I had the pleasure recently of visiting a Tesla Motors showroom. It was clear before entering that I was a tourist in this environment. The sales staff, while polite, didn’t seriously engage me and I was very self-conscious of the fact that my median income didn’t entitle me to be there.
Having spent more time on dealer lots than most, I am used to kicking tires and test driving vehicles for fun. This was not the case here. I used the term showroom to clearly identify this as a room meant to show off their cars. There was no dealer lot. There was no service center and there were no acres of pavement packed with vehicles looking for a new home. Instead, this was a fairly small store-front in a ritzy suburban Chicago mall that had one Tesla Roadster and one Tesla Model S.
Nevertheless, I soldiered on, excited to be around these interesting vehicles. One salesperson took pity on me and let me sit in the Model S. Presumably, it was easy to justify after letting a potential customer’s two kids play in the car for ten minutes. They had a great time climbing through the thing, from the front seats, past the large back bench and into the hatch-like trunk.
Once I got my chance, I was immediately struck by the car’s enormous center-stack display. Picture a screen larger than an iPad mounted where the radio and A/C controls should go. The 17” touch screen controls said functions, in addition to navigation, internet and other vehicle controls. I had to make a conscious effort to focus on the remainder of the interior, which is nicely designed and quite comfortable. In addition to the large center display, the cockpit also includes smaller LCDs instead of traditional gauges to show vehicle speed and
The exterior of the vehicle is quite handsome, in a modern Jaguar sense. This is true especially from the back, where the raised rear glass and modern lines create a decidedly European fast back look.
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