With the recent price decline and the government subsidy I decided to dip my tow in. Will arrive Friday.
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Now you don’t have to stop at crosswalks!
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Welcome to the Tesla family. You will love your car.
Congratulations !
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First week of my Tesla.
We went to pick the car up on Tuesday and there was a paint issue on the front tip of the hood that appeared to be touched up poorly. We declined to take the car. Tesla looked at it and agreed to repaint the hood. This was fine with us.
Car delivered this past Saturday. They forgot to reattach the T on the Front of the car. Also it appears that there is a white dot in-betted in the front windshield and a tiny scratch on the surface of the windshield. Not sure how thiw will be addressed. Appointment in February with service.
Overall the card drives great, and the technology/software is very advanced. Lots of cameras, security, driving assistance.
On the cost side I am not convinced that I saved anything. Got a great price compared to others due to the sale and rebate. However, car battery appears to leak 20 miles a night. My Geico insurance increased $2,000.
In California I pay about 23 cents per kilowat. The car charges at a rate of 4.125 miles per kilowatt. So 5.6 cents per mile. My old SUV gets 21.5 miles per gallon. So about $4.25. The tesla can buy 18 kilowatts for $4.25. So 76 miles per $4.25. So basically $1.2 per gallon B4 leakage. Closer to $1.35 with battery leakage. So I save about 70% by using electricity vs gas. So I save about $1700. Which unfortunately does not cover the higher insurance. This is not what anticipated. My error for not evaluating this on the front end.
So no way this is economic for the middle class in California. Maybe other states pay less per Kilowatt. Interested in what other pay. Thanks.
I forgot to mention that it cost me $2000 to buy the charger and install it at my house.
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We left our Y and 3 for a month while we toured in our motorhome. Total losses over the month were less than 10 miles while stored in our garage. You have a problem. Perhaps sentry mode?
Rob
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
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You should get a quote from somebody other than GEICO. GEICO’s rates are often not competitive recently. Try PGR and check if Tesla offers an insurance product where you live. Get your $2k back. You can always return to GEICO later when they steady the ship. GEICO will show huge customer loss in Q4 and especially Q1. It’s gonna be ugly but BRK will survive…
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Make sure you look into the electric car plan from the electric company that may save you some money depending on your charging habits, reviews are mixed in SD though.
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Thanks. I will look into that. FYI, got 5 quotes for insurance over th past 24 hours. Moving to AAA. In addition to GEICO raising premiums for the TESLA, they had already indicate a 100%+ increase in my umbrella policy.
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Do you have your tesla set up for pre-conditioning each day? I wonder if this is eating up the battery?
Congrats… you will never look back’
Congratulations! We had our 2013 Model S for almost exactly six years and just sold it and took delivery of a Rivian R1T.
It looks like you got your insurance worked out. I was with PGR (not California) and paying less than $2000/yr for the Tesla and a Highlander.
I also agree with others that the “vampire drain” seems a little excessive. I would see less than 8mi/day when our car was parked in the garage. If parked outdoors in temps below 55deg F it would start to increase. It never bothered me as our electricity prices are only $0.13-$0.14/KWh here. Like others I would guess sentry mode or scheduled cabin preconditioning is causing some of it if you are parked in a garage.
After six years of ownership I can’t necessarily say there were massive savings. All in for electricity savings, no oil changes or brake replacements, etc…. I would say it equaled out to about the same cost as owning a nice Toyota Camry. But no Toyota (we still own a Highlander and just sold our Tundra as well) is that fun to drive.
For us the electric driving experience is better than gas 95% of the time. It’s the trips over 200mi that start to cause the slightest bit of anxiety and additional prep, so we still have one gas car. We have not had a chance yet to drive the Rivian over 200mi but based on what I have seen so far I think the longer range there can stretch that to 225-250mi of relatively no anxiety.
If you really want to get into the weeds I would recommend checking out the forums on www.Teslamotorsclub.com if you haven’t already. A very active community of owners who have seen/solved nearly every thing one might encounter and are always willing to help.
Jeff
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Gator,
Dave installed the charger in our garage himself. IIRC our charger with the longest cable cost $550.
The conduit and wire costs were small.
If you are handy, and can search on Youtube for a “how-to” video, you can save.
Also, Tesla has its own car insurance in some states for its own fleet. We have not looked into it, but the business reason for Tesla beginning insurance coverage was as a counterpoint to traditional insurance that was gauging.
Dave is waiting on pins and needles for the cybertruck. The idea of a cybertruck is growing on me.
jan
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Blue -
I have a MYLR, live in NE Ohio, and taken trips to Philadelphia, Cincinnatti, Detroit in it. The Tesla Supercharging network is highly reliable. I’ve come across only one dead slot, and never an out-of-commission location. Friends have driven theirs across the country and to Florida many times. It’s just not a problem as long as I don’t get too far from an interstate, where the chargers are mainly located. The car tells me where I need to stop for a charge and directs me there viva its map. But you must know that already. The Tesla is a great car for long trips - I am more relaxed in it, probably due to Autopilot.
Professor Talon
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Yep, your MYLR is 330mi range on the dash and probably something like 200-230mi real world at interstate speeds on a bad weather day. Our old 2013 Model S was 230mi range on the dash and 140-160mi real world at interstate speeds on a bad weather day. We routinely make a 200mi drive so the forced stop tended to be a bit of an annoyance vs no stop with a gas car, especially with kids.
I should have an opportunity this weekend to test out the R1T’s ~330mi dash range on that drive. I’m hopeful we will see something close to 250mi real world driving the truck in conserve mode. I live out here on the central plains of the US and a 20mph headwind can make a major difference vs the same tailwind. The charging infrastructure around here has improved dramatically which makes a big difference in terms of range anxiety on trips as well. The ability to make virtually any trip in an electric is certainly there now, it’s just a matter of knowing your own personal ability to abide by the charging times needed. My wife took our old Model S on a 650+mi one day roundtrip because she had the time to do it. It was easily doable but did require six charging stops. While she likes to hold claim to the longest one day electric trip in the family, she vowed she would never do it again until we have something with 400mi on the dash. 
Jeff
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Jeff,
A friend from the local Tesla meetup who likes all EVs, just got the Rivian pickup. He loves it. His fiancee said that it rides like a truck.
I rode in it and it felt like a nice medium sized truck.
Enjoy trying out EVs.
Jan
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Cybertruck will enter volume production next year.
It will be interesting to see people’s reaction and sales. It is love it or hate it kind of a product.
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I never installed a charger, used the “travel charger” that came for free with my models S. I did have to install a 220V NEMA plug in my garage to use this at high charging rate (30 miles per hour, ~40 kW.
But I agree it did not feel like a cheap car to own, I actually made it past the warranty period and repairs were not cheap and did include things like the red lights on back of car and door handles that stopped presenting.
R:
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