tldr; Colasec makes good use of the four weeks that pass between ordering and delivery.
-----
I fell in love with the Model S the first time I saw one. I thought, Oh my god - what a gorgeous car, what is that? - fully expecting it to be some >$250K Euro import like my other crushes. But no, T E S L A, it read across the back. I lived in the Bay Area until 2010 and had seen a few Roadsters around. I knew they were all-electric and thought they were pretty cool, but I also knew they were muy expensive and tiny.
But this... this car caught me right in the heart. I started day-dreaming about having one. When I caught a glimpse of one on the road, it was so beautiful I couldn't breathe. I wanted it that badly.
I had gotten pretty tired of using my F-150 as my daily driver. Now, I love being in that truck. It's so nice to be up high and cruising, hanging out above all the other cars. But parking was getting annoying: always having to use a two-point approach, always worried about other cars banging the sides, just the sheer effort required to go on errands - all of it was really wearing on me. So I had been tossing around the idea of allowing myself to spend $50K or so to get a "nice" car. The problem was that I wanted something "nice" - BMW, Lexus, etc - but I also wanted something fun, like a tricked-out Mustang. I also had been thinking that the truck's horrible gas mileage was a good reason to get another car, but it didn't really make sense to go from a 16mpg F-150 to a 18mpg Corvette. So I procrastinated and didn't do anything. I was talking about it to my friend and he said, "Well you already have your 'fun' car", meaning the F-150, and that now I'd need to get something more practical.
And then I saw the Model S. Still, I didn't let myself go on the website or read anything about it. I know myself, and I knew that as soon as I got my teeth in the idea of having that car, it would be hard to be "objective" about the decision. So I started by reading Consumer Reports' How to Buy a Car book and started a spreadsheet where I filled in the make, model, and price range of the various cars I was looking at. I decided I would start by test driving them, and that I would start with the Model S.
So I walked into the Newport Beach store one afternoon, fully expecting to be rushed by salesmen who would lay out the red carpet treatment. Hey, I was there as a potential customer of a luxury car, right? I didn't know any better. I thought that's what would happen at a Mercedes dealership and didn't know that the Tesla experience should be any different. Surprisingly to me, no salesperson approached me or even acknowledged that I was there. When I finally got one's attention and mentioned that I might be interested in a test drive (I was being very guarded as to keep the upper hand in any negotiation, obviously), he said quickly that none were available until the following week and then repetitively asked me if I was ready to order. Still thinking that I was being pressured, I left.
My boss had emailed me the day before about the Brea store's grand opening that same day. I called them and got in touch with Blake, a Product Specialist who soon was to become my best friend. He said sure, they could fit me in for a test drive that afternoon. I fought rush hour traffic from Newport to Brea, drove a black P85+, and you know the rest of that part of the story. I ordered that day and finalized two days later.
So I'm picking up my Model S tomorrow. I am absolutely thrilled and feel just like a little kid anxiously awaiting Christmas morning. As hard as the wait has been, the truth is that I actually needed that time to get ready and here's what I've done:
----------------
Completely finished the garage.
Went from an unpainted, dark mess with bare incandescents on the side walls, oil on the floor, and no storage, to a gorgeous, bright, and clean space with a nice epoxy floor and plenty of cabinets. I bought my home two years ago ago as a short sale. It was a true fixer-upper and the garage was the last thing remaining. I really had to rush to get it done, and I finished yesterday - with two days to spare!
For more details, see this thread I posted in Off-Topic.
Learned how to wash a car. (at least, in theory)
I've never washed my own car before. My Model S is black and I didn't know how I was going to keep it clean. I did lots of reading, then finally gave up and asked for help. Thank you to Al Sherman, SCW-Greg, blc1017, and kevincwelch for their plentiful and much-needed advice. Now I know what to do (like I said, at least in theory) and have the supplies that I need to do it. All of this stuff arrived from Amazon last week (it's like bonus Christmas!).
Acquired some accessories.
Trunk mats? Check.
pete1834's key fob covers? Check (red and black).
Parcel shelf? Check (A coworker had an extra one. He ordered one and three arrived!).
Second FastTrak transponder? Check.
Personalized license plates? Check:
Planned my mods.
Well, first I needed to learn what a "mod" was. :wink: Then I did a lot of research and am planning the following:
Signed a contract for a 5.52kW solar panel installation for my home
Two weeks or so after I ordered my Model S, I got a cold call from SolarCity to assess my interest in getting solar power for my home. I hadn't given it much thought before, assuming it was outlawed by my HOA. A few days later, I was arms-deep in panel specifications, Yelp reviews, and inverter efficiency ratings. After interviewing nine different companies, I decided to pay a little bit more and purchase, outright, an installation with 16 beautiful Sunpower X21 345-watt panels that will provide 90% of my family's post-Tesla electricity needs for at least 25 years. Yep, my gorgeous, awesome car's gonna be running on starlight. I don't know how it could get much better than that. ETA 10 weeks.
and last but not least:
Visited my car the day it arrived at the service center
Why not, right? And you know what? It's okay that it arrived on Thursday and I'm still not getting it until tomorrow. The secret is that I desperately needed this weekend to move everything out of the living room back into the garage, into those brand-new storage cabinets. So it's okay. Really. But now I'm ready.... finally. <phew>
I'll post pics after Wednesday's Opti-Coat treatment in the official delivery thread. Thank you so much to everyone for your support, advice, education, and understanding. I'm looking forward to meeting some of you at the upcoming Orange County meetup and plan to continue gathering knowledge from these forums for quite some time.
Colasec
-----
I fell in love with the Model S the first time I saw one. I thought, Oh my god - what a gorgeous car, what is that? - fully expecting it to be some >$250K Euro import like my other crushes. But no, T E S L A, it read across the back. I lived in the Bay Area until 2010 and had seen a few Roadsters around. I knew they were all-electric and thought they were pretty cool, but I also knew they were muy expensive and tiny.
But this... this car caught me right in the heart. I started day-dreaming about having one. When I caught a glimpse of one on the road, it was so beautiful I couldn't breathe. I wanted it that badly.
I had gotten pretty tired of using my F-150 as my daily driver. Now, I love being in that truck. It's so nice to be up high and cruising, hanging out above all the other cars. But parking was getting annoying: always having to use a two-point approach, always worried about other cars banging the sides, just the sheer effort required to go on errands - all of it was really wearing on me. So I had been tossing around the idea of allowing myself to spend $50K or so to get a "nice" car. The problem was that I wanted something "nice" - BMW, Lexus, etc - but I also wanted something fun, like a tricked-out Mustang. I also had been thinking that the truck's horrible gas mileage was a good reason to get another car, but it didn't really make sense to go from a 16mpg F-150 to a 18mpg Corvette. So I procrastinated and didn't do anything. I was talking about it to my friend and he said, "Well you already have your 'fun' car", meaning the F-150, and that now I'd need to get something more practical.
And then I saw the Model S. Still, I didn't let myself go on the website or read anything about it. I know myself, and I knew that as soon as I got my teeth in the idea of having that car, it would be hard to be "objective" about the decision. So I started by reading Consumer Reports' How to Buy a Car book and started a spreadsheet where I filled in the make, model, and price range of the various cars I was looking at. I decided I would start by test driving them, and that I would start with the Model S.
So I walked into the Newport Beach store one afternoon, fully expecting to be rushed by salesmen who would lay out the red carpet treatment. Hey, I was there as a potential customer of a luxury car, right? I didn't know any better. I thought that's what would happen at a Mercedes dealership and didn't know that the Tesla experience should be any different. Surprisingly to me, no salesperson approached me or even acknowledged that I was there. When I finally got one's attention and mentioned that I might be interested in a test drive (I was being very guarded as to keep the upper hand in any negotiation, obviously), he said quickly that none were available until the following week and then repetitively asked me if I was ready to order. Still thinking that I was being pressured, I left.
My boss had emailed me the day before about the Brea store's grand opening that same day. I called them and got in touch with Blake, a Product Specialist who soon was to become my best friend. He said sure, they could fit me in for a test drive that afternoon. I fought rush hour traffic from Newport to Brea, drove a black P85+, and you know the rest of that part of the story. I ordered that day and finalized two days later.
So I'm picking up my Model S tomorrow. I am absolutely thrilled and feel just like a little kid anxiously awaiting Christmas morning. As hard as the wait has been, the truth is that I actually needed that time to get ready and here's what I've done:
----------------
Completely finished the garage.
Went from an unpainted, dark mess with bare incandescents on the side walls, oil on the floor, and no storage, to a gorgeous, bright, and clean space with a nice epoxy floor and plenty of cabinets. I bought my home two years ago ago as a short sale. It was a true fixer-upper and the garage was the last thing remaining. I really had to rush to get it done, and I finished yesterday - with two days to spare!
For more details, see this thread I posted in Off-Topic.
Learned how to wash a car. (at least, in theory)
I've never washed my own car before. My Model S is black and I didn't know how I was going to keep it clean. I did lots of reading, then finally gave up and asked for help. Thank you to Al Sherman, SCW-Greg, blc1017, and kevincwelch for their plentiful and much-needed advice. Now I know what to do (like I said, at least in theory) and have the supplies that I need to do it. All of this stuff arrived from Amazon last week (it's like bonus Christmas!).
Acquired some accessories.
Trunk mats? Check.
pete1834's key fob covers? Check (red and black).
Parcel shelf? Check (A coworker had an extra one. He ordered one and three arrived!).
Second FastTrak transponder? Check.
Personalized license plates? Check:
Planned my mods.
Well, first I needed to learn what a "mod" was. :wink: Then I did a lot of research and am planning the following:
- Tinting: Formula One Pinnacle, 35 on the side windows, 15 on the rear panel. The most important thing to me is the look that tint can add to the car, much more so than heat-blocking since I'll rarely be parking in the sun and can always just turn on the A/C with my phone. Formula One Pinnacle was recommended by multiple sources as having the best charcoal color that will look the best with my black paint. I have an appointment at The Tint Pros tomorrow afternoon, directly after delivery. Right now I'm not planning on doing anything with the windshield, since I love having polarized sunglasses.
- Paint: immediate post-factory correction/cleanup and Opti-Coat Pro. I want my car to look beautiful, with lots of gloss and depth. I read artsci's whole thread and had decided on Glare Professional, but couldn't find a reputable local detailer who liked it. I decided to go with Richard Lin from Show Car Detailing. He's done some great work with other Model Ss and I'm confident that in his hands my paint will be the best it can be, given that I decided not to spend the money for Xpel. I was referred to Richard by Joe Torbati of Orinda Auto Detail, who did the Model S in these pics (and who was taught to apply OC by Richard).
- Rear license plate light replacement with LEDs (forum thread, teslatap).
- rogbmw's wheel cap stickers and T E S L A strip stickers (forum thread).
Signed a contract for a 5.52kW solar panel installation for my home
Two weeks or so after I ordered my Model S, I got a cold call from SolarCity to assess my interest in getting solar power for my home. I hadn't given it much thought before, assuming it was outlawed by my HOA. A few days later, I was arms-deep in panel specifications, Yelp reviews, and inverter efficiency ratings. After interviewing nine different companies, I decided to pay a little bit more and purchase, outright, an installation with 16 beautiful Sunpower X21 345-watt panels that will provide 90% of my family's post-Tesla electricity needs for at least 25 years. Yep, my gorgeous, awesome car's gonna be running on starlight. I don't know how it could get much better than that. ETA 10 weeks.
and last but not least:
Visited my car the day it arrived at the service center
Why not, right?
And you know what? It's okay that it arrived on Thursday and I'm still not getting it until tomorrow. The secret is that I desperately needed this weekend to move everything out of the living room back into the garage, into those brand-new storage cabinets. So it's okay. Really. But now I'm ready.... finally. <phew>I'll post pics after Wednesday's Opti-Coat treatment in the official delivery thread. Thank you so much to everyone for your support, advice, education, and understanding. I'm looking forward to meeting some of you at the upcoming Orange County meetup and plan to continue gathering knowledge from these forums for quite some time.
Colasec
