Owning a Model S : Safety issue when switching back to your ICE

I felt the same when I had to drive a pickup truck for work. I had Cruise control on and went over a bridge at 38 degrees F and the truck almost spun out :scared:
then I almost ran out of gas (twice)

braking is scary and accelerating weak -and extremely loud and rough!

I like to drive my S for work if I can. Feels much safer + I have e-mail if I need it (no cell phone :tongue

I for one can't believe Tesla would allow this. Clearly the company is screwed if they allow owners continued access to their ICE cars post Model S acquisition. This is a major safety issue and needs to be addressed by Elon personally and immediately.

While my car is having it's paint armor installed, I'm driving my mother's hybrid.

I was at a slow lane approaching a merge with an on ramp and noticed that I was blocked in by a car in the adjacent lane. Seeing a car on the on ramp on an approach to my location I hit the accelerator anticipating that I would shoot up ahead of them....


HEY! Where is my acceleration! No way this was going to work. I switched to the brake to create a spot in my lane for them to merge ahead of them.

Sigh...I can't wait until this afternoon to get my Model S back.

Ditto on braking and nearly running out gas...

These are the two things that get me when I am (rarely) forced to drive an ICE.

Yeah driving my moms car last week I almost ran out of gas. I drove from Austin to Houston and got to my cousin's place that night late, with 11 miles to empty on the gauge. Then the next morning I somehow I assumed that the car was full and drove around all morning. Then around noon we went to lunch and I looked down and saw 0 miles to empty. About 2 miles later I found a station. And $70+ (or about 2 month of S electricity) later I was good to go.

I took my wife's ICE out to get it washed and when I got home I got out of the car and left it in the garage...running. Fair warning when switching back to ICE MAKE SURE TO TURN THE CAR OFF.

It's so true it almost isn't funny. I'm learning to switch, since my wife drives our Model S roughly half the time, but every time it's a relief to return to driving the Tesla. The worst experience for me was dropping ours off with service and driving the completely gutless wreck provided by Enterprise as a loaner. It was just for ten hours but I felt incredibly exposed on the trip to and from work.

Very funny stuff here. Like all things funny, there's enough truth in it to make it relatable.

Every time I have to drive one of our ICEs now I end up all frustrated by how slow and crappy they are. I usually forget to turn them off until after I've gotten one foot out the door and I just can't escape the feeling, when I put my foot down on the gas pedal, I'm really getting a whole lot of noise for not a lot of go.

Also, is it just me or has the whole world started accelerating really, REALLY slowly?!

I've gotten so used to driving the S that after a month straight, I got in our Sequoia and almost coasted right through the first stop sign.. I lifted the accelerator, and whooooowww.. the car just KEPT GOING! It was like it was possessed. I almost had a heart attack.

My Model S is in for paint armour so I drove the Prius. I had a hard time keeping the speed down in the Prius--can't wait to get the Model S back.

I left my wife's hybrid on in the garage the other day. I'm too used to just getting out and walking away. Luckily I went back out there after and hour and heard the engine running. The smell of fumes in the garage was pretty strong.

Glad I caught it before they crept into the house.

ADN_ModelS said:

I for one can't believe Tesla would allow this. Clearly the company is screwed if they allow owners continued access to their ICE cars post Model S acquisition. This is a major safety issue and needs to be addressed by Elon personally and immediately.

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+1 Absolutely. It is completely unsafe. Someone should PM George.

Best way to minimize the danger is to write a checklist for yourself for when you get back behind the wheel of a petroleum fueled vehicle. Read the checklist before driving to remind yourself of the less responsive throttle, reduced or no regen when lifting off the throttle, less powerful brakes, and turning off the vehicle when parked.

Checklists are the best way to insure against faulty human memory.

:wink:

ADN_ModelS said:

I for one can't believe Tesla would allow this. Clearly the company is screwed if they allow owners continued access to their ICE cars post Model S acquisition. This is a major safety issue and needs to be addressed by Elon personally and immediately.

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Well by this theory, they need to up their rental car fleet to BEVs, and not crap ICEs from Enterprise. Just sayin'.

GeekGirls said:

It's so true it almost isn't funny. I'm learning to switch, since my wife drives our Model S roughly half the time, but every time it's a relief to return to driving the Tesla. The worst experience for me was dropping ours off with service and driving the completely gutless wreck provided by Enterprise as a loaner. It was just for ten hours but I felt incredibly exposed on the trip to and from work.

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I think Tesla intentionally uses Enterprise and their lower end ICE vehicles to make us appreciate our Model S even more, even with whatever issues you were bringing it to service for.

smd said:

I think Tesla intentionally uses Enterprise and their lower end ICE vehicles to make us appreciate our Model S even more, even with whatever issues you were bringing it to service for.

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I think everyone uses Enterprise. I can still remember taking a $50,000 Audi in for some warranty work and being given a base model Ford Focus to drive around for a couple of days. This was in the early 2000s so the Ford Focus was REALLY bad.

Funny thing is, the same thing happens to me, and my other car is a compact, more expensive sports car!
The day is not far when an inexpensive, family electric will be more fun to drive than an exotic sports car. That will be the end of the ICE.

Lyon said:

I think everyone uses Enterprise. I can still remember taking a $50,000 Audi in for some warranty work and being given a base model Ford Focus to drive around for a couple of days. This was in the early 2000s so the Ford Focus was REALLY bad.

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Upgrade your Audi service center. Mine always gave me an A4. But, yes, most places give you a POS from Enterprise.