Learning from Roadster Owners

[mikevbf]

The Roadster owners have served as a real bridge to future owners of the Model S. If it had not been for a Canadian roadster owner assuring me that his RWD does exceptionally well in the snow for example, I probably never would have made a reservation. So I thought it would be useful to have a thread for the Roadster owners to both link to and share their experiences of owning a Roadster that would most relate to future Model S owners. Categories could include such items as:

winter performance
cost of maintenance beyond the yearly normal stuff
customer support
stated vs. actual range
battery longevity
long distance driving/charging on the road
intangibles like smiles/quality of life stuff
best/worst experiences
why you would buy another car from Tesla
etc

The above are just some suggestions, but share what ever you want. I realize one could just go to the roadster forum and dig up answers to a lot of these question, but thought it would be nice to centralize it a bit. Plus it might help us start a more in depth FAQ that goes beyond what is offered on TM's site.

[NigelM]

I realize one could just go to the roadster forum and dig up answers to a lot of these question, but thought it would be nice to centralize it a bit.

No offence, but it is already centralized in the Roadster sub-forum.

[7racer]

winter performance: I live in Texas

cost of maintenance beyond the yearly normal stuff: have had it less than a year...but seriously. ZERO

customer support: Fantastic! If there was another adjective I would use it. I got side swiped at around 8pm at night. Sent an email and someone responded in an hour and was already gathering parts in anticipation of the repair

stated vs. actual range: its right on....no other way to put it. Once you get use to what you are seeing it's just like looking at a full gauge or your cellphone SOC

battery longevity: less than a year ownership but so far so good.

long distance driving/charging on the road: drove it to my satellite office 62 miles away and back on one charge with tons to spare. Haven't had to charge on the road but have a Blink card

intangibles like smiles/quality if life stuff: too many to name. I love sports cars and tech. What a wonderful combination this car is.

best/worst experiences: too many best experiences, worst is when an SUV merged into me

why you would buy another car from Tesla: its such an easy car to live with. Thought an electric car would be too high maintenance and worried about range. That rarely comes in my mind anymore. I usually worry more about the damn guy in front of me preventing me from a WOT run down the on ramp!!!

[mikevbf]

winter performance: I live in Texas

cost of maintenance beyond the yearly normal stuff: have had it less than a year...but seriously. ZERO

customer support: Fantastic! If there was another adjective I would use it. I got side swiped at around 8pm at night. Sent an email and someone responded in an hour and was already gathering parts in anticipation of the repair

stated vs. actual range: its right on....no other way to put it. Once you get use to what you are seeing it's just like looking at a full gauge or your cellphone SOC

battery longevity: less than a year ownership but so far so good.

long distance driving/charging on the road: drove it to my satellite office 62 miles away and back on one charge with tons to spare. Haven't had to charge on the road but have a Blink card

intangibles like smiles/quality if life stuff: too many to name. I love sports cars and tech. What a wonderful combination this car is.

best/worst experiences: too many best experiences, worst is when an SUV merged into me

why you would buy another car from Tesla: its such an easy car to live with. Thought an electric car would be too high maintenance and worried about range. That rarely comes in my mind anymore. I usually worry more about the damn guy in front of me preventing me from a WOT run down the on ramp!!!

You didn't answer the etc .. just kidding. Nice post. Any other longer term roadster owners have similar experience to 7racer or want to add more.

[mikevbf]

Adm's post:

The German Roadster driver Hans-Jörg von Gemmingen has used and abused his Roadster for 4 years, driving over 125k mi and has 70% left.

Assuming Model S has better BMS and no abuse (racing and running the battery to 0%) I'd like to believe things can only improve over his numbers.

Standard Warranty Revealed

These are the types of gems I hope to capture in this thread. Ultimately, it would be nice to be able to compile a combination of consensus and extreme data to indicate what to expect from Tesla as a company and the Model S as a car long term.

[mikevbf]

A question to add that I know has been discussed is how much range Roadster owners lose in hot and/or cold weather. Do we think the Model S will outperform the roadster in this regard?

[Doug_G]

winter performance - when the temperature goes below freezing, range drops about 10%. Cold-soaking the battery pack has a modest impact; the pack takes 10-15 minutes to warm up and then performance is back to normal.

cost of maintenance beyond the yearly normal stuff - I've had a bunch of little things fixed under warranty. No cost except for tires. Eats rear tires for lunch. Or maybe my right foot does...

customer support - excellent!!!

stated vs. actual range - if anything the stated range is slightly conservative.

battery longevity - after a couple of years and 26,000 km I'm down a couple of percent.

long distance driving/charging on the road - I've only had schedule anxiety, not range anxiety. Situation could be a lot better but there is some infrastructure. I've driven all over southern Ontario with little difficulty, although with some advanced planning.

intangibles like smiles/quality of life stuff - smiles every time I drive it. Love driving past gas stations. Driving around town I never even think about range - it's always enough.

best/worst experiences - too many "best" experiences to list.

why you would buy another car from Tesla - incredibly fun to drive, supporting a company that's really doing something about sustainable transport, great customer service.