Originally Posted by motegi

Apparently i have a particularly faulty car. While most of these faults are not just isolated to my D4, it is the fact that they all seem to be occurring in rapid succession that makes my situation different than most others.

As an aside I am presently awaiting the Audi suspension parts to become available from backorder status and take my A8 back to the dealer again for the repairs. Afterward, perhaps the stars will magically align and my A8 will finally rid itself of its demons. One can only hope! Please keep your fingers crossed for my A8...

Originally Posted by AG6

Interesting comparison. I was very interested in the Tesla, but after a test drive it was not as comfortable as my S-Class. Definately interested. I am leaning towards the A8 line to try something different, but still not sold because of the issues I am reading about.

Originally Posted by mishar

You may want to check this before you replace your A8. By the way you had more problems than everybody else combined. Included D3 forum.

Originally Posted by tgsz

I have a similar experience with my d4. Eerily similar. O2 + cam sensors change, esp+cel lights (and intermittent air suspension faults which they can't reproduce so refuse to acknowledge), adaptive cruise completely changed, creaky suspension, long stays at the dealership (4 of the first 6 weeks it was at the dealer, 650km put on the car doing "road tests"). On top if this dealer tried to give out a q3 as a loaner... They also had the gall to charge me for the gas they used "road testing" it after they failed to find the problem for weeks. The more I drive it the more things I notice failing. Transmission bucks when taking off from a rolling stop, engine just free wheels then when it engages the gear after a few seconds it jars.

Anyway I sympathize with op and will be shopping for a new car soon if the issues continue to arise at this rate.
It's a pity because the interior is a really nice place to be when it's working well. The car doesn't even have 25000 miles.

Originally Posted by mishar

So you are Tesla employee too?

Originally Posted by motegi

As a relative newbie to the forum I've only owned my D4 A8L since May. The Audi A8 was a car that I had long admired from riding in friends' cars and seeing them at various auto shows. I truly thought the A8L was going to be a great daily driver for me and was fully expecting to own it for the long term. I even joined the Audi Club of North America much like I have joined the car clubs of the other vehicles that I've owned. Mechanical service manuals, VAG-COM cable, radar detector mount, shirts, hats, posters, all-weather floor mats and everything I always order for my cars I also picked up for the Audi. I really wanted this to be THE car.

Unfortunately the ownership experience with this car has been far less than stellar with a myriad of electrical and mechanical issues plaguing the car since almost day one. They include an Air Suspension System Fault, replacement tie rods and bushings for creaks and groans, complete MMI screen blackout on two separate occasions, two new sensors for recurrent Check Engine lights, intermittent Side Assist and Adaptive Cruise Control, intermittent Steering Wheel Easy Entry, defective interior trim, and many more. Even though everything has been covered under the warranty, these issues have taken me to three separate dealer service departments, multiple calls with Audi Customer Care, and has greatly impacted my life in terms of the time I've had to spend to sort these things out. More recently my A8L has been spending more time at the dealer than in my garage. In less than 8 months I've come to the conclusion that I need to start to look for an alternative. Until this point I have never owned a car for anywhere under 4 years and even have a few cars in my garage that I've had for more than 10. As it stands, this Audi will sadly not be one of them.

Today my wife and I had a scheduled test drive in the Tesla P85D dual motor all-wheel drive Model S at a local Tesla Design location. Holy crap was it incredible! I knew from the online reviews that the car has a 0-60 acceleration of 3.2 seconds but the way that the electric motor power is applied took me by complete surprise.

The nearest Tesla Design store location is in an industrial area tucked inside an office complex and has a nice isolated open stretch of road one one side. The showroom is very simple and looks like a small office rather than a car dealership. There is no large lighted sign out front nor rows of new and preowned cars lined up in front. In fact there were only two Teslas parked in front and nothing else. It was nothing like a "car dealership" at all. As soon as you walk through the front door there is a glass wall behind a small desk where one can see the service area containing perhaps 6 vehicle service bays. There were three Model S in for service/updates today. To my surprise, there were no cars in the "showroom" itself nor any space to even accommodate one. There was just a table with a large iMac for configuring your car to be ordered and a wall with a flatscreen and color samples for the interior and exterior choices. There were a couple of chairs that made up the service waiting area and some shelves of Tesla shirts and hats. I spoke with one gentleman who was waiting for a Tesla Accessory center console to be installed in his Model S. He said said that his Model S had replaced a long line of BMWs and Mercedes with zero regrets and really felt the Model S was far superior in every way. He even took me out to see his car after it was ready.

During our brief time in the store there were a steady stream of customers coming in to take delivery of their new Teslas. Many were upgrading from an earlier model to the newest P85D. There was a small keypad access door that opened into a large warehouse on the side where at least a dozen brand new Model S were awaiting delivery to their owners. This room was great way to check out a variety of exterior, interior, and wheel combinations in person.

Our salesman was very enthusiastic, young, informative, and genuinely excited with the Model S and the P85D in particular. As I had specifically scheduled for a P85D test drive, he had one already charged and waiting for us in front. At the car, we got a 20 minute walk through of the features, discussion of electric range/charging, infotainment, and telematics systems before the test drive. We learned that you don't need to have the key fob to drive this car. The password controlled smartphone app alone is all that you need. Through the app you also have remote wireless control of many of the cars features and telematics.

Immediately as we turned out of the parking lot the salesman asked me to come to a complete stop with the car pointed straight down the open stretch of road. He then urged me to floor the accelerator. The car was already in "Insane" mode and there were no other settings or launch control procedures to perform. "Just gun it!" he exclaimed emphatically. So that's exactly what I did. The sheer instantaneous force of acceleration took both me and my wife by surprise even though we both knew it was coming. It snapped our heads back into the headrests so quickly that I had to refocus my eyes back down to the road. In just a fraction over 3 seconds were were at 60 MPH. And yet, the car maintained complete composure with only a faint electric motor whine and zero wheel spin from any of the 21 inch tires. No gear changes, no engine roar, no drama. When driven in town it was extremely quiet and handled quite well with great steering weighting and good body control. Even with the largest wheels and the optional air suspension set to the lowest setting the Model S was surprisingly much smoother riding than my A8L in comfort mode. My wife was so happy with the ride quality that it was one of the first things she commented on when we finished the test drive.

In comparison with my well equipped V8 A8L, the P85D fully optioned would list almost $25k higher. For this, it is a vastly quicker car (quickest production sedan gas or otherwise) with minimal maintenance costs. There is no internal combustion engine so there is no need for oil changes nor most of the things that one expects as being synonymous with motor vehicle ownership. The only fluid that this car consumes is windshield washer fluid. Even the brake pads on the Model S will last much longer owing to the fact that as soon as one lets off of the accelerator the automatic energy regeneration system takes over to the point where actual brake use is minimal.

The interiors are vastly different in design approach between the two cars with the P85D being almost completely devoid of physical buttons on the dash except for a hazard light button and the glove box release switch. All of the car systems, HVAC, audio, telematics, etc are controlled through the giant 17" touchscreen in the center of the dash. The touchscreen is very bright, legible, and extremely responsive. What is absent is any center floor console whatsoever with more of a flat tray like one would expect in something like a minivan instead. The shifter is a stalk attached to the right side of the steering column. There is no "start button" nor any gears to select as there is no traditional transmission. You simply get in and go. The cupholders and a small storage compartment is contained within the center armrests. Of course there are, as mentioned earlier, dealer installed traditional center console units available with more cupholders, storage pockets, and trays for cell phones, etc. The main gauge cluster is entirely digital with a large LCD screen and virtual speedometer in the center with user configurable information displays on either side. There are some programmable scroll wheels and buttons on the steering wheel to control the gauge cluster display.

Admittedly even with the optional upgraded interior package on the Model S the interior finishes on the door panels, etc are nowhere near as luxurious as the A8. I think this is the weakest point of the Model S design. I sat in both the Model S with the upgraded performance seats and the standard seats which have 12 way power adjustment and heat but do not hold a candle to the A8's almost infinitely adjustable and massaging thrones. The Model S has no option for front seat ventilation/cooling at any trim level. The rear view mirror and the ceiling visors seemed flimsy and low quality. While there is an optional panoramic sunroof there are no rear privacy shades nor any center armrest or cupholders for the rear passengers. The rear AC did not appear to be independently adjustable and the rear legroom was definitely smaller than the cavernous A8L. One advantage of the Model S over the A8 is that a rear center passenger gets a full headrest as well as generous side bolstering and a flat rear footwell making it truly a comfortable and useable passenger location.

Just as an aside for any watch collectors who are reading this, the space between the door panel and the lower seat cushion on the Model S is narrow and prevented me from being able to reach my left hand down to adjust the seat controls with my dive watch on my wrist. I had to take my watch off to do this. First world problems... I know. But it was an annoyance nonetheless as I don't go anywhere without a watch on and the stock Model S doesn't have a center console where I can easily set the watch down.

The standard audio system in the Model S only has 6 speakers and no subwoofer and while adequate for low level background music will not impress anyone. Seriously I don't see how this is even a reasonable basic sound system. There is an upgraded system available with 12 speakers and an 8 inch woofer that sounds better and would be more on-par with the base Bose audio system on the A8L.

Thanks to the electric powertrain and "hatchback" style design the Model S gets both a decent sized front trunk roomy enough for a small duffle bag or several grocery bags as well as an enormous rear trunk. The rear seats also fold flat to allow it to easily be as accommodating as a small SUV. There is even enough space back there that they offer an optional rear facing third row pair of seats! There is also a large hidden rectangular storage area under the rear trunk floor that is almost as large as the front trunk. The overall cargo volume of the P85D is vastly superior to the A8L where loading my golf bag for an outing can be a chore and always requires some pre-planning.

A huge advantage of the Model S is the constant stream of free updates that Tesla provides to the owners via over the air software upgrades. Over time things like their autopilot features will be pushed as software updates into the cars at no charge. In this way the Tesla is more like an iPhone than a traditional car. Tesla doesn't seem to treat their cars like other brands with incremental updates being reserved for subsequent model years. The updates are instead transmitted to the Model S' via the built in 3G wireless connection or via WiFi while it is parked in your garage overnight. So the differences in the cars are less by model year and more by the battery capacity and hardware packages. Again, this is quite different from what most of us are used to.

I know that for many people the idea of a fully electric powered car and the inherent "range anxiety" is a big roadblock and it's honestly still what has me on the fence. My daily commute is only about 50 miles per day and I am lucky enough to have a Tesla Supercharger station only 10 minutes away where electric charging would be free for life. The Tesla Supercharger can replenish up to 170 miles of range in just 30 minutes. Conveniently, the Supercharger happens to be right along my daily commute and strategically situated next to a Starbucks as well. However, I get called out at night multiple times a week which could impact at home charging and the wife and I like to take short trips to surrounding areas on the weekends where range could be an issue.

Tesla Service is only about 20 minutes away and they will provide free valet pick up/drop off service with Tesla loaners for any warranty repairs. Right now the Audi dealer that I have been using is 1 hour away. There are two Audi dealers that are closer but my experience with them has not been good. The Audi dealer does provide valet pickup/dropoff for now but I'm not sure how long that will continue considering how far away I live.

I am fortunate to own several other traditional gasoline engine cars as well so I would never be without a car just because my battery needs to be charged. Luckily our local electricity costs are relatively cheap at under 7 cents per kilowatt hour meaning that home charging for daily use would cost less than $1 per day and under 1 hour with the 80 amp charger option.

So overall I was thoroughly impressed with the Tesla Model S P85D from a sheer performance, interior comfort, and ride quality standpoint. The cost of ownership should be low considering the vastly reduced energy/fuel costs and minimal maintenance requirements. While I never considered owning a non-combustion engine vehicle before this test drive has really opened my eyes to what is possible.

While I'm sad to say it, I suppose that I need to thank my problematic A8L for pushing me to explore what else is out there. I still have some other cars to check out before I make a decision but the Tesla P85D is now solidly at the top of my list.