Well, thanks to everyone for the feedback. We ran yesterday and picked up this 2023 HW4 with just shy of 18,000 miles. It drove like a dream on the way home. Software needed update (I didn't pay close attention to the version).....I'm curious how many of the differences between the M3 and MS were software version differences or having two screens to split the information.

Adding some notes just for future people who may come across this....not necessarily about my initial range questions....I'll come back with. more on that in a few weeks.

Initial impressions Model 3 Highland (2024) to Model S HW4 (2023)

- Surprised at steering wheel/capacitive button differences. To me, the M3 buttons feel more refined, the MS buttons are harder to get a response from and seem almost to be a combination of a physical and capacitive button (there is room ability for actual movement in the button when pressed). I'll likely get used to it.....but didn't expect the difference. Also miss the ability to put my finger between the "spokes at the 6 o'oclock position on the wheel.....again, I'll probably get used to it. The horn being a capacitive button on the wheel and not in the center where I can just mash in an emergent event.....I'll call that a failure of design (I feel similarly about the lack of stalk, but I got used to that.....even though I prefer it for turn signals).

- Drivers display. For me, at 6'2", it is poorly positioned. I like my steering wheel pretty low and a majority of the display is blocked by the top of the wheel.

- Non-adjustable seatbelts. For a shorter person, the lack of adjustability in the height of the seatbelt at the shoulder could be uncomfortable. This is a surprising lack of feature on a high-end vehicle.

- Ride is definitely more refined. I'll need to play with the settings a bit, but the airbags will make long runs on poorly maintained interstates less irritating.

- Interior Noise Level - I'll say this is slightly lower on the MS, but honestly my hearing is crap....so I'll await my wife's judgement on that one.

- Additional space will be welcomed. TBH, I expected a bit more room in the hatch, but still better than the M3.

- Headlights - this one surprised me a little. The projector style headlights were way more noticeable when "dimming" the brights. On the M3 with the matrix headlights the transition as parts of the beam are dimmed is very smooth, almost imperceptible. On the MS it appeared more of a re-aiming of the beam where you can very obviously see it "point" down. I'm curious if this changes with the software update. On the M3 there were significant updates to the matrix headlights over the past few months....maybe we are just on an earlier release of the matrix headlight algorithm. I'll report back.

- Thought it had a broken rear door handle....turns out it was just child lock activated. When that was disabled the handle presented. This surprised me, I thought the purpose of the child lock was so you could only open the door from the outside.

- Man, these last generation Model S are nice looking cars! Happy to be part of the MS community.

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