Tesla moments

[KenN]

So ... this sort of qualifies ...

I was at the bank yesterday, picking up a draft for final payment. I get my new P85 today!

The teller gets everything prepared, and asks a slew of questions to make sure I'm not some fraudster or identity thief. Then he says he needs to go to the branch manager to get the draft authorized, because of the amount. He warned me in advance "the manager might want to ask you some more personal questions just to verify your identity".

Well, the manager did come out of his office and he peppered me with questions all right ... about the Tesla! He wanted to know more about the car, how are they ordered, where can he see one, etc. etc. Didn't ask me a single "verification" question.

 

[mgdurand]

I wouldn't usually recount a "negative" story, but this was pretty funny.

En route from PHX to the Kingman supercharger, I had forgotten to range charge, and figured I would have about 10 miles to spare on arrival, so went a bit under the speed limit in cruise. There were plenty of passing zones, so no real problem. One car did come up on me close though, and flashed his lights. I knew there was a passing zone coming up and did nothing. As he passed he laid on the horn and cut it close.

It was a Prius!

 

[artsci]

I spent a day yesterday at Boys Latin School here in Batlimore, one of the top private day schools in the region and the #1 nationally ranked high school lacrosse team. At lunch the headmaster told me the boys were asking who owned the red Tesla in the parking lot near the upper school. He said there was a real buzz. The kids get it.

 

[lorih]

So ... this sort of qualifies ...

I was at the bank yesterday, picking up a draft for final payment. I get my new P85 today!

The teller gets everything prepared, and asks a slew of questions to make sure I'm not some fraudster or identity thief. Then he says he needs to go to the branch manager to get the draft authorized, because of the amount. He warned me in advance "the manager might want to ask you some more personal questions just to verify your identity".

Well, the manager did come out of his office and he peppered me with questions all right ... about the Tesla! He wanted to know more about the car, how are they ordered, where can he see one, etc. etc. Didn't ask me a single "verification" question.

He wasn't verifying your idenity, he was verifing your Tesla Psychosis. Welcome to the gang!

 

[Phillymomof4]

I'm surprised how few teslas I see in my area, and how few people ask me about my car. But, the best tesla moment I had was last week:

i was was dropping off my daughter somewhere, parked and when I came out I saw a man walking away from my car. He saw me and said he was sorry but he just had to take a look at my car; he had noticed it when I first arrived but didn't recognize the logo and then peeked in the window and was awed by the screen. We chatted for 20 minutes outside of the car, then I asked if he'd like to see it inside. We chatted about the car for another 40 minutes, then I asked if he'd like to ride around the block with me. We ended up driving for 20 minutes. He was just floored by the car and was so incredibly interested and amazed. We talked about everything about the car, and he said he had to get one. He'd trade in one if his cars.

I spent an hour and a half with this stranger, and he was completely sold. When he calculated that he could save $6000 a year in gas he realized the car was more affordable than it seems. He was so excited. We parted and he got out of my car beaming, and said he was on cloud 9. It was awesome knowing that I may have actually helped sell a tesla! (Wish I got commission).

 

[paulkva]

I ran into a former co-worker last night, at a PTA meeting of all places. Hadn't seen him in 10-12 years. After we caught up for a while, we walked out of the school together, and he saw me start walking toward my car. "Is that your electric car?" Turns out he's read a lot about Tesla, and a neighbor of his has one (probably one of the random sightings I've seen lately) but he had never seen one up close or been in one. One burst of acceleration later, he had the full Tesla Grin and couldn't stop talking about the performance. At the end of the short ride he made a comment along the lines of "oh man I'm in trouble. Thanks for corrupting me."

I might have just sold a Model S.

 

[Keysh2oboy]

Man and woman in a late model Acura pull up beside my new blue baby....I am in the center lane of I-40. They are in the far left.

I see the woman passenger poking the male driver and pointing at the Tesla excitedly.

I keep them about a car length behind me - viewable in both the left side mirror and rear view mirror.

Then the lady whips out her iphone starts recording vid.

I decide to ZOOM AWAY. I floor it, and in 3 secs I went from 75mph to 106mph. I was like "Oh $&@!?"

They caught up, laughing and smiling as they passed by (no camera this time)

 

[andydoty]

Man and woman in a late model Acura pull up beside my new blue baby....I am in the center lane of I-40. They are in the far left.

I see the woman passenger poking the male driver and pointing at the Tesla excitedly.

I keep them about a car length behind me - viewable in both the left side mirror and rear view mirror.

Then the lady whips out her iphone starts recording vid.

I decide to ZOOM AWAY. I floor it, and in 3 secs I went from 75mph to 106mph. I was like "Oh $&@!?"

They caught up, laughing and smiling as they passed by (no camera this time)

That was my exact response after the test drive! I should be able to lay hands upon mine sometime the week of the 14th...

 

[MiddKid]

A bad Tesla moment...

Model S is FOUR DAYS old last Sunday when we drive the kids into Seattle to see the Lion King (traveling stage show). Sitting in traffic on the way home I'm the first person at a red light. A woman crosses the street and she is...well...let's say she was definitely on something. Not all there. She has a Seahawks hat on and is carrying an old Brian Bosworth Seahawks jersey. She stops in the middle of crossing the street and randomly holds out the jersey to the SUV next to me and yells "Do you remember this Mother F___er???" She was about to keep walking when the SUV rolled down it's rear windows and the teenagers in the back seat screamed GO SEAHAWKS! At which point this woman drops the jersey and starts dancing in the middle of the street right in front of my MS. In the middle of her dance she throws her cap right at my car and it hits my hood and slides up to windshield. She keeps dancing. Then the light turns green and she realizes, picks up her jersey, runs over, leans over my hood, grabs her hat, then bolts to the sidewalk. The whole thing was surreal.

I have one small smudge on my hood. It is in approximately the same place the cap hit. I have ZERO proof that it was the cap but man, it looks like it would be the exact right place. I keep telling myself that a cap sliding across the hood couldn't cause that. Who knows. Annoyed yes. Couldn't get mad though as this woman obviously had issues...it was just amazing it all went down in front of my 4 day old car!

 

[spentan]

A bad Tesla moment...

Model S is FOUR DAYS old last Sunday when we drive the kids into Seattle to see the Lion King (traveling stage show). Sitting in traffic on the way home I'm the first person at a red light. A woman crosses the street and she is...well...let's say she was definitely on something. Not all there. She has a Seahawks hat on and is carrying an old Brian Bosworth Seahawks jersey. She stops in the middle of crossing the street and randomly holds out the jersey to the SUV next to me and yells "Do you remember this Mother F___er???" She was about to keep walking when the SUV rolled down it's rear windows and the teenagers in the back seat screamed GO SEAHAWKS! At which point this woman drops the jersey and starts dancing in the middle of the street right in front of my MS. In the middle of her dance she throws her cap right at my car and it hits my hood and slides up to windshield. She keeps dancing. Then the light turns green and she realizes, picks up her jersey, runs over, leans over my hood, grabs her hat, then bolts to the sidewalk. The whole thing was surreal.

I have one small smudge on my hood. It is in approximately the same place the cap hit. I have ZERO proof that it was the cap but man, it looks like it would be the exact right place. I keep telling myself that a cap sliding across the hood couldn't cause that. Who knows. Annoyed yes. Couldn't get mad though as this woman obviously had issues...it was just amazing it all went down in front of my 4 day old car!

Better than getting rear-ended 4 days into ownership

(Yup, happened to me. Was without it for 3 weeks :/)

 

[MiddKid]

Better than getting rear-ended 4 days into ownership

(Yup, happened to me. Was without it for 3 weeks :/)

You "win"...sorry...

 

[spentan]

You "win"...sorry...

Haha that's OK. I'm actually not that fussed because my car already had accident history when I bought it.

Which means diminished value claims and legal action wasn't required.

 

[caddieo]

Came out of the bank and as I was about to enter the MS, a lady in the car parked next to me rolled down her window and warned me not to keep anything valuable in the car because there were 2 men who earlier had been walking all around the car and peering at the insides, and one of them took a picture with his phone before they left. She obviously didn't think much of the car itself.

 

[thepianocian]

I just picked up my Tesla Model S last Saturday and already had at least 1 memorable moment every day since then. Some notables:

Last Saturday (the day I picked it up): Thumbs up and congratulations from a customer when I was parking at Walgreens. Had a conversation with him about the car. Fellow Model S owner, and turns out he's the brother of a baseball Hall-of-Famer.

Monday: Driving back from work, the car in front of me switched to the right lane to let me pass. As I pass, the driver gave me a thumbs up and the passenger (possibly his wife) seriously just stared at the care with her jaw wide open.

Wednesday: While charging at a local J1772 and sitting in my car, a van drove by and stopped in the middle of the street (seriously... I was wondering about his safety), got out of his car, ran to my car and looked at it intently and screamed "AWESOME CAR! I never saw one before in my life! Man, so beautiful, did you see the 60 minutes special with Elon Musk? Amazing car you have!", gave me a thumbs up, then went back to his van in the middle of the street and drove off.

Wednesday night: Parked in neighborhood, jogger came up and checked out the car and stated he's saving up to get a Model X. Asked me how I like the car, my response: Absolutely love it.

 

[digitaltim]

I don't think I have posted to this thread yet, so here are two from yesterday...

First one...

Last night I was driving down the NJTP from NY to MD to get home as usual. It was such a nice day I had the pano wide open. There was a bit of congestion at the point where the cars-only lanes merge with the truck/bus lanes.

All of a sudden I hear someone shout "Hey Elon Musk." I look up and a trucker is along side of me grinning away and giving me a thumbs up and I respond back with a hang loose gesture. He proceeds to drift along next to me asking a few questions about how far can I go, can I make it to MD, is it fast, etc.

Second one...

I've been the Interim CIO role at my company for the last year and the person we had been targeting permanently for the role showed up this week. On her second day, we held a virtual town hall for the technology org where she was introduced by the COO. The COO then proceeded to thank me for a job well done the past year and finished by commenting "that he still wants to get a ride in my Tesla."

Anytime, anywhere...I will forever be identified by my Tesla.

 

[TMS doc]

Stopped at the bank today. My wife had just had the MS washed so it looked especially nice. A crowd gathered around for what has become known as 'Tesla Time' (talk about the car). The best question of the day: "can I see what's under the hood?" Of course, I showed him.

 

[paigerama]

Love it!

 

[Btrflyl8e]

last night we stopped in at our local Tijuana Flats for a quick bite, and I parked right in front where the outdoor seating is. We had to sit inside as there were no open tables outside, but from inside I watched a number of people checking out my car. As we went to leave, a guy sitting at the table directly in front of it said "oh good, I've been waiting to hear what that sounds like when you start it!". I laughed and said " the same as it sounded before I came out!"

 

[MiddKid]

Crazy night getting kids from softball to a school play created the need for a quick drive-through dinner. Pull up to the window and the main high-school girl takes my money and hands me drinks. As she is processing my payment, the high-school girl behind her drops what she's doing, runs over to the window, sticks her head out and says "Sir...I just wanted to tell you that you car is GORGEOUS..." And back to work she goes! ;-)

 

[Ugliest1]

I went for a walk in a large wooded park in a nearby neighbourhood yesterday (everything's "nearby" in Victoria). When I got back to the car, I sat for a minute with the door open thinking about errand order (let's see, most fun route? Quickest route? Longest driving route? You know how it is! ). I noticed a fellow walking his dog on the path toward me a few hundred meters away. Once he's close I hear "how is your car treating you?"

Me: "it's absolutely fabulous."
him: I'm waiting to see what the new Kia is like. I'd love a model S but can't afford the $100,000.
me: the more affordable version will hopefully be out in 2017 or so. Do you follow Tesla?
him: a little. I actually sat in a Model S a little while ago, at the solar event over there... at... umm...
me: Pearkes Arena?
him: yeah that's it
me: yes that was actually THIS car, on display!

a few more pleasantries then "well enjoy your ride!"