Posted on 10/06/2025 1:07:19 PM PDT by Controlling Legal Authority
I bought a Tesla 2 months ago, still learning new things about it. I didn’t do it “for the environment”. Strictly a transportation issue. I get the, uh, impression that more of us here than not are not a fan so I thought I’d throw out my admittedly brief personal experience if anyone here is curious.
That’s what worries me most about them.
We have a new Model Y and a Cybertruck. Full Self Driving is amazing. My Cybertruck range is about 405 miles when driving locally (50-50 city-highway).
I would be the perfect person to own one as a second car. I live less than 10 miles from where I work, so I could easily drive it to work and back without worrying about a charger.
I also take trips from time to time. No way to I want to have to worry about finding a charger that works along the way. I would have to have a gas powered car.
Also, no way I am paying $60,000-$80,000 or more for a new electric car. That is a non-starter for me and is why I will not get one. Used electric cars are too much trouble also, as you don’t know when the battery will give out.
People are against globalists forcing their leftist agenda down their throats, that’s not stupid. People wouldn’t mind so much if there were a level playing field between E.V.’s and internal combustion vehicles, but we have the government putting it’s thumb on the scale to the benefit of the E.V. industry.
Internal combustion beat out electric and steam over a hundred years ago in early automotive history, and it is still superior to the others today.
My ‘09 Subie Outback is closing in on 300k, and the previous owner did quite a bit of heavy (for an ‘09 Outback) towing with it. (I’ve only done moderate towing, and not a lot of it. The car was purchased @ just under 100k miles on it.) So far, it still has the all original power train. The transmission seems ok (except a little while back a hose clamp broke and the feed to the transmission cooler blew off. That got me a long afternoon pulled off at a little cemetery until my daughter could come get me & haul me back home for tools, a new clamp, and trans fluid.) (Subies take a unique fluid, so I keep some on hand.)
I do monitor the trans fluid (all fluids, actually) and change it out when it starts getting a little brown color in it. Plus wifey and I are not drivers who would stress a transmission badly.
Ouch. That said, rates have really gone up for most cars, the last few years.
Live in Hawaii, the only State where I would own an EV. No long auto trips for vacations. 😃 - No, I don’t own one, too expensive. 💰
Well, you can say it’s stupid to be against owning a Tesla, but not if you can’t afford one anyway & the thought of owning a used EV of any kind really alarms me. I guess the amount of “hidden flaws” in an EV is what turns me against one even if I could afford it. I just wish America would turn back to something practical and of lasting quality in a good gas powered, affordable vehicle. These would sooner or later turn up on the used market where folks like me might be able to buy one sooner or later in the future.
Your car has a trans dipstick? How lucky you are.
I would like an old fashioned gas car without all the fancy electronic stuff that can go wrong and cost money. I don’t need to push a button to roll a window up and down; I don’t need an automatic door opener or a seat warmer. I don’t even need air conditioning; and I don’t care much what a car looks like.
I just want it to get me reliably from here to there, usually no further than 20 miles.
I drive too much. I’d be coming up on my 6th battery replacement in a few months and the difference between that and what I’ve spent on gas/oil/repair would buy me at least 1.5 additional Silverados.
I read they can self drive. Think you’ll ever try that feature?
EVs have many advantages over internal combustion vehicles from few moving parts to low Center of Gravity to prodigious low end torque from a stop.
I really want to own one but there are still too many development problems and other issues like the lack of an extensive system of charging stations. On road trips today, you have to “island hop” between charging stations which forces the path you can take.
I am sure the OP will enjoy his Twsla and I am looking forward to the thread discussion. Not me. I am not ready to dive in until all the issues are resolved, which is probably not in my lifetime.
If you feel like it please give any and all information that you think is pertinent to owning a Tesla . I am very curious to hear a truly non-biased assessment of ownership.....Thank you for your post .
(I can’t produce my own natural gas or gasoline, but I can produce my own power).
It makes good sense then.
You could upgrade the ladder.
And most of all - STOP using taxpayer money to support and promote the New Green Deal by subsidizing the purchase of EVs and the charging stations they need to function.
Money is extorted from taxpayers under threat of penalties then used to promote an agenda they do not believe in or support.
If people want to purchase EVs that is fine.
They should pay the full cost of the vehicle and the 'fueling' stations to charge them up.
Gas stations to provide fuel for gas powered cars were built by companies and individuals - not with taxpayer money.
But when you put the word "decentralized" in front of solar, it becomes attractive to me. The physical science of hydrocarbons make them superior to solar. But decentralized solar means I can remove the political science from the equation: there aren't layers of politicians and bureaucrats between the sun and my property, or between my solar panels and my inverters, or between my inverters and my electrical panels and battery stack and EV. The only energy we have to buy from the over regulated energy market is the 20% of the power we pull from the grid (80% of the power is from homemade solar), plus the little bit of gasoline we buy for the little bit of driving we do in the gas pickup, plus whatever power or gasoline we buy for long trips (depending on which car we take). Basically for our all-electric home and for the 18K miles per year we drive the EV (just on home charged miles, not counting charging away from home), 80% of that is from homemade energy.
But you must do your homework to be sure solar and/or EV is good for your situation. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution like the Dims make it out to be.
That is exactly why, on our trip to Nashville 2 years ago when the rental company said “Great, the mystery car you rented is an electric vehicle!” I told them it wasn’t and I would pay a bit extra because we weren’t going to deal with that crap on vacation. I got the mystery rental because it was cheaper, we don’t care what we would get, never expected an EV.
Step 1. - Identify, learn to operate and brief anyone who rides in your car how to operate the manual door release for front and rear doors.
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