Biases. We all have them. I’ve carried around an irrational dislike for Brussels sprouts for the past 35 years – the mere mention of them would invoke a queasy stomach rumble. Recently, though, a friend ordered a side of bacon-roasted sprouts, and the intoxicating aroma grabbed me. Just like that, I felt a fool for depriving myself of the vegetable for all these years. Bias destroyed. My feelings toward electric cars – and Tesla Motors specifically – have been similarly wary since the introduction of such vehicles. I was convinced I had no use in my life for a four-wheeled blender. And battery power … How could that possibly be as exciting as harnessing the force of thousands of tiny explosions per minute?

As a writer, however, I have to occasionally challenge my biases. Sometimes they’re reaffirmed, and other times they’re wadded up and thrown into the trash, like my former feelings about Brussels sprouts. I knew going into the St. Louis Tesla dealer that conquering my bias against electron-propelled vehicles was going to be as easy as clearing an 8-foot high jump.

Because the Model S P90D is as much a piece of software as it is hardware, Tesla had arranged for communications representative Sonja Koch to be on hand when I arrived. My only Tesla experience had been years prior, and I remembered the cutting board-sized center screen to be on the clunky side, and interior fit and finish to be marginal, at best. Well, first bias challenged and overcome – the current incarnation of Tesla’s living space is a quantum leap. Whether born from voodoo magic or just solid engineering, that big, beautiful display somehow doesn’t wash out in the least when you open the sunroof or wear polarized sunglasses. The display was so logical to this 40-something that I soon found myself not paying attention to Koch’s tutelage. My ears perked up immediately upon mention of “ludicrous mode,” though: I couldn’t say fast enough that the car would go and stay in max, for everything.