I've been nearly silent on this forum for the past 3 years, after reading the TMC every night for several years prior. Mainly because I've just been enjoying the car so damn much....
I've read hundreds (?thousands) of posts, obsessed about the details of driving electric, and when I was finally in a good position to get a Model S, I waited, and waited for about a whole year. Why? Because of fear from the forum posts of people complaining about something wrong with their Tesla. By no means would I ever discourage valid complaints, and many were valid indeed. But I believe the problems posted are from a very small minority. After taking a step back to put everything into perspective, I wanted to express the following thoughts for anyone on the fence:
- while many individual complaints of forum posters are indeed valid, I believe the vast majority of Tesla owners are just enjoying their cars everyday, and posting much less, if at all
- some negative posts are short sellers or people who don't understand the technology. EVs may not be for everyone
- you will also see many "first-world" problems posted. My favorite is why there isn't more than 3 Home-link garage openers
- "range-anxiety" fades with time to the point where it becomes completely normal to just plug in at home & never visit a gas station. My son has spent most of his life seeing that this is actually how a car gets fueled (in your garage) lol
- road trips take 10% longer, but are 1000% more enjoyable
- I missed a year of driving a Tesla, due to fear of the unknown, switching to EV. It was an unfounded fear in the end
- Consumer Reports listed Tesla about the same reliability as BMW and Mercedes. This is amazing considering how long B/M has been in business and CU testing Tesla just a couple years into production. Also considering Tesla already has ~2 Billion miles of Model S/X driving (before Model 3 launch), and considering ~80,000 Model 3's are now on the road, the amount of problems posted here and elsewhere is extremely low (but may seem higher only due to selection-bias)
- in 3 years/36,000 miles, I've had essentially zero issues with the car. I took it for ONE yearly service during this time (should have taken it for 2 per advised schedule), but no harm. I also took it to service to tighten screws in the armrest and fix a loose-wire sound when rolling up the window
- you'll use brake pads much much less, and tires a little more
- your cost to fuel will be about 50% of gas
- Autopilot reduces significantly the stress of driving. You will feel much more refreshed after a long drive. AP is advertised for highway driving and I love it for that. You know where else I love it? Stop & go traffic. One of my most hated aspects of driving is touching the gas & brake pedal 200 times while in a traffic jam. I could care less now. Accident a couple miles ahead and all traffic stopped? No prob, AP activated and then I play I-spy w/ the kids. Until you experience it, you don't know what you're missing
- a common analogy I use when someone asks about switching from gas to EV, is comparable to switching from an old flip-phone or blackberry to and iphone. Or from a desktop computer to a new ipad. You're NEVER going back to the old technology
- ICE engines had a good run for 100+ years, great reliable engines evolved. But will never complete in efficiency, upgrade-ability, adaptability to AI-driven, software-run/assisted driving
- Navigation app (Google maps by Tesla) is ok, getting better - but I often use Waze on the smartphone simultaneously
- kids love the drawing pad touchscreen/rainbow road/cowbells/Mars rover/Santa&raindeer/Easter eggs; looking forward to Atari old-school games Easter egg coming soon
- before and after a 40 MPH T-bone accident where somebody pulled right in front of me as if I wasn't there, I feel Tesla is the safest car on the road in the world. I mean come on, they broke the NHTSA machine in crush-testing lol. And couldn't flip the Model X suv in rollover testing lol - engineered by rocket-scientists to protect your family
- don't stress if something appears off after a new software update. I remember in 2015 when the delivery-specialist said let's set the autowipers to auto and you probably won't have to worry about them much. I can count on my hands the amount of times over the first 2 years that I had to manually touch the wiper control. Then after one update, it was different. I just had to laugh it off. The amount of innovation here is incredible. But sometimes that means taking 10 steps forward and 1 backwards. I absolutely love to watch the progress
- regen-braking (& nearly 1-pedal driving takes a little practice), but once you get used to it, it's awesome
- the car buying process is exactly what I'm looking for. My first Tesla ordered was one night on the couch, took about 15 minutes. The 2nd order was placed one morning after breakfast and my daughter helped me configure (it'll be her hand-me-down car in 6 years). I'd be happy to never deal w/ snake-oil ICE salesman again. In general, the price you see is the price you pay. Sort of like an Apple store. Tesla sales reps are there to help/answer questions, they get zero or rarely very little incentive by selling you a car
- I will never drive ICE (internal combustion engine) again if I can help it
Please feel free to ask questions
I've read hundreds (?thousands) of posts, obsessed about the details of driving electric, and when I was finally in a good position to get a Model S, I waited, and waited for about a whole year. Why? Because of fear from the forum posts of people complaining about something wrong with their Tesla. By no means would I ever discourage valid complaints, and many were valid indeed. But I believe the problems posted are from a very small minority. After taking a step back to put everything into perspective, I wanted to express the following thoughts for anyone on the fence:
- while many individual complaints of forum posters are indeed valid, I believe the vast majority of Tesla owners are just enjoying their cars everyday, and posting much less, if at all
- some negative posts are short sellers or people who don't understand the technology. EVs may not be for everyone
- you will also see many "first-world" problems posted. My favorite is why there isn't more than 3 Home-link garage openers
- "range-anxiety" fades with time to the point where it becomes completely normal to just plug in at home & never visit a gas station. My son has spent most of his life seeing that this is actually how a car gets fueled (in your garage) lol
- road trips take 10% longer, but are 1000% more enjoyable
- I missed a year of driving a Tesla, due to fear of the unknown, switching to EV. It was an unfounded fear in the end
- Consumer Reports listed Tesla about the same reliability as BMW and Mercedes. This is amazing considering how long B/M has been in business and CU testing Tesla just a couple years into production. Also considering Tesla already has ~2 Billion miles of Model S/X driving (before Model 3 launch), and considering ~80,000 Model 3's are now on the road, the amount of problems posted here and elsewhere is extremely low (but may seem higher only due to selection-bias)
- in 3 years/36,000 miles, I've had essentially zero issues with the car. I took it for ONE yearly service during this time (should have taken it for 2 per advised schedule), but no harm. I also took it to service to tighten screws in the armrest and fix a loose-wire sound when rolling up the window
- you'll use brake pads much much less, and tires a little more
- your cost to fuel will be about 50% of gas
- Autopilot reduces significantly the stress of driving. You will feel much more refreshed after a long drive. AP is advertised for highway driving and I love it for that. You know where else I love it? Stop & go traffic. One of my most hated aspects of driving is touching the gas & brake pedal 200 times while in a traffic jam. I could care less now. Accident a couple miles ahead and all traffic stopped? No prob, AP activated and then I play I-spy w/ the kids. Until you experience it, you don't know what you're missing
- a common analogy I use when someone asks about switching from gas to EV, is comparable to switching from an old flip-phone or blackberry to and iphone. Or from a desktop computer to a new ipad. You're NEVER going back to the old technology
- ICE engines had a good run for 100+ years, great reliable engines evolved. But will never complete in efficiency, upgrade-ability, adaptability to AI-driven, software-run/assisted driving
- Navigation app (Google maps by Tesla) is ok, getting better - but I often use Waze on the smartphone simultaneously
- kids love the drawing pad touchscreen/rainbow road/cowbells/Mars rover/Santa&raindeer/Easter eggs; looking forward to Atari old-school games Easter egg coming soon
- before and after a 40 MPH T-bone accident where somebody pulled right in front of me as if I wasn't there, I feel Tesla is the safest car on the road in the world. I mean come on, they broke the NHTSA machine in crush-testing lol. And couldn't flip the Model X suv in rollover testing lol - engineered by rocket-scientists to protect your family
- don't stress if something appears off after a new software update. I remember in 2015 when the delivery-specialist said let's set the autowipers to auto and you probably won't have to worry about them much. I can count on my hands the amount of times over the first 2 years that I had to manually touch the wiper control. Then after one update, it was different. I just had to laugh it off. The amount of innovation here is incredible. But sometimes that means taking 10 steps forward and 1 backwards. I absolutely love to watch the progress
- regen-braking (& nearly 1-pedal driving takes a little practice), but once you get used to it, it's awesome
- the car buying process is exactly what I'm looking for. My first Tesla ordered was one night on the couch, took about 15 minutes. The 2nd order was placed one morning after breakfast and my daughter helped me configure (it'll be her hand-me-down car in 6 years). I'd be happy to never deal w/ snake-oil ICE salesman again. In general, the price you see is the price you pay. Sort of like an Apple store. Tesla sales reps are there to help/answer questions, they get zero or rarely very little incentive by selling you a car
- I will never drive ICE (internal combustion engine) again if I can help it
Please feel free to ask questions