Houston, TX

[stephenpace]

Houston Coffee and Cars is again this weekend--we had a GREAT turnout last time with 8 cars, but we hope to do even better this time. Additionally, we want to do an informal meetup afterwards at Saint Arnold Brewing Company since Coffee and Cars is too early or too far for many folks. We will try to get there by 10:30am (the brewery opens at 11am, but the line usually starts at 10:30am and there are limited tables).

Saint Arnold Brewing Company:

1) Admission: $8/person: Includes tour & souvenir glass
2) Consider bringing your own chair. They have limited seating.
3) You are free to bring your own food, but they have some.
4) Tours are at noon, 1pm, and 2pm. (Closed toe shoes required.)
5) I asked if they could block out parking for us, but there is limited parking behind their gate. If the primary lot is full (likely, it is small), there is an auxiliary lot or you can park on the street.

Address: 2000 Lyons Ave., Houston, TX 77020
Phone: 713.686.9494

See their website for more details.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company

Coffee and Cars:

Did you just get your car in the last month or two? Would you like to meet some other owners? Would you like to share your love of Tesla with others? Then come on out!

Details:

http://www.houstoncoffeeandcars.com/
https://www.facebook.com/coffeeandcars

NEXT GATHERING: AUG 3rd, 2013 Join us the first Saturday morning the month for our next gathering. From 8:00AM until 10:00AM at Vintage Park.

All are welcome to come by and attend. If you are bringing a Tesla, please try to arrive by 6:30am (!) so you can get a space and we can park together. We will attempt to park next to:

We Got Your Back Chiropractic - http://wegotyourbackchiropractic.com
110 Vintage Park Blvd. Suite D Building J
Houston, Texas 77070

If you think you will be coming, can you let me know by Private Message? I need to know how many spaces to block off and how many to hold for late arrivals. We will likely do the driveout at 9:30am so remember to set your active air suspension to LOW for that if you have it. Driveout is back through the main gate--if you can, try to keep the cars together so we all show up together on the videos.

We hope to see you there!!

Map (see red arrow):

 

[Skintrade]

Just wanted to post a nice find for anyone in Houston looking to get Xpel clear bra applied to their Model S. Xpel has a direct factory installation center by IAH that was $400 cheaper than another place I checked out. $1895 for Xpel Ultimate on full front/hood/fenders/mirrors. I figure no one installs Xpel better than Xpel technicians too. Scheduled my installation same day as my delivery, Aug 8. Hopefully its not delayed!

 

[gnelson]

I had lunch at the Thai Cottage on Katy fwy near Fry Road. When I went to get into my brown Model S I noticed a black Model S parked right beside mine. Seeing 2 Teslas together without an organized event seems highly unusual.

 

[stephenpace]

Did you get a photo of the event? I parked my car at a valet the other day and there was another Tesla near mine when I got out of the restaurant. It is becoming more common!

 

[gnelson]

Did you get a photo of the event? I parked my car at a valet the other day and there was another Tesla near mine when I got out of the restaurant. It is becoming more common!

It wasn't an event. Just a lunch. I didn't take a photo because I didn't want to reveal somebody's license plate without their knowledge. I didn't go to the front of the Teslas.

 

[LiteWait]

@Skintrade: I think a couple of guys on here got their cars done there. I remember seeing excess material hanging off of the edges and a hood that needed to be redone because of what i think is referred to as "ghosting". I asked Ted and Anson at Vive-Houston what they thought about that and they said they would not tolerate an installation like that. They did a great job wrapping the edges on my car and making precision cuts around the corners. It came out looking much better than I expected. I guess $400 is good savings if you really don't care that much about a near perfect job. Just because the guys work for XPEL doesn't necessarily mean they are talented. You may want to ask around a little more before committing.

 

[Skintrade]

@Skintrade: I think a couple of guys on here got their cars done there. I remember seeing excess material hanging off of the edges and a hood that needed to be redone because of what i think is referred to as "ghosting". I asked Ted and Anson at Vive-Houston what they thought about that and they said they would not tolerate an installation like that. They did a great job wrapping the edges on my car and making precision cuts around the corners. It came out looking much better than I expected. I guess $400 is good savings if you really don't care that much about a near perfect job. Just because the guys work for XPEL doesn't necessarily mean they are talented. You may want to ask around a little more before committing.

Hmmm...Thanks for the warning, Litewait. Can't imagine the factory installers would be THAT bad. Perhaps it was their first experiences with the Models S? Hopefully they weren't jobs done by trainees. They do Xpel installation training there! The sales manager has been my point of contact, so I'll specifically request his best installers. They were also the ones who could get me in quickest. Don't want to risk driving around Houston very long before getting some clear bra on. Too many big trucks around kicking up gravel.

Nice surprise, my MS was delivered nearly a week early! Will be picking it up at the service center tomorrow AM. Its been an 8 month journey to Tesla ownership. Feels like Christmas eve!

 

[stephenpace]

GT-R crew rolled in at 5:29am. Good thing I got in at 5:20am. 11 spots available for Coffee and Cars, usual place.

Update: Thanks to everyone that came out today! We set another record (9 cars, 8 Model S and 1 Roadster) for Coffee and Cars. If there is one thing that is tough about these events is that we don't have much time to talk to other owners given the amount of questions. I really enjoyed St. Arnolds afterwards for a bit of a slower pace, so we should definitely do some more of that. We'll do a Houston Restaurant Week dinner or two for sure. There are a ton of places this year:

Houston Restaurant Weeks: Benefiting the Houston Food Bank

Everywhere is $35 or $45. Of the places listed so far I lean towards RDG - Bar Annie, Brennans, or Damian's Cucina Italiana, but I'm open for anything. There are a lot of Perry's on the list which could also give us some geographical options. Please post your suggestions here and maybe we'll try to do a few of them since they are good values for the places listed. We should decide soon since they can fill up.

 

[dilithium]

Houston Restaurant Weeks: Benefiting the Houston Food Bank

Everywhere is $35 or $45. Of the places listed so far I lean towards RDG - Bar Annie, Brennans, or Damian's Cucina Italiana, but I'm open for anything. There are a lot of Perry's on the list which could also give us some geographical options. Please post your suggestions here and maybe we'll try to do a few of them since they are good values for the places listed. We should decide soon since they can fill up.[/QUOTE]

So far, I have attended 3 Houston Restaurant Week events, Cafe Brussels, TQLA and Lucilles. I was happy with all three.

 

[Skintrade]

Just wanted to post an update on my Xpel installation with the factory installers. Everything went well. I specifically asked the manager for their best installer, and they set me up with a guy named Adrian who has been installing Xpel for several years and has done "several" Model S's. He did the whole front clip including mirrors, and front doors, and did a terriffic job with the edges neatly tucked. So ask for Eric the sales manager, and the installer named Adrian. The only downside is that's all they do, so its not really a one stop shop, like other places, but they were able to get me in the quickest at 4 days after calling.

 

[jwolens]

I agree with Litewait. Some of the paint protection that I have seen is not ideal. The Paint Armor that comes with the car I have had the most problems with and still have an outstanding issue. I do have a strange shimmer on my hood from that.

AS far as the EXPEL product goes, I am a big fan. I initially had my car done (complete doors) before they had a pattern. 3 of my doors had to be re-done as they had problems wrapping the excess around the edge of the door, especially on the back doors behind the handles where the door almost comes to a point. The next time they used a pattern and did a better job but that one area was a problem. I recently took my car back to them and they completely fixed the issue by removing some of the excess wrap so it does not bunch up. Looks much better.

I have had doors dinged several times, most of these the EXPEL completely "heals from" (superficial scratches in the material). I have had 2 episodes where the EXPEL was ripped by the other cars' doors and I do not believe this can be healed completely.

I will take that (I can always get the EXPEL replaced if I want to) and the look of the EXPEL as it wraps around the edges of the doors to minimize the dings I get just by parking my car in big lots. When I am ready, I will redo the doors when the rips get bad enough as I do not expect the EXPEL to last very long in Houston and just hope it minimizes the actual damage to the door itself.

If you do go to EXPEL, tell Eric to give you the Tesla Motor Club discount.

Good Luck.

 

[stephenpace]

Short notice, but if people would like to gather for an informal Tesla owners dinner next week, I've made reservations for 15 at Brennan's next Thursday (15 August) at 6:45pm:

Address: 3300 Smith Street | Houston, TX 77006
Phone: (713) 522-9711
URL: http://www.brennanshouston.com

This is a fixed price $35 dinner with three courses for Houston Restaurant Weeks. $5 goes to benefit the Houston Food Bank. Check out the menu here and please RSVP (PM on TMC is fine) if you would like to join us!

http://www.houstonrestaurantweeks.com/

Dress: Business Casual
Price: $35 does not include drinks, tax, or gratuity
Parking: $5 valet

If you can't make this one, don't worry, we'll probably do another before 2 Sept (end of HRW). HRW offers some good deals for some very good restaurants. If people have suggestions for others they want to try, please let me know. I was going to choose RDG - Bar Annie (which I usually love) but I went for lunch yesterday and I don't think their HRW menu is as good as the last couple years.

 

[LiteWait]

Took my 911 into Vive-Houston for a full detail and the latest and greatest C-Quartz (A new formula has been developed). Someone had a white Tesla in for some work. Seems like every time I go in somebody else has a Tesla there.

 

[nygiants242]

Anybody in this thread from League City by any chance? (or a very close neighboring town)

 

[Keith72]

Nygiants242,
I replied to your email? Just checking to see if you received the reply

 

[nygiants242]

Nygiants242,
I replied to your email? Just checking to see if you received the reply

(Don't mean to hijack thread) - sorry Keith did not receive any e-mail. I just private messaged you now though - would you mind checking your Inbox on here? Thanks!

 

[NICE]

We have a Facebook group page for the Houston Tesla Club. Join if you haven't already. https://www.facebook.com/groups/HoustonTeslaClub

 

[HP832]

Took my 911 into Vive-Houston for a full detail and the latest and greatest C-Quartz (A new formula has been developed). Someone had a white Tesla in for some work. Seems like every time I go in somebody else has a Tesla there.

That could be my car. I have been at Vive a lot lately, getting just about everything done there. They did an excellence job there at Vive.

 

[kalikgod]

Is anyone from Houston making the day trip out to San Marcos for the SC opening tomorrow?

I am tempted to go, but the LEAF (obviously) won't make it and driving the wife's ICE just doesn't feel right. Anyone looking for a passenger for the day trip let me know.

 

[moorelin]

Road trip to check out the Columbus SC site yesterday. It is behind the Comfort Inn, as reported. Spoke to a contractor involved with the San Marcos SC and the other TX sites on the way. He said this one was being built to 100 year storm specs (maybe because of Ike?) and was more complex than others, 6-8 weeks total. The 5 newly poured supports are for the SCs, so if it is one for one there should be 10 bays (!). They will be to the left/behind. The adjacent lot is a Mexican restaurant that seemed popular.