sparky said:
I voted, "Don't care" and that was the mode at the time. Doesn't seem to be a very emotional issue with TMC voters. I'm a fan of the FWD on my X. No issues. I think they sell more X's because of them. I don't find the door handles on the 3 to be a great design but it's still a minor issue for a car with so many superlatives.
Do you plan to keep your car beyond the warranty period? Do you regularly use it in inclement conditions? Do you need to carry loads on the roof? Is keeping the car's purchase and M&R costs as low as possible an issue for you? Anyone who answered yes to one or more of these would probably be a no. Answering yes to all four, as I do, would most likely cause someone to check the Hell, No! box. Looking at the responses, almost half (48.4%) voted for one of the no options, so the FWDs are an issue for many.
Granted, as with all such voluntary polls they are unscientific, and the people who feel most strongly about the matter are most likely to vote. My personal take is that FWD are essentially a carnival sideshow gimmick, good for attracting crowds to ooh and aah but not much use otherwise. It seems I'm not the only one who feels that's their major function, and I guess you fall into that category to a certain extent:
Tesla's Silly Falcon Wing Doors Have One Great Function
The motorized, sensor-operated rear doors on the Tesla Model X are needlessly complicated and cause more problems than they solve. But in one specific way, they’re crucial to the future of the automobile.
https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/a21722920/tesla-model-x-falcon-wing-doors/
It's the doors that do it. I was pretty unimpressed by these Falcon Wing doors when the Tesla Model X debuted in 2015, writing them off as an expensive, complicated gimmick. The fact that the doors were a contributing factor in the Model X's delayed arrival didn't do them any favors in my eyes, either.
But when I was taking photos of this Model X P100D in a hip part of Brooklyn, every time I raised the doors, people stopped. A delivery truck driver said the X was "a sexy piece of ass you've got there," while attendees of a nearby music festival stopped and took selfies. Toddlers and parents alike looked on in amazement at the bizarre mechanical symphony of the doors going up and down.
I wasn't expecting this. The Model X has been with us for nearly three years now; in a place like New York City, they're not uncommon. And I struggle to call it pretty. It features lots of nice details, but to be perfectly honest, I think it looks like an egg from many angles.
All I see is a frumpy family transporter. And yet, with the falcon doors, the Model X gets attention like a supercar. And that could be Tesla’s greatest achievement yet. .
When you work as a journalist, it’s easy to have a somewhat jaded view of Elon Musk’s electric car company. We watch Tesla closely, as it burns through cash and continues to struggle to build the entry-level Model 3 on schedule, while Musk wages war on anyone publishing less-than-glowing Tesla coverage and works on unrelated projects you might consider distracting.
But driving the Model X reminds us that much of the public doesn't feel the same way. For them, seeing this striking black, bewinged SUV is an event. I can't help but think of the shot of New Yorkers crowding around a red Countach parked on a Manhattan street from a 1987 60 Minutes profile of Lamborghini. . . .
The first time I saw a Model X at the Yosemite Village charger in Yosemite Valley, it attracted just such a crowd as described above when the owner, who I was talking to at the time, opened them. I suggested he should consider selling tickets :lol:
IMO impractical, expensive, gimmicky doors belong on Supercars, not utility vehicles. No one expects a Supercar to be practical, so such silliness done primarily to attract attention fits right in with the 300SL's Gull-wings or the Scissors doors on a Lamborghini or the Butterfly doors on a Mclaren. If Elon wants to put FWDs on a car, the 2nd Gen. Roadster is the obvious choice - no one who buys one of those will give a hoot in hell for how much they cost, how practical or how reliable they are.
