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Tesla Thoughts

skippy

skippy

Pretend Fabricator
Location
Tooele
So my wife is in the market for a new car. Does anyone on here have any personal experience with teslas? She commutes from Tooele to west valley every day so the fuel savings Is a huge perk. Her work has free chargers for EV vehicles as well so she plans on charging at work. But my garage at home is wired for multiple 240v plugs so charging at home isn’t a concern either.

Thoughts?.?
 
P

Pike2350

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake City
Unless there is something you love about Tesla and are buying new I'd look at other options.....mostly for the $7500 tax credit. If you are buying used then it doesn't matter.

My best friend has had a model S for quite a few years (5 I think) ihe bought his wife one as well (both used). He really likes them. His was an S60 so the smallest battery in 2013 and he bought it used forn$55k or so. The battery just went out in the fall. It was a 14k replacement.(had tonupgrade to the 75 battery since they don't make a 60 anymore) Right after he got it back the drive motors went out....another 5k. He now has to drive it another 3-4 years just to not get killed on those repairs....but doesn't mind. His wife loves hers. Hers is a 2015 S80D. She has had it about 2 years now. She is a realtor so she is driving all over the place with it and loves the mileage deduction without the gas costs.

Again if you are buying used then it doesn't matter, but the $7500 tax credit for the Mustang Mach E would be pretty tempting to me. I have heard good things about them and would consider that myself if I were in the marketnfor a new E vehicle.
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
skippy said:
So my wife is in the market for a new car. Does anyone on here have any personal experience with teslas?
Click to expand...

Tesla? No. BEV as a daily driver? Most definitely.

skippy said:
She commutes from Tooele to west valley every day so the fuel savings Is a huge perk. Her work has free chargers for EV vehicles as well so she plans on charging at work. But my garage at home is wired for multiple 240v plugs so charging at home isn’t a concern either.

Thoughts?.?
Click to expand...

1) I have a friend who lives in Tooele and works in SLC, and he bought a used Fiat 500e to use as his commuter. He, too, has free charging at work and generally never charges the car at home. He's been commuting like this for years. Moral of the story: you don't need a Tesla--or any BEV with 250+ mile range--for this use case.

2) Having 240v charge capability ("Level2") at home is a big plus, as it can greatly expand how much you use the car. After a morning of running errands, for example, you can come home and plug in for an hour or two while you have lunch and do other things, then head out for round two of more errands. I rarely used my Level2 charger at home, but when I wanted it I was very glad I had it.

3) Driving for free (ie, not paying a penny for the 'fuel' your car uses) is extremely addictive. So are the numerous advantages of a BEV over any gas-powered vehicle. Once you get used to the quiet, the immediate throttle response, the instant heat, the near complete lack of maintenance, etc, when you hop back in a gas car it suddenly feels so... old.

I say go for it.
 
4

4x4_Welder

Well-Known Member
Location
Twin Falls, ID
TurboMinivan said:
Tesla? No. BEV as a daily driver? Most definitely.



1) I have a friend who lives in Tooele and works in SLC, and he bought a used Fiat 500e to use as his commuter. He, too, has free charging at work and generally never charges the car at home. He's been commuting like this for years. Moral of the story: you don't need a Tesla--or any BEV with 250+ mile range--for this use case.

2) Having 240v charge capability ("Level2") at home is a big plus, as it can greatly expand how much you use the car. After a morning of running errands, for example, you can come home and plug in for an hour or two while you have lunch and do other things, then head out for round two of more errands. I rarely used my Level2 charger at home, but when I wanted it I was very glad I had it.

3) Driving for free (ie, not paying a penny for the 'fuel' your car uses) is extremely addictive. So are the numerous advantages of a BEV over any gas-powered vehicle. Once you get used to the quiet, the immediate throttle response, the instant heat, the near complete lack of maintenance, etc, when you hop back in a gas car it suddenly feels so... old.

I say go for it.
Click to expand...
I tried this argument with my wife. Get something cheapish and electric, then rent for the occasional run to SLC or Boise. She wanted to make sure she could just go anytime, so instead we have an F150 supercrew. Now if I could put gas in it to get anywhere we'd be all set.
 
Spork

Spork

Tin Foil Hat Equipped
Location
Saratoga Springs, UT
When I was looking at Electric vehicles range was my biggest worry. Had a co-worker with the extended range Leaf (2nd Gen) and he said his range was over 200 miles, it drove nice, power was good. He charged at work and there wasn't a huge demand so he'd just schedule the charger for either before noon or after and have a full charge when he left. Another co-worker had a first gen leaf and it ran good but he said his range was only about 80 miles so that wasn't appealing to me, if I charged on both sides of the commute it would have worked but I couldn't get my head around the range.

Seems like all the manufacturers are offering something, I see more Tesla's than anything else though, followed by Leaf's, and strangely either the Ford Mustang electric thing or the VW ID4.
 
N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
I can’t see Heather driving a Nissan Leaf, that’s for sure. No way she’s moving from a twin turbo BMW to a boring electric car.
 
skippy

skippy

Pretend Fabricator
Location
Tooele
xj_nate said:
I can’t see Heather driving a Nissan Leaf, that’s for sure. No way she’s moving from a twin turbo BMW to a boring electric car.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s Tesla or another BMW for her. We are meeting up tomorrow at lunch at the Tesla dealership to go over options before we order.
 
skippy

skippy

Pretend Fabricator
Location
Tooele
So we just went and drove some Teslas, and holy smokes they are awesome. No transmission shifting is the greatest thing ever. Eerily quiet and unless your driving aggressively you never touch the brakes.

Now the question is what model does she want?
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
skippy said:
No transmission shifting is the greatest thing ever.
Click to expand...

Acceleration from a roll is the most amazing BEV party trick. To fully appreciate it, you need to think about all the things in a modern gas-powered car which are completely absent when you mash the pedal in a BEV:

  • no drive-by-wire pedal lag as the computer interprets the pedal's output signal and then opens the throttle
  • no waiting while the transmission control unit decides which lower gear is most approriate
  • no waiting while the transmission then executes the downshift
  • no waiting while the engine now continues its climb to the horsepower peak
  • no waiting for the turbo to spool in response to the sudden engine load
  • no waiting for the camshaft or valve timing to change
  • (maybe best of all) no noise alerting everyone around you that you're trying to accelerate

Instead, all you get is instant thrust... as fast as your right foot can hit the floor. By the time the driver next to you realizes what you're doing, you've already changed lanes into the gap in front of him. :cool:
 
N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
Can we train the tesla to follow us to rock crawls so we have something to drive around town? Seems possible
 
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