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Comment by xenadu02 | Hacker News Reader

Some people (like myself) prefer a sporty ride.

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.

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I love when people say this. Because it tells me that they have never actually driven a sports car before.

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.

Not really! As a customer, I could care less about how shifts work. With automatic transmission, whether it's CVT, Electronic, etc. is all gravy. Just give me an experience that makes me smile.

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.

Off topic: you mean "I couldn't care less". As David Mitchell once said: "If you could care less about something then all you're telling us is that you do care at least a little bit because you could care less.

> That's the difference between a mechanical drive and an emotional one.

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".

>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.

After 2024, Mustang will probably just be a crossover EV.

I was with you on the suspension and steering but artificially limiting acceleration to mimic a shift is just dumb. "Sporty" should mean high-performance.

For the record I drove a 2001 E46 M3 for years. My follow-on was an Infinity G37-S.

I am very familiar with what sporty handling means.

> When tesla owners say "sporty" they mean acceleration.

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).

You're not going to get a sporty ride from a model Y. Or any SUV really, as much as Tesla, BMW, and every other luxury SUV maker would have you believe. These vehicles are simply too tall for that. It's a tradeoff for which you get practical benefits in return.

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.

They’ve got some work to do in the suspension tuning department. They should take notes from BMW and the 3-series. That’s how you do a sport ride that’s still comfortable.

FWIW they have revised the Model Y suspension for 2023. Reports say it is more comfortable without affecting handling. Some owners have reportedly ordered the parts from the 2023 vintage and had them installed on prior year models - but I haven't verified that so YMMV.

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.

corvette C8 for those who cant afford a Ferrari

I had the chance to test drive a C8 and was a little unimpressed (I was planning to buy one but didn’t).

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.

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