Al Sherman
It's about THIS car.
Very nice. Great heartfelt writeup. BTW: are those the alloy gators on the wheels?
If so, did you put them on yourself?
If so, did you put them on yourself?
-
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Seegem
Member
kinddog
Banned
Nice Seegem. our cars are identical except for the color leather. (and you got the P85 badge, which I will be calling my service associate about, um... NOW)
congrats
congrats
Seegem
Member
Totally worth it. Incidentally, the only things on my due bill are (at my own request) the chrome license plate bracket, and the "ZERO EMISSIONS" temp card
The service from my DS is awesome (Nathan, at the Springfield New Jersey center)
Seegem
Member
spatterso911
P100DL - Raven
Just finished putting the alloy gators on my wheels. I will update with a post in the curb rash thread within the hour. Pictures will be included of course!
rlpm
S P85 | Sig X _P90D_
I believe all 85's and P85's coming from the factory now have the appropriate badge. Your car should have a badge when it arrives.
2 Week report: By the Numbers
Time owned: 2 weeks
Miles driven: 1218.3
Avg Wh/mi: 337
# of people to pull up beside me at a stop light and applaud the car: 2
# of test rides given: 17
# of test drives given: 0
# of Tesla's sold: 1 friend with a deposit down
# of other Model S' seen in the wild: 1
Lowest projected miles when pulling into the garage: 14
Car cost: more than than the 5 other cars I've ever owned combined
Car value: Priceless
Time owned: 2 weeks
Miles driven: 1218.3
Avg Wh/mi: 337
# of people to pull up beside me at a stop light and applaud the car: 2
# of test rides given: 17
# of test drives given: 0
# of Tesla's sold: 1 friend with a deposit down
# of other Model S' seen in the wild: 1
Lowest projected miles when pulling into the garage: 14
Car cost: more than than the 5 other cars I've ever owned combined
Car value: Priceless
PeterSZ
Electrified petrolhead
I'm selling the PoS Audi. Anyone want it?
Dude, no offence. Should have known it was yours, in white with black wheels...:smile:
Picked up today at Spingfield NJ! Nathan was my DS and did a fantastic job. Drove over 40 miles today and left with 150. The car is simply amazing!! Nothing on the due bill. After over a year of waiting I can confidently say Tesla is a game changer and well worth every penny. For all the naysayers and doubters out there all I can say is just go test drive a Model S and you will be convinced. There is nothing else remotely close. The quality, performance and technology is unparalleled. Thank you Elon Musk and the folks at Tesla for making the Model S a reality! One very happy customer :smile:
Bryan from the Philly service center delivered our car on Friday. It is better than I could have imagined! We have seen two in the wild and today had a chance to pull up to one at the welcome center in Newark DE but this time we had ours too. We also met someone from MD who will get theirs next Friday. Small world.
reservation #10,497, VIN 4952, 60KWH, white paint, tech, tan leather, 19" wheels, air suspension, super charging, and rear facing seats.
reservation #10,497, VIN 4952, 60KWH, white paint, tech, tan leather, 19" wheels, air suspension, super charging, and rear facing seats.
I was at the Denver Service Center today while a new solid white 60kWh S was being delivered. I had a nice chat with the new owner and happened to notice it had no badging other than "Model S" on the left rear.
BTW, I got to see a veritable ocean of new Model S cars awaiting delivery. Many are destined for other states: Colorado has become a de facto hub in Tesla's delivery scheme. While I was there an enclosed carrier pulled up and disgorged two more cars; the other three on board were destined for Chicago.
The DS on duty today was just loading another white S on a flatbed for delivery locally this afternoon. He told me there have now been more than 100 Model S deliveries in Colorado.
Seegem
Member
Today, I have driven the future. [This was my first and only thought when I drove my Tesla home on Day 1]
Wow, what a whirlwind the last few days have been: Agonizing, sleep-depriving anticipation, followed by simply being blown away by the shear magnitude of awesomeness that is the Tesla Model S. My expectations were astronomical. They've all been exceeded.
I've had her for 3 full days, and just over 250 miles driven. I've learned a lot about this car, about EV's as a sole method of transportation, and about where the future of transportation is headed. I'd like to share my first impressions and thoughts, while also stating that I have much more to learn and experience in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
I made my Tesla Model S reservation on Sept 21st 2012, after randomly walking into a Tesla store in the Bellevue mall in Seattle, Washington-a friend and I were looking for a rumored 50% off sale at Banana Republic. Yes, my Tesla was an impulse buy. I confirmed my order the day I was able to on Dec 19th. My delivery window was projected at Feb 7 to 21. I picked up my Tesla Feb 21st, from the Tesla Dealership in Springfield, NJ (I would have had to wait another day to pick it up from the Queens dealership, which is closer to my Manhattan home). My Delivery Specialist was Nathan. He was fantastic and patient. There were 11 miles on the odometer. My Model S is the Performance 85 kWh, white, with all features included - except twin chargers.
The handover at Tesla didn't take long, perhaps 20 minutes or so, as I've been obsessively glued to the Tesla Motors Club forum ever since Sept. I already knew pretty much everything.
I still haven't taken any decent photos; the weather & lighting have been consistently horrible, and it's also been freezing outside. I'll do my photographic duty as soon as I can though, as this car is the most beautiful design I have owned (certainly), and seen (personally).
A word about attention: I get so many looks, driving around New York City. People at traffic lights roll down their windows to chat--pretty much everyone has heard of Tesla (only a few asked me 'what kind of car is that?', followed by 'it's so awesome!'). I get thumbs up so many times that I've just stopped counting. I like to show off at night by extending the door handles and the side lights each time I stop at traffic lights (by pressing Park, and then back into D--they stay extended until you begin to move)--that's always a crowd pleaser. It's remarkable how many friends of friends, have heard of the Model S, despite not being car people at all. The PR for Tesla has been really effective, and I've heard nothing but positivity (and insane jealousy too). Everyone who I've let drive her always say the same thing when behind the wheel: "Waaaaaooooooooooooooow!!!!!" (usually when they put their foot down).
The User Experience: This really is Car 2.0 The way all cars should be designed, regardless of power train. The 17" touchscreen, where all controls reside, is the most natural interface to use and operate while driving. The knowledge that optimizations and bug fixes are perpetual, allow you not to get hung up on anything, because they will be fixed/improved in due course. The idea that my car is awesome now, and will only get better and more feature rich in time, is..well, it's the new normal. (I was planning to reference the similarity of my switch to Apple's iPhone from Nokia back in 2007, however lately iOS has become buggier and slower than ever, and generally declined in improvement).
The reconfigurable driver LCD is as useful as a heads up display; just fantastic when driving and wanting information about… anything. The greatest utility comes from the car's internet connection. The fact that my navigation uses Google Maps, always updated with the latest routes, traffic, and other info is … well, is what we've come to expect. Internet radio streaming is where it's at. Internet in my home made the radio obsolete years and years ago, when I began streaming all the radio stations I listen to live (mostly NPR, BBC World Service); internet in the car made my car radio obsolete: I can stream any radio station, or listen to any song, or any playlist, instantly. Of course, how else would it be? Why would any car have anything less..? And, by the way, the mobile app that allows me to pre-heat the car before I get there (as well as control other functions) is so useful--stepping into a cold car is now also obsolete.
The Electric Vehicle Experience: It's just better. It's ultra quiet. Ultra fast (fastest car on the road). It's ultra clean. It's ultra simple. It's…. gosh, it's just better than anything else out there. I have the largest cargo trunk in any sedan because there's no gas tank. My cabin has a completely flat floor (no hump down the center of the car for exhaust pipe/drive shaft), and my 'engine bay' is a second trunk ("frunk"), because there's no gigantic engine either. There are only one small electric motor in-between the two rear wheels. Essentially 1 moving part. None of the hot, smelly, sticky, greasy cacophony of hoses, fluids, mechanisms, transmissions, coolers, and other moving/rattling parts that are an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). And no noise either. Silence. Magic. Calm.
An electric car is just so…. refined. … I can't look back.
I walked by an auto repair shop two days ago, and a car had it's engine hood open. The view reminded me of a Steampunk contraption. So much… stuff. So much complexity, cost, potential for failure, just to make a car go. There's a much better way to do it. It's the future, and the accelerating adoption curve has just begun. I'm glad to be on the crest of progress.
Plus, the Tesla is so much fun to drive! The G-Forces that slam you into your seat, REGARDLESS of what speed you're at when you put your foot down… are addictive.
Regenerative Braking: My Tesla has regular (Brembo) breaks. However, it can also use the electric motors as generators to slow down the car and recharge the batteries at the same time (simply by lifting up off the accelerator pedal). This recaptures energy you would otherwise waste as heat in the brake pads. You come to realize driving a Tesla, with it's rich data telemetry, just how much energy you put into getting a car to move (gas cars, electric cars, they all take huge amounts of energy to get such large and heavy machines moving). To watch regular cars slow down and stop at a traffic light WITHOUT recapturing some of that energy they just burned to getting the car moving in the first place…seems neanderthalically primitive. And wasteful. Shame on you.
Range: My Tesla has ~300 miles of range. In a week I'll be taking her on a 200 mile trip up to Boston, and I can't wait to test out what she can really do, as well as the super chargers along the route (free to use!). But for around my home (shopping, seeing friends, taking the dog out), I'm never concerned about the condition of the battery. I just drive (as inefficiently as I can, lately (my foot has gotten quite heavy these last 3 days, and when I come home, I plug the car in and forget about it. It's full the next time I use it. And, it costs ~$8 to charge the entire battery (assuming I drove it to empty). My 250 miles of fun driving over the last 3 days cost me about as much as a cup of Starbucks coffee. This is a win.
Car technology hasn't improved much over the last 80 years. Small incremental improvements on what is essentially glorified steam engine technology have allowed other technologies to outpace the car by a lightyear (my phone of 6 years ago has more sophisticated capability than my 2012 luxury Audi did). Until today. The Tesla Model S represents a step change in the evolution of the car, and mass adoption, price reduction, and general improvement isn't far away. I love that we live in a country that can produce marvels such as this. In April this year, I'll be lending my own contribution
The Tesla Model S: The best car ever designed.
In contrast, see how an internal combustion engine may be reviewed if it were released today. Apart from the humor, the perspective is very useful:
http://www.solidstategroup.com/page/6277/a-review-of-the-new-fangled-petrol-powered-car
Feedback for the Designers at Tesla:
*Please replace the 3G with LTE. While theoretically fast enough, the 3G in and around NYC is so congested that my internet radio stutters more often than not, and Google Maps sometimes fails to load (or simply takes too long).
*My voice recognition has a consistent tendency to crash my main display.
*iPhone App Bug: Sometimes my iPhone app tells me that the internal cabin temperature is much higher than it could possibly be (reporting 27C when its 5C outside); this causes my air-conditioning to turn on rather than the heaters when I attempt to pre-heat the car remotely. Also, I can't seem to decrease the temperature setting on the iPhone app when this occurs (it's a bug that appears occasionally)
*When my main display crashes and reboots, the temperature units setting (C/F) is not remembered--it defaults to F. Every other setting is maintained.
*Upgrade the 17" display CPU. Browsing is a bit chunky. I have no problem forking over an extra $500 for a much faster computer system (I'm sure it's not that simple..)
*The USB ports have a very weak power supply. My iPhone 5 barely increases it's charge when I'm using it to stream music, and when I have two iPhone's plugged in, the batteries actually discharge with use. I suggest 10 Watts of power for each USB port.
*Front/Rear Parking Sensors. Please.
*EZ Pass, nor my building garage door pass cannot be accessed through the windscreen coating. This is no problem, but please provide a "cubby" for such tags in the front bumper (?)
*Too Slow. The Tesla's acceleration is too slow. I expected better. ..HAHAHA JUST KIDDING! IT'S AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, what a whirlwind the last few days have been: Agonizing, sleep-depriving anticipation, followed by simply being blown away by the shear magnitude of awesomeness that is the Tesla Model S. My expectations were astronomical. They've all been exceeded.
I've had her for 3 full days, and just over 250 miles driven. I've learned a lot about this car, about EV's as a sole method of transportation, and about where the future of transportation is headed. I'd like to share my first impressions and thoughts, while also stating that I have much more to learn and experience in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
I made my Tesla Model S reservation on Sept 21st 2012, after randomly walking into a Tesla store in the Bellevue mall in Seattle, Washington-a friend and I were looking for a rumored 50% off sale at Banana Republic. Yes, my Tesla was an impulse buy. I confirmed my order the day I was able to on Dec 19th. My delivery window was projected at Feb 7 to 21. I picked up my Tesla Feb 21st, from the Tesla Dealership in Springfield, NJ (I would have had to wait another day to pick it up from the Queens dealership, which is closer to my Manhattan home). My Delivery Specialist was Nathan. He was fantastic and patient. There were 11 miles on the odometer. My Model S is the Performance 85 kWh, white, with all features included - except twin chargers.
The handover at Tesla didn't take long, perhaps 20 minutes or so, as I've been obsessively glued to the Tesla Motors Club forum ever since Sept. I already knew pretty much everything.
I still haven't taken any decent photos; the weather & lighting have been consistently horrible, and it's also been freezing outside. I'll do my photographic duty as soon as I can though, as this car is the most beautiful design I have owned (certainly), and seen (personally).
A word about attention: I get so many looks, driving around New York City. People at traffic lights roll down their windows to chat--pretty much everyone has heard of Tesla (only a few asked me 'what kind of car is that?', followed by 'it's so awesome!'). I get thumbs up so many times that I've just stopped counting. I like to show off at night by extending the door handles and the side lights each time I stop at traffic lights (by pressing Park, and then back into D--they stay extended until you begin to move)--that's always a crowd pleaser. It's remarkable how many friends of friends, have heard of the Model S, despite not being car people at all. The PR for Tesla has been really effective, and I've heard nothing but positivity (and insane jealousy too). Everyone who I've let drive her always say the same thing when behind the wheel: "Waaaaaooooooooooooooow!!!!!" (usually when they put their foot down).
The User Experience: This really is Car 2.0 The way all cars should be designed, regardless of power train. The 17" touchscreen, where all controls reside, is the most natural interface to use and operate while driving. The knowledge that optimizations and bug fixes are perpetual, allow you not to get hung up on anything, because they will be fixed/improved in due course. The idea that my car is awesome now, and will only get better and more feature rich in time, is..well, it's the new normal. (I was planning to reference the similarity of my switch to Apple's iPhone from Nokia back in 2007, however lately iOS has become buggier and slower than ever, and generally declined in improvement).
The reconfigurable driver LCD is as useful as a heads up display; just fantastic when driving and wanting information about… anything. The greatest utility comes from the car's internet connection. The fact that my navigation uses Google Maps, always updated with the latest routes, traffic, and other info is … well, is what we've come to expect. Internet radio streaming is where it's at. Internet in my home made the radio obsolete years and years ago, when I began streaming all the radio stations I listen to live (mostly NPR, BBC World Service); internet in the car made my car radio obsolete: I can stream any radio station, or listen to any song, or any playlist, instantly. Of course, how else would it be? Why would any car have anything less..? And, by the way, the mobile app that allows me to pre-heat the car before I get there (as well as control other functions) is so useful--stepping into a cold car is now also obsolete.
The Electric Vehicle Experience: It's just better. It's ultra quiet. Ultra fast (fastest car on the road). It's ultra clean. It's ultra simple. It's…. gosh, it's just better than anything else out there. I have the largest cargo trunk in any sedan because there's no gas tank. My cabin has a completely flat floor (no hump down the center of the car for exhaust pipe/drive shaft), and my 'engine bay' is a second trunk ("frunk"), because there's no gigantic engine either. There are only one small electric motor in-between the two rear wheels. Essentially 1 moving part. None of the hot, smelly, sticky, greasy cacophony of hoses, fluids, mechanisms, transmissions, coolers, and other moving/rattling parts that are an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). And no noise either. Silence. Magic. Calm.
An electric car is just so…. refined. … I can't look back.
I walked by an auto repair shop two days ago, and a car had it's engine hood open. The view reminded me of a Steampunk contraption. So much… stuff. So much complexity, cost, potential for failure, just to make a car go. There's a much better way to do it. It's the future, and the accelerating adoption curve has just begun. I'm glad to be on the crest of progress.
Plus, the Tesla is so much fun to drive! The G-Forces that slam you into your seat, REGARDLESS of what speed you're at when you put your foot down… are addictive.
Regenerative Braking: My Tesla has regular (Brembo) breaks. However, it can also use the electric motors as generators to slow down the car and recharge the batteries at the same time (simply by lifting up off the accelerator pedal). This recaptures energy you would otherwise waste as heat in the brake pads. You come to realize driving a Tesla, with it's rich data telemetry, just how much energy you put into getting a car to move (gas cars, electric cars, they all take huge amounts of energy to get such large and heavy machines moving). To watch regular cars slow down and stop at a traffic light WITHOUT recapturing some of that energy they just burned to getting the car moving in the first place…seems neanderthalically primitive. And wasteful. Shame on you.
Range: My Tesla has ~300 miles of range. In a week I'll be taking her on a 200 mile trip up to Boston, and I can't wait to test out what she can really do, as well as the super chargers along the route (free to use!). But for around my home (shopping, seeing friends, taking the dog out), I'm never concerned about the condition of the battery. I just drive (as inefficiently as I can, lately (my foot has gotten quite heavy these last 3 days
, and when I come home, I plug the car in and forget about it. It's full the next time I use it. And, it costs ~$8 to charge the entire battery (assuming I drove it to empty). My 250 miles of fun driving over the last 3 days cost me about as much as a cup of Starbucks coffee. This is a win.Car technology hasn't improved much over the last 80 years. Small incremental improvements on what is essentially glorified steam engine technology have allowed other technologies to outpace the car by a lightyear (my phone of 6 years ago has more sophisticated capability than my 2012 luxury Audi did). Until today. The Tesla Model S represents a step change in the evolution of the car, and mass adoption, price reduction, and general improvement isn't far away. I love that we live in a country that can produce marvels such as this. In April this year, I'll be lending my own contribution
The Tesla Model S: The best car ever designed.
In contrast, see how an internal combustion engine may be reviewed if it were released today. Apart from the humor, the perspective is very useful:
http://www.solidstategroup.com/page/6277/a-review-of-the-new-fangled-petrol-powered-car
Feedback for the Designers at Tesla:
*Please replace the 3G with LTE. While theoretically fast enough, the 3G in and around NYC is so congested that my internet radio stutters more often than not, and Google Maps sometimes fails to load (or simply takes too long).
*My voice recognition has a consistent tendency to crash my main display.
*iPhone App Bug: Sometimes my iPhone app tells me that the internal cabin temperature is much higher than it could possibly be (reporting 27C when its 5C outside); this causes my air-conditioning to turn on rather than the heaters when I attempt to pre-heat the car remotely. Also, I can't seem to decrease the temperature setting on the iPhone app when this occurs (it's a bug that appears occasionally)
*When my main display crashes and reboots, the temperature units setting (C/F) is not remembered--it defaults to F. Every other setting is maintained.
*Upgrade the 17" display CPU. Browsing is a bit chunky. I have no problem forking over an extra $500 for a much faster computer system (I'm sure it's not that simple..)
*The USB ports have a very weak power supply. My iPhone 5 barely increases it's charge when I'm using it to stream music, and when I have two iPhone's plugged in, the batteries actually discharge with use. I suggest 10 Watts of power for each USB port.
*Front/Rear Parking Sensors. Please.
*EZ Pass, nor my building garage door pass cannot be accessed through the windscreen coating. This is no problem, but please provide a "cubby" for such tags in the front bumper (?)
*Too Slow. The Tesla's acceleration is too slow. I expected better. ..HAHAHA JUST KIDDING! IT'S AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
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Seegem: Great post! And I loved the photo of your dog in the back of the Model S. I was originally reluctant to let our dog ride in the car when I saw how easily her hair messed up the black carpeting and how difficult it was to clean it. But my clever wife came up with a very cool solution that has helped make our Model S very useful for hauling all kinds of stuff without worrying about clean up afterward. Behold the Model S BackMat:
Description and Specs - Tesla Model S BackMat :
Custom made durable cargo area carpet liner and protector
Precisely fits back cargo compartment of Tesla Model S with seats up or down
High quality polyester fiber made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles
Tough but light weight indoor-outdoor carpet
Mold, mildew, and stain resistant
Excellent color-fastness and UV protection
Vacuum or shake out, rinse with a hose, spot clean with mild detergent, air dry
Self adhering to Tesla's carpet with velcro-like attachments at strategic points
Easily allows vehicle seats to be moved up or down without repositioning the BackMat
Priced at $100 plus shipping (estimated $15) and available in split seat style (to allow only one seat down) for additional $10
If any TMC members are interested in this solution to how to keep the Model S pristine while still taking your canine friend along, you can e-mail [email protected].
Here's one more shot with one of the seats down:
Description and Specs - Tesla Model S BackMat :
Custom made durable cargo area carpet liner and protector
Precisely fits back cargo compartment of Tesla Model S with seats up or down
High quality polyester fiber made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles
Tough but light weight indoor-outdoor carpet
Mold, mildew, and stain resistant
Excellent color-fastness and UV protection
Vacuum or shake out, rinse with a hose, spot clean with mild detergent, air dry
Self adhering to Tesla's carpet with velcro-like attachments at strategic points
Easily allows vehicle seats to be moved up or down without repositioning the BackMat
Priced at $100 plus shipping (estimated $15) and available in split seat style (to allow only one seat down) for additional $10
If any TMC members are interested in this solution to how to keep the Model S pristine while still taking your canine friend along, you can e-mail [email protected].
Here's one more shot with one of the seats down:
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