Twitter / dmetcalf: Andrew and the Model S. ... Twitter / dmetcalf: 17 display, game action via ... Twitter / dmetcalf: A few of you asked about charging ...
I think Dadaleus is the only new owner I've seen comment on the quality of the paint armor. I'm okay with the line across the hood, but I'm concerned about orange peel. That would really bug me. Can any of the new owners comment on the quality of their paint armor application (if it was applied by Tesla)?
The application looks great. Only thing I would have wanted was more coverage but they didn't offer that option.
When I test drove the Roadster I didn't know what to expect. After the first time punching it I decided I didn't care if there were any speed traps, I hit the accelerator at every chance and was having so much fun that I fully prepared to shell out a couple hundred if I got pulled over.
Congrats Kvietor. I look forward to meeting you at an upcoming FL TMC event. - - - Updated - - - 700 miles the past few days @ 2.5 mi/ kWh * 8.6 cents/kW = $23.80 for energy (minus free charging at the hospital) versus $113.99 for equiv 85 octane in my Sebring. Anyone know how MPGe is calculated officially? By cost equiv it is way higher than 89, at least with low FL electric rates.
It's the number of miles the car will go on an amount of electricity that is "equivalent" to a gallon of gas in terms of energy storage. It doesn't take fuel cost into account (it could have been defined to do so; but EPA already calculates fuel costs separately). While silly and useless in some ways ("equivalent" amounts of gas and electric energy are not equivalent in any meaningful way; and in fact not everybody agrees on the equivalent energy amount), it is a very easy-to-grok number that quickly shows people that electric really is more efficient when compared to gas cars, and also gives a familiar (though I think, not the best) way to compare efficiency across EVs.
Purely off the top of my head (which is a dark and confusing place in the best of times) it's 35kWh/gallon of gas plus an estimated charge loss of ~10%. Because of charge losses you need to calculate your actual usage from a meter at the plug or add your estimated losses to the amount of energy your car says it used. This is why MotorTrend reported MPGe values that were so much higher than what the EPA reports. They did not account for the charge losses. Edit: And yes, by "dark and confusing" I mean balding . . . :redface:
Hey all, just thought I would add my first impressions after the first couple of days with our new baby We received our Signature Red 85kwh Model S (non performance) with Panoramic roof, 19 inch all season tires, on Saturday. My wife and I were leasing a Roadster for the last 2+ years and a Volt for the last year. Each of those vehicles replaced a Prius. I have also owned a Lexus IS250, Mercedes SUV, a couple of Saturns and a 8 cylinder Chevy Monza. I am not a sports car guy, the only reason we had the Roadster is it was the only highway capable EV that met our range requirements. I say this just to give you an idea of our driving experiences in the past. So, on to the Model S... To put it briefly: OMFG To go into a little more detail The performance, comfort and practicality of the Model S is stunning! For me, the acceleration feels more impressive than that of the Roadster. No, it isn't as much in terms of straight 0-60 time. But it is far more controlled. Where as the Roadster feels like being launched from a slingshot, the Model S feels like a fine tuned instrument.... being launched from a slingshot I am not quite sure how to describe it. The level of instantaneous control is amazing. Part of it may be that there is more 'depth' to the accelerator pedal, allowing more control. I am just not quite sure, I wish I could explain it better. The blind spots are much better than in most other vehicles I have driven. Much better than the Volt and Prius. I have found that I very much value having the upper part of the screen on the rear view camera while driving. The fish-eye lens of the camera very nicely shows vehicles in both right and left blind spots. Much easier to view than twisting to look over either shoulder. And the quality of the high definition camera, holy cow. It is just amazing! A tip our delivery specialists showed us (one of many, thanks Lee!) is that on the display, you can swipe down on any of the ';apps' to bring up that app in the lower part of the screen! We have found this to be a very intuitive and easy way to display the app where you want it. A note to cold climate owners. The windshield washer liquid is likely that watery stuff they put in it in California. We ran it out and replaced it with the good, low temperature stuff. I would recommend doing this. The rain sensing windshield wipers work great. We also found the 'auto' setting for lights very nicely turned on the headlights when it was raining and off again after. The display does a nice job in showing what lights are currently on. The key took a little bit to get used to. When you double click to open/unlock the two clicks need to be fairly rapid and the pressure points are just where the little 'hood' or 'trunk' start curving up toward the roof. On my highway test drive (60-65 for the most part) I met or exceeded (by just a little bit) the calculated range. This was without any HVAC. In a test with heating, that dropped a bit, but not too badly (10% or so). These numbers are very preliminary as I am having a tough time not having fun leaning a little heavily on the 'go' pedal. I should have a better picture after a few weeks. The car is much bigger than our Roadster of course, and is larger than our Volt. While the size is larger, the maneuverability is fantastic. I have played a bit with both the 'sport' and 'standard' steering wheel setting. Both are nice, I think I like the slightly looser standard setting. OOOO, and the suspension. You have to try setting it to 'very high' once. It is rather other-worldly It is so smooth, it is almost not noticable if you aren't looking at the world around you moving down The quite, smoothness, and elegance of the car is simply the most incredible car I have every driven. There are number of things to be updated via software. Some are coming VERY soon (hill-hold being one of those I hear) and others I hope will be coming soon (you can't plug in an iTouch yet or get any playlists via bluetooth). Enough ranting, thank you all for your patience.
No, not yet although it is high on the list of software updates. I would guess it will be VERY high on the list. As stated, Bluetooth will work fine, although you get no playlists, just all the songs. You know, if I didn't already have personalized plates I think I would see if I could get OMG