I test drove a Tesla Model S 100 D

[dentist90]

Originally Posted by cairns

Oh a British electric car. What could go wrong?

Thanks for the LOL. Needed that today

Factory equipped Lucas smoke screen on this Bond car, I’m sure!

[unclebilly]

We did the 90 minute test drive and the wife approved. Next is the 24 hour test drive in. A few weeks.

I am now leaning toward the model 3.

My daughter just finalized her order for a Model 3, after loaning Elon $1000 tax free a couple of years ago. She spent three years as an engineer at Tesla, and got some sort of preferred employee place in line, but even then, she ponied up the $$ a long time ago. I plan to give the car a fair hearing, but don't think I'll have much love for it. (Of course, she may not let me drive it.)

I agree with slow&rusty to a great extent. I replaced my 2010 Hemi Jeep Grand Cherokee with a 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid, so I went from 13 mpg to 40. That was great, and the tech was cool, but the car lacked that IC soul. I missed the Jeep I gave the Fusion to my sales rep and bought an E92 M3 for my daily. Now that has soul.

[mikehinton]

Shaun: Sorry for the delayed reply. We are on vacation now. Likes: Good low-end power, virtually silent operation, one-pedal driving, better than advertised range. Only dislike is that heating the cabin uses lots of juice.

We have a 10 kilowatt solar system at our house, with a level 2 charger, so our juice comes at no additional cost. We'll be interested to see future EV offerings from other traditional automakers.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thanks Mike, good to know. I would expect heating the car in the winter would be an issue.

I've been wanting to do solar for a while now. My roof has great southern exposure and my e- bill is huge, $400 to $500 monthly. Have to pencil a system out but I think going solar would be great for both my company and car. I do a lot of around town driving that this car would be perfect for and I like the size and looks.

[mikehinton]

Hi Shaun. We've been very pleased with our solar installation. Because we signed up for time-of-use metering, we are able to effectively zero out our electric bill every year. We expanded our system last year to accommodate the Bolt, and also to provide power to the heat-exchanger units that we installed.

The Bolt is a perfect around-town car. It's range allows us to easily do round-trips to the various airports around us, which range from 70 to 100 miles one-way, even if we don't charge up when parked.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

That is fantastic Mike, thank you. What solar system did you get? Approximate cost?

If I have time, I'll go to a Chevy dealership this weekend. I do lot of 20 to 60 mile trips.

[OK-944]

Visited my son in Pittsburgh last week...and was very impressed with his i3 - perfect for commuting and doing almost any type of driving in and around a town like Pittsburgh, with its very tight, windy, hilly, and often very chaotic streets! Smart, compact, great visibility, very zippy with great handling and tight turning radius. Pretty quick charge also. My son's wife drives a VW GTI - so they have that base covered also!

[mikehinton]

We use SolarWorks in Sebastopol, CA. Super-nice people who know their stuff. They've been in business for over 20 years. The 6KW system was about $29,000, including the Level 2 charger. We'll get a federal tax credit of about $8,700 which offsets some of the cost. The system has an iOS app that allows us to monitor power production on a nearly real-time basis, down to the individual panel level.

[einreb]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

I was happy to pay 18K out the door for the 2014 i3 I have and that made total sense to me.

A buddy of mine got a screaming deal on a 'new inventory/demo' Tesla S (I think they were trying to hit a quarterly sales number). I went for a spin in it and reeeeaaaaaallly liked it. I started to price it out and came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to have that much $ wrapped up in a car.

Some time later, I ended up with a 70k mile 2013 Volt for $13,000. Its a little peculiar in some ways like a lousy user interface for climate/radio, but holy crap I love this car and am completely sold on the feel of an electric drivetrain. Its surprisingly quick and extremely pleasant to drive. We rarely go past the 40ish mile electric range and when we do the gas kicks in and its no big deal.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by einreb

A buddy of mine got a screaming deal on a 'new inventory/demo' Tesla S (I think they were trying to hit a quarterly sales number). I went for a spin in it and reeeeaaaaaallly liked it. I started to price it out and came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to have that much $ wrapped up in a car.

Some time later, I ended up with a 70k mile 2013 Volt for $13,000. Its a little peculiar in some ways like a lousy user interface for climate/radio, but holy crap I love this car and am completely sold on the feel of an electric drivetrain. Its surprisingly quick and extremely pleasant to drive. We rarely go past the 40ish mile electric range and when we do the gas kicks in and its no big deal.

I had my choices narrowed down to the 1st Gen Volt and the i3, it was a toss up between them as they both had the same battery range and possibly gas range.

My choice came down to how I liked driving each. I liked the i3 better.

I pushed our i3 to the limits last Friday, we drove it pretty far away and only had 0.5 gallon of gas in the tank. We got to our destination and I was curious if I could make it home on what I had on hand.

So we pushed it, I used up the last of the gas on the trip home leaving me with 25% battery left and about 12 miles to get home. We got down to 18% battery about 5 miles out and the car was warning me that I was out of range and had no gas.


We stopped at the station on the corner from our house, about 2 miles from home and topped off the gas tank with a whopping 2.4 gallons, the car was happy again and did not warn us anymore.

My wife said she would be too nervous to try that, I just wanted to see what would happen.

We love ours too, as you can tell from my posts, I was not ready to go full electric and really dig this hybrid setup. Takes out the range anxiety that most who go full electric get.

We can just stop every 110 miles and top off the gas if we needed.

My wife drove our FJ Cruiser for the first time in over a month, she called me and told me she thought there was something wrong with it, it was running rough.

I was thinking, o.k. it is not getting driven much maybe something is wrong. I drove it that evening and it was perfectly fine. She is just not used to have a rumbling combustion engine anymore. She likes the silky smooth quiet of the electric motor now. Which is funny at first she hated that silence.

[unclebilly]

We did the 24 hour test drive and decided that we need a Tesla in our lives.

To put things into perspective, my daily commute costs about $30 for fuel. With the Tesla it will be closer to $2.00. I reserved a Model 3 and by the time I get to spec mine, the production issues should be solved and I’m hoping I can order the AWD and performance version by then.

The model X won’t be able to replace my pickup like I hoped it would but it should still be able to keep me from using my pickup when a car would do.

These things are technological marvels. They are the future.

Even my bulls liked it when I used it to check cows...

[Craig T]

I have a friend who just bought the Tesla S. He's ready to sell it after a couple months. He summed it up at dinner the other day. He said..."I don't care how fast it accelerates, the car has no soul". He said the feeling, or lack thereof, is hard to describe, like your in some kind of simulator with the speakers unhooked.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by Craig T

I have a friend who just bought the Tesla S. He's ready to sell it after a couple months. He summed it up at dinner the other day. He said..."I don't care how fast it accelerates, the car has no soul". He said the feeling, or lack thereof, is hard to describe, like your in some kind of simulator with the speakers unhooked.

I will never understand this mentality.

The best way I can compare this is with whiskey.

I have a nice selection of very expensive whiskeys. My father comes over, I invite him to look over the collection and help himself to some.

I look back over and he has picked a nice bottle of Michter's US1. I nod to myself an approval, he pours a shot or two in a glass, tosses in ice and then pours some coke over it. I was in pain inside.

I purchased a bottle of Jack and keep it on hand now for when he comes over.


These electric cars are the same as a bottle of Jack.

Why should I take a fun car out to drive in traffic? Sit at lights and never get to enjoy it? Who gives AF about how much soul my fun car has when I cannot even stretch its legs?

I reserve those fun miles for when I can enjoy the car. The commuting, traffic, city driving? I will use the electric car and be happy not spending money on gas in the process. My electric here is from Nuclear and Solar, so I am very happy with my electric car and not buying gas.

[unclebilly]

Here is a challenge to the nay sayers...

Put one of these things in ludicrous mode and drive it hard for 10 minutes. Report back. My guess is that nobody will report that the car has 'no soul'...

As I mentioned previously, I have a hot rod 930, and original 930, and a 911 race car. The Tesla had every bit as much soul as my Porsches and was everybit as much fun to drive. I'd love to take one to autocross or a short road course - I think it would be amazing with the acceleration.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Thanks Mike, good to know. I would expect heating the car in the winter would be an issue.

Keep in mind the initial heating and cooling are done while the car is still plugged into the grid, so it doesn't affect range.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

To put things into perspective, my daily commute costs about $30 for fuel. With the Tesla it will be closer to $2.00.

Frankly, my attitude toward that is "so what?" If you bought another 930 how many people would ask you how that "pencils out?" If you want the f-king car, you can afford it, and you enjoy driving it, why does it have to "pencil out?" That question is automatically brought up if your car is electric. Nobody is going to ask you about the economics of owning a new Panamera (which for me is an absurd purchase, but I'll never buy one so - so what I think about them is moot).

[MRM]

Ok, now I am intrigued. How much are used Tesla S models depreciating? My impression up here in the land of the northern red star is that they command as much on the used market as new. But if they do depreciate like a rock, I very well might be interested.

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by MRM

Ok, now I am intrigued. How much are used Tesla S models depreciating? My impression up here in the land of the northern red star is that they command as much on the used market as new. But if they do depreciate like a rock, I very well might be interested.

They don't, we sold the MIL's 2016 P85D for 78k to this guy who used two loans to buy it. This was back in December. Lol, it's his problem now thank god. Gonna miss you Ranger Joe!

[unclebilly]

I can’t see any significant depreciation based on eBay sales. There is a brand new model 3 on there with 34 miles for $56k.

I want awd which isn’t available yet which I hope will be when I spec mine. I also want the performance package but that is secondary to awd.