How has your life changed since owning your Model S?

[tiggerlily]

Curious to see how MS ownership has changed your life in big or small ways.

For example:

• Lots of people say that they start driving more than they did with previous cars. Does that mean more road trips, more volunteering to do grocery shopping ?
• Becoming more frugal or spendthrift?
• Anything else!

For us, the change since ORDERing is in our spending habit. As part of our agreement to buy the car, my partner would take an active role in our personal finance management. He used to purchase things based on wants, now he turns down even buying coffee (- a bit extreme, but I won't complain). As a result of buying Model S, we actually have a more robust personal finance plan, and I no longer have to act as the gatekeeper of his spending decisions.

We have yet to see how our life will change after our car is delivered!

PS: New to the forum. Please remind me if similar threads already exist. Thanks!.

 

[Haxster]

It saves me lots of time:

Before the MS, I had to make 3 trips to the garden center to haul 20 bags of steer manure. Now I can do it in one!

 

[spiderbro]

Actually enjoy driving now and not hesitant to jump in the car when traffic is complete crap (almost always here).

 

[mhw23]

I have a 52 mile round trip commute every day in LA traffic. I look forward to my commute now, and I feel a lot less stressed mentally and physically thanks to AutoPilot.

 

[Vger]

Welcome to the community, @tiggerlily.

We definitely drive more, even very long distances. @ChadS referred to wanting to have the car replace an airplane a fair amount of the time (as we waited for the Supercharger network to build out). That is definitely true for us now.

It is also the first time in my life that I have bought two versions of the same make and model of a car serially, and the first time that my wife and I own the same model of car (albeit different versions).

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

No it has not change.

 

[RobW2428]

1) I find myself going out to the car at 10:30pm for some vague reason and sitting in it for 30-40min listening to music and messing around with the screen's menu.

2) My friends know that I'll drive them places if they need me because I just want to drive more.

3) Had a blast in 6 inches of snow without snow tires or air suspension before the roads were plowed.

4) I like leaving my keys in the car and just slipping out the fob to carry in my pocket when I'm on errands. Love the feel of the naked fob in my pocket. Yeah... I know that's weird, but you're all here reading this so careful with the judging. Ha, ha.

5) I spend waaaay too much time worrying about whether a supercharger will ever get built in Charleston, WV or Beckley, WV since it'd make trips westward much easier.

6) I watch a lot fewer Tesla videos on YouTube now that I actually *have* the car.

7) I've gotten back to my main hobby of boardgaming ("Rob_in_Richmond" on BoardGameGeek.com). It's a great hobby. Sort of like getting into wine the way you don't realize the width and depth of great games until you get into the hobby.

8) I prefer to go to the movie theater that is farther away now. The seats were always more comfy, but that never seemed liked enough of a reason.

9) I'm watching Tesla stock prices and wishing I'd bought some on Dec. 7th when we bought the car since it's gone up around $40 since then.

10) Less time spent on TMC forums. Still some time. But waaaaaay less.

11) Interesting note for me that's a bit off-topic: I have plenty of friends/co-workers who want to look at the car or ride in the car. But when I offer to have them drive it I only have about 50% who want to while the rest say they don't feel right driving such an expensive car. Probably a dozen people have driven it so far. Everyone has the same reaction when they get to go from 0 to 60. It's so freakin' funny. What a blast.

 

[thimel]

I spend way too much time on the TMC forums.

 

[idealsol]

I spend way too much time on the TMC forums.

+1
And my wife tells me so
That said, the forum should be required reading before buying ( and after )

 

[mbhforum]

Have had mine for 24 hours and already using it with my family more now as opposed to taking wife's SUV. Also, wife is now using it to avoid spending money on gas for her SUV.

 

[dhcp]

- Too much time on the forums, wife rolls eyes every time I bring up something I read on here.

- Spend too much time looking for the "right" parking spot when out. The car is a monster and every spot seems too tight or a door ding is just seconds away.

- Sometimes I look at other Teslas (there are _everywhere_ here) and wonder if I should have gotten the 21" wheels because I like the looks but hear all the horror stories and high tire wear - still I'm still tempted every time I see them come up in the marketplace forums.

- As others said, autopilot was worth the price of admission alone. Driving in Silicon Valley traffic was a teeth-grinding experience before, now I don't mind at all. Pick a lane and put it on AP and troll through TuneIn stations for something interesting.

 

[bmah]

Welcome to TMC, @tiggerlily! I'll bite:

- I go on drives just for the fun of it. Off-and-on, I've been doing drives to visit all the northern California Superchargers. It's a little harder now that I've been to all the close-by ones, but having Autopilot makes this easier.

- My son believes I drive more aggressively (or at least not as slowly) as with my last car, which was a 2005 Prius.

- Like others here, too much time on TMC. A couple years ago, I would never have thought of spending time reading and posting on a (gasp) car forum!

Bruce.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

It's helped my progress into becoming a lazy bum.

Charging at home = Not having to get gas in the morning.
One pedal driving = less foot exercise
TACC = less energy expenditure and reduced feelings of road rage
App + remotely starting the heat = nice and warm when I get into the car on a cold day so no shivering
Road tripping to Portland instead of the bus+transit = Less walking

Clearly the result is I'm going to have to work out more. DAMN YOU TESLA.

There is also a downside money wise. I now give more clothes to charity because I end up buying clothes I don't need at outlet malls because I can't resist the sales. I wouldn't even be there if it wasn't for the Tesla. I gave away two brand new Columbia jackets, and they were cool jackets. I just failed to realize I had already bought similar jackets on previous trips. Previous my way of not spending money was to simply not go shopping. But, it's a little hard to charge just outside of some cool store without at least taking a peep.

 

[Veritas1980]

I've only been a owner for a month but it has changed a lot of things for me.
I have never owned a luxury car before (being originally from Denmark, best I could afford there was a Suzuki Swift ), so that on it's own have made a big difference in how I feel about driving. It is a joy to go on long trips and I keep making excuses to go somewhere all the time.
But here are some general things I noticed, that I think mostly relates to the Model S experience. Some may be repeats of the other users:

-I'm no longer overly concerned when I see strangers standing next to my car, looking in through the windows. Here everybody has heard of Tesla, but no everyone has been close to one.

-I get jealous looks from colleagues in the parking lot, who are getting their daily exercise from scraping off ice from their cars while I just jump in my nice warm car.

-I'm still trying to adjust to the fact that I should just position the car in the overtake lane when I get to a intersection with a red light. Big old ICE cars suddenly seems VERY slow to get of the line.

-I have to be ambassador for a brand and a type of vehicle, lots of people have questions. Mostly in a positive way, but I've had to defend my purchase more than once to people who for some or other reason feels EV's are here to destroy the world.

-For the first time ever, I've had grow people arguing like children over who's turn it was to sit in the front. I'm thinking of implementing a "Call shotgun" rule.

And the final thing so far, would be that I'm now a 100% certain that I will never buy a ICE car again. They feel incredible obsolete after the Tesla.

 

[HankLloydRight]

- Sometimes I look at other Teslas (there are _everywhere_ here) and wonder if I should have gotten the 21" wheels because I like the looks but hear all the horror stories and high tire wear - still I'm still tempted every time I see them come up in the marketplace forums.

You can find affordable 21" tires -- a lot of us on TMC like the Hankook Ventus V12 evo2s. Even if you had to replace them every year or 12k miles, it's a small price to pay (<$1k) for better performance, handling, and great looks of the 21" rims. The OEM Michelin PS2s are much more expensive and wear a lot worse.

I have not seen extreme wear on the 21" rims and Hankooks.. I've gotten 2.5 seasons out of them (I switch to 19" winter rims+tires).

 

[mknox]

Well, I've had my Model S for 4 years now, and I think my life has not really changed at all... and I believe that is the point of the car: a no-compromises electric vehicle. I drive as I always did, take road trips when I want to and have a really nice car to do these things in.

 

[NikeWings]

I enrolled in several EE classes at MITx to learn how these "things" actually work. I'm still learning.