Anyone here have a Tesla? Thinking about getting one.... good bad?
My brother has two of the S models. While they are great and have had very little problems and require little maintenance, I personally dont favor them that much. I feel that they lack a certain soul, passion, feeling that gas powered cars have. Now I do understand that this is the future and we will all be relegated to driving Tesla like vehicles in the near future, I will hold out as long as I can afford to do so. That being said, I might get the wife that SUV they just came out with a while ago just for around the town driving with the kids. So take my above comments with a grain of salt, or the entire shaker full of salt.
I think the Tesla is the future.... The car is super quick, has cool options, not bad looking... I think I will be shopping for one soon.
We picked up a our new 2016 MS 90D in Feb last year at the factory to replace a 2005 545i daily driver with 140k miles. We've got 18k miles on her as of today. She fits well with the our mix of other cars. She is our go to car for driving anywhere where we don't want to drive an attention getting sports car or to pick up house stuff (Home Depot, etc...). She has pro's and con's, however I'm still in the camp that believes the pro's out weigh the con's. I could write paragraphs, but here's a short list: Pro's (in no particular order): - 100 MPGe - assuming gas @ $3/gal and my cost @ $.11/kWh. - Instant torque, drive with one pedal most of the time. Zoom, zoom... (0->60 at 4.2s). No shifting gears. - Quiet, super easy to hold a conversation, don't need to blast the music to cover driving noises. - Eco friendly, especially on "spare the air" days here in the SF Bay Area. - Free supercharging for traveling outside of the SF Bay Area (supercharges are really busy here, so I avoid them) - used them weekly when driving to/from Monterey weekly last year for four months. - Access to commuter lanes. - Mobile APP to control/access the car remotely. - Feels like driving a computer (I spend 25+ years in Silicon Valley, so I like hi-tech toys). - Active Owner's forum. Con's: - They are big, like a large Benz, clearly larger than a 6 or 7 series Bimmer, and this creates a bit of a parking issue at times. However, I've learned to use Summons to navigate into/out of tight parking. - Expensive to buy new. If I were to buy again, I would look at used. However, it was fun picking out the options and clicking the "buy it now" button. - For the price, the Benz/Bimmer products have a higher quality feel to the interior (softer leather, less plastic, more ergonomic, etc...). - Poor sound system, with lack of over the counter upgrades. - Like most hi-tech toys, once you buy it, it is "technically" obsolete. For example, our MS has AP1, which can't be upgraded to AP2. - Very limited choice of colors. - Giving up of travel anonymity, since some amount data (not sure how much) from the car is constantly being uploaded to Telsa's servers (for sure, when the car is in AP). The lists do go on an on, and I'm sure I've missed something. She's an electric car, so owning/driving her is different mindset with regards to charging, vs. hitting a gas station for 15 minutes with an ICE. I find that I need to be conscience of my calendar to be sure that I charge the night before I plan on driving her any significant distance. Charging at home is around 25->30 MPH (for $1500 we can upgrade the car to double the at home charge rate), where supercharging is around 200->250MPH, so to "fill up" requires an overnight charge at home. Forgetting to charge overnight can lead to needing to take a different car the next day. I've never "ran her empty" or gotten stranded with a spent battery; I've gotten over "range anxiety", and I don't charge every night, and when I do charge, I usually charge to 80%, rarely to 100%. I usually drive her down to 15% -> 20% change before recharging (I get about 250 miles per charge, when charging to 80%). Hope this helps. If you have any specific questions, then let me know... Regards, Randy...
Several of us here have Tesla. Had my P85 since March 2013 and the 90D X since March of 2016. I agree with all of the above points. Of corse the key one on the new ones is the auto drive. Kai
35,000 miles on my P85D upgraded to Ludicrous mode. There is no better car on the planet for navigating the urban jungle. Twin turbo V12s can't touch the torque and silence of this thing. Only thing I would wish for are S Class levels of interior luxury.
My only experience is a P90D I had for a long weekend. Ultimate commuter (love the fact you never have to visit a gas station, at sub zero temps in particular) but in the end did not fill my needs and driving style (tend to have a heavy foot and deal with no traffic, no cops on interstate at 4AM). Also, not an interior I wanted to spend 15% of my life in.
The interior I thought was nice, just not as high class styling as in a bently, benz, bmw... but I could deal with it Wish they would make another sports car, or 2 door..or even better a pick up truck
Especially with the upgraded "next gen" seats, the interior is a fine place to spend time. It's just not as sumptuous as other 6 figure cars, and the doors sound a bit flimsy when they shut. Not having certain items like lighted visor vanity mirrors or a center console is mildly annoying, though the newest cars are slowly adding these features. The combination of instant electric torque and AWD traction, plus great infotainment and autopilot FAR outweighs any negatives, IMO...
actually... the electric car predates the model T. So... there is that... We have had electric cars for over 100 years.
Agree and well known. However as a viable option to the ICE, which they never really where back then, these are the years where we decide which is better. Just like the horse and buggy. The ICE is the horse. Some will hang on to the bitter end ( and that's me because fixing gas cars is my living) but I'm not dumb to the reality.
It's quick, but it's not consistently quick. My P85 would kill most cars on the road (10 - 60mph) but again power output varies on battery temp and etc. It's not as economical as what people think, my driving styles gives me an average of 206wh/km, which works out to be about the same (out of pocket wise) as a 3.5L/100km of 98ron ICE car (in OZ anyway). And if you have Aircon / heater on, then it eats up battery REALLY quick. It's not luxurious either, in fact, I think my old Honda Accord was more luxurious than my P85, and model X, get either the 5 seater or the 6 seater, 7 seater option is an disgrace, there is no way an full grown adult would sit any where near comfortable in the rear seats. Ok, that's down side. Up side, I really love the way electric car drives, power is instant, touch and go, regenerative braking is addictive, and the car practically need no maintenance and it has a lot of carry on space!! Oh, if you end up spec your own car, don't get the 21 inch wheels, buy after market 21 inch forged, the stocks are known to crack if you drive over a hump or pot hole on high speed, I've cracked four already until i switched to a set of 21 inch Forged, 17" don't have the same problem and they give i think 15 mile longer on a full charge. I prefer the RWD, it's hell a lot more fun to drive, but the P90D/P100D with Luda mode is insane, for an everyday getting A-B and back to A family car.
people I spoke with so far have not had any problems....maybe the just normal issues you could have with any car... but nothing major... what type of problems do you know of or think will be happening?
Have had the car for overt 4 years. What kind of problems? Also, it's just as important how the problem is handled. Kai
We have a Model S P85+ we purchased new 4 years and 40,000 miles ago. The car has been wonderful, probably the best all around car we've ever had. The performance for a large comfortable sedan is mindblowing. It'll embarrass just about anything from a dig. It doesn't become obsolete, it upgrades itself overnight. Power usage averages about 300 Wh/mile and we pay about $0.10 per kWh, so it costs about $.03 per mile to run. That compares very favorably with a similar large sedan that gets say 21 mpg combined. With gas at $2.50 that works out to $.12 per mile. We've only had one small problem with the car over four years. One of the rear door handles was not opening. They sent a tech "Ranger" right out with a replacement part and he fixed it on the spot at our house. Get one, you won't be disappointed.
Jennie gets her new 90D delivered today. So far great experience between online site, salesman brought car to us for test drive, gave us great trade-in for 640i, and today they are coming to swap cars.
That's pretty good reliability. How long do they say the batteries will last?? Also has anyone heard of any motor issues yet?? What's the highest mileage anyone has gone without an issue? I think the cost for electricity will up in the next few years causing the cost to be closer, but still an amazing attempt by Tesla.
They do have a 2014 85 Model S on their website with 65,000 miles. Wonder if it had any drivetrain and power issues. Sounds like a good car.