Newbie questions....

Re 1. see my post of last week.
--

Racerx22b said:

Awaiting delivery of my MS (March) and have been reading all through the forums. Great info in here. Thanks!

I have a short list of questions.

1. Has anyone ever been left stranded due to running out of "juice"? If so, what did you do? Does Tesla offer any help?
2. Has the issue with the rear wheels out of alignment been resolved or is that something I should have the dealer check at delivery. We opted for the grey 21" wheels and don't want tire wear issues. Will the dealer do this for free since it is a known issue or will I have to pay?
3. Is there an option to upgrade to Michelin tires? I've read this in a few places but saw nothing on website where this was an option with our build.
4. Has the issue with the water in the taillights been addressed? Hoping I don't have to deal with that with a 2015 build. I can already hear the criticism from people on how this indicates the build quality is crap on a $100k car and don't want to deal with it.

Click to expand...

1. Personally, no. Plan ahead.
2. Yes it's resolved. And there is no "dealer", it's a Tesla service center.
3. Those tires were discontinued by Michelin.
4. Haven't seen anyone mention that for many months.

Glad to hear your S is on the way.

1. Of course some people have run out of power for various reasons, most of which (not all) come down to poor planning and a lack of understanding that in severe cold and bad weather range is reduced.

2. I believe this has been addressed and solved.

3. Ask Tesla.

4. Yes, as far as I know.

I, sure your car will be awesome. Drive and enjoy!

TexasEV said:

1. Personally, no. Plan ahead.

Click to expand...

Since you are in Florida, and typically have little day to day experience with mountains/big hills and very cold weather, should your travels take you to an area that has those conditions, one thing for your consideration might be to adjust your rate of speed at the onset of your trip.

I drove through some mountain ranges in Eastern Utah (and being a relative newbie to driving my MS in mountains), and after the 1st of three ranges needed to completely scale back my ascending driving speed in order to make it to the next supercharger.
If you find yourself going off the Supercharger grid, it is even more critical to monitor your speed and energy usage, especially for the first half of that journey. It takes a lot longer to recharge (or worse run out of range) that it does to simply slow down by 5 mph.

Racerx22b said:

1. Has anyone ever been left stranded due to running out of "juice"? If so, what did you do? Does Tesla offer any help?

Click to expand...

Looks like everyone has pretty much addressed your other questions, but I think this one might warrant a longer answer.

Yes, there will always be people who are left stranded whether it's because they misjudged the state of charge of their battery or thought they could squeeze one more mile out of their gas tank. It happens. Rarely.

It's practically unheard of with an EV when not on a roadtrip, because unlike a gas car, you start each day with a full tank. I never even think about it and am far more likely to run out of gas in the Jeep that I have than I am in my Roadster - simply because I just don't think about it anymore. (Seriously, that 'low tank ding' warning always catches me by surprise these days...)

On a road trip, you'll find you're much more aware of current range and adjust your driving habits to ensure there are no problems with reaching a charging location. If you're in doubt, don't push it - stop and get yourself a few extra miles anywhere, even if a slower charge rate. (If you haven't downloaded any of the smartphone apps that help you locate charging locations outside of Tesla spots, now is a good time to do so. Plugshare/Recargo, ChargePoint, Blink are all worth having on your phone. Others may suggest additional.)

Let's say the worst happens and you run out of juice. (As unlikely as running out of gas, but hey, discussion purposes.) AAA in some parts of the country now provides emergency charge which is pretty awesome. Worst case, Tesla has sent a flat bed to tow customers to the nearest charge location (hopefully a supercharger) and get you plugged in.

Do us all a favor and don't try running it that low ever. The beauty of an electric car is that there are outlets everywhere. If you don't typically run out of gas, you're not the kind of person who will find themselves stranded with an EV, either.

Enjoy your car! And welcome to the forum.

Hadn't seen this tip posted yet... For good range estimates, try the EV Trip Planner -- evtripper.com. It does a very good job of range estimates and takes into account elevation changes and you can set the temps, so can re-run the same route at different temps. For our 4250+ mile road trip last summer, we found the estimates to be within a couple Rated Miles of what the car actually used.

Also, one of the earlier tips was to slow down a bit -- especially if your next charge stop is not a supercharger. For example, we had to charge at a service center due to a supercharger not being open on that same trip. By driving 5 under the limit for ~2 hours, it took us an extra 10-12 minutes of driving, but it saved over an hour at the charging stip, so was overall faster. I just stayed in the right lane and went the same speed as the semis...

I think the range issue has already been addressed.

As to a couple of your other issues, I believe tire wear was mainly an issue on the P85+. On my S85 (with 21 inch wheels), I've gotten more than 17,000 miles out of the tires with no special wear issues, and I could get more-- but I'm running my winter tires now.

Water in the tail lights-- I live in a very wet climate, and I've never seen this on my mid-2013 car.

Incidentally, I've never had a range issue in my Model S, but I have run out of gas in ICE cars before!

Racerx22b said:

All great info. Thanks everyone. I'm not really concerned about running it "emtpy". I just wondered if anyone had and how they dealt with it. I think I spec'd it out pretty good. Did my share of research on here and on the Tesla.com forum and decided on the this configuration.

S85
Silver
21" Grey wheels
Smart Suspension
Tech Pkg w Autopilot
High Fi sound
Pano roof
Grey interior
Blk headliner (kills me to pay full price for this with the pano roof but I like the contrast of black roof against light interior)
Piano Black dash

We could've had it delivered in Dec but opted to wait until March so it's a 2015 model year (I know, no difference but looks better for resale)

Click to expand...

On the tire wear issue, I think that's been resolved and it depends on the driving habits more than anything else. I'm at 14000 miles on my P17xxx vin P85+ and I have at least 8-9000 miles out of my rear Michelin 21" and the fronts look like new.

bonnie said:

It's practically unheard of with an EV when not on a roadtrip, because unlike a gas car, you start each day with a full tank. I never even think about it and am far more likely to run out of gas in the Jeep that I have than I am in my Roadster - simply because I just don't think about it anymore. (Seriously, that 'low tank ding' warning always catches me by surprise these days...)

Click to expand...

Best not to get complacent at home however. Three months into owning my S85 my HPWC had problems. It would connect up but then stop charging. I didn't realize it for a couple of days, when as I drove to my first appointment on a rare day of needing to criss-cross the greater Boston area several times, I looked down and saw I had 85 miles of range left. I quickly figured in my head I needed to drive at least 100 miles, so detoured to the Watertown service center for 15 minutes (all I could spare) on their HPWC. While there I used Plugshare to figure out I could charge for two hours at one of my appointment locations, but of course found the convenient charger taken by a Leaf and had to park in a more distant garage. I was meeting my brother in law for dinner but rather than go somewhere nice we ate at a mediocre place in the suburban office complex so I could continue charging then drive him back to his hotel on the other side of town.

All worked out and my HPWC was replaced under warranty but unfortunately the experience gave my brother in law the "EVs are nice but you have to compromise your life because of range/infrastructure issues" impression the first time he rode in the car - which was then shared with other extended family members. So I started noting my range every morning and am pleased the app now notifies me each day when the car is done charging.

Also it sounds like the water droplets in tail lights issue is solved on new cars but my March 2013 delivery had it and it has recurred twice - it's on the list for my next visit along with a ticking noise in the headliner and one of the door handle LEDs that's burned out. I think monthly or so touchless car washes are the likely source of the water but that shouldn't happen.

But now you can't take the federal credit until you file your 2015 taxes in 2016...

Racerx22b said:

All great info. Thanks everyone. I'm not really concerned about running it "emtpy". I just wondered if anyone had and how they dealt with it. I think I spec'd it out pretty good. Did my share of research on here and on the Tesla.com forum and decided on the this configuration.

S85
Silver
21" Grey wheels
Smart Suspension
Tech Pkg w Autopilot
High Fi sound
Pano roof
Grey interior
Blk headliner (kills me to pay full price for this with the pano roof but I like the contrast of black roof against light interior)
Piano Black dash

We could've had it delivered in Dec but opted to wait until March so it's a 2015 model year (I know, no difference but looks better for resale)

Click to expand...