Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Valmy]

So if you buy used, plan that to be your car until it breaks down - complete with poor range and all.

That's the plan!

[Valmy]

60 miles?  Yikes.  That's barely one trip around Edmonton's ring road.

But yeah that's absolutely ancient in terms of electric vehicles.

It is weird though. 60 miles isn't 60 miles. Sometimes I will drive 20 miles or more and I will have 50+ miles left. Other times I will just be bleeding range like crazy. Every time you are not pressing on the accelerator or when you are breaking the battery charges itself. So you just think about driving a lot different.

[crazy canuck]

So if you buy used, plan that to be your car until it breaks down - complete with poor range and all.

That's the plan!

Then you are all good 

[crazy canuck]

60 miles?  Yikes.  That's barely one trip around Edmonton's ring road.

But yeah that's absolutely ancient in terms of electric vehicles.

It is weird though. 60 miles isn't 60 miles. Sometimes I will drive 20 miles or more and I will have 50+ miles left. Other times I will just be bleeding range like crazy. Every time you are not pressing on the accelerator or when you are breaking the battery charges itself. So you just think about driving a lot different.

Yeah,  the driving style is different.  I use the brake much less in an EV as I rely on the generative system to slow down the car.  I also avoid quick accelerations if already going at a high rate of speed. That is a real battery charge killer.  Steady driving greatly increases range, and it turns out is a lot safer too. 

[The Minsky Moment]

I also avoid quick accelerations if already going at a high rate of speed.

I can think of other reasons to avoid that, such as the desire to live.

[crazy canuck]

I also avoid quick accelerations if already going at a high rate of speed.

I can think of other reasons to avoid that, such as the desire to live.

My younger self, driving a 1978 Firebird, would vehemently disagree with you.  But my older stodgier (is that a word) self, fully agrees with you.

[Jacob]

Stodgier is definitely a word.

[Tamas]

Teslas cannot be reliable and have build quality issues. It's one or the other.

I have researched battery degradation, for 2020-2021 KIA e-Niros specifically, and it is supposed to be close to none-existent/minimal in those even close to 100k miles HOWEVER Kia "cheats" a bit in the sense that there's a small buffer of batteries over the official capacity.

Incidentally we have just bought a 2021 used e-Niro with only 22k miles. Not gonna' have it delivered until end of the month because of reasons, though.

[Grey Fox]

KIA's EV9 is the car for you, BB.

I expect I'll see many of them this summer at the Baseball fields replacing all those Model Ys.

I'd still be looking at used though, and there are just so many more Teslas out on the roads.

Teslas used to have inflated resale value. Maybe that market crashes now and you get lucky.

or you avoid buying fascist oligarch cars & buy a Korean EV.

[Iormlund]

I was always glad Tesla existed, well until recently anyway, but yeah I never had any desire to drive or own one. I like my cars reliable and boring.

Aren't Tesla's supposed to be quite reliable (albeit sometimes with build quality issues)?

I would love to get something like a Model Y as my next car.  Just something for commuting, that takes no gas, but can hold up to three full hockey bags in the back.

Or at least I used to.  Now I'd worry people would think it's some kind of political statement.

Apparently they have one of the highest rates of failure during their first inspections (don't know if you have mandatory inspections in the Americas).


I like their design and they fit my car usage perfectly. I even have chargers both at home and at work, which is really rare in Spain.

However I won't get a Tesla as long as Musk is a beneficiary.
I'm actually working on the next generation of small BEVs from Stellantis. They will be built locally, and CATL will help build a battery plant in town. So that's what I'm aiming for in a couple years.

[Valmy]

Apparently they have one of the highest rates of failure during their first inspections (don't know if you have mandatory inspections in the Americas).

Not in Texas, not anymore! Just removed them this year. Finally slashing those pesky road safety regulations.

[The Brain]

Today buying a TeSSla is a clear political statement.

[Norgy]

After topping the sales charts for several years, and having a 1/3 market share of new car sales after slashing prices as late as September, Tesla sales took a nosedive in Norway in January.

While political reasons may be a factor, I think the fact that some of the software is sub-par by 2024-25 standards and Tesla, unlike the competition, hasn't had a new model out for some time is more salient.

I like the newer BMW models, but they are prohibitively expensive. iX xDrive 50, which I suppose is the flagship outside of the enthusiast segment costs about a million NOK, or 90-100.000 USD/Euro (depending on day of the week with the NOK fluctuating) without extras.

I think it is important that Teslas are charged with electricity made from coal plants.

[Tamas]

Not specific to Tesla but I can't really stomach the "empty dashboard with an ipad and a steering wheel" designs. Feels like a copout by the manufacturer.

Was one of the smaller reasons why we went with the Kia. And, for example, in the e=Niro, you adjust the self-charging brake/resistance with a couple of levers behind the wheel. I watched a reviewer try to do the same in a similarly sized MG - while driving a country road, he had to navigate several menus on the touchscreen to finally get to the option to change this very same thing. I am all for advance of technology but UX-wise this seems terrible.

[Barrister]

Teslas cannot be reliable and have build quality issues. It's one or the other.

Sure they can.

Just to be clear I do not own a Tesla, have no experience with a Tesla.

But my understanding (which may be wrong!) is that they have a bad reputation when it comes to build quality.  That is - panel gaps.  The parts don't fit together in a nice way.

But that also EVs are mechanically very simple when compared to ICE vehicles, and as such they are actually quite reliable with few reasons to visit a mechanic.