Tesla and Elon Musk Evolution Since 2017
- Thread starter Marc_C
- Start date
The Tesla is not our only car but it is the primary car, driven 16K miles in its first year, about 3/4 of our total driving including 6 out of 9 trips to Mammoth. We would not have bought the Tesla if we couldn't take it to Mammoth.
This year a new Thai place opened near the Mojave charger. Liz likes that better than the options at Inyokern but Mammoth nonstop to Mojave after the last day of skiing requires driving a bit more moderately than we usually do.
The other referral was a guy we met on the Thailand trip, who lives in San Diego and has a second home in Big Bear. We can drive to Big Bear but need a charge on the way home in Rancho Cucamonga. That charger is out of the way if you're headed to San Diego, so his solution was to install a 240 plug in the Big Bear place as well as at home.
This year a new Thai place opened near the Mojave charger. Liz likes that better than the options at Inyokern but Mammoth nonstop to Mojave after the last day of skiing requires driving a bit more moderately than we usually do.
I got 2 referrals for other people who bought Teslas in 4th quarter 2016. It's best to analyze your own travel patterns before you buy to see if it will work conveniently for you. In Al Solish's case it was easy. Two days a week he has long commutes to Beverly Hills and Palmdale. Letting him drive our car home over the Angeles Crest from Palmdale facilitated the sale. :mrgreen: He has a second home in Atascadero, which is only 4 miles from a Supercharger. He thus went for the smaller 75kW battery, which handles his commutes and requires only a 10-15 minute stop at Buttonwillow on the way to Atascadero. Mammoth is a more demanding drive and time is definitely saved by having the larger battery for that trip.kingslug":1jsw15np said:
The other referral was a guy we met on the Thailand trip, who lives in San Diego and has a second home in Big Bear. We can drive to Big Bear but need a charge on the way home in Rancho Cucamonga. That charger is out of the way if you're headed to San Diego, so his solution was to install a 240 plug in the Big Bear place as well as at home.
I'm sure an expert in sophisticated time series calculations like MarcC can handle it fine.MarcC":1jsw15np said:
The Model 3 will not be a spacious as Model S but even with a smaller battery it will be nearly transparent vs. a gas car for some trips, like San Diego, Central Coast, the desert, SoCal local ski areas. Model 3 will share the impressive driving dynamics of Model S. Take a test drive and you'll see.socal":1jsw15np said:
Model S is great for carrying capacity, including skis with the hatch. If you go used to save $$$ don't get anything earlier than 2015. AWD and Autopilot 1 were introduced in late 2014 and you probably know that there were serious reliability issues in 2012 and 2013. 2016 and earlier used will probably retain the free supercharging, but you should check on that.
I heard the 2016 Solden trip had mediocre conditions, but this year's Dogs' trip to Val d'Isere should have worked out great.kingslug":2oek9t2n said:
160K is definitely the performance version. Base 75kW versions cost about half that. In general I'm not a fan of Model X vs. Model S unless you absolutely need to have a high seating position or the third row seats.kingslug":2oek9t2n said:
1) Worse aerodynamics means shorter range.
2) Second row seats in Model S fold down, but not in Model X.
3) The Falcon Wing doors are a great conversation piece, but add a lot of weight and have reliability issues.
Items 1 and 2 above mean Model S is a better ski car.
Tesla FYI!
www.wired.com
Why Teslas Totaled in the US Are Mysteriously Reincarnated in Ukraine
Ukraine’s fearless and expert EV mechanics bring electric vehicles declared unfixable in the US and Canada back to life on the other side of the world.
Paywalled.
Article from Wired Magazine: Why Teslas Totaled in the U.S. Are Mysteriously Reincarnated in Ukraine
Tesla has zero DC fast charging superchargers in Ukraine. However, the European CCS2 standard is fairly robust and reliable over there, unlike CCS1 in North America. I'm also guessing that most of those 11,000 chargers in Ukraine are overnight level 2's. All of those salvage North American Teslas have to be fitted with Euro CCS2 charging ports to replace the Tesla North America ports.
FYI North American CCS1 is so unreliable that almost every manufacturer selling EV's has agreed to install Tesla NACS charging ports in their cars starting in 2025 in exchange for being permitted to use Tesla superchargers. This started with Ford in late May and the dominoes fell quickly, with VW remaining as the only major holdout as of now.
This is the part that most Americans don't get. The lower maintenance plus fuel cost when you charge at home (80+% for most drivers) adds up to lower total cost of ownership after a few years.
Current new car sales EV market share is 8% in the U.S. and 25% in California. There has been a lot of press about a slowdown in EV sales. Most of that is coming from Ford and GM, whose current designs are a bit behind the times, plus that hurdle of the crappy CCS1 charging networks. More competitive products from Mercedes and Hyundai/Kia are doing well with 15+% national shares of sales and we see a lot of them already here in SoCal.
A Tesla in New Jersey unable to withstand a falling fish. Cheap materials: clearly part of the reason that the company's stock has fallen in recent months!
nypost.com
Fish falls from sky onto New Jersey couple’s Tesla — and here’s the likely culprit
A fish dropped out of the sky and smashed into a New Jersey couple’s Tesla parked in their driveway, cracking the car’s windshield.
nypost.com
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ChrisC
Well-known member
A Tesla in New Jersey unable to withstand a falling fish. Cheap materials: clearly part of the reason that the company's stock has fallen in recent months!
View attachment 42185
Fish falls from sky onto New Jersey couple’s Tesla — and here’s the likely culprit
A fish dropped out of the sky and smashed into a New Jersey couple’s Tesla parked in their driveway, cracking the car’s windshield.
They need to own (or updgrade to) the Tesla Cybertruck.
Find it a bit hideous.
EMSC
Well-known member
Seen plenty of them IRL already. My take: front looks weird but OK, Side just looks wrong every time I see it (though not repulsive, just wrong somehow), from the rear it looks dumb and hideous. There is a reason you always see this angle for pictures, never from the rear. Just my 2c.
Seems to be a mid-70s vision of what cars would look like in the future:
I see a resemblance to my Weber barbecue.
jimk
Active member
I've never had any interest in summer skiing in South America. Too many fun summer activities going on. Of course, if someone offered me a free trip... 
One of my daughters and her family were working for the USG in Ukraine when the war broke out. They had to be evacuated. Before they left they had the engine in their VW SUV cheaply upgraded with a turbo charger (or similar capability) because mechanical car repair work was a known bargain there. They had to leave that vehicle behind in a garage. Thought it was gone forever, but surprisingly they were able to get it shipped to their next location about 8 mos later.
One of my daughters and her family were working for the USG in Ukraine when the war broke out. They had to be evacuated. Before they left they had the engine in their VW SUV cheaply upgraded with a turbo charger (or similar capability) because mechanical car repair work was a known bargain there. They had to leave that vehicle behind in a garage. Thought it was gone forever, but surprisingly they were able to get it shipped to their next location about 8 mos later.
I decided to split this out from the prior thread combined with Euro and South America ski travel.
I have seen the "I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE ELON WENT CRAZY" sticker on a Model Y.
I have already expressed my views on Elon Musk in the election thread, including several quotes from the Walter Isaacson biography.
Earlier this week the Washington Post had a feature article titled Musk’s politics hadn’t seeped into Tesla....
Perhaps James can unlock its paywall. Final line of the WaPo article, no question true with what I read in the Isaacson bio:
I have seen the "I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE ELON WENT CRAZY" sticker on a Model Y.
I have already expressed my views on Elon Musk in the election thread, including several quotes from the Walter Isaacson biography.
Earlier this week the Washington Post had a feature article titled Musk’s politics hadn’t seeped into Tesla....
Perhaps James can unlock its paywall. Final line of the WaPo article, no question true with what I read in the Isaacson bio:
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A recent Washington Post article reports on record-high Tesla trade-in numbers. If it's possible to set aside political concerns, now might be a good time to buy a used one (assuming that it won't get vandalized after purchasing)? After all, your money won't be going to Musk at this point -- or will it in a certified-pre-owned situation?