Wife just said she's never driving the Tesla again......

[Max*]

To be fair, my wife and I have no problem putting up with the BS of the car (and we all know where it is). My daughter loves that it doesn't have an exhaust, she shows everyone "look, no tailpipes. Most other cars have tailpipe" lol.

The problem is that my parents have a deposit on a Model 3. They're more of what I'd call mainstream buyers. They just want it to work, and wouldn't want to deal with various quirks.

Every time I show up to visit them in the S, I try to subtly go over some of the quirks it has, and they're like "yeah, whatever, no biggie", but once they get their 3, if it's not mainstream ready, I'm going to be getting phone calls asking "well, why doesn't it do this? how can I get it to do this?" Similar to their "help, fix my computer" phone calls that I get now.

 

[bkp_duke]

i keep telling myself im going to let my wife drive mine .. but ya that hasnt happened yet... Then my 16 year old even asked if she could drive it . she also got a no ... my wife drives a bit odd and the 1st time realizes the car doesnt do what she expects when she lets off the gas i'm never going to hear the end of it

Yeah, when my oldest gets ready to drive, eyeing getting Bolt or something that I won't have a coronary if she wrecks it.

 

[bro1999]

To be fair, my wife and I have no problem putting up with the BS of the car (and we all know where it is). My daughter loves that it doesn't have an exhaust, she shows everyone "look, no tailpipes. Most other cars have tailpipe" lol.

The problem is that my parents have a deposit on a Model 3. They're more of what I'd call mainstream buyers. They just want it to work, and wouldn't want to deal with various quirks.

Every time I show up to visit them in the S, I try to subtly go over some of the quirks it has, and they're like "yeah, whatever, no biggie", but once they get their 3, if it's not mainstream ready, I'm going to be getting phone calls asking "well, why doesn't it do this? how can I get it to do this?" Similar to their "help, fix my computer" phone calls that I get now.

I see you're in VA....your parents have realistic expectations of when they will actually be able to take delivery of a 3, right? Sounds like they may be fine Bolt candidates, though.

 

[bkp_duke]

First, she won't stop at a broken pump due to the out of order sign. Secondly, if she did, she wouldn't waste 10 minutes of time before realizing she's not getting any fuel.

To be fair, it's not like she was getting NO FUEL. It was just about 1/3 the nominal rate.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

Again it seems like only in CA is where the problem exist.

Why do you keep repeating this when it's not true? Is it because you went to a couple of superchargers outside of CA and they happened to work while you were there?

It is well documented to be happening at Superchargers all over the country. I personally have observed severe early taper at Superchargers in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. I have documented it in a couple of threads as well as cross posted in the CA specific thread you refer to. It does not happen at every Supercharger every time but happens often enough to generate threads of complaints.

 

[sorka]

So the wife has never pulled into a gas station only to find the pump doesn't work (or the auto payment) AND it's not marked as not working? Wow, how incredibly lucky for her. Just inform her that that does in fact happen, so pulling into SuperChargers and finding one not working up to snuff shouldn't be a biggie. Just. Move. The. Car. To. A. Different. Charger/Pump.

Yup, never happened. Always an out of order sign on it. Of course there's the moment when it first stops working and an out of order sign hasn't yet been placed. How do I know this? It's because of the 4 pump handles, since we've been married, that have been attached to her car when she drives off that causes the pumps to be out of order

 

[McRat]

There is also about 110,000 service stations selling gasoline in the US.

 

[sorka]

To be fair, it's not like she was getting NO FUEL. It was just about 1/3 the nominal rate.

No, stall 1B was giving her 10KW. Normal at SOC 14%(which is where she started), is 113+KW after the charge ramp up.

 

[bkp_duke]

No, stall 1B was giving her 10KW. Normal at SOC 14%(which is where she started), is 113+KW after the charge ramp up.

POINT is it wasn't ZERO. Not normal by any stretch, but not zero.

 

[sorka]

Yup, never happened. Always an out of order sign on it. Of course there's the moment when it first stops working and an out of order sign hasn't yet been placed. How do I know this? It's because of the 4 pump handles, since we've been married, that have been attached to her car when she drives off that causes the pumps to be out of order

Oh, and I forgot to mention. I was on the phone with her last night and told her she had enough juice to get home and she could leave now. 5 second later, I heard the double beep and her saying the car wouldn't go into drive.

"Dear, did you unplug the car?"

"Um, no"

So on the plus side, Tesla won't let her drive off with refueling hoses attached to the car

 

[unnoho]

That's not a fair comparison. Often, the gas station will have a sign stating the problem so that it's immediately clear to the user. Secondly, there's a beautiful (and rather easily attainable) way to provide the user with this information beforehand from inside the car. We'll probably get that in the future, but it just seems like a missed opportunity right now.

I drive a Ram 1500 Ecodiesel(20mpg city pulling a trailer love the motor). Over a month and 3 separate times in a row i pulled into the same station and same pump and it was putting in about 1/2 gpm. I finally went in and told the lady. It is hard to imagine I was the first to do so as it has a lot of traffic and is located in an area where diesel trucks are more popular. I am now using a different station as I got quite pissed the 3rd time.

 

[Merrill]

I get that at work, and I get that when I get home, where it's my assignment to keep our network zooming along. If I had $1 for each time I heard, "it was working just a few minutes ago" - (the inside words i say - "so? One minute the spaceship Challenger is speeding along & the next minute POOF - it's not ... so quit saying that!).
SO - maybe after the next major earthquake, or Brown out, and the Lexus can't be gassed up, he gets to say," stupid $70,000 car".
Good thing we weren't all born 150 years ago - we'd have to keep pulling over in the Calistoga wagon to feed the mule team. We rough it by camping in a 4 bed, 40' marble floored, self leveling, climate controlled, satellite equipped, soundproofed, rolling estate suspended on a cushion of air. Boo hoo when the outside LED TV goes out.
.

I love this post, you are right on. What I love about this country is the diversity, as they say "different strokes for different folks". I used to own a 1967 Jaguar XKE and was commuting to college with it, had to keep a rubber hammer in the trunk so when the electric fuel pump stoped I would hit it with the hammer and get it going again. This was only 40 plus years ago. It is such a bummer to have to stop ever few hundred miles to charge up!

 

[Max*]

I see you're in VA....your parents have realistic expectations of when they will actually be able to take delivery of a 3, right? Sounds like they may be fine Bolt candidates, though.

I am, but they're in NY. They're in no hurry to get theirs, they know I'll get mine before them (I'm an S owner, they're not).

They don't want a Bolt, they want a Tesla, they think Tesla's are very cool.

 

[ThosEM]

Another bugbear of my wife's which i am sympathetic with.

"Why does the dash not show predicted range?" (Yeh, she knows she can call up the energy screen and see it there but "Why should I have to fiddle around like that, just show me the range based on last 30 miles driving ON THE DASHBOARD"), Rated or typical miles is useless to her.

I tried Percent for a while. She hated that !! ("But darling, just multiple by 2 and that will give you miles if you drive like a Loon, and multiple by 2.5 if you are prepared to drive home "carefully" ") ... nope, I got zero traction (Sorry!) with that approach ...

This is a pet peeve of mine also, and I have complained without any notice being taken, and switched to energy (percent). Instead of matching the small energy display that can be placed on the instrument panel with the larger one that projects range, Tesla *have removed* almost all the numbers from that display until it is practically useless.

You sure can tell when they don't like a suggestion...

 

[ThosEM]

Has anyone found a shopping bag attached to a charge plug yet? If so it should be added to the List of Tesla Firsts.
--

Funny, but that's the problem. How many times have you pulled up to a pump with a shopping bag on it, hooked up the hose and confirmed the meaning of the shopping bag; then moved your car to another pump with a shopping bag on it, rinsed and repeated, then finally given up and moved it to a pump without a shopping bag on it?

 

[Bet TSLA]

This thread makes it pretty obvious that we desperately need autonomous vehicles. They can't come soon enough.

 

[bro1999]

Your pointless and ill-informed anti-Tesla posts contribute nothing positive to the discussions you participate in.

Your posts complaining about my valid posts are equally useless, if you want to play that game.

 

[WannabeOwner]

so pulling into SuperChargers and finding one not working up to snuff shouldn't be a biggie

"finding one not working" How? shopping-bag-on-nozzle?, parking-cones around the pump? ... anything obvious like that? ... message on the screen in the car?

it's not like she was getting NO FUEL. It was just about 1/3 the nominal rate

Not normal by any stretch, but not zero.

Yeah, but working at "1/3 the nominal rate" is the difference between a 30 minute stop and a 1.5 hours stop. And no indication that it is not working. I have never had, nor have I known anyone personally who has had, a Gas pump that pumped 1/3rd normal speed, or slower. Didn't pump at all? Yeah, probably, but that would be obvious immediately. Pump that has cones blocking that pump-lane? Yeah, frequently, plenty of other pumps, just park at a different one.

Let's compare my use of a supercharge stall with my wife's expectation. By all means tell me there is a better way for her to achieve her expectation:

Here's what I do:

Select a stall that I think is not paired (if unfamiliar with the site I will not know if 1A and 1B are next to each other, or miles apart). If at an unfamiliar site and there are other cars already charging then: get out, check the number/letter on my stall, make sure the corresponding A/B stall is unoccupied. I would be oblivious to any rain, even at night.

Optionally: move to a different stall where the paired stall is unoccupied.

Plug in, go back and sit in car for the couple of minutes it takes to ramp up to consistent charging rate. Check that the AMPs, kW and Volts represent normal, fast charge, for the current SoC, also taking into account whether I am paired or not.

Optionally move to new stall

Get out of car, go to shops / pit-stop / coffee etc.

Every few minutes get my phone out and check that AMPs, kW and Volts are still "super-speedy".

Optionally return to car and move to new stall

Enjoy the benefit of 10 - 30 minutes stop when I have been able to do other things, simultaneously with getting recharged, rather than stand-and-pump and stand-in-line-to-pay. Complete discount any hassle of having to move stalls if / when that happens, unless it happens often.


Here's what my wife expects to do:

Choose any free stall, park.

Plug in (*), walk away, do some shopping / etc.

Come back after appropriate time (she's smart enough to figure out if that will be 10 minutes or 30).

Unplug, get in car and drive off.

(*) there is an option here: if the light by the charge-port does NOT come on she would definitely spot that (I know because she did this morning when she charged at work because she called me to tell me that she had only 45% charge and, today of all days, had to go to a meeting some way away. The breaker on that circuit had tripped )

 

[fsch]

When I am driving and we stop to Supercharge she wants to get going when we have 1% margin ("We can always drive slow if prediction goes down").

You can tell her that, most of the time, it's quicker to supercharge more and then drive faster. Many people have modeled that. See for example: Driving & Charging Time

 

[Max*]

You can tell her that, most of the time, it's quicker to supercharge more and then drive faster. Many people have modeled that. See for example: Driving & Charging Time

I think what you meant to say is that 75mph is the ideal driving speed. And this is only for one set driving distance, someone modeled it across various driving distances (realistic distances between various SpCs), and the sweet spot is somewhere in the 75-85mph range.