Aston Martin Vantage, a few others).
Granted many of the other cars were more expensive. But the M3/M4 comps arent much more and I thought they were a clear level above in every way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Also, of the 3 C8s I sat in one of them had laughably crooked stitching on the dash. I get that it’s a Chevy, but that to me shows the quality control is not there.
Yes you push the pedal and it go fast. Everyone with a Tesla loves to show that off that and I can't dispute it. But the actual ride quality is (or at least was) truly horrible. Terrible road noise and suspension that bottoms out and rebounds aggressively. This doesn't even address the countless concerns people have raised of build quality (like badly placed body panels, weatherstripping coming loose, bad locks, etc..
It really shocks me that people were buying Mercedes level prices for a car that was built worse than budget brands. Yes you got a sexy big screen (before that was common) and it had all the cool 360 cameras (before those were common), and it had the promise (more like an "IoU") for self-driving.
It is funny because I bought a new BMW and saved money. The beamer was a budget choice by comparison (by tens of thousands of dollars). Really happy I went that route after watching the next 5 years play out.
Disclosure: Early TSLA investor, no current exposure
If we are talking subjective value, then yes Tesla definitely wins. They have built so much subjective value that it overcomes their numerous faults.
I also think being environmentally conscious and the desire for durability is a much stronger incentive than the points mentioned.
Tesla pundits predict big sales of Cybertruck wraps and accessories as customers seek the status of customization for an truck that many, many will end up having.
Or my wife's Audi where the black coating on all the interior plastic scrunched up and peeled off. And that same car had a CVT transmission with so many failures Audi actually paid off repairs via a class action lawsuit (I got a check for around $4k! first and only time a class action actually benefitted me and not the lawyers). Oh and the defective Bosch ignition coils that caused misfires.
For what it is worth my Model Y (Dec 21) doesn't have odd panel gaps or other problems. It has extremely minimal maintenance requirements. I don't care about the price of gas or even electricity because my solar panels charge it for free. And it is fun to drive.
Not everyone will like the ride, the features, or whatever else... but they are selling every single one that rolls off the fully-booked production line.
1. Small enough to reasonable park in a dense city
2. Has 7 seats, so we can drive with 2 kids, Grandma, and some of the kids friends
3. Has 300+ miles per charge
Edit: Ref: https://old.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/12c49ir/_/jf2k...
Have Tesla Service confirm parts to your VIN/vehicle model (LR vs Performance).