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I have been a car junkie for my entire life. As a child, I sat in our family's MG roadster and cried as someone who was buying it was on the way to our house to pick it up. Virtually every car I owned was a stick shift, and as my years progressed, my cars got better. I have owned BMW 740 series, Mercedes AMG sedans, and two Golf GTIs. My cars generally don’t last to 3 years of ownership. 6 years ago, I bought a Tesla Model S. I did not buy it to save the planet, I bought it because I got to drive a friend's Model S for a day.
They are a blast to drive, as an electric motor can deliver maximum torque as soon as it starts spinning. No shifting of gears to get up to maximum torque, no shifting ever. With regenerative braking, you don’t need to downshift as you enter corners. Lift your foot off the accelerator and mountain and curving roads become fun. Our house already had Solar panels, so I have never had to pay for gas, as 99% of my charging is done at home. When I purchased the car it came with free supercharging for the duration of my ownership.
We had one long road trip from San Diego to Portland. My wife and I planned our departures on the 2-day trip up and back to leave early, drive roughly 150 miles, and stop for breakfast as the car recharged. We had a coffee stop, lunch, a walking break, dinner, and then a Hotel with superchargers. We figured the charging breaks on the first day cost us about 45 mins extra time on a 750-mile day. It was actually a little more enjoyable as we got to stretch our legs a little more.
Now the fun part: after roughly 50,000 miles —I have a short commute — and my total expenditure has been a set of tires! I have no trips to the dealer, no oil changes, no 5,000-mile checkups for maintenance, nothing. I figure that is at least two times a year I would have had to drop off at the dealer and be picked up, or otherwise be provided with a loner. I have several friends with the same experience of NO maintenance cost. (A friend of mine's wife had a 60-mile one-way commute and her brakes needed replacing at 320,000 miles. I had a BMW that needed new brakes at 18,000 miles for 900 dollars, and that was 25 years ago and not covered under warranty!)
I know the charging issue is an issue for some people, but for most, the cars make so much sense. Never go to a gas station, no service appointments, a blast to drive, and California weather makes the cold battery problem a nonissue. My brothers are amazed that I have kept the same car for 6 years, and I have no thoughts of a new car unless I win the lottery — which isn't likely because I don’t play. If I did, I would get a Model S Plaid!
Discussion (102)
Glad my tax dollars helped pay for you to have a car i can't afford.
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From the point of view of a car lover, the electrics are terrific. The center of balance is lower for better handling. Smooth-as-silk neck-snapping torque when you want it, minimal maintenance costs.
My Chevrolet Volt, which was made 2011-19, is IMHO being recognized as one way to do a much more practical transition. It's a "strong" (that is, series) hybrid. It's always propelled electrically, unlike Prius-type parallel hybrids that switch back and forth, but the Volt has a small engine that runs a generator if needed, so it gets by with a much smaller battery (it weighs 440 pounds). It has an 8 gallon gas tank. We try to use it all up in a year. Don't want it to go bad in the lines.
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That can be true, but if something DOES need repair/replacement, the parts can be very expensive, and difficult/slow to get. Hertz, for example, is pulling back on EV rentals for that reason, among others.
And after 6 years, Kipputt is approaching the time of battery replacement. Then he's going to get some sticker shock.
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A good part of that is inevitable no matter how cars change over the years. It used to be that a mid-range General Motors V-6 could be serviced in any of thousands of US dealerships, because the basic design hadn't changed much since the early Eighties. Try going into a dealership and getting parts for a mid-engine 2024 Corvette.
When I was a kid (apparently, you too) the local yellow pages were full of TV repairmen. I don't think I've actually repaired a TV in 30 years.
The car repair place a few blocks from here was great--friendly, reasonably priced, a good place to read old magazines while Judge Judy and Hot Bench played in the background. Their families and mine all knew each other. And why not? Every year, rain or shine, we'd spend a couple of grand keeping the family fleet on the road.
They moved a couple of years ago. In a way, it makes things easier; I don't have to do more than send a Christmas card anymore.
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I have, even far more recently, but it makes no sense to pay someone else to do it.
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