Hawaii Tesla Owners

[spleen]

Hi spleen, welcome to the forums. I cannot tell you if you are the first one to have reserved a Model X in Honolulu, but way to go! Congratulations. That's awesome.

Thanks! Very excited about this vehicle - we were looking for an EV that could fit 6 people and this fits the bill perfectly. Should be a nice match with our current Leaf. Looking forward to hearing more details as they come out ... in the meantime reading all about the Model S options to get some idea about what might be in store for the Model X.

 

[Lloyd]

I took these pictures at the Marriott Wiohai, near Poipu Beach, Kauai last week. Nobody charged the entire week I was there.

 

[FalconNinetyD]

The Disney Aulani resort on Oahu had about 5 chargers in their parking structure when we were there earlier this year. I snapped a few photos, but my phone ate them...

 

[spleen]

Those are some nice looking EVSEs. Aerovironment also installed the CHAdeMO chargers that are at the 3 Aloha Gas locations that just opened - looks like they've been busy!

 

[ddruz]

Great news! Tesla is planning a service center for Hawaii by year end! Check out my post here for details.

 

[spleen]

Great news! Tesla is planning a service center for Hawaii by year end! Check out my post here for details.

Post #922. Took a while to find. Excellent news and the only reason why we might have cancelled our order is gone. Thanks for the update! My parents' Model S should hopefully be arriving next summer. Same silver color as yours except they're going with 40 kwh pack, black roof "we never use the sun roof of the cars we have now".

 

[ddruz]

Post #922. Took a while to find. Excellent news and the only reason why we might have cancelled our order is gone. Thanks for the update! My parents' Model S should hopefully be arriving next summer. Same silver color as yours except they're going with 40 kwh pack, black roof "we never use the sun roof of the cars we have now".

Hi spleen, I have been on the fence about the battery pack for months. Unless your parents drive 130+ miles a day like I occasionally do they should be fine with a 40 kwh pack even as it slowly loses maximum charge over time (as do all EVs).

However, IMO it is an enormous mistake to buy a Model S without the panoramic roof. Please pass this on to your parents.

I too have had a car with a sun roof which I never used and had planned all along to go with the hard top Model S. However, after sitting in Model S with and without the pano roof and taking rear seat head room measurements with a tape measure, I could never in good conscience recommend Model S to anyone without the pano roof. The rear seat head room is severely cramped with the hard top. There is nearly 2" more rear seat headroom with the pano roof. Even with the pano roof the rear seat head room is tighter than you'd like. Without the pano roof Model S is a two seat car.

I have never been in a car with as much difference between a sun roof and hard top. Unless your parents have personally sat in the rear seat of a hard top Model S and are OK with it, they may seriously wish they had done so before ordering the car without the pano roof. Remember, this car was designed with the pano roof. The hard top was more or less an afterthought.

 

[spleen]

However, IMO it is an enormous mistake to buy a Model S without the panoramic roof. Please pass this on to your parents.

Believe me, when I helped them design their Model S in the design studio, I tried to impress on them the degree of loss of headroom without the pano roof in the rear seats that people here on TMC have mentioned but they just weren't interested. I think they figure 1) they're not tall people to start off with so lack of headroom doesn't really figure into their equation and 2) THEY'RE not going to be sitting back there. I think they'll need to see it for themselves before they'll become a believer. To that in mind, I hope that they open up a store here on Oahu soon along with the service center. Failing that, I may need to drag them to a Get Amped event or a Tesla store on the mainland to see for themselves. Is there one in Vegas?

How did you finalize things for your car in your own mind? Did you just visit a Tesla store on the mainland?

 

[ddruz]

Failing that, I may need to drag them to a Get Amped event or a Tesla store on the mainland to see for themselves. Is there one in Vegas?

How did you finalize things for your car in your own mind? Did you just visit a Tesla store on the mainland?

There is not a Tesla store in Vegas at this time according to the Tesla web site.

I visited the Santana Row store in November. In April I visited both the Santana Row and Menlo Park stores. Then in late June I went to the Get Amped test drive event in LA.

We can hope that when Tesla opens their Hawaii Service Center that they will also have a small show room attached. I've been wondering if they might do this in certain markets where they do not yet have reason enough to set up a store in an expensive mall. If we are lucky there may be a display / test drive car here along with the Service Center. No telling if they would bring over two, however, one with and one without the pano roof. My guess is we'd be lucky to have a single display car here and if so it would likely have the pano roof.

Your parents simply need to be OK with spending close to $60,000 on a two seater car. If they are then they won't care about the rear seat. For that kind of money IMO a car should have a useable rear seat for normal height adults. Apparently though there are a lot of folks on the forum who have no problem spending an awful lot of money on a two seater Model S. To each his own.

 

[spleen]

We can hope that when Tesla opens their Hawaii Service Center that they will also have a small show room attached. I've been wondering if they might do this in certain markets where they do not yet have reason enough to set up a store in an expensive mall. If we are lucky there may be a display / test drive car here along with the Service Center. No telling if they would bring over two, however, one with and one without the pano roof. My guess is we'd be lucky to have a single display car here and if so it would likely have the pano roof.

Your parents simply need to be OK with spending close to $60,000 on a two seater car. If they are then they won't care about the rear seat. For that kind of money IMO a car should have a useable rear seat for normal height adults. Apparently though there are a lot of folks on the forum who have no problem spending an awful lot of money on a two seater Model S. To each his own.

If they won't open a full size store here yet, I'd think that we'd be lucky to even get one demo car at the service center - and I'd agree that it's likely to be a pano roof car (why show off the option that you don't want customers to get?). My father currently drives a Lexus ISF which is arguably a $60,000 two seater car (I mean really, that back seat is uninhabitable) so maybe they won't mind?? lol

But yeah, may need to wait for a trip to the mainland to show them. Since our reservation number isn't coming up for a while though, we've got some time to see what Tesla will do about Hawaii test drives in the future. I'm certainly hoping that when my Model X reservation comes around, I won't have to go to the mainland to see the car too!

 

[Brian H]

...
You can always cancel at the last minute or take a one time deferral if a service arrangement has not yet been established by the time your number comes up.
...

You needn't even do that. Just hold off on confirmation without actually deferring or cancelling, and after a month your projected delivery "walks" on a day-per-day basis (which then would de facto be 2 months on.)

 

[spleen]

You needn't even do that. Just hold off on confirmation without actually deferring or cancelling, and after a month your projected delivery "walks" on a day-per-day basis (which then would de facto be 2 months on.)

Ooh, neat trick. Will have to remember that, "just in case".

 

[ddruz]

spleen, If you don't mind sharing, how did your parents configure their car? I'm extremely curious how folks in Hawaii will be setting up their S--what options will be appealing.

 

[spleen]

spleen, If you don't mind sharing, how did your parents configure their car? I'm extremely curious how folks in Hawaii will be setting up their S--what options will be appealing.

easy enough - 40 kWH battery, silver with grey leather and lacewood accents, black solid roof, 19 inch wheels, tech package, air suspension, sound system upgrade, jump seats (when they're transporting my kids, lol), and paint armor. Keeping with single charger and using UMC though since they already have a GE Wattstation 40 amp charger to charge my Leaf, they may use the J1772 adapter instead. I may suggest that they have the electrician come out again and install a 14-50 outlet on a separate circuit in the garage though - the subpanel that they installed for the Wattstation could easily take another breaker and the run would only be about 10 feet or so on the outside of the garage wall.

 

[Jkam]

I've been told Tesla will be opening a service center in Hawaii somewhere around late October. Don't know exact date or where.

 

[brianman]

I've been told Tesla will be opening a service center in Hawaii somewhere around late October. Don't know exact date or where.

Sounds like a dream job.

 

[spleen]

strange though that we haven't seen any job offerings for Hawaii on the Tesla site.

(edit to say: just looked right now again and now there's an opening for service manager. Woot!)

Tesla Service Manager - Honolulu, HI

 

[dsmith2189]

I've been told Tesla will be opening a service center in Hawaii somewhere around late October. Don't know exact date or where.

If you zoom in on the service location page they have the marker right on 'Iolani Palace and "Coming Soon" NLT than March 1st.:scared: their best bet would be to have it on Kapiolani near the BMW/Mercedes/Lamborghini/Maserati/Ferrari/Bentley/Lotus/Lexus dealers. since they are going after the same class of driver.

 

[spleen]

If you zoom in on the service location page they have the marker right on 'Iolani Palace and "Coming Soon" NLT than March 1st.:scared: their best bet would be to have it on Kapiolani near the BMW/Mercedes/Lamborghini/Maserati/Ferrari/Bentley/Lotus/Lexus dealers. since they are going after the same class of driver.

But it's a service center not a store. I'm expecting it to be in a warehouse in Kakaako. . Bummer that it seems to have gotten pushed back from October to March next year.

 

[ddruz]

But it's a service center not a store. I'm expecting it to be in a warehouse in Kakaako. . Bummer that it seems to have gotten pushed back from October to March next year.

In an email communique with George B in August he hinted that the Hawaii service center, as well as many of the other new ones going in, might double as a type of rudimentary Tesla store, not just a service center, until such time as they put in a mall store. So its location may be affected by demographics. All the new stores on the map say by March 1 so hopefully that's a latest date. Regardless we're very lucky a service center will be here soon. It makes owing a Model S in Hawaii feasible.