Tesla Model X review: falcon-wing luxury for buyers who don't need a dealer
3.9/5motorssouq Editorial Team
The Model X is an engineering showpiece more than a sensible family purchase in this market. The falcon-wing doors are genuinely useful in a tight Manama car park, but they are also the single most expensive thing to fix if the sensors misbehave, and there is nobody local trained to do it. Buy it for the novelty and the performance if budget is no object; buy a Model Y for the same seven-seat family brief at a fraction of the ownership risk.
Pros
- Falcon-wing rear doors are a genuine practical advantage in tight Manama parking
- 670 hp Dual Motor Long Range is quicker than most performance sedans
- Panoramic glass windscreen and cabin space unmatched by any rival SUV
- Same efficient, well-managed battery thermal performance as the rest of the range in Gulf heat
Cons
- Rarest Tesla in Bahrain, so independent technicians have the least hands-on experience with it
- Falcon-wing door sensors and hydraulics are complex, expensive and slow to diagnose without factory tools
- No official Tesla service or parts supply anywhere near Bahrain
- Weakest resale and highest ownership risk of any Tesla model in this market
The Model X remains the only mainstream SUV with falcon-wing rear doors, and they are not just a party trick: in a genuinely tight Manama multi-storey car park, doors that open upward instead of outward are a real practical advantage. The Dual Motor Long Range's 670 hp makes it quick enough to embarrass most performance sedans, and the panoramic glass windscreen extending over the front occupants' heads is a genuine talking point nobody else offers.
None of that changes the fact that the Model X is the least practical Tesla to own in this market. It is rarer here than the Model S or Model 3, which means fewer independent technicians have hands-on experience with it, and the falcon-wing door mechanism — sensors, hydraulic struts, obstacle detection — is exactly the kind of complex system that is expensive and slow to diagnose without factory tools.
Owning one in Bahrain
As with every Tesla here, there is no official showroom or service centre, so a Model X in Bahrain arrived through a grey-market importer or a private shipment. That is a manageable risk for a mechanically simple EV like the Model 3; it is a much bigger one for a car whose signature feature is a complex moving door mechanism with no local specialist and no easy parts supply.
Who should buy one
Buy it if the falcon-wing doors and the performance genuinely matter to you and you can absorb the risk of an expensive, slow repair if something goes wrong with them. For anyone who just wants electric seven-seat family space without that specific risk, the Model Y is the far more sensible choice.