Hello everyone. Well, Friday was a very eventful day. As I posted in the Depreciation thread, my wife and I are interested in the Model S (about to have our first child, so need more seats) and I read about the short-term lease option on a Roadster until your S arrives. I currently drive a C6 Corvette, so the Roadster would just be a drop-in replacement. Due to a recent role change at work, I find myself commuting 25 miles each way along 101 (SF Bay Area) during rush hour - getting a white sticker now was looking better and better.
I showed up for my appt. at 2pm on Friday to go for a test drive, find out more info about the S, crunch the lease vs buy numbers, etc. The test drive was a ton of fun. It was misting a bit so couldn't really wind it out but I appreciated the telepathic torque. The regen will take some getting used to but I was getting better even by the end of the test drive. I was hooked.
When it came time to crunch the numbers I found out that I would be looking at pretty much a full 3-year lease based on expected Model S delivery times. For a 3yr/45k lease (this will be my daily driver) w/ $9,900 down it would be $2,458/month. That means a grand total of $98,388 minus the $5k California credit. So assuming the Roadster will be worth more than $30k in 3 years, it's definitely cheaper to buy.
My wife called ~3:30 and I invited her to come check it out. Now she is completely on board w/ the Model S but couldn't care less about the Roadster. She already thinks my Corvette is impractical and it has 3x the storage capacity. But I told her she needed to come drive it. So because she's perfect and loves me she hopped on the train to come down to the dealership.
She went for a spin with the salesgirl and then they turned us both loose in the demo. That was impressive to me - that they'd let two strangers take a car by ourselves. I drove a little to get off the busy roads and we switched. At first she was nervous about the regen but soon she was giggling like a little girl. The Menlo Park dealership has a pretty large parking lot for the truck to deliver the cars so after she drove back she did some acceleration runs in the parking lot. One of the sales guys was out in the lot with a group of people and she was laughing so loudly they all turned and looked at us as we went flying by. She was hooked too. It didn't hurt that they told us that current Roadster owners jump to the front of the line for a Model S.
She then helped me wade through the colors and options and we actually found one we wanted that was a Tesla Spec car in the process of being put together right at that moment. They even took us to go look at it in the back!
Needless to say, we're picking up #1098 week after next. Twilight Blue w/ black standard interior, Audio, paint film, solar windshield, upgraded wheels (we're actually going with the older upgraded wheels - we liked that they were slightly darker than the current silver wheels. Kudos to my wife for noticing there was a difference - I just assumed it was different lighting.).
My hands were shaking a bit as I signed the agreement to purchase a car that costs as much as my parent's house. It will be the largest check I've ever written. My wife asked me how much insurance was going to cost and I just shrugged. I hadn't bothered to call my agent as I was expecting a 3-month wait if I bought one at all. We drove home with a mix of shock and excitement and now can't wait for the time to pass - I think we would have keeled over if we had to wait 3 months.
I spent Saturday figuring out my charging situation. We're still renting (waiting for house prices to drop some more before we jump in) so I didn't want to do too much. Turns out the owner or previous tenants must have had a large compressor or welder and there's a 40-amp 240V circuit run in the garage already. It had a 6-15 outlet so I just swapped it for a 6-30. I think that will give me plenty of capacity as my commute isn't that long.
Anyway, if you're still reading I just wanted to say hello and I'm looking forward to being a member of the cult.
I showed up for my appt. at 2pm on Friday to go for a test drive, find out more info about the S, crunch the lease vs buy numbers, etc. The test drive was a ton of fun. It was misting a bit so couldn't really wind it out but I appreciated the telepathic torque. The regen will take some getting used to but I was getting better even by the end of the test drive. I was hooked.
When it came time to crunch the numbers I found out that I would be looking at pretty much a full 3-year lease based on expected Model S delivery times. For a 3yr/45k lease (this will be my daily driver) w/ $9,900 down it would be $2,458/month. That means a grand total of $98,388 minus the $5k California credit. So assuming the Roadster will be worth more than $30k in 3 years, it's definitely cheaper to buy.
My wife called ~3:30 and I invited her to come check it out. Now she is completely on board w/ the Model S but couldn't care less about the Roadster. She already thinks my Corvette is impractical and it has 3x the storage capacity. But I told her she needed to come drive it. So because she's perfect and loves me she hopped on the train to come down to the dealership.
She went for a spin with the salesgirl and then they turned us both loose in the demo. That was impressive to me - that they'd let two strangers take a car by ourselves. I drove a little to get off the busy roads and we switched. At first she was nervous about the regen but soon she was giggling like a little girl. The Menlo Park dealership has a pretty large parking lot for the truck to deliver the cars so after she drove back she did some acceleration runs in the parking lot. One of the sales guys was out in the lot with a group of people and she was laughing so loudly they all turned and looked at us as we went flying by. She was hooked too. It didn't hurt that they told us that current Roadster owners jump to the front of the line for a Model S.
She then helped me wade through the colors and options and we actually found one we wanted that was a Tesla Spec car in the process of being put together right at that moment. They even took us to go look at it in the back!
Needless to say, we're picking up #1098 week after next. Twilight Blue w/ black standard interior, Audio, paint film, solar windshield, upgraded wheels (we're actually going with the older upgraded wheels - we liked that they were slightly darker than the current silver wheels. Kudos to my wife for noticing there was a difference - I just assumed it was different lighting.).
My hands were shaking a bit as I signed the agreement to purchase a car that costs as much as my parent's house. It will be the largest check I've ever written. My wife asked me how much insurance was going to cost and I just shrugged. I hadn't bothered to call my agent as I was expecting a 3-month wait if I bought one at all. We drove home with a mix of shock and excitement and now can't wait for the time to pass - I think we would have keeled over if we had to wait 3 months.
I spent Saturday figuring out my charging situation. We're still renting (waiting for house prices to drop some more before we jump in) so I didn't want to do too much. Turns out the owner or previous tenants must have had a large compressor or welder and there's a 40-amp 240V circuit run in the garage already. It had a 6-15 outlet so I just swapped it for a 6-30. I think that will give me plenty of capacity as my commute isn't that long.
Anyway, if you're still reading I just wanted to say hello and I'm looking forward to being a member of the cult.
HOV sticker can take months, sometimes not. You may wish to put one on the window instead of on your paint. What color are you?
