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Despite being a geek, I just haven't had the urge.

I got to drive a Tesla roadster back when they were first pimping those - they staked out a PCA autocross, which was clever - and it was neat, but a really expensive toy. I have never been blown away by the build quality; the Model 3 I sat in during an event last year was a lot more Mercury than Mercedes - a whole lot of plastic and panel gaps that ranged from 1/8" to .5" plus - but never the same measurement twice.

This was early on, when they were having production issues - but the S I was sitting behind at a light the other day didn't look all that much better from a panel consistency perspective.

Now, granted, these observations were made by a guy who drives a white fiberglass-and-plastic 80's sports car - so I'm not talking shit here.

Nope. Plugin just doesn't do it for me yet. Call me when I can put the whole family in the vehicle, drive 700 miles on a charge, and recharge in no more than 30 minutes (2 5 minute driver changes and 20 minutes at the fuel stop). Being able to deal with not being able to charge it at home is kinda important too (street parking only).

I have a friend in Seattle that has owned a S since early in production and he has loved it. Another co-worker just got a 3 a few months ago and loves it too.

I liked the Roadster because it mostly looked like a normal car. The S, X, and 3 all look like something we would have drawn back in the 70s when asked what cars of the future would look like (which I suppose makes all those terrible drawings accurate...).

I think they are over hyped ala Apple stuff, but I do appreciate what they have done for moving EVs forward. If an EV fit my needs, however, I'd probably look at the Cayenne or Panny plugin options or BMW's lineup. Both have a much longer history of building cars and aren't connected to the brilliant but fucking nuts Musk.

The only way I see EVs working for an American highway model is when every electric vehicle is using the same battery pack (or at least multiples of the same battery pack). If I can pull up at a service station and in 3 minutes swap out the lithium pack(s), I'd MUCH rather do that than spend 30 minutes doing 5 minutes worth of shopping at a Teslamart, all while being pissed off that I spent $100K on a car that turned out to have less range and utility than a Ford Focus.

Designing universal, safe, modular packs that people treat like propane tanks makes a lot more sense (to me, admittedly) than networks of dissimilar/incompatible charging stations sprinkled here and there but not actually frequent enough to be useful.

You need to slap a Tesla sticker on your electric nard exploder and watch the Teslarati lose their minds and throw money at you. When they do, tell them that you'll take their money, but there's a 3 year wait for delivery. Won't matter to them.

FRUNKenstein wrote: ↑Fri Dec 14, 2018 11:09 am You need to slap a Tesla sticker on your electric nard exploder and watch the Teslarati lose their minds and throw money at you. When they do, tell them that you'll take their money, but there's a 3 year wait for delivery. Won't matter to them.

This brings up a conversation with a guy the other day that said Tesla is basically a Ponzie scheme. He said "Think about it; you give them money on the promise that they will build you a car in the future. They have NEVER met their promise date. In the mean time they are using your money to build other people's cars"...wash repeat...and I agree Musk is looney tunes!

5chn3ll wrote: ↑Fri Dec 14, 2018 9:52 am This was early on, when they were having production issues - but the S I was sitting behind at a light the other day didn't look all that much better from a panel consistency perspective.

The production issues are still there. We get truck loads of them at the body shop, brand new cars, 15 miles on the odometer. Doors improperly fitted rubbing the paint on the edges. Panel gap consistency is a joke. Our body shop sucks and we joke around that they all leave looking better than they did when they left the factory.

You gotta give them credit, how they get people to buy those things is impressive.

I see in the news today that Larry Ellison has been added to the Tesla board as part of the SEC settlement.

I definitely want no part of an Oracle influenced Tesla (or any car)!

The next model will be twice the size of the current, but there will be nothing noticeably new or useful added.
They will get ever more buggy and prone to random crashes.
Due to the shit reliability an entire ecosystem of "experts" will spring up to help, but they won't know shit.
You'll be forced into a "support" contract model that is based per mile driven and the price will increase exponentially each year.
Good luck getting support from that contract.

I bought the girls a nice electric EZ-GO golf cart for Christmas a few years ago. The batteries are all dead. It will cost more than the cart is worth to replace all six of those things. What was I thinking!? Tesla? No thank you!

Damn! She's cute, smart, sarcastic, and loves power tools! Where was she 20 years ago!!!

Uncle Rich! The dude on the left (first video) has his own YT channel that's worth losing a day or two of your life over. He's a funny, funny guy.