Had two oddly negative / misinformed things said to me recently when someone saw my Model S. I thought there was a thread on this, but couldn't find it - mods feel free to combine.
The first incident was the husband of a friend. He said buying a Model S was ludicrous because, like flat screen TVs, in six months the price will drop to half and I'll feel like an idiot. I was so shocked I didn't point out that internal combustion has been around well over 100 years (well, so too has electric motors) and those prices keep going up. It was just such a strange comment. He also felt Tesla "stole the design from Fisker." Never heard that before either. I was more amused than insulted or annoyed.
The other incident, however, really pissed me off.
I'm a volunteer EMT on my town's fire department. I often respond to a scene directly in my Model S (as an aside, it is a great response vehicle with all the cargo space, stability at speed and agility). In this case it was a relatively serious call involving a young man who truly needed emergency medical attention (I was literally on scene in under 3 minutes from the 911 call, and it probably made a difference - serious call). While I'm unloading my gear the mother rushes out to guide me to where he son lay ill. While we are walking around to the back door of her home she asked me "is that a Masseratti?" I said, "Actually it is a Tesla." She then stops in her tracks and turns to me and says "you should give more to charity and spend less money on flashy cars like that thing!" It was said with considerable venom. I was literally dumbstruck at first, but also know stress from a situation like this can affect people. I proceeded to care for her son until the ambulance arrived, and once he was packaged and enroute to the hospital I went back to my car to put my gear away. She walked up to me looking rather flushed. I expected the normal, "thank you for helping" or "what is the best way to the hospital from here?" Instead I got, "only in this (beep)ing town would a firefighter drive that (beep)ing thing!"
This time I almost rose to it, but instead reminded her I was a volunteer, as is everyone on our department. Hoping that was the end I started getting into my car and she then said, "you spend $250k on a golf cart and it is ugly, you know that?"
I closed the door and drove off, deciding it wasn't worth it, as I am not obliged to be harassed by anyone, even a distraught parent. I half hoped she would lay a hand on me - in CT hitting an on duty EMT is no different than hitting a cop...
Anyway, in my seven months of owning my Model S (and ten years volunteering in Weston, CT, let alone almost 20 years as an EMT) those are the only negative / derogatory comments I think I've received.
Anyone else deal with things like this? I know people make assumptions, mostly wrong, about cost. I blame the media for constantly publishing the price of a fully loaded Signature Model S for that one. The rest was just weird.
The first incident was the husband of a friend. He said buying a Model S was ludicrous because, like flat screen TVs, in six months the price will drop to half and I'll feel like an idiot. I was so shocked I didn't point out that internal combustion has been around well over 100 years (well, so too has electric motors) and those prices keep going up. It was just such a strange comment. He also felt Tesla "stole the design from Fisker." Never heard that before either. I was more amused than insulted or annoyed.
The other incident, however, really pissed me off.
I'm a volunteer EMT on my town's fire department. I often respond to a scene directly in my Model S (as an aside, it is a great response vehicle with all the cargo space, stability at speed and agility). In this case it was a relatively serious call involving a young man who truly needed emergency medical attention (I was literally on scene in under 3 minutes from the 911 call, and it probably made a difference - serious call). While I'm unloading my gear the mother rushes out to guide me to where he son lay ill. While we are walking around to the back door of her home she asked me "is that a Masseratti?" I said, "Actually it is a Tesla." She then stops in her tracks and turns to me and says "you should give more to charity and spend less money on flashy cars like that thing!" It was said with considerable venom. I was literally dumbstruck at first, but also know stress from a situation like this can affect people. I proceeded to care for her son until the ambulance arrived, and once he was packaged and enroute to the hospital I went back to my car to put my gear away. She walked up to me looking rather flushed. I expected the normal, "thank you for helping" or "what is the best way to the hospital from here?" Instead I got, "only in this (beep)ing town would a firefighter drive that (beep)ing thing!"
This time I almost rose to it, but instead reminded her I was a volunteer, as is everyone on our department. Hoping that was the end I started getting into my car and she then said, "you spend $250k on a golf cart and it is ugly, you know that?"
I closed the door and drove off, deciding it wasn't worth it, as I am not obliged to be harassed by anyone, even a distraught parent. I half hoped she would lay a hand on me - in CT hitting an on duty EMT is no different than hitting a cop...
Anyway, in my seven months of owning my Model S (and ten years volunteering in Weston, CT, let alone almost 20 years as an EMT) those are the only negative / derogatory comments I think I've received.
Anyone else deal with things like this? I know people make assumptions, mostly wrong, about cost. I blame the media for constantly publishing the price of a fully loaded Signature Model S for that one. The rest was just weird.
