I've been reading a lot of negatively titled posts. I always remember that people only post on forums when they're having a problem. Tesla has sold hundreds of thousands of cars and we only see 2 negative posts per week at most? While I understand the rate of issues is probably higher than the rate of an established company, its still a very small percentage.
I wanted to share my positive Tesla experience. I bought an inventory s100d in April 2018 (car from Nov2017) and saved about $12k over new because it had 3k miles as a demo car. This was before the price drop. It was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen.
I then drove the car x-country when I moved from Boston to San Diego, supercharger to supercharger. I absolutely love how big and comfortable this car is. My wife does too. So does my dog who gets the whole back seat (yes I cover them). The autopilot made the trip SO much easier. The car is so fast I can't even imagine owning a ludicrous model. I maybe floored the car 2x in the year I've owned it. Its just so much power always available, never needs to down shift. Its just amazing to me.
I look at what the competition has to offer. The competition still hasn't caught up with the efficiency and range of a car that was developed in the back room of a rocket factory in 2011. Think about that. Even the new audi and jaguar (76 MPGe) doesn't even come close to the efficiency of the S (102 MPGe). Their range is significantly lower and they have huge batteries too. Even comparing to the X (93 MPGe) they're bad. And that's not even talking about the 3, which is 130 MPGe! Think about this - the Model 3 goes ~310 miles on less than 3 gallons of gas (assuming 75kwh battery and kwh/gal of 33.35. That's just mind blowing when you think there are so many people driving around with gas guzzling vehicles, getting in the single digits and teens with their pickups. They go 18 MILES on a gallon and the Model 3 goes 130!
My wife and I (and dog) take SO many more trips now. We drive up into the mountains and camp while sleeping in our car. We bought a fold up mattress that fits in the back with the seats down and put on Camper Mode. We hop in the car on a whim and drive to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo or Palomar Mountain or Julian or Temcula etc. etc. = almost every week.
My electricity provider SDG&E lets me charge at night from 12am-6am for only $0.06/kwh. That's enough time to always have a full car for next to nothing. I have free unlimited supercharging for life. I have solar, and enough of it that the equivalent energy in solar always goes into the grid making the car essentially powered off the sun. I love that I can charge my car up myself with energy I produce. Its just so amazing.
We also have a 2014 Chevy Spark EV which we bought in 2019. By the time we got it it had 15% battery degradation. It displays, at most, a range of 80 miles, but typically only 66 miles (driving habits affect its estimated range). My wife drives that car 78.5 miles once a week to work in Irvine. She arrives with ~5 miles of range and plugs in at a ChargePoint. That's pretty insane, but we just love electric vehicles. We really want a Model Y standard range; going to sell the Spark for it.
This was kind of a rant but just wanted to say I still feel the magic of Tesla and what Elon Musk is trying to do. I get that so many mistakes were made along the way, and he's terrible with timelines and broken promises. I think it would do everyone really good if we collectively calmed down about these upgrades to AP3 and MCU2. There's ALWAYS going to be something better or cooler. Even if we get the AP3 upgrade, AP4 is around the corner. Then what - we can't get that. Is AP3 going to be enough for people? No, they'll demand the AP4. Guys - AP1 and AP2 is amazing! Our cars drive themselves. Slow down and smell the electrons because we have just incredible vehicles. I have an electric car that goes over 300 miles on a charge, is a sub-5 second 0-60 car, has a 17" screen, and basically drives itself. I honestly couldn't ask for more.
I wanted to share my positive Tesla experience. I bought an inventory s100d in April 2018 (car from Nov2017) and saved about $12k over new because it had 3k miles as a demo car. This was before the price drop. It was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen.
I then drove the car x-country when I moved from Boston to San Diego, supercharger to supercharger. I absolutely love how big and comfortable this car is. My wife does too. So does my dog who gets the whole back seat (yes I cover them). The autopilot made the trip SO much easier. The car is so fast I can't even imagine owning a ludicrous model. I maybe floored the car 2x in the year I've owned it. Its just so much power always available, never needs to down shift. Its just amazing to me.
I look at what the competition has to offer. The competition still hasn't caught up with the efficiency and range of a car that was developed in the back room of a rocket factory in 2011. Think about that. Even the new audi and jaguar (76 MPGe) doesn't even come close to the efficiency of the S (102 MPGe). Their range is significantly lower and they have huge batteries too. Even comparing to the X (93 MPGe) they're bad. And that's not even talking about the 3, which is 130 MPGe! Think about this - the Model 3 goes ~310 miles on less than 3 gallons of gas (assuming 75kwh battery and kwh/gal of 33.35. That's just mind blowing when you think there are so many people driving around with gas guzzling vehicles, getting in the single digits and teens with their pickups. They go 18 MILES on a gallon and the Model 3 goes 130!
My wife and I (and dog) take SO many more trips now. We drive up into the mountains and camp while sleeping in our car. We bought a fold up mattress that fits in the back with the seats down and put on Camper Mode. We hop in the car on a whim and drive to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo or Palomar Mountain or Julian or Temcula etc. etc. = almost every week.
My electricity provider SDG&E lets me charge at night from 12am-6am for only $0.06/kwh. That's enough time to always have a full car for next to nothing. I have free unlimited supercharging for life. I have solar, and enough of it that the equivalent energy in solar always goes into the grid making the car essentially powered off the sun. I love that I can charge my car up myself with energy I produce. Its just so amazing.
We also have a 2014 Chevy Spark EV which we bought in 2019. By the time we got it it had 15% battery degradation. It displays, at most, a range of 80 miles, but typically only 66 miles (driving habits affect its estimated range). My wife drives that car 78.5 miles once a week to work in Irvine. She arrives with ~5 miles of range and plugs in at a ChargePoint. That's pretty insane, but we just love electric vehicles. We really want a Model Y standard range; going to sell the Spark for it.
This was kind of a rant but just wanted to say I still feel the magic of Tesla and what Elon Musk is trying to do. I get that so many mistakes were made along the way, and he's terrible with timelines and broken promises. I think it would do everyone really good if we collectively calmed down about these upgrades to AP3 and MCU2. There's ALWAYS going to be something better or cooler. Even if we get the AP3 upgrade, AP4 is around the corner. Then what - we can't get that. Is AP3 going to be enough for people? No, they'll demand the AP4. Guys - AP1 and AP2 is amazing! Our cars drive themselves. Slow down and smell the electrons because we have just incredible vehicles. I have an electric car that goes over 300 miles on a charge, is a sub-5 second 0-60 car, has a 17" screen, and basically drives itself. I honestly couldn't ask for more.
