Tesla Model X Plaid Review

The Model X Plaid is a genuinely absurd machine. It weighs two and a half tonnes, seats six, tows five thousand pounds and reaches sixty in about two and a half seconds, which no other sport utility has ever managed. The falcon doors still draw a crowd in a supermarket car park. That is roughly where the case for it ends. Those doors are the single most complained about component Tesla has ever shipped, with sensors, struts and alignment all on the service list.

The cabin is the Model S cabin, which is to say competent and a decade behind what Munich and Stuttgart put in cars costing less. Rear visibility is poor, the third row is punitive for adults, and the yoke made the low speed manoeuvring that a car this size constantly demands actively worse. Resale is the harshest number here. A three year old example can be worth less than half what it cost, which is the sort of loss that buys a whole second car.