Disappointed.
That's the overwhelming feeling I get after going for a test drive.
The steering is neat and crisp, but it's a truck, it's not going to handle great no matter how amazing the Tesla engineers are. There was a decent amount of body roll, as I would expect for a truck, but that may have been due to a warning about the suspension air compressor pump overheating.
The acceleration is nothing new to anyone who has driven a performance Tesla for years. Yes, it is way better than my old Silverado, but it's a fair bit slower than Jarvis.
No stalks for controls is unbelievably stupid. Turn signals, wipers, and gear selections belong on stalks. It was way too easy to bump the buttons on the wheel, which I did several times by accident on a half hour test drive. I don't care if it "takes time to get used to it" - it shouldn't, and that makes it dangerous.
It was raining today, so I was using the singular massive wiper. It felt like the Highlander was swinging a broadsword over my head every time it randomly cleared the windshield on auto. It does clear the windshield well, but is very distracting.
The visibility forward is great, but it is obstructed a bit to the sides and there is almost no visibility to the rear. The rearview mirror is a joke. The side view mirrors are puny. I just drove like I always do and looked over my shoulder instead of using the mirrors or stupidly looking down at the small image from the side view camera on the screen. Maybe this is why they push FSD so hard, however, I have zero interest in FSD right now, as it is still just training a computer to drive. I'm far more relaxed doing the driving myself than being tense and on-edge waiting for FSD to screw up and having to react quickly in a dangerous situation. Maybe I'll consider FSD when it is regularly beating professional drivers around racetracks. Until then, it's really just a gimmick.
The ventilation fan is LOUD. It was set to low, but even with my lousy hearing it was definitely louder than sitting in my 10 year old 180K mile Silverado while running with the AC on medium.
The windshield started fogging up, so I put on the defroster and went to open the driver's window slightly. I had to wedge my elbow between the seat and the door/B pillar to get my hand back far enough to reach the switches. I'm only 6'1", and I have long arms, but this is dumb. They should really swap the handle and window switch positions.
The battery range went from 17% (yes, I started my pre-arranged test drive at 17% charge) to 9% after driving about 10 miles. Ironically, I drove to the nearest supercharger, which had one stall available, only to find that 4/8 weren't working, including the one I plugged into. 300+ mile range is much more likely to be 200, just like our M3P with "310 miles of range" (really 225-250 at best). The battery should have been twice the size with the original spec 500 mile range to get 350-400 in real world driving or 200 miles of towing.
The price - it's way to much to justify. The $40k option at launch is now $70k, which was the original promised price for the triple motor beast. The top of the line Silverado with 450 miles of range is almost this price. It's another Fabergé egg, just like the Model X.
Inside the new service center they had a Cybertruck with a tent on display (today was the official opening of the Londonderry Service Center). The tent was neat, but why don't they have a rear sliding window with a pass through into the tent for heat/AC? Why is the support for the tent inflatable? This seems like a poor design choice knowing it is mounted on top of a sharp edged sheet metal truck.
I also noticed the giant black plastic "diaper" in the bottom in the back. It seems like it would easily get destroyed backing up into anything. The hitch should be the only thing hanging down in this area, and it should be rugged as hell - I won't link to the many videos on YouTube of the hitch being destroyed.
I would have gladly sacrificed the volume used for the roll up tonneau cover and rear sub-trunk for twice the battery capacity - or even 50% more battery capacity. The roll up cover is probably great for warm climates, but here in NH with the ice and snow, this is bound to be a frozen mess in no time.
At this point, I am happy that I got my $100 deposit back last year. I'll likely never buy one of these new, and maybe I won't even buy one at half price used in a few years.
They had 5 years to make this thing amazing, but even through I am a huge Tesla and TSLA fan, it just misses the mark repeatedly.
If TSLA stock had continued to perform well (no Twitter or political BS) I likely could have bought one easily. Instead, I'll likely keep my existing truck and look for a used model S Plaid or a second M3P.
My impression of the Tesla Cybertruck after experiencing it in person all comes back to the first word in this rant:
Disappointed.