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      01-04-2021, 03:54 PM   #179
heavyD^2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The HACK View Post
You need to go drive one.

Disclaimer: I've bought nothing but BMWs for the last 25 years. Going as far back as I can remember I have had nearly nothing but BMWs in my garage. At one point I even have a BMW gasoline car, a BMW diesel, and a BMW electric in my garage. I am about as BMW fan-boi as one can get.

Yet when my C7 Corvette Grand Sport blew an engine at Laguna Seca, and GM decided it's not worth their time to try and fix it and cut me a check for the car, what did I buy?

A Model 3 Dual Motor Long Range.

Not a BMW 3 or 4 series, not a BMW X3, nor any future BMW "I" offerings (I don't need a car, I still have 2 BMWs in the garage for 2 adult drivers). When I test drove a Tesla Dual Motor last October, it drove better, accelerate better, and handled better than ANY BMW I have driven except my Z4 M Coupe. And the Z4 M is hard to live with on a daily basis (although I will if I have to like I have in the past).

Unlike any of the newer BMWs, they handle well despite the weight, the Tesla handled well BECAUSE of the weight. All of it is down low underneath you. None of that 500+ lbs of motor siting high up. So much of the mass is concentrated down low, and there's so much mass improving traction, and so much torque easily available at all times without waiting for an engine to spool up, that it drove like nothing else I've ever driven.

Even compared to the C7 Grand Sport with its massive 6.1 liter V-8, you simply can't compare how quickly all the power and torque is available to you in an electric motor. The Corvette was FAST. Fastest car I've owned. Eye opening fast. But it felt SLOW by comparison. Even though the 0-60 in the Tesla is only marginally faster than the C7, the sensation it delivered is NEXT LEVEL. And the Corvette sits down low, with low ground clearance, and a pushrod V8 sitting as low as possible in the engine bay, and even then you can't compare having ALL the weight of the car sitting fully underneath you, not around your mid-section.

The biggest difference is, the Model 3 came with 235mm wide ALL SEASON tires. So they will give up the ghost long before the Z4 M Coupe in a corner, or the C7 Grand Sport (which came with 285mm front, 335mm rear MICHELIN PILOT CUP 2's). So the maximum speed one can carry in a corner is highly dependent on the tire the Tesla is using. But as for handling and feel? My Dual Motor Long Range will tackle any corner with aplomb and composure.

And since I still have a BMW that will do 600+ miles on a single fill-up (okay, the best I've done is 580 miles, but that's with multiple stints at 100mph on stretches) and can fill up virtually anywhere there's diesel sold, I don't really care one way or another that the Tesla can't be filled up in less than 20 minutes when it's ran dry. In 6 weeks it's only been "topped off" twice. And that's when I plug it in at night, and next morning it's magically filled up.

As a long, LONG time car guy, and an early adapter of electricity as a mode of transportation, but a LATE comer to Tesla, I will say this.

Don't buy a Tesla. Don't EVER buy a Tesla. Because if and when you do, you will see the world entirely differently, and you will never be able to buy a car like a normie anymore.

I walked away from this experience knowing I will never, ever buy a car differently. I test drove a car with zero sales pressure. The guy left a key with me with zero pressure to return it. Never discussed with me when I have to order, never bothered to ask me to put down a deposit. All he said was, "when you're ready to place an order, just go to Tesla.com. And if you have a referral code, make sure you enter it to get free 1,000 miles charging."

We never talked price. Never even whipped out a piece of paper with the "quadrant." No talks of "how much can you afford?" "What's your monthly payment budget?" "What does it take to put you in a Tesla today?" I literally never even talked to a sales person except to arrange for the test drive. And after I placed the order, every thing was handled through an online portal. On the day I picked up the car, it was "here's your key Mr HACK, there's some paperwork in the car. Once you sign it, pull up to the front of the dealership and return it to the attendant. Congratulations."

I was in and out of the "dealership" in less than 30 minutes, and that included time walking over to Starbucks for a cup of coffee.

In the first week I had the car, someone kicked up a piece of rock on the freeway and cracked my windshield. I arranged for service to replace the windshield using my phone's Tesla app, drop the car off the very next Monday, and had the car back on the same day. And again, talked to a "service advisor" for less than 10 minutes, he texted me a Uber voucher good for $200 so I can get around for the rest of the day. Done.

Compared to my last car purchase, which we spent over 2 days back and forth with the dealership haggling, car spent over 9 months at the dealership in the 18 months I owned it, and just the NIGHTMARE process of dealing with a third party that does not have anyone's best interest in mind? This ownership experience has completely changed my perception of how the automotive industry sucks in general and how the whole dealership model is just the worst.

So yeah.

DON'T EVER BUY A TESLA. Heed my words.
LOL this reads like a bad infomercial. I feel like the ShamWow guy should be narrating this post.
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