Wait a minute, you haven't taken me for a ride in it yet!! :'(
So what's your reason for selling it, if you don't mind sharing? Other than coxmaster getting one before you did :awe:
Honestly, there are a plethora of reasons. Some are legitimate, but a large number are opinion and/or preferential.
As a disclaimer, I'm a Tesla shareholder and among the shareholders you will find that very few actually own a Tesla themselves - and even less are as technically savvy as you would imagine.. they tend to be more business savvy who see the opportunity and have faith in Musk, and a lot of people simply willing to throw money at just about anything that sticks it to big oil. This is unfortunate, because as a shareholder you get a lot of perks - such as not being forced to wait for 3-5 months for your delivery, among other things a NDA will prevent me from disclosing. It is worth noting that I sat next to more guys in jeans and an ACDC t-shirt than suits at the last shareholder meeting, making me feel a little out of place to be honest - but it should do it's own legwork to highlight the type of crowd that is backing Elon, et al.
I don't know how detailed you want me to be, so I'll give you the quick skinny.
The good:
- Amazing automotive innovation. Performs better than any EV I've ever driven. (Hoping to someday sit behind the wheel of a 918 Spyder and change my mind!)
- Blazing acceleration. The torque from the electric motor with a P85+ is simply indescribable. To compare it to a jetpack would be an insult; you start playing games on how fast you can make the wheels spin in a straight line with street-legal slicks, and it makes you giggle like a teenage girl each and every single fucking time.
- It's a technologists dream - everything from the innovative browser-style approach to navigation to the half-screen browser I had browsing videos on Reddit (although this still seems to be a big complaint I hear from drivers, cracking the Flash limitation took less than a whole hour on a Saturday afternoon to enable it on their browser).
- It's comfort package actually WORKS. As in even though the handles are still popped out, once you're five feet or more away from the car nobody is going to open the door and just drive away. The car is fired up with the AC running before you even reach the door, and the mobile controller is not only easy enough to use that my grandmother could figure it out, but unlike 99% or more of the mobile apps on the market it uses proper encryption and security to make it tinfoil hat acceptable.
- It strikes up a LOT of conversations with enthusiasts. Everyone from young to old, male to female, etc, etc.. everyone seems to ask the same things - not "is it good?", but "how good is it?". It's hype proceeds it so much that people over-sell it reguarly, and their primary concerns are economical things like does the battery pack last as long as advertised, what kind of mileage do you get under x, y, and z conditions.. never "how does it feel to drive?". There is a startlingly large amount of over-awe associated with the car that pretty much anyone who can already afford a Porche could be driving.
The bad:
- The car is simply not worth the price premium, hands down.
- The regenerative braking is a bit too much at times. I'm used to a powerful engine propelling me forward eagerly, so I don't have to ride the acceleration. With the Tesla, the moment you take your foot off the "gas", the car sharply de-accels to begin regenerative braking. While this is all well and good if you are driving to work on the highway every-day, any fair amount of actual traffic with irregular speeds and/or stop-and-go and this quickly becomes very irritating. It actually reminds me of when I have to drive friends 120hp range 4-bangers that have to constantly be pushed to do just about anything, and sadly I feel that as far as enthusiast driving goes the aggressive regenerative braking takes a lot of the enjoyment out of driving when you have to constantly regulate the vehicles speed by pushing it as if it did not have the power it actually has.
- The interior construction is flimsy. I can wobble the dash almost an inch up and down with my pinky.
- The location of the arm-rests-slash-stealth-cupholder-slider-monstrosity they've installed in the center is not only too far back, but is also about six inches too high resulting in a very awkward elbow position - and if you're someone like me who's spent 20+ years driving various manuals then hanging your right arm down is about as natural as breathing. I've owned this vehicle for over a year and still haven't gotten used to the awkward position of my right hand and elbow.
- The base price is so misleading it's borderline criminal. Their advertised prices are as bare bones as it gets, and by the time you actually build a package to even get close to resembling the luxury and comfort of say, a 335 or C350 (I initially included an IS350 in this comparison but while editing realize how downright stupid it is to even pretend the Lexus is in the same class as the Germans) you're already at a whopping $90,000.. for just the 65 kWh variant! Max out the 85 kWh and you're actually OVER a staggering $110,000. Granted on both of these options you can get EV credits in the range of $5,000-$10,000.. but the reality is that in an apples to apples comparison the torque from the electric motor and the lack of gasoline is simply NOT worth forty fucking grand! This is a car you buy as a flashy toy and is currently rather impractical as a daily driver when you could own TWO three-series for the same cost. This is a weekend warrior toy, expect some serious sticker shock when you actually build it how you want it and it's low five-figures higher in MSRP.
- The car is wide. I mean REALLY wide, it's almost a foot wider than most cars I've had in my garage, and it REALLY starts to suck when you're trying to park in traditional parking spots made for compacts/subcompacts. Expect door dings a-plenty (made by YOU, not others..) and people parking around you to get pissed off and call you profanities when you're not around to hear it simply because of the size of your.. frunk. (I've been waiting to use that one)
- Free access to super chargers for life is pretty awesome when you travel, but the convenience factor trumps the cost rather quickly for most owners and they seldom visit a SC, instead being completely fine with plugging in at home every night.. so the cost of the electricity will always be there, plus a slightly longer charge time daily.
All in all, it's been an amazing vehicle to drive.. but the novelty factor wore off. I can (and, am) currently sell it for more than I paid for it, so it seems like a good time to get out of it and to turn the cash around into something new.