Hey all,
I've got a couple pics, and a few notes from the first 18 hours of ownership.
The Delivery
My car was originally scheduled to be sent up to Bellevue, WA then back down here to Camas, WA which would have probably added at least a day to the delivery (likely two). With some luck, and some awesome thinking by the Portland DS Ciaran, my car was dropped in Portland, and instead of sticking it back on the truck, Ciaran took a look at the address and told the driver to just leave the car there so he could take it out to me himself. So I ended up getting the 'classic' delivery treatment, complete with over an hour of DS show-and-tell for the car.
Our first drive
Our first 'real' drive was last night was into Portland for a company dinner/party. The car was *flawless*, navigation system using google maps integration is brilliantly done.
As we got close to the restaurant we needed specific parking instructions, so we tapped 'call' on the maps app, and it was done, quick and easy.
General thoughts
Two final impressions
First, after experiencing the treatment from Ciaran, Laura, Andrew, Ken (all amazingly helpful Tesla folks) it struck me yesterday why it's OK that my car was delayed from it's initial delivery. Tesla does not, under any circumstances, want to make you an owner before *they* are completely ready to take care of you in a way that should make you really 'get' it. There were so many things that these folks have done for me in just the past couple days that I can't even begin to list them. I really wanted them to throw my car on the truck and send it up here a week ago, but that would have left me without a staff of people ready to help me. In my observation, this is exactly what happened to so many people at the end of the year during their big push, and I think they are trying to shore that up.
Second; EV cars.. I've never owned an EV, never owned a hybrid, and I don't consider myself an Environmental Extremist. That is not *the* reason I bought this car. It was one of the reasons, but not the major deciding factor. Coming home last night after a 58 mile drive (22 kWh used) I plugged the car into the charger realizing that for $1.76 (electricity is 8 cents / kW up here) I just drove all evening for pennies on the dollar. It struck me in the same way that using a digital camera for the first time after using film. I'm now liberated to do something I really enjoy (taking pictures/going places). Yes, the car (the camera) aren't free. But that's not what I'm paying for, I'm paying to be able to physically transport myself and my family to new places, different places, and that should eventually be all on the sun (or water!). I get it. I'm floored. Go Tesla.
John <><
I've got a couple pics, and a few notes from the first 18 hours of ownership.
The Delivery
My car was originally scheduled to be sent up to Bellevue, WA then back down here to Camas, WA which would have probably added at least a day to the delivery (likely two). With some luck, and some awesome thinking by the Portland DS Ciaran, my car was dropped in Portland, and instead of sticking it back on the truck, Ciaran took a look at the address and told the driver to just leave the car there so he could take it out to me himself. So I ended up getting the 'classic' delivery treatment, complete with over an hour of DS show-and-tell for the car.
Sitting on the trailer on a cool clear morning
Just pulled off the truck
Our first drive
Our first 'real' drive was last night was into Portland for a company dinner/party. The car was *flawless*, navigation system using google maps integration is brilliantly done.
Quick aside on the navigation system: I know there have been some detractors, but something I failed to appreciate until I actually used it is the seamless integration of several different systems. Google maps which allows you to search using Google.. (type portland city grill.. up it pops, tap 'Navigate' and it sends the address to the native turn-by-turn Navigation application in the dash). Let's face it.. Navigation systems are horrible at one thing.. getting the destination POI address, whatever *entered* into it. And Google Maps by itself is not a 'real' navigation system, and cannot be used offline. Tesla has solved this problem in a very elegant way.
As we got close to the restaurant we needed specific parking instructions, so we tapped 'call' on the maps app, and it was done, quick and easy.
General thoughts
Homelink: Homelink was easy to set up using the trick of holding the garage door opener *inside* the open frunk (where is that TMC FAQ???). Even our DS didn't know this one. it took 25 seconds to pair the first one, and I sheepishly suggested he try opening the frunk and hold the remote down in there. He did, and it paired almost instantly.
Driving & Performance: Steering mode and suspension have definitely improved since my last test drive. Last time even on 'Sport' the steering wheel didn't feel responsive enough for me. Now, even standard has a nice responsive feel to it. Suspension also seemed tighter than with the test drive car.
Software: We have firmware version 4.1 so we had the pano roof opening issue. Ciaran said that was a known issue, and that using the steering wheel to open the pano roof works every time.. we tried, yep.. sure did, sure also is a nice way to confirm if your pano root issues are software, or physical.
Driving & Performance: Steering mode and suspension have definitely improved since my last test drive. Last time even on 'Sport' the steering wheel didn't feel responsive enough for me. Now, even standard has a nice responsive feel to it. Suspension also seemed tighter than with the test drive car.
Software: We have firmware version 4.1 so we had the pano roof opening issue. Ciaran said that was a known issue, and that using the steering wheel to open the pano roof works every time.. we tried, yep.. sure did, sure also is a nice way to confirm if your pano root issues are software, or physical.
Two final impressions
First, after experiencing the treatment from Ciaran, Laura, Andrew, Ken (all amazingly helpful Tesla folks) it struck me yesterday why it's OK that my car was delayed from it's initial delivery. Tesla does not, under any circumstances, want to make you an owner before *they* are completely ready to take care of you in a way that should make you really 'get' it. There were so many things that these folks have done for me in just the past couple days that I can't even begin to list them. I really wanted them to throw my car on the truck and send it up here a week ago, but that would have left me without a staff of people ready to help me. In my observation, this is exactly what happened to so many people at the end of the year during their big push, and I think they are trying to shore that up.
Second; EV cars.. I've never owned an EV, never owned a hybrid, and I don't consider myself an Environmental Extremist. That is not *the* reason I bought this car. It was one of the reasons, but not the major deciding factor. Coming home last night after a 58 mile drive (22 kWh used) I plugged the car into the charger realizing that for $1.76 (electricity is 8 cents / kW up here) I just drove all evening for pennies on the dollar. It struck me in the same way that using a digital camera for the first time after using film. I'm now liberated to do something I really enjoy (taking pictures/going places). Yes, the car (the camera) aren't free. But that's not what I'm paying for, I'm paying to be able to physically transport myself and my family to new places, different places, and that should eventually be all on the sun (or water!). I get it. I'm floored. Go Tesla.
John <><
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excellent point. I've signed up for our local 'green lights' program and I buy 1,500 kWh of renewable energy every month, so you could say our house runs on water!
