Cars.com Reviews the 2012 Tesla Model S
Buying the 2012 Tesla Model S is like acquiring a Picasso with the caveat that the artist will show up periodically, at inconvenient times, to make touch ups and fix problems: It's a work in progress. Cars.com reviewer Joe Wiesenfelder says much of the all-electric car's original composition is brilliant, especially its "staggeringly quick" acceleration, unparalleled range and charging speed. While convenient wireless software upgrades may spirit away many of the Model S' problems, would you pay $100,000 for a car whose "butt sensor" might kill the engine when the driver simply leans too far to the side?
2012 Tesla Model S Review


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I can only hope it kills engines, because the car doesn't have one, it has a motor. This is a non story
It's got the old Mercedes steering column stalks. Yikes! Dealbreaker!
Half of the complaints have been addressed in the most recent Over-the-Air Tesla update (Version 4.0, reviewed by Wired on December 13th).
How is it that a Jan 3rd article is 3 weeks behind on the features being reviewed?
strange lately the flurry of poorly researched, nit-picking, outdated, sophomoric "articles" written about the Model S AFTER it won several highly regarded COTY's. Hmmm. This car rides like a rolls royce, handles like a BMW, accelerates like a Ferrari, cargo space of an SUV, seats up to 7, set records in the govt. safety rating tests, goes twice as far on electricity than any other production car....has a FREE charging network that in 2 years will allow drivers to cross the states for free (and already allows free travel on the east and west coasts). Hundreds of patents. on and on we could go with the incredible achievements of this car that thousands of owners have fallen in love with. Still every day i find "articles" full of the problems that somehow prove this car isn't very good just yet....or that Tesla as a company is sure to fail....or that EV's in general are not really good for the environment....or aren't ever going to be practical? Really? What are these journalists afraid of?
this review was done in mid October of 2012 so why does it have a date of Jan 3rd 2013? this is outdated and misleading. the current production Tesla S just doesn't have these issues. The article misses an opportunity to review the real thing, an actual production version that is up to date. I've had 4 test drives, one in an actual production version and I am blown away, it's a cut above the first test drive vehicles. This is not a work in progress, it's near perfection that will only get better with time and updates. this is a poor review.
I experienced the "wind/vibration" noise on my test drive as well. Not sure what it was, but it was quite annoying. Anyone have info? Otherwise the test drive was amazing.
Silas, it is very simple. Journalists are afraid of losing their paycheck from the oil companies. The more they write about "problems", The more they get paid. Well - sorry oil companies, this time the car is simply too good. Can t Wait to see what kind of ridiculous excuses they will come up with next
So far I like what I see on Tesla S. But my biggest question is if you are taking a long trip about 1000 miles. Do you need to stop an recharge the battery and it will take 3 to 4 hours each stop? That will delay the trip. Is this true?