How Did You Hear About the Model S?

[Bitech]

- General Car Review Sites?
- Hybrid and EV reviews?
- Sports/performance car review sites?
- Word of mouth?
- Owned the Tesla Roadster?
- Live near Silicon Valley or a Tesla Store or Service Center?
- Etc.?

And assuming the Model S is now your favorite car, what was your favorite BEFORE you knew about the Model S?

Interested in knowing how the Model S became so popular. Only way I found out was through the internet, researching green cars.

 

[ElSupreme]

I heard about Tesla back in 2008 they started shipping Roadsters. My dad Sent me a link to a story about an electric supercar . Been following Tesla on and off since. When they announced price for Model S I was finally hooked. Then I spent hours and hours trying to convince myself that I could actually afford one. And one massive loan I have the car I have wanted since college.

 

[Tacket]

I think I learned about Tesla in general from a TV show that the Roadster had a spot on. Learned about the Model S when a Service Center went up next door to where I work. Before owning the Model S my favorite car (and I thought the next car I was going to purchase) was a Lexus IS-F.

 

[Merrill]

Knew about the roadster back in 2008, but blew it off due to cost and never thought they would survive. Been looking for an all electric car since doing solar in 2010, but nothing out there I wanted. Would have purchased a Jaguar XJ, having owned them since 1970. When I read about the model s I was hooked, beautiful vehicle, great performance and all electric and manufactured in California. No more Jags for me!!!

 

[gvillager]

I've always wanted an EV but was disappointed with the lack of range, style, and availability of most EV's. Never thought about it much beyond that until February when I saw an article on CNN's website about the bad review that the New York Times gave the Model S. I spent the next week researching Tesla and fell in love with the car. Goes to show us that even bad press is free advertising for Tesla.

 

[highfalutintodd]

Of all things, it was an Engadget story announcing the Supercharger network. If I'd ever heard of Tesla before, I don't remember it. Was intrigued by the Supercharger idea and once I started digging into Tesla and the Model S, I was hooked. Tesla has gotten basically all my monies since then, so it was an expensive article for me. ;-)

 

[Discoducky]

December 30th, 2010 at a friends house, who happens to work for an oil company, after a day of skiing in Utah, watching an episode of Top Gear with other gearheads the topic came up about how Top Gear tested the Roadster and since I had not seen the episode I looked it up on the intertubes and soon discovered the TM website and low and behold, what is this? My gearhead buddies were intrigued by the notion of the Roadster, but at the price it wasn't as compelling when the Corvette was less than half the price and gas wasn't that expensive either. And discussion was had about how long it would take to recover the price differential.

So now I'm on the TM web site and reading all about the S, taking the details in about 'full refund' and I emailed my wife who immediately replies with 'what if TM goes bankrupt'? And I found about the WA State law about the separate escrow account so I felt good about placing a reservation right then and there. Turning around the laptop to my buddies and saying "This is going to change the world and now I'm a part of it"

And the rest as they say is history...I'm in it to win it!

 

[Newscutter]

Been a "car guy" for years. Have known about Tesla and was casually following the development of the Model S-- even saw the various blogs I follow posting articles about deliveries starting, Superchargers, etc. LOVED the concept of it all but still seemed like a very intangible and unrealistic vehicle to hope for, especially being so far removed from the factory.

Fast forward to a road trip we did early this Summer, Pittsburgh-Chicago-Indianapolis-Columbus. Heading towards Chicago on a highway so straight, flat and populated by state police that I'm bored out of my mind... I see, not one, but TWO car carriers loaded to the gills with brand new (uncovered) Model S. First one got me thinking and the second one confirmed it-- those cars are going TOWARDS our home state. Perhaps they're just passing through, perhaps not, but they are clearly NOT in Cali anymore they are in OUR side of the country. While in Chicago sightseeing I notice several more MS on the streets (took pictures of a 2 of them, maybe someone on here?) and one night in the hotel after the kids are asleep I find the Tesla website. "Holy CRAP!" I'm thinking, "These cars are FOR REAL now."

Every gas stop on the rest of the trip reminds me of the possibilities, but there's no Tesla infrastructure to be found near Pittsburgh.

About 2 weeks later we make a trip to Washington, DC area for a wedding. Sunday morning we're invited to a family lunch so we need something to occupy our time.... I remember that Tesla has a store in a mall nearby, Tysons Corner. We make a run for it-- end up horribly late to lunch-- but seeing the car in person and I'm hooked. I LOVE IT. No time for a test drive but just seeing it in the flesh: It really *IS* a real car! The drive home becomes a lot of wondering about how viable is a MS for us?

Back home, crunching numbers, scouring TMC, I find there are local Tesla owners. Others who made the leap ahead of me even without a local factory presence. Wow. So this is a thing? We have numbers on our side and our conversations shift rapidly from "if" to "when". We're still on the "when" part of the conversation!! Sometimes we're ready to click order, sometimes we relent and wish for a service center. At the moment we're considering keeping our old car (having 3) thereby building in our own "support system"/loaner since the depreciated value on it is so horrific. Running those numbers... if they work out, there'll be no reason to wait for a factory presence locally. Hmmm.....

It is just a matter of time. We're coming!

 

[Plug Me In]

Heard about the Roadster a few years back. Impressed but, with the price tag, never gave it serious consideration. Gradually got sucked back in while idly looking at the Model X; the S has the range and people/cargo capacity I was looking for. If not for the Model S, would probably have gotten the Ford Plug In C-max or maybe the Focus electric. The Leaf and Volt don't have enough cargo space.

 

[shark]

Saw the Tesla Roadster on a TV show, ?60 Minutes, several years ago and the wait for the "cheaper sedan" version started. My dreamcar before the Model S: Viper (the other Roadster). Had my vanity plates picked out. I cannot imagine going back to any gas-guzzler but still drooled over it when I saw a black one last week!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I'm someone waiting for Gen 3 and hoping Tesla can improve on their current pricing-miss record. Even at target it'd be more more than I've paid for a car.

I learned about Tesla at some point when they were making the Roadster. As the Model S came closer I've been following the Tesla story pretty intently, watched the Jurvetson video, watched the founders video, watched umpteen Elon-rehashes-history videos in the hope of getting a new snippet, now closely following threads on installation of electric car chargers, watching Tesla gradually join the dots on the map.

Edit: currently drive a Prius, may replace my wife's commuter with a PHEV that'd also then get use as a shared car; then replace my commuter with a BEV, hopefully a Gen 3 which would be able to be our primary car; if my wife weren't a Prius-disliking BEVophobe the plans might be different,

 

[Gwgan]

Not that long ago, somewhere between the stock rise and the safety rating--by then I was so smitten I sent flowers in contratulations. Once my 10yr/210k CR-V was beginning to be more money, more time, and less reliability I started shopping for new. Read about Tesla from some mag in a media aggregator on my iPad so I can't say which one.

 

[Btrflyl8e]

I was on the road when I spied a dark blue beautiful sports car... caught up to it at the next light to see what it was and googled it on my phone. Tesla Roadster? Not in my price range, but intrigued. Then I saw a piece on some cable station, further intrigued. I saw they were planning a sedan, but not really a sedan kind of girl. Time passed, I wanted to get out of my G35 and had almost decided to go with the Lotus Evora. Then saw Lotus was planning new models in a few years, so got a decked out Genesis Coupe to hold me over. Then one day sitting at a light near the interstate offramp, a black Model S sails off the interstate past me and is gone. I knew exactly what it was the minute I saw it, and that was that.

Loving my "second choice"!

 

[AMPd]

Heard about Tesla Motors back in 2008 in the local newspaper, they were talking about the tesla roadster.
Been keeping my eye on TM ever since that, until the model s came out, that's when keeping an eye on turned to everyday stalking!

Favorite car before the model s was an e60 m5!

 

[jerry33]

Although I heard about Tesla when it first came out in 2008, it wasn't too interesting for me because it was a two seater sports car. The next time was "Revenge of the Electric car" where I heard about the Model S. Elon's section really impressed me. It wasn't long after watching that I made a reservation.

 

[nrcooled]

I heard about the Roadster when it came out. I think one of the car mags did a review of it and then I saw it on Top Gear. I laughed with all the other skeptics when it "broke down". I really never associated the Roadster with Tesla mainly because I didn't follow either one of them closely. I couldn't afford a roadster either way so it was a moot point.

Fast forward, 5 years and I was looking for a Mid-size luxury sedan and I was cross shopping the Merc E-Class, BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, and anything else that "fit the bill". Through my searches on the internet I came across Tesla and the Model S, then I realized there was a show room in DC. I went to look at the Beta they had there and put a deposit down same day. I was fully expecting to ask for my 5K back and get a conventional car but after my test drive 4 months later I was hooked! Nothing I was looking at offered the same level of performance (my MOST important criteria for a car) and tech (my second most important criteria for a car) or exclusivity. Everything else is gravy!

 

[meloccom]

I have a life long interest in cars, but it was never a traditional interest of big V8 or supercars like all my school friends. It was the story of the development of the automobile, in particular the landmark cars that pushed design and engineering forward that interested me more. My childhood heroes were Karl Benz, Gottleib Daimler, Flaminio Bertoni and Felix Wankel and I dreamt of cars like the Citroen DS a 300Sl Gullwing or an NSU Ro80.

Through the nineties I followed what many though was the next stage in the car, the electric car, spearheaded by the GM EV1. I took some pride in the thought that this electric car movement was to some degree inspired by the Solar Car Challenge in Australia where I live. In 1999 I bought a Mercedes A160 certain that I would trade it in in a few years for an electric version, at least that's what MB marketing would have me believe. They made one, called the NECAR 4 but then it all seemed to lose momentum and eventually you stopped hearing about them. It wasn't until I saw Who killed the electric car that I realised what really happened.

Then I was surfing the web in 2006 and happened across a story of this electric supercar from California called a Tesla; it was only about 6 weeks after the original announcement of the Roadster. I was sceptical at first, but it soon became apparent that this was a company run by serious businessmen who had a plan that looked like it may actually work. I decided to start saving for my next car just in case.

Since that time I have obsessively followed the story of Tesla and in the company of my friends here on TMC it's been a fascinating ride, we've agonised over the split between the founders, EM v's ME, we've defended Tesla from everything from Big Oil to Fox News, Dealer Associations and even Top Gear. Most importantly we've seen the emergence of Elon's secret plan in the form of the Model S.

IIRC on the last day of production of the rotary engine @ Mazda, Tesla delivered its first cars to customers. I was pointing out this irony to my partner when he said, so why don't we buy one? You do realise it would be more than twice what we paid for the Mercedes. Still I or rather We placed a deposit in June 2012 so an obsession is now shared. Soon after Tesla invites us to a get amped event an we find ourselves flying for 24 hours to drive a car for 15 minutes. But what a 15 minutes! OMG!!!

Since then we wait, patiently, wait some more, welcome newcomers to Tesla and try and help those new to the revolution understand that all this is actually real and this time it's not going away. Now I wonder if after taking delivery of our Model S, next year - sigh, if it will ever get normal, from what I hear on TMC I don't think it will, and I'm glad of that.

 

[jak]

Back in Feb, I was looking to replace my almost 2-decade old car with either a Prius, Volt, or Leaf. But I wasn't too impressed with those cars. So I had my heart set on a BMW and then while googling the Volt, I came across the Model S.
It was way, way, way too expensive for me and, in a way, it still is. However, reading these forums, I found most everyone loved the car, took a test drive and said Wow!

Unfortunately, I only had enough cash for an S85 with no options at the time, but I had my heart set on a P85. So in early March, I sweat bullets and put all that money into the shares instead thinking, if Tesla doesn't make it, I'll probably end up with enough money for a Prius next year. I sold some of these shares today to pay for the Model S that's coming next month (and the short-term gains taxes). I've been incredibly lucky to be this fortunate.

 

[earlyretirement]

Heard of Tesla for a while. I've been fascinated with Elon and what he has accomplished. A friend of mine went to college with Elon up in Canada a few years so he always had some good stories.

I saw the Model S in the UTC San Diego shopping mall where they have a storefront but I kept saying, "no way I'm buying one of those this year...i'll wait until 2014 until they work out all the kinks". Well, I started following it more closely when John Broder wrote that fakey story in the New York Times and that is what really started getting me following it. I still said I'd wait until 2014 as I'm not a "car guy".

Well, then I made the mistake of test driving it. Within 25 minutes of test driving it I had ordered one and don't regret it for a second. In fact, I already ordered the X. I NEVER in a million years thought a guy like me would order a car sight unseen.

 

[DuncanWatson]

I heard about it via word of mouth sometime in the 2003 time frame. I just filed it but kept minor interest. My interest in transportation kept me aware of it until I really started stalking the TMC site sometime in 2010. Eventually I couldn't stop myself from posting even though I didn't have a reservation or a Tesla myself and signed up in 2012.

I am still waiting for the GenIII before I make a reservation.