I learned a lesson today. Teslas are the target of hateful people for a lot of mindless “reasons.” Some of this targeting is due to the politics of climate change. Some of it is due to the stereotype that only liberal greenie snowflakes drive e-cars. I guess some of it is just a love of anything that burns oil and outrage at anything that might herald the end of burning dead dinosaurs to run to the corner market to buy some beer.
When I took delivery of my second loaded Model S 100D in January 2018. I had my brand new baby fully wrapped in XPel Ultimate and chrome deleted. For those who don’t know, XPel Ultimate is a thick self-healing plastic covering which protects the car from scratches and dings. It also looks great and makes caring for the finish ridiculously easy—no wax, just wash, and let dry. I was buying this Tesla for keeps and wanted to keep it in perfect condition. The XPel wrap set me back $4,500. Gulp! But it was worth it to protect my new e-car from the plague of highway debris which is all over South Florida and the percentage of drivers here who are uncivilized, crazy, and just plain angry. We have a terrible road rage and reckless driving problem in South Florida. If you live here, you know what I’m talking about.
I have babied my new Tesla from hand washing it myself to parking in the back of the lot far from the maddening crowds. Since it was announced, I have been anxiously waiting for the Sentry Mode update which could come any day. Oddly, I felt like this was a race against time. Today this prescient feeling sadly bore bitter fruit.
Sentry Mode would have saved me from what I think was a Tesla-hate crime or at the very least, reduced the damage. The hate crime occurred while I was doing a good deed to help my wife, Dana with a dance rehearsal for one of her classes. No good deed goes unpunished. Dana has been a teacher of the arts at schools of the arts for most of her teaching career. The arts are chronically underfunded, and so I took off time from working on my latest novel to help out. At Dana’s urging, since we had a lot of stuff to carry inside, I parked in a small lot near the entrance to the theater, instead of in my typical out of the way haunts. This was the first and last time I’ll ever park in a higher traffic area.
Was it a Tesla-hate crime or just a random bit of bad luck delivered by some angry inconsiderate dinosaur who parked next to me? The attacker, an overweight guy, hit the right front fender with his door with extreme prejudice. I can see the guy in my mind grumbling and thinking, “Expensive electric car… Grrrr… Take that!” The guy slashed the edge of the fender with so much force he left a foot long gash! It looked like some of the XPel, the paint, and the aluminum body panel had been sheared off. This was no normal door-ding. This was the door-ding from hell. The guy that did this must have been angry about something. Maybe he hated Teslas? Maybe he hated all e-cars? Maybe he hated his life?
I have a 24x7 BlackVue dashcam which caught some of the incident. But the field of view was not wide enough to record the actual impact on the fender. All the camera showed was an overweight man walking to his car and then the cars jostling from some undisclosed impact. The camera did show the attacker leaving the scene of the “crime” but not enough identification to later track him down. The driver side of my car was parked close to a cement curb leaving a wide space on the passenger side with plenty of room to open doors. The attacker had to go out of his way to intensionally slam my car, or was he so angry at something that he was not thinking and threw his door wide open with all his might.
If I had Sentry Mode, my Tesla might have warned off the guy when he was too close to my car by flashing the headlights and lighting up the inside of the vehicle. Maybe this would have been enough to make this angry fool think twice?
If I had Sentry Mode, my Tesla would have set off an alarm after the impact. The alert on my iPhone would have given me enough time to run outside and catch the guy. My BlackVue showed the attacker lingering for some time. Maybe he was soaking up the joy from venting his anger on my car? Maybe he was suffering an attack of guilt? Maybe he was just angry about the self-inflicted damage he must have done to his own door? What a mook.
If I had Sentry Mode, my Tesla would have videoed the attack from better angles. It would have shown the swing of the door and more identifying information. My Tesla might then have been able to bring its attacker to justice. I wonder if Tesla should add a public enemy most wanted list where it uploads videos of unsolved Tesla-hate crimes (just kidding).
As it turns out, I dodged the worst of the bullet. The full XPel Ultimate wrap shielded me from most of the damage (see pics below). After I spent an hour cleaning my Tesla’s wounds, I found there was no gouged aluminum, no dent, and the paint beneath the XPel was largely spared too. What you see in the first pictures is shorn bits of XPel, not body damage. In the dark parking lot, it looked like disaster had struck. The damage to the paint ended up being so minor it can only be spotted when looking from oblique angles.
The sheet of XPel that shielded my fender will have to be replaced and minor paint touch up will also be needed. While that won’t be cheap, it will be a far cry from the cost of repainting and possibly even replacing the fender.
So XPel Ultimate really works. It can help shield you from some Tesla-hate crimes as well as those random acts of fate and road debris too. I suspect since the XPel saved my car from this angry door attack, it could also save my car from key attacks, or worse. In the future, I’ll be wrapping every car I own with XPel. But I really want my Sentry Mode. I really want some psychological deterrents to Tesla-hate crimes. Come on Elon, get those updates rolling out faster. My Model S 100D needs a little more loving protection from the Tesla mother ship.
When I took delivery of my second loaded Model S 100D in January 2018. I had my brand new baby fully wrapped in XPel Ultimate and chrome deleted. For those who don’t know, XPel Ultimate is a thick self-healing plastic covering which protects the car from scratches and dings. It also looks great and makes caring for the finish ridiculously easy—no wax, just wash, and let dry. I was buying this Tesla for keeps and wanted to keep it in perfect condition. The XPel wrap set me back $4,500. Gulp! But it was worth it to protect my new e-car from the plague of highway debris which is all over South Florida and the percentage of drivers here who are uncivilized, crazy, and just plain angry. We have a terrible road rage and reckless driving problem in South Florida. If you live here, you know what I’m talking about.
I have babied my new Tesla from hand washing it myself to parking in the back of the lot far from the maddening crowds. Since it was announced, I have been anxiously waiting for the Sentry Mode update which could come any day. Oddly, I felt like this was a race against time. Today this prescient feeling sadly bore bitter fruit.
Sentry Mode would have saved me from what I think was a Tesla-hate crime or at the very least, reduced the damage. The hate crime occurred while I was doing a good deed to help my wife, Dana with a dance rehearsal for one of her classes. No good deed goes unpunished. Dana has been a teacher of the arts at schools of the arts for most of her teaching career. The arts are chronically underfunded, and so I took off time from working on my latest novel to help out. At Dana’s urging, since we had a lot of stuff to carry inside, I parked in a small lot near the entrance to the theater, instead of in my typical out of the way haunts. This was the first and last time I’ll ever park in a higher traffic area.
Was it a Tesla-hate crime or just a random bit of bad luck delivered by some angry inconsiderate dinosaur who parked next to me? The attacker, an overweight guy, hit the right front fender with his door with extreme prejudice. I can see the guy in my mind grumbling and thinking, “Expensive electric car… Grrrr… Take that!” The guy slashed the edge of the fender with so much force he left a foot long gash! It looked like some of the XPel, the paint, and the aluminum body panel had been sheared off. This was no normal door-ding. This was the door-ding from hell. The guy that did this must have been angry about something. Maybe he hated Teslas? Maybe he hated all e-cars? Maybe he hated his life?
I have a 24x7 BlackVue dashcam which caught some of the incident. But the field of view was not wide enough to record the actual impact on the fender. All the camera showed was an overweight man walking to his car and then the cars jostling from some undisclosed impact. The camera did show the attacker leaving the scene of the “crime” but not enough identification to later track him down. The driver side of my car was parked close to a cement curb leaving a wide space on the passenger side with plenty of room to open doors. The attacker had to go out of his way to intensionally slam my car, or was he so angry at something that he was not thinking and threw his door wide open with all his might.
If I had Sentry Mode, my Tesla might have warned off the guy when he was too close to my car by flashing the headlights and lighting up the inside of the vehicle. Maybe this would have been enough to make this angry fool think twice?
If I had Sentry Mode, my Tesla would have set off an alarm after the impact. The alert on my iPhone would have given me enough time to run outside and catch the guy. My BlackVue showed the attacker lingering for some time. Maybe he was soaking up the joy from venting his anger on my car? Maybe he was suffering an attack of guilt? Maybe he was just angry about the self-inflicted damage he must have done to his own door? What a mook.
If I had Sentry Mode, my Tesla would have videoed the attack from better angles. It would have shown the swing of the door and more identifying information. My Tesla might then have been able to bring its attacker to justice. I wonder if Tesla should add a public enemy most wanted list where it uploads videos of unsolved Tesla-hate crimes (just kidding).
As it turns out, I dodged the worst of the bullet. The full XPel Ultimate wrap shielded me from most of the damage (see pics below). After I spent an hour cleaning my Tesla’s wounds, I found there was no gouged aluminum, no dent, and the paint beneath the XPel was largely spared too. What you see in the first pictures is shorn bits of XPel, not body damage. In the dark parking lot, it looked like disaster had struck. The damage to the paint ended up being so minor it can only be spotted when looking from oblique angles.
The sheet of XPel that shielded my fender will have to be replaced and minor paint touch up will also be needed. While that won’t be cheap, it will be a far cry from the cost of repainting and possibly even replacing the fender.
So XPel Ultimate really works. It can help shield you from some Tesla-hate crimes as well as those random acts of fate and road debris too. I suspect since the XPel saved my car from this angry door attack, it could also save my car from key attacks, or worse. In the future, I’ll be wrapping every car I own with XPel. But I really want my Sentry Mode. I really want some psychological deterrents to Tesla-hate crimes. Come on Elon, get those updates rolling out faster. My Model S 100D needs a little more loving protection from the Tesla mother ship.
