Yahoo Cars: Six months with a Tesla Model S: the good, bad and glitchy

jomo25 · May 7, 2013

Six months with a Tesla Model S: the good, bad and glitchy | Motoramic - Yahoo! Autos

Not sure if this was posted previously. I guess is hard to get these articles completely right, but its fair for the most part. When you write for the masses, I guess you have to gloss over a lot of the details.

Stricklandman · May 7, 2013

They don't mention his driving habits at all. Makes me wonder what he does, and whether that has any effect on his range.

Volker.Berlin · May 7, 2013

Stricklandman said:
They don't mention his driving habits at all. Makes me wonder what he does, and whether that has any effect on his range.

Here's a hint, at least: "When California investor Franklin Parlamis decided to plunk down a $40,000 deposit last year for one of Tesla’s first $100,000 Model S Signature Series sedans, he had every intention of driving the thing. Hard."

jomo25 · May 7, 2013

Volker.Berlin said:
Here's a hint, at least: "When California investor Franklin Parlamis decided to plunk down a $40,000 deposit last year for one of Tesla’s first $100,000 Model S Signature Series sedans, he had every intention of driving the thing. Hard."

Right. He doesn't sound like the 'drives with care' type given the description of how clean he doesn't keep his car inside and out. Then again he is driving his kids around, you figure he isn't Mario andretti'ing around. Anyways, I don't get he sense he's trying to drive efficiently in any way.

fluxemag · May 7, 2013

Gotta love the comments section on Yahoo. I guess the right wing talking points have been distributed.

steve841 · May 7, 2013

I personally have no issue with his assessment ....

300 miles coupled with range vs standard vs battery longevity was a disappointment to me.... Even though I likely will never range charge.

Interior review pretty much meets with my thoughts... Except for the part about movement while pushing the dash overhang ... Can't really find a reason to even do such a thing...

But I do accept the fact I fully went in to my S knowing and expecting there would be teething issues.

zeron · May 7, 2013

I never had a car that got the range the manufacturer stated. Why would people assume it is any different with an electric car?
At least with the Tesla you get detailed reports on *why* you are not doing the optimal range. The only thing most ICEs offer is lousy averaging or completely inaccurate realtime consumption.

Iz · May 7, 2013

jomo25 said:
I guess is hard to get these articles completely right, but its fair for the most part. When you write for the masses, I guess you have to gloss over a lot of the details.

It is a fair perspective. Range continues to be the dominating issue, although a cracked windshield can be more of a worry. It seems as if some will not be satisfied until an EV can go 1000 miles and then recharge in an hour. My kids also commented on lack of storage space for their gadgets.

AnOutsider · May 7, 2013

zeron said:
I never had a car that got the range the manufacturer stated. Why would people assume it is any different with an electric car?

Bcause it didn't matter with any other car. There were gas stations all over.

spatterso911 · May 7, 2013

Article reads pretty fair, I guess. I just wish they would actually use the current picture of the car rather than the prototype photo...

anticitizen13.7 · May 7, 2013

fluxemag said:
Gotta love the comments section on Yahoo. I guess the right wing talking points have been distributed.

And when the majority of the population finally "gets"/understands the benefits of good electric cars, TSLA stock will be going through the roof. As annoying as the "talking points" crowd can be, I see them more as an indicator of heavily untapped market potential.

NuclearPowered · May 7, 2013

anticitizen13.7 said:
And when the majority of the population finally "gets"/understands the benefits of good electric cars, TSLA stock will be going through the roof. As annoying as the "talking points" crowd can be, I see them more as an indicator of heavily untapped market potential.

One could really develop a function based on this with any new tech. Measure the talking point people change in time vs the implementing corporation share price and compare to other large, but initially unaccepted technology. Iphone is a good example. There were many skeptics at first, but the stock price eventually caught up to the reality of the technology. It would be neat to be able to define that time funciton based on historical evidence.

brianman · May 8, 2013

AnOutsider said:
Bcause it didn't matter with any other car. There were gas stations all over.

Exactly. I've only had range anxiety once in an ICE vehicle.

Al Sherman · May 8, 2013

anticitizen13.7 said:
And when the majority of the population finally "gets"/understands the benefits of good electric cars, TSLA stock will be going through the roof. As annoying as the "talking points" crowd can be, I see them more as an indicator of heavily untapped market potential.

^^^This. These are the folks that in 3-5 years will be driving Teslas and acting as if it were all their idea in the first place.:smile: Onward!

lolachampcar · May 8, 2013

They should test in Florida. I range charged one day then did a West Palm to Lincoln Road (Tesla store in South Beach Miami) round trip. I did 70 mph on the interstate and had to deal with stop and go traffic in Miami. The AC was blasting the whole way. I got home with 90 miles of rate range left and made rated range the whole trip. Granted, I was not launching the car from stop lights but, by the same token, I did not drive any differently than I would have with my old 535 (i.e. no hypermiling here). In short, I was pleasantly surprised that Tesla delivered a car that did EXACTLY what they said it would do.

On a slightly different note, has anyone noticed that power consumption is way down when your banging down the highway with a bunch of other cars? There is a huge difference for me doing 70 on a road by myself and doing the exact same speed in a pack of cars (presumably moving a hunk of air with the pack).

rcc · May 8, 2013

lolachampcar said:
They should test in Florida. I range charged one day then did a West Palm to Lincoln Road (Tesla store in South Beach Miami) round trip. I did 70 mph on the interstate and had to deal with stop and go traffic in Miami. The AC was blasting the whole way. I got home with 90 miles of rate range left and made rated range the whole trip. Granted, I was not launching the car from stop lights but, by the same token, I did not drive any differently than I would have with my old 535 (i.e. no hypermiling here). In short, I was pleasantly surprised that Tesla delivered a car that did EXACTLY what they said it would do.

On a slightly different note, has anyone noticed that power consumption is way down when your banging down the highway with a bunch of other cars? There is a huge difference for me doing 70 on a road by myself and doing the exact same speed in a pack of cars (presumably moving a hunk of air with the pack).

Yep, I noticed that a while back.

As for range anxiety, I've pulled into gas stations a number of times with the computer saying the range was down to < 5 miles and a few times down to < 1 mile. My mental model of range back when I was thinking about the usability of the S was a range equivalent of 1/2 to 2/3 a tank of gas. Which still seems about right.

ckessel · May 8, 2013

AnOutsider said:
Bcause it didn't matter with any other car. There were gas stations all over.

Yep, and more critically in my mind, filling up is very quick. I love my Model S, but managing charge level is definitely a partial factor. Not a chore or anything, but it's there and I'd be dishonest to say otherwise. I never worried about how much gas I had as the next fill up was always nearby.

vfx · May 8, 2013

Al Sherman said:
...These are the folks that in 3-5 years will be driving Teslas and acting as if it were all their idea in the first place....

Like we said about you 4 years ago!

And that Chris Paine and his group said about me 8 years ago.

- - - Updated - - -

Iz said:
... some will not be satisfied until an EV can go 1000 miles and then recharge in an hour.....

More like 10 minutes.

montgom626 · May 8, 2013

Very fair report by a real MS owner.

SCW-Greg · May 8, 2013

brianman said:
Exactly. I've only had range anxiety once in an ICE vehicle.

I have range anxiety all the time with my ICE vehicles. But then again I tend to drive them down to E. Seems inefficient to fill up with a full 1/4 left. I really don't enjoy going to the gas station frequently.
And every now and then I forget to plan time in to my drive to get to the best gas priced locations (Costco, Safeway), or my wife leaves me with a one on E herself, and find out when it's really critical, paying the penalty in price or long lines at peak times of the day. Ran out of gas once in my life - long stretch of open highway coming up I5 at night, and had a false reading on my gauge. Not fun.

Yahoo Cars: Six months with a Tesla Model S: the good, bad and glitchy

Active Member

New Member

Member

Active Member

Member

Active Member

Member

Active Member

S532 # XS27

P100DL - Raven

Not posting at TMC after 9/17/2018

Member

Burrito Founder

It's about THIS car.

Well-Known Member

Model S 85KW, VIN #2236

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Active Member

Similar threads