I took delivery of my loaded P85+ on Tuesday (9/17) and this is a story of the last 5 days...
The delivery at the Dania beach Tesla Center took just over 2 hours and was great. Jacques handled my delivery and made sure everything progressed in a smooth fashion.
After I left I drove the 20 or so miles back to Boca Raton using US441 instead of I95 so I could get a better feeling for the car. I have to say that it is MUCH quicker than anything I've driven. I once had a M5 that was built for the track and someone remarked to me that he noticed that it 'darts' when launching (meaning it just moves with no front end raise). Well, the tesla 'darts' better than the M5 ever did!
Got it home and installed my HPWC (which because my delivery was moved up a week arrived the same day), plugged it in and charged it back up in a couple of hours.
The next day (Wednesday) I had a 9am appointment with John van der Kuyp of Advanced Mobile Detailing to have the car coated with Opti-Coat. So I left at 7:15 to drive down to Miami (about 55 miles). During that drive I was on I95 most of the way and the car is just amazing. I was very worried that because of the lack of engine noise, the road noise would be more noticeable. But this is not the case. In fact, it is about the same noise level inside as my CL65, which was very quiet. I am pleasantly surprised by that.
I have to take a minute here to talk about John, because he really knows his s&*t. He spent all day working on my car. He started with a 1/2 hour wash, then blew the car dry. He then prepared the car with 4 1/2 hours or so of polishing to make the surface pristine for the Opti-Coat. After the polishing, it took about an hour to coat the car body and wheels.
Considering all the time and effort he spent on my car, the charge of $500 was very reasonable. Note that John is one of 5 people in Florida authorized to apply Opti-Coat Pro, which is a lifetime coating. The consumer version of Opti-Coat has a 2 year life. I will post some pics of the car at Johns shop shortly. John is a consumate professional and I would recommend him to anyone.
Now for the drive back to Boca Raton...
Driving back up I95 the car was amazing, just extremely responsive. I drove about 46 miles and then a generic message popped up on the screen. It said 'Car needs service', 'Call Tesla service'. Wtf?
The car was driving fine, no indication that anything was wrong. I drove it back home and called the Dania service center. They said they would have to download the logs and as it was late in the day they would have to call me back in the morning because the logs take a while to download. Ok, fine. I go back to the garage and plug in the charger...
Funny, it doesn't start charging. I've read that the battery needs to be a certain temp so it must be cooling the battery after the long drive. Great, so I go inside, thinking I'll come back in an hour and check it.
An hour later I come back and see that it has just started charging, so I am happy and leave it for the night...
Thursday morning I have an 8am appointment to get the car tinted at AutoSuperShield in Bcoa Raton, so I get up at 7:30 and go out to check the car...
Only 10 miles of additional charge was on the car overnight! Wtf?
Ok, check the charge status, not charging. Check the charge port, no lights at all. Try to remove the charge connector, no dice. Locked in tight. The car toggles between thinking the connector is not pushed in all the way, to thinking it's connected. If I manually start the charging, it stops in 15 seconds or so. If I manually cancel the charging after starting, it still will not let go of the connector. Nothing I do will make the car let go of the connector, or make the connector light up. It's just dead.
Frackin' great...
Ok, call Tesla service and they said they were looking at the logs and would call me back.
At this point I talk with AutoSuperShield and let them know whats happening and they actually call a friend who has a Tesla to see if he can help me out. A few minutes later I get a call from him (because of my state of mind i don't remember his name, but thanks for the help and advice!). I had already been active on the forums and read most of the charge port stories, but we tried some stuff anyway and nothing would work.
A few minutes later I got a call from Nick (Nickjhowe), who heard of my predicament and wanted to help (Thanks Nick!). He called me a couple of times with advice and suggestions, but still the car would not budge. The Tesla community is just great.
By this time (it's about 11am now), I am wondering why I haven't heard from Tesla. I call them and they tell me they need to send someone out to swap the car out for me and bring mine in for service (will take an hour to an hour and a half). Ok, great.
2 hours go by and nothing... I call Tesla service and they tell me they are waiting for a tech to go along with the driver (he is needed to disconnect the charge port)... They haven't left yet??? Wtf?
Ok, another hour goes by and I am still trying everything possible to get the car to let go of it's pacifier (my little boy wasn't this stubborn, lol).
So, I am sitting in the car trying to come up with another thing to try, and what happens!!??!!
I am looking right at the screen when it changes and says 'Car is charging' and starts ramping up the amps. Wtf?
Woohoo! I get out and the frackin' charge port is blinking, so I try to remove the connector and the car lets it go!! I call Tesla and they finally send a driver to swap out my car.
What a long, crappy, 9 hours. There really needs to be a manual disconnect inside the trunk for the power connector.
Driving the loaner on Friday...
The loaner they brought me was a P85 with 19" wheels. My can is a P85+ with 21" wheels. The loaner also had a older version of the software (4.5 I think), so it didn't have some of the convenience features (like auto present and lock).
Driving the loaner was not much different than my car, but I did notice more pronounced roll and pitch, and the car was not as composed as mine over bumpy terrain, at speed, and in stop and go driving. I have to say you do notice the tighter feel of the '+' suspension changes.
Now it is Saturday morning and they just brought my car back and picked up the loaner.
They told me that they replaced the charge port door and sensor. I have no word on whether the charge port issues were related to the 'Car needs service' message or not, but we'll see if the message pops up again...
All in all, even with the problem and service delays, I am happy with the car and the Tesla service. Everyone is helpful and considerate, which makes the issues easier to deal with. I have to give thanks to the Tesla community, the Tesla service people, and the Tesla engineers.
Now to get back to tinting the car...
- - - Updated - - -
Ok, here are a couple pics of the car at AMD with John...
He spent hours polishing the entire car...
And the final result...
The delivery at the Dania beach Tesla Center took just over 2 hours and was great. Jacques handled my delivery and made sure everything progressed in a smooth fashion.
After I left I drove the 20 or so miles back to Boca Raton using US441 instead of I95 so I could get a better feeling for the car. I have to say that it is MUCH quicker than anything I've driven. I once had a M5 that was built for the track and someone remarked to me that he noticed that it 'darts' when launching (meaning it just moves with no front end raise). Well, the tesla 'darts' better than the M5 ever did!
Got it home and installed my HPWC (which because my delivery was moved up a week arrived the same day), plugged it in and charged it back up in a couple of hours.
The next day (Wednesday) I had a 9am appointment with John van der Kuyp of Advanced Mobile Detailing to have the car coated with Opti-Coat. So I left at 7:15 to drive down to Miami (about 55 miles). During that drive I was on I95 most of the way and the car is just amazing. I was very worried that because of the lack of engine noise, the road noise would be more noticeable. But this is not the case. In fact, it is about the same noise level inside as my CL65, which was very quiet. I am pleasantly surprised by that.
I have to take a minute here to talk about John, because he really knows his s&*t. He spent all day working on my car. He started with a 1/2 hour wash, then blew the car dry. He then prepared the car with 4 1/2 hours or so of polishing to make the surface pristine for the Opti-Coat. After the polishing, it took about an hour to coat the car body and wheels.
Considering all the time and effort he spent on my car, the charge of $500 was very reasonable. Note that John is one of 5 people in Florida authorized to apply Opti-Coat Pro, which is a lifetime coating. The consumer version of Opti-Coat has a 2 year life. I will post some pics of the car at Johns shop shortly. John is a consumate professional and I would recommend him to anyone.
Now for the drive back to Boca Raton...
Driving back up I95 the car was amazing, just extremely responsive. I drove about 46 miles and then a generic message popped up on the screen. It said 'Car needs service', 'Call Tesla service'. Wtf?
The car was driving fine, no indication that anything was wrong. I drove it back home and called the Dania service center. They said they would have to download the logs and as it was late in the day they would have to call me back in the morning because the logs take a while to download. Ok, fine. I go back to the garage and plug in the charger...
Funny, it doesn't start charging. I've read that the battery needs to be a certain temp so it must be cooling the battery after the long drive. Great, so I go inside, thinking I'll come back in an hour and check it.
An hour later I come back and see that it has just started charging, so I am happy and leave it for the night...
Thursday morning I have an 8am appointment to get the car tinted at AutoSuperShield in Bcoa Raton, so I get up at 7:30 and go out to check the car...
Only 10 miles of additional charge was on the car overnight! Wtf?
Ok, check the charge status, not charging. Check the charge port, no lights at all. Try to remove the charge connector, no dice. Locked in tight. The car toggles between thinking the connector is not pushed in all the way, to thinking it's connected. If I manually start the charging, it stops in 15 seconds or so. If I manually cancel the charging after starting, it still will not let go of the connector. Nothing I do will make the car let go of the connector, or make the connector light up. It's just dead.
Frackin' great...
Ok, call Tesla service and they said they were looking at the logs and would call me back.
At this point I talk with AutoSuperShield and let them know whats happening and they actually call a friend who has a Tesla to see if he can help me out. A few minutes later I get a call from him (because of my state of mind i don't remember his name, but thanks for the help and advice!). I had already been active on the forums and read most of the charge port stories, but we tried some stuff anyway and nothing would work.
A few minutes later I got a call from Nick (Nickjhowe), who heard of my predicament and wanted to help (Thanks Nick!). He called me a couple of times with advice and suggestions, but still the car would not budge. The Tesla community is just great.
By this time (it's about 11am now), I am wondering why I haven't heard from Tesla. I call them and they tell me they need to send someone out to swap the car out for me and bring mine in for service (will take an hour to an hour and a half). Ok, great.
2 hours go by and nothing... I call Tesla service and they tell me they are waiting for a tech to go along with the driver (he is needed to disconnect the charge port)... They haven't left yet??? Wtf?
Ok, another hour goes by and I am still trying everything possible to get the car to let go of it's pacifier (my little boy wasn't this stubborn, lol).
So, I am sitting in the car trying to come up with another thing to try, and what happens!!??!!
I am looking right at the screen when it changes and says 'Car is charging' and starts ramping up the amps. Wtf?
Woohoo! I get out and the frackin' charge port is blinking, so I try to remove the connector and the car lets it go!! I call Tesla and they finally send a driver to swap out my car.
What a long, crappy, 9 hours. There really needs to be a manual disconnect inside the trunk for the power connector.
Driving the loaner on Friday...
The loaner they brought me was a P85 with 19" wheels. My can is a P85+ with 21" wheels. The loaner also had a older version of the software (4.5 I think), so it didn't have some of the convenience features (like auto present and lock).
Driving the loaner was not much different than my car, but I did notice more pronounced roll and pitch, and the car was not as composed as mine over bumpy terrain, at speed, and in stop and go driving. I have to say you do notice the tighter feel of the '+' suspension changes.
Now it is Saturday morning and they just brought my car back and picked up the loaner.
They told me that they replaced the charge port door and sensor. I have no word on whether the charge port issues were related to the 'Car needs service' message or not, but we'll see if the message pops up again...
All in all, even with the problem and service delays, I am happy with the car and the Tesla service. Everyone is helpful and considerate, which makes the issues easier to deal with. I have to give thanks to the Tesla community, the Tesla service people, and the Tesla engineers.
Now to get back to tinting the car...
- - - Updated - - -
Ok, here are a couple pics of the car at AMD with John...
He spent hours polishing the entire car...
And the final result...
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