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Owners delivery stories, photos and first impressions

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48 hours of joy.
310 miles the first day. One short partial recharge at my parents house.
Three people each day asking about the car while driving.
Paint Armor, cargo net for frunk, parcel shelf, HPWC all MIA.
The wind noise is louder than expected but I think that is because everything else is so quiet.
The car uses more power on rougher roads.
The heated seat heats my lumbar area.
My Nokian Hakka R winter tires are obviously softer and not as tight on the corners as the 21 inch Continentals.
The door handles get the most attention.
The red was worth the premium.
The performance was worth the premium.
Providence put me ten feet away from the man who organized an alternative energy summit I attended as a youngster in 1977. I thanked him for stirring my interest. He is my hometown's retired librarian.
High quality fit and finish.
The Tesla S was worth my 1300 day wait. Thoughts of the Aptera will never haunt me again.
The Tesla Model S is the car of the century. I will drive it until one of us can no longer drive.

Bill
 
I wasn't sure where to post this -- originally I had mentioned this hotel (the Hampton Inn on Brickell in downtown Miami) in the Florida thread on charging stations, but had such an interesting experience this morning I thought I'd post it here. I had a two-day conference at this hotel yesterday and today, and was very pleasantly surprised to see that they had two parking spaces with chargers for EVs. This morning I brought my cable with me and converters and managed to get myself charging while I attended my meeting.

A colleague wanted to see the car so we were doing a walkaround when a Fisker pulled up next to us and parked his car. He said that this was the first time anyone had parked next to him! It turns out he owns the hotel, and it is the only LEED certified hotel in downtown Miami, and the charging stations are part of that certification somehow. He said they had actually wired that area of the garage for 8 charging spots (you can see the box to the left of my car), which he said he hopes to see in a couple of years. The hotel was really nice, and he bragged about the fact that it's #1 on Trip Advisor for downtown Miami hotels (figure I'd give a pro-EV hotel owner a plug!).

He got his Fisker in June, and was happy with it overall, although he had some complaints about the UI (as we've heard before), but otherwise said he loves the car. He was pretty familiar with Tesla, although surprised when I said 300 miles of range. Anyway, here's a pretty cool picture -- the colleague I was with said that she felt like she was looking at the future as I took this picture. I completely agree!

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A LEED construction is a point system. Adding EV charge stations gives you points. At least it did. There was talk of that credit being removed and I never heard what happened.

That makes sense, and he was very proud of the certification. I was happy to give a plug to a pro-EV hotel owner. He seemed pretty confident that he'd eventually need all 8 parking spaces for EV charging.
 
We took delivery of our Silver Performance Model S (VIN 00461) on October 18th and have been enjoying it as much as possible given only level 1 charging in our garage. We have used level 2 chargers in nearby locations and the Folsom Supercharger in addition to our home power and that has kept us pretty happy. The home charging situation will soon be improved.

What I want to report here is that we are in Yosemite Valley today having driven the Model S from Sacramento on November 11th. We began with a range charge and 263 miles of projected range. The drive to the Valley was 173 miles on the odometer, but we used 198 miles according to the range meter. The additional 25 miles, of course, was due to the change in elevation. We drove in on Highway 120 which is close to sea level at Manteca on Highway 99 and climbs only a small amount from there through Oakdale and beyond for about 50 miles to the base of what is known as the Old Priest Grade Road. Old Priest Grade is a shortcut of approximately two miles during which there is a climb of over 1000 feet of elevation. Model S handled that very steep grade as easily as it would take any freeway on ramp, but while the odometer said we had gone 2 miles, the range meter said we had gone 13! From the top of the Old Priest Grade Road, we soon pass through Groveland at about 2500 feet of elevation, and Highway 120 continues to climb all the way to about 6500 feet at Crane Flat. (There is an irrelevant gas station here.) Then there is a 9.4 mile descent to the floor of Yosemite Valley (4000 feet elevation) and a few more horizontal miles to the area where one can obtain lodging. When we reached the highest point near Crane Flat, the range meter said we had 65 miles of range left. As we went down, we enjoyed watching the energy readout showing regeneration throughout that 9.4 mile stretch, and reaching the bottom, the range meter said we now had 71 miles to go. We finally reached Yosemite Village with a range meter reading of 65. There is a charging station here that gave us a full range charge back to 263 overnight.

Two things to note about this drive. First, while we may have been the first to drive a Model S to Yosemite Valley from the Sacramento area, but we were not the first to leave the Park via Highway 120. Apparently one of our fellow sig owners had told Tesla that it would make him or her smile if their car was delivered to Yosemite and the ranger at the entrance station reported seeing the car leaving about 3 weeks earlier. A great choice of delivery points. Second, there were icy patches on the long and fairly steep descent to the floor of Yosemite Valley. Chains needed to be carried but were not required that day, but you still needed to drive with care and the posted speed limit is 25 mph under those conditions. For most of the drive, I just set the cruise control to 25 and steered, watching my range increase. It was the easiest drive down that road that I have ever done. What a dream this car is!
 
Not sure what it is about the picture, Josh, but, somehow the headlamp lenses are so pronounced that they do look like eyes!

I took the picture with a Galaxy S3, and it definitely gave a bit of wall-eye to the picture so that the fronts of the cars are much more pronounced than in real life. That, combined with the weird lighting (dark garage with natural light coming in from the side) definitely gave the picture a weird look.
 
Sig 957 / Vin 748 delivered tonight ...

Video here (mine drives up from around the corner)

A few pics ... from the Tesla Dania Store ...

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And finally .... delivery ... which ended up being pretty late .. Poor Jacques the DS, guy must never get to eat.

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Barely a chance to get any time in it ... but my only due list issue is the parcel shelf and a couple of questionable areas on the paint armor. And two items on the "follow up" are the Homelink - works on gate, not on garage and bluetooth connected perfect to my phone then all of a sudden, no more reconnection.

But, great experience overall. Very good care taken of the S by the Dania folks and very quick turn around (delivered to Dania at 11:30ish and at my house by 7:30pm)

I will report back more.
 
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Picked up Sig 1217/VIN921 this morning at the factory. Sig Red performance.
They had the wrong wheels so they'll get the correct ones later. Not sure why they couldn't do it right there, but hey, I can rip on these tires till I get the replacement. Take your time Tesla. :)

They actually had the spoiler so I was pleasantly surprised with that. So just the wheels and the parcel shelf are due.

Not sure what more I can add that hasn't been said before except...Oh my lord, is the performance amazing. I hit ludicrous speed today.
 
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Picked up Sig 1217/VIN921 this morning at the factory. Sig Red performance.
They had the wrong wheels so they'll get the correct ones later. Not sure why they couldn't do it right there, but hey, I can rip on these tires till I get the replacement. Take your time Tesla. :)

They actually had the spoiler so I was pleasantly surprised with that. So just the wheels and the parcel shelf are due.

Not sure what more I can add that hasn't been said before except...Oh my lord, is the performance amazing. I hit ludicrous speed today.

Gongrats goyogi. Enjoy!
 
Delivered at 1PM yesterday (Matt Alcorn, our DS was terrific). We had many friends and many more children for the delivery. The delivery was in an open field covered in gravel next to my home office (24 acres). The kids crawled over every inch of the car and left fingerprints and dust on everything. There are scuffs here and there that are permanent. Like the velveteen rabbit, it's just starting to get its fur loved off of it. Someday even this wonderful car will be junk but those children will still be people and their memories will be with them.

I took carloads of kids for rides and jumps-to-lightspeed on our winding country roads. The boys yelled and the girls squealed. They will remember this for a long, long time. They will grow up yearning for electrons instead of gas fumes.

Trying to think of anything else that hasn't been said. Got up this morning, once wonderful ICE Acuras seem like scattered memories after waking. Tell me again, grandpa... you used to turn the key and the car would "start"? Every aspect of this amazing creation is in quiet repose. Things are not as they have to be; they are all as they should be. The feel of the experience when you get out of the car and pickup the UMC plug, press the button to open the chargeport and then plug in... wow, it's easy and quick and natural. Every tiny part is how it -should- be.

What comes after home run, A+, top of the class, game changer, category definer? Sure there are niggles (cough, cup-holders) but they're more like beauty marks on a model. Welcome to the new millennium, finally.
 
... The kids crawled over every inch of the car and left fingerprints and dust on everything. There are scuffs here and there that are permanent. Like the velveteen rabbit, it's just starting to get its fur loved off of it. Someday even this wonderful car will be junk but those children will still be people and their memories will be with them.

...

Loved this part. Congrats.