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Consumer Reports: "The Model S isn't a very good primary car"

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I raised an eyebrow at this as well. Even though CR gave the P85D such I high rating, and good on them for it, the interview leaves me with the feeling that they are still conventional car guys at heart, and are a bit begrudgingly admiring the MS. Only Jake Fisher said, independent of money, that he would buy one.

As for us, our two Model S's ARE our primary cars; the Roadster is now the "secondary" but extremely fun car. The only ICE we have in our garage is our snowblower. Anybody know of a good electric medium-duty snowblower? :wink:

Sadly, I mostly felt the same, which I'd hope and expect wouldn't be the case with guys who owned a P85D. However, my actual view was that the tall guy on the left (who would have chosen a BMW i8) loved the car but is just the type of guy who wants something really unique, flashy, and new. His whole argument for not hypothetically getting the Model S was that it was all over California. I almost feel like he was just trying hard to not come across as a fanboi. The guy in the middle was simply lame. He hates "true believers" and then called someone who commented on a previous video that even though the commenter just made some basic, simple points. He seems like the type of person who'd be a middle-of-the-pack or later adopter. Jake Fisher clearly loved the car, and I think he was trying hard to not look like a fanboi as well. I imagine they get some slack for that. Look at the stupid WSJ response. I think he accidentally made that comment about "primary car" ... but he obviously made some other ridiculous comments, like all P85D owners having another car, and the car not being good for road trips. Inane. I don't really see how you could think so unless you didn't know anything about Tesla owners or real ownership. Do these guys not get to take the car home and live with it for weeks at a time? Do they not go for road trips in it? Genuinely a little confused how he could make such dumb comments. Anyhow, though, he was clearly a huge fan, and I think a little on the defensive since he was the biggest fan and the head of testing.

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Wow! I'm very surprised to hear Consumer reports make such a statement. Since I've purchased my Model S 11 months ago, I've wracked up approximately 34,000 miles with very little in maintenance costs incurred. In the last 11 months, I have not owned nor driven an ICE vehicle. The car is simply amazing as my daily driver. Since I'm a geek, I've crunched the cost savings and while I've driven 34,000 miles, I saved almost $10k in gas and other maintenance costs while only seeing an approximate $2,400 increase in my electricity bills year over year.

My electric utility doesn't offer a time-of-use plan so just imagine how much I'd be saving if that option was available to me. Because I drive a lot, I use the entire spectrum of chargers available to me from home charging (my primary method) to superchargers to level 2 public chargers. Being that I live in California where the charging network (both superchargers and public chargers) is fairly robust, I'm never left stranded for where I need to go.

Mike

I thought all CA utilities offered TOU plans... ?
 
There are plenty of ICE cars that don't work well as a primary car, if you expect it to be able to do anything and everything. For example My Mercedes SLK doesn't work if you need to transport anything larger than a couple of bags of golf clubs, or more than two people, or pull a trailer, etc.

I suspect that CR felt they had to say something negative about the Tesla to avoid the appearance of being fanbois.
 
I bet the great majority of BMW 5 Series owning families also have a second ICE car, but you wouldn't hear CR saying that that meant that the 5 series isn't a good primary car.

Edit: perhaps that's the origin of all of this. Perhaps CR asked a load of owners if they also have an ICE car in the household and they said yes, and so CR made the (incorrect IMO) leap that this meant that the other ICE car was the "primary" car.

Agree, this is likely what happened. Someone who does not own a Model S made a simple mistake by assuming the family's second car (usually an ICE) is the primary car.
 
Sadly, I mostly felt the same, which I'd hope and expect wouldn't be the case with guys who owned a P85D. However, my actual view was that the tall guy on the left (who would have chosen a BMW i8) loved the car but is just the type of guy who wants something really unique, flashy, and new. His whole argument for not hypothetically getting the Model S was that it was all over California. I almost feel like he was just trying hard to not come across as a fanboi. The guy in the middle was simply lame. He hates "true believers" and then called someone who commented on a previous video that even though the commenter just made some basic, simple points. He seems like the type of person who'd be a middle-of-the-pack or later adopter. Jake Fisher clearly loved the car, and I think he was trying hard to not look like a fanboi as well. I imagine they get some slack for that. Look at the stupid WSJ response. I think he accidentally made that comment about "primary car" ... but he obviously made some other ridiculous comments, like all P85D owners having another car, and the car not being good for road trips. Inane. I don't really see how you could think so unless you didn't know anything about Tesla owners or real ownership. Do these guys not get to take the car home and live with it for weeks at a time? Do they not go for road trips in it? Genuinely a little confused how he could make such dumb comments. Anyhow, though, he was clearly a huge fan, and I think a little on the defensive since he was the biggest fan and the head of testing.

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I thought all CA utilities offered TOU plans... ?

Riley's nameplate says that he lives in Lodi. California has dozens of municipal-owned utilities, and I recall that Lodi is among those cities that provide electric service to its residents and businesses. It is quite possible that this small utility does not offer TOU rates. They might not even have "smart meters" yet, but I do not know.
 
My experience with CR is that for all the things I pretend to know something about, they either get it wrong or miss the point. So I'm very reluctant to use them as a source even if they happen to say something that I agree with. I do give them "E" for effort because they review items that no one else does.

But they sure got it wrong this time.
 
Oddly ignorant of CR to state such a thing!

We're soon to unload our LAST BMW (EVER!) now that we have two MS's in the garage, and this with us living in Texas, the land of the many missing Superchargers . . . .

**Note to Tesla: Could you please speed up on the Texas SC's? We're really at the end of the line, or so it seems based on the 2015 and 2016 maps. Thx!**
 
Not sure how they came up with this statement, we never drive our other 2 vehicles unless it is to charge the battery and keep the gas from going bad and when we get the Model X will no longer have any ICE vehicles. Would like to know what criteria they used to come up with this false assumption.
 
That's a remarkable statement because it's obvious that it was spoken without any understanding of the car or it's owners.

It was also spoken without understanding the oddity of the P85D.

From this forum it's obviously owned by a lot of people without a history of nice cars. Personally I'm wondering if it's the top >$120K car owned by people who have never owned a >$120K car in their life before.

Why didn't they own a $120K car before? Because generally when you buy a >$120K you're buying a Garage Queen (Porsche 911 Turbo, Ferrari, etc).

Sure there are lots of logical reasons for this like tax credit, sales tax exemption (in WA state for awhile there was), etc. But, at the end of the day I think it came down to excitement. There just was never a >$120K that generated so much across the board excitement, and I say that as someone who isn't excited by the P85D.

Here are my hunches about the P85D/P90D

Most Miles/Month driven of any >$120K car
Most diverse demographic of any > $120K car
Has substantially increased the number of road trips that the owners have made
Worst drivers to have ever driven a $120K car
Worst parking jobs of any $120K car
Has the largest percentage of primary car status of any $120K car.
 
My Tesla, Nick, is my primary car. Absolutely. My wife has a gorgeous ICE and we have kept my Toyota Sequoia for long hauls, especially when I need to pull something.

But the Tesla is virtually all we drive. I have to fire up the other two just to make sure they're OK.
 
Buried within a 25m video talking about testing methodology etc from the recent CR test, I found the most amazing statement from the CR test guys:

See How Did Consumer Reports Score the Tesla Model S P85D? - Consumer Reports about 19m45s in.

Quote "The people who are buying these cars, they have another car. This isn't your primary car because it's not a very good primary car."


Just listened to it. There is a bit of a gap in the statement, but the full quote I heard was:

The people who are buying these cars, they have another car. This isn't your primary car because it's not a very good primary car... Eh, if you need to every once in a while take a long trip.

then a discussion about road trips, and speed of charging (without superchargers).

I still disagree with the quote, and the opinion of the guy that gave it. But if you are doing road trips, without superchargers, you're gonna have to compromise with a Tesla.
 
Long trips are not an issue. Actually my MS is much better than the Jeep Grand Cherokee it replaced. Yes on two round trip 1200 mile trips the MS has taken longer due to the recharging stops. But a much more civilized and relaxed trips. A much better way to travel. I keep the Jeep Grand Cherokee for hauling and towing. Also for ski trips into the Sierras, as my MS is set up as a P85+ and wheel/tires not ready for snow. But, the MS is my primary vehicle.
 
They are right, for a certain set of drivers in certain areas. Lack of superchargers in the North East make ski trips extremely difficult. I've plotted out many trips, it's never pretty. One scenario involves basically having to range charge at a supercharger after having driven only 60 miles, then pray you make it back round trip at the end of the day, maybe if you go 55 mph in a 70 mph. Don't even ask about destination charging. There's one charger at a hotel that's a haul from the slopes, maybe it's not in use, but probably not. All in all you've probably added two hours to your day trip to the mountain, any way you look at it. If there were strategically placed superchargers it would be possible to comfortably stop for 15 minutes in a low state of charge, but I can't discern any strategy with where they're placing these superchargers. There's one in any direction ~40-60 miles after leaving civilization. Ok, if I needed to go there I wouldn't stop to supercharge given I have 200+ miles of realistic range. How about in the middle of no-where that people go for vacation where it's hard to get charged any other way?

It's certainly the single biggest thing that's made me postpone my order over and over, otherwise I would have done so in 2014. There's nothing even on the future supercharger map. Just label most of New Hampshire "thar be dragons"