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Consumer Reports: Tesla Model S 'Best Overall' again in 2015

For the second year in a row, Consumer Reports has named the Tesla Model S its  'Best Overall' vehicle to buy for 2015. Consumer Reports praised the Tesla Model S for its 'innovation, magnificence, and sheer technological arrogance.'

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Al Behrman/AP/File
Tesla representative John Van Cleave, right, shows customers Sarah and Robert Reynolds, left, and Vince Giardina, a new Tesla Model S all electric car, at a Tesla showroom inside the Kenwood Towne Centre in Cincinnati. The Tesla Model S was the top overall finisher in the individual vehicles category on Consumer Reports magazine's annual auto rankings report released Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015.

Well, Tesla Motors seems to have done it again.

For the second year in a row, Consumer Reports has named the Tesla Model S its "Best Overall" vehicle to buy for 2015.

As the well-regarded consumer magazine notes in its summary:

For all of the impressive new vehicles released in 2014, none was able to eclipse the innovation, magnificence, and sheer technological arrogance of the Tesla. That’s why it’s our best overall pick for the second consecutive year.

The writeup goes on to rave about the ability of the Model S to update itself to add new features:

Through the course of their life cycles, cars become obsolete quickly as newer models appear with updated gizmos.

But with Tesla’s over-the-air software updates, a Model S that came off the line in 2013 has many of the same new features as one built today.

There are limitations to that capability, however.

For instance, a Model S built before mid-2014 will be not fitted with the various sensors and cameras required to add adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, and similar electronic safety systems.

And Consumer Reports notes that as more data has come in, the Model S "showed average reliability" once "teething problems at launch" had been addressed and resolved.

Still, it sums up Tesla's all-electric luxury sport sedan with a rave, calling it "a technological tour de force, a high-performance electric vehicle with usable real-world range, wrapped in a luxury package."

The magazine has also noted in the past that Tesla Model S buyers are more satisfied with their new cars than those of any other model, whether electric, gasoline, or diesel.

And it recently rated the company's service experience as the best among carmakers, based on accumulated customer experience with getting their cars updated, fixed, or repaired by Tesla's company-owned service centers.

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