Top 5 things to do for new Tesla owner

[loanchau2k]

Hi tesla community, this is the best and active community group ever. Never own a tesla, about to get MY. Just submit the $100 reservation 1 min ago. I live in Fremont, CA, close to Tesla HQ What are top 5 things I need to worry or do? Thx in advance, guys.

 

[Rockster]

1. Learn about your home charging options and arrange for home charging.
2. Read this forum to learn about various aspects of ownership, including charge levels, features, and operation.
3. Decide what accessories you might want (e.g., screen protector, floor mats, drive/usb for dash cam/sentry mode, tire repair kit and/or inflator).
4. Car wash stuff (e.g., waterless car wash stuff if that’s your thing, buckets and foaming sprayer if waterless is not your thing).
5. Decide if you want paint protection film on all or part of the car and arrange that (these Teslas can be rock chip magnets).

 

[loanchau2k]

@Rockster , thx so much. For 1) I installed solar and have Solar Edge Inverter with EV Level 2 charger. I think it's 9kwh capability.

 

[Akikiki]

Read.
Owner’s Manual Companion – TeslaTap

 

[P85_DA]

What are top 5 things I need to worry or do?

1) change display to % vs miles
2) don’t obsess over “degradation”
3) PPF is a good investment at least on the front half of car
4)forget about range anxiety you live in NorCal the density of superchargers are great there
5)don’t freak out if you miss timing of some incremental item Tesla adds to your model there are constant updates happening and u can never time then

 

[jcanoe]

@Rockster , thx so much. For 1) I installed solar and have Solar Edge Inverter with EV Level 2 charger. I think it's 9kwh capability.

You can order a second Tesla J1772 adapter so you can carry one in the Tesla. You will need the J1772 adapter that comes with the Tesla to use your existing Level 2 charging station. The J1772 adapter is available on the Tesla Store web site for $95.

Important! Make sure that your Tesla account has the correct cell phone number and email that you will be using. Tesla will contact you via text message as it gets closer to completing the information on your Tesla order prior to delivery. Your local Tesla delivery team may also also contact you via phone as it gets closer to your delivery date but usually Tesla will contact you via text message and email.

Doubly important; set up the Tesla mult-factor authentication on your Tesla Account. This will help prevent your Tesla account from being hacked. Your Tesla credentials include your email address that you provided when you set up your Tesla account; the whole world has your email address so all that a hacker would need to do is to break your password to access your account.

You will need to use one of the authentication apps, Tesla does not support using your cell phone number and SMS text messaging to be used for the Tesla multi-factor authentication. Tesla supports 2-factor authentication using one of the following: Google Authenticator, Authy (Authy uses Google's authentication but adds some nice recovery features), Microsoft Authenticator.

 

[Puma2020]

Read the owner's manual. Then read it again. I had rented a Tesla 3 for a week, a year before deciding to buy and still learned new things when I took ownership.
Figure out where you will be charging and get that lined up. For example, I got a NEMA 15-40 outlet installed and got the plug before I had the car.
Don't obsess - it's a car. A new fangled technology car, but it's a car. If you haven't driven them, go do a test drive or 2.
Determine if you have wi-fi where the car will be parked a significant part of the time.
Read the owner's manual again.

To help prevent an information bubble, find other sites to read/view.
I like reading other site helpful to learn more about what is happening, such as
Teslarati.com - Tesla News, Tips, Rumors, and Reviews
Electrek - EV and Tesla News, Green Energy, Ebikes, and more
I also liked the Owner's Manual Companion listed above.
You Tube channels (NOT DEVOTED to Tesla but have interesting aspects of Tesla and EVs)
Engineering Explained
Rich's Rebuilds
Many other ones

Do not be afraid to ask questions. You may not know what you do not know.
Enjoy the ride.

 

[loanchau2k]

Thank you so much, guys. This is my first time to get involved with "Tesla owners". I was amazed by how people obsessed with Tesla. Let me know if this is true. I own many luxury cars, BMW, BENZ and Lexus, I never bother to spend any money after I bought those cars. I just buy them, drive them, don't take care of them that much, then sell them. To me, it's just a car, it helps you to get to A to B, that's it. But I spent brief time looking at this forum, I see people spent like thousands of dollars after they buy the Tesla. To me, a company like Tesla, BMW, or Lexus they already spent a lot of money to make the car look good already, why spend more money to make Tesla look different. Does this forum represent a minority of Tesla owners or the majority? I have to admit, I am not obsessed with Tesla, the reason I buy Tesla because Tesla has 3 years ahead of other EV makers, and I just want to drive EV from now solely because of "GREEN". I plan to spend zero $ on Tesla after I buy it. Just drive then sell it.
This really makes me think that do Tesla vehicles are that bad so people have to spend money to look better and spend money to protect it. Speaking of protection, I never even think about protecting car's paint for my entire life? Why people spend money to protect Tesla's paint? because it's that bad? I see people in this forum spend like 10K to protect Tesla. I am sorry, but I really don't understand the rationale. First of all, if you spend 10K to protect the paint, would you be better off to repaint it. I really don't understand, help me out. Now, I worry about my future Tesla, I really don't want to spend any money on it. I worry that I have to spend because of Tesla's quality.

 

[Darmie]

1. Find a good quality movie camera. Use phone until it arrives.
2. Start or create your very own youtube channel. You will want to tell the world how awesome Tesla ownership is.
3. Join as many facebook groups that you can find. Especially the world wide group.
4. Order now your very own personalized license plate. Must be something about lack of gas.
5. Get a twitter account. Can't ask for any cool upgrades unless you speak directly to Elon on twitter.
Just kidding. Seriously though, the best part about Tesla ownership is the fellowship. I've own many cars and bikes and it's always about meeting like minded people. You will love it. Can't stress enough about what was said, read that manual front to back. There is so much good stuff in there.

 

[artnalex]

Buy your car.
Drive it they way you want.
Spend as little, or as much, as you want on aftermarket accessories.
Wash it yourself, or via car wash. Up to you. If you never cared about that type of thing before, then no need to start now.
Search Google Maps map to learn where the nearest Superchargers are located (nice to know, but not NEED to know).

 

[Akikiki]

1.-5. Clean your garage while waiting on your car. Your new Tesla deserves it. (Well, not really, but you will literally feel better about it.)

 

[Puma2020]

You'll also need to know some sites to properly plan your trips. Yes you can just hope in the car and go, but i quickly learned that some states rip off the consumers with the charging prices they require. For example,
going from Boston to Chicago (although why you would want to do this in the winter, during a pandemic, but we are crazy Tesla folks)
going through NY, would mean paying > $15 in tolls and paying a LOT more for charging than going the southern route, taking I-84 through PA. (Although either route is likely to get whacked by snow, so choose between lake effect snow (Buffalo and Syracuse) or mountain snow (in PA)).

Some of the sites I have found useful:
Supercharger | Tesla

A Better Routeplanner
I like the classic interface (and charging price info and how long each charging stop would be expected to take)
I also like you can change which EV you want to use and compare prices.
Before I got my Y, I looked at one trip of roughly 850 miles.
the ID.4 would cost $174
the XC40 would cost $160
the Rivian R1t (135 kWh pack) would cost $159
the Ford Mach E AWD Extended Range would cost $117
The Y would cost $51
Tolls not included but the same for all cars.

PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You

There are several other sites as well, but those will give you a good head start.

 

[loanchau2k]

@Puma2020 , thx a lot for the charging information. Very helpful. Yeah, I do a long trip a lot. I will do at least 10 times trip from San Francisco to LA a year since my son goes to UCLA. According to your data, Tesla is the cheapest. I just go to Tesla stations all the time then since in California Tesla charging stations are everywhere.

 

[Koolio46]

To learn about home charging, this is great Home Charging Wiring Guide – TeslaTap

Learn about the effects of cold weather driving if that’s applicable to you. Ie lower range, regen and accel dots, etc so you’re prepared and not negatively surprised.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

1) Get your wheel alignment checked, don't wait until you expensive tires are rubbed away by a bad factory alignment.

 

[PKOttawa]

Find a knife, sterilize it, remove a kidney (just one) and sell it on eBay..

You’ll need the money to pay for all the other Tesla accessories..

Between the charger, winter mats, tires, ppf, homelink, tow package, adapters, roof rack.. etc I’m at $11K and counting..

 

[artnalex]

Find a knife, sterilize it, remove a kidney (just one) and sell it on eBay..

You’ll need the money to pay for all the other Tesla accessories..

Between the charger, winter mats, tires, ppf, homelink, tow package, adapters, roof rack.. etc I’m at $11K and counting..

Hehe...or, just buy what you think is a necessity for you and your lifestyle. I think most owners don’t splurge. I think the owners that splurge on their MY also splurged on their ICE cars, for the most part.

For as long as I have owned cars...I never splurged on accessories. But I also never really had lots of disposable income either. Now that my 3 kids are almost all grown-up, I have more disposable income. I splurged for the PPF, as I tend to keep my cars until the tires fall off.

 

[Koolio46]

Hehe...or, just buy what you think is a necessity for you and your lifestyle. I think most owners don’t splurge. I think the owners that splurge on their MY also splurged on their ICE cars, for the most part.

For as long as I have owned cars...I never splurged on accessories. But I also never really had lots of disposable income either. Now that my 3 kids are almost all grown-up, I have more disposable income. I splurged for the PPF, as I tend to keep my cars until the tires fall off.

Totally agree about people who splurge on their Y.

As for me, I got the following: (all functional reasons vs. cosmetic reasons)

1. Center console tray (to make that cavernous hole more usable) from Tesmanian. For the first month or so, I was using a cheap one found on Amazon but didn't like how it blocked the light in the console.
2. A rubber insert for the cup holders. The one I got had the same shape (rubber bumps on the sides to hold cups) as the one in the back seat holders.
3. Some small strips of Xpel to cover the metal frame below the seat for the rear doors (during the first week, our dog put her paw on it to climb into the back seat and put some light scratches in the paint).
4. Some vinyl covers for the window switches from Abstract Ocean...why? You guessed it, b/c of our dog! Sometimes she puts her paw on the window switch when she's sitting with her head out the window and her paw pad scratched the piano black plastic. now they're covered and I don't worry about it (only appleid to the rear doors).

 

[907XCP]

Hehe...or, just buy what you think is a necessity for you and your lifestyle. I think most owners don’t splurge. I think the owners that splurge on their MY also splurged on their ICE cars, for the most part.

For as long as I have owned cars...I never splurged on accessories. But I also never really had lots of disposable income either. Now that my 3 kids are almost all grown-up, I have more disposable income. I splurged for the PPF, as I tend to keep my cars until the tires fall off.

Exactly. I spent roughly $2000 on add ons, $1100 was for winter tires. The rest was for the entire set 7 piece set of 3D Maxpiders, screen protector, performance pedals, entire car rubber door seal kit, Armor Shield IX ceramic coating DIY, Quartz leather ceramic coating DIY and EVMud Flaps. Well worth doing your own work on the car to save literally thousands of dollars.

 

[2101Guy]

Make sure to send Tesla a certified letter within 30 days of delivery of the car, requesting to opt out of arbitration. Keep the certified letter receipt and copy of the letter, for your records.