Posted on 03/27/2009 2:03:12 PM PDT by reaganaut1
When Tesla Motors launched its all-electric Roadster sports car, celebrities lined up to order one — including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now we hear he's been trying to return it for months.
Like Detroit, cash-strapped Tesla is currently a supplicant to the government, counting on money earmarked for alternative energy to carry it through its trying times. In other words, a good time to have a political celebrity in their corner, right? Alas, no.
Schwarzenegger frequently cited Tesla as an example of California's nascent green industries in speeches in previous years, and appeared with Tesla CEO Elon Musk at various events. But he's been quiet on the subject lately. With good reason. Two sources close to the company say Schwarzenegger aides have been talking to Tesla since at least the fall about returning the Governator's Roadster. Given the company's financial troubles, Tesla executives asked them to hold off, fearing bad publicity.
Tesla, the troubled Silicon Valley electric-car startup, has been struggling to come up with financing for production of its planned Model S sedan, a prototype of which will be unveiled tomorrow in Los Angeles. The company nearly ran out of cash last fall, and cancelled plans for a car factory in San Jose. It is currently pinning its hopes on winning loans from the Department of Energy, but that is far from a sure thing — and the loans themselves, in a bit of a catch-22, are granted based on the recipient's financial viability.
So why doesn't Schwarzenegger like the Roadster? Built on a Lotus Elise body, the car is not easy to get in and out of, especially for someone with the former bodybuilder's robust frame. "He's more of a Hummer guy," one tipster tells us.
(Excerpt) Read more at gawker.com ...
Why doesn’t he buy a Subaru Outback like the rest of his lib friends?
Maybe it’s a Black 100K Tesla Roadster. Black is a no-no.
There goes GM, LOL
I am a very large guy (taller than Arnold, and certainly a weightlifter, albeit never a bodybuilder).
A buddy has a Lotus Exige (the coupe version of the Lotus body in question), and he let me drive it one track day.
I felt like I was going to die it was so small.
It’s one of my few pleasures in life watching actors and politicians mess with any kind of science - double pleasure for the governator. Anyone who got through even the freshman level of physics and EE knew that the Tesla claims were a bunch of Obama...and will remain so until we get greatly improved battery technology.
True lefties don’t think we should have cars. Their vision of public transportation is open dump trucks that serve double duty.
The only people buying the Tesla are celebs who drive them to photo ops to show how “green” they are, then Jet around the country and are chauffeured around in Limousines the rest of the time.
I live up a rocky 18% grade dirt road in Western North Carolina. I occasionally haul a 5x10 trailer partially full of road bond (”gravel”, for you city slickers) up the mountain to dress up my end of the road. 3000# or a bit more is what I usually haul with my 1997 Outback with 217k miles on it.
I am the farthest thing in the world from being a liberal.
The Outback is a very well made, economical car to own. With the trailer it will do nearly everything a pickup can and at less cost. It's a whole lot easier to park and handles better.
By the way, there are probably close to a thousand or more homebuilt aircraft flying with Subaru outback engines.
When I was alot younger, my dream car was a Lotus Europa. I didn’t care if it was the John Player Special, or if it had the anemic Renault engine.
I wanted that car because it looked like nothing else on the road. It was a car that, I believed, could really be driven under a tractor trailer.
One day, I had the opportunity to sit in one of these rolling artworks.
I didn’t fit. No way. No how. It was ten sizes too small.
I was devastated.
Stick with the Hummer!
The Girly-man is probably worth $200 million and he's trying to stiff Telsa into taking it back? What a jerk!
"Ach der lieber...cahn't a guy chainch hiss mind? Ai gonnah haf sexchual reassignment surgeree so's ai cahn fit in dat Roahdstah und stah in remakes ov dem Shurley Tempul pitchures.
"Ondah goot schip, Lahllipop, ees a sveet trip to dah kahndy schop,
vere bonbons play, ondah sunnee beetch at Peppahmint Bay."
"Lumonade stahnds everyvere, cvakerjack bahnds vill dah air.
Undt dere you ahr, hoppy lahndin on a schocolate bah."
See dah sugar bowl do dah tootsie roll wit dah big bad devils foodt cake.
"Iv you eat too much ooh--ooh, you avake wit a tummy ache.
" Ondah good ship Lahllipop, eets a night tvip into bed
you hop, undt dream avay ondah goodt schip Lahllipop."
Tesla should take it back and put a red-eyed T3 at the wheel in its LA showroom
But does it make you want to wear flannel and listen to k.d. lange CDs?
I’ll second everything you said, and point out that Subie’s are all over the place here in Wyoming - hardly a state that is overrun with latte-sipping liberals. They’re excellent cars for people who NEED four wheel drive for getting around in snow on unplowed roads, but they don’t need high ground clearance for being OFF the road.
Here in WY, we get snowstorm after snowstorm dumping 3 to 6” on us. If you’re out and about in one of these storms and you don’t have 4WD, you could be hiking home - because there’s a lot of roads that won’t get cleared for two days around here.
I just wish Subie would hurry the heck up and release their turbo-diesel in the US. What I’d really like is 35+ MPG in an Outback with a six+ speed tranny.
Yeah, that turbo-diesel looks like a sweet engine! Gobs of torque!
So much so that he was going to give one to each and every Democrat in the California Legislature.
I have an Esprit. You lay in it, and it’s the big one.
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