Oh, another thing

[cjsmith]

I drove a Tesla last Monday.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

How was it?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't really stomp on it, because the owner was watching. :-) The slowdown as I released the gas pedal would take some getting used to, and the climbing in and out is awkward, and obviously there's no trunk space to speak of, but otherwise, that thing is sweet.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Sooooo envious!!!

Did this one have the new transmission?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's one of the first hundred, if that answers the question. How do I know if the transmission is the new kind?

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Just like that? No explanation, no nuttin'? ;-)

[densaer.livejournal.com]

lucky!

[densaer.livejournal.com]

The new 1.5 transmission allows better performance than the first ones they'd been using. The gen 1 transmissions fall apart after a few thousand hours.

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

fun!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

My chem teacher owns one. She brought it to campus and after the exam we all took turns around the parking lot.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

So how do I know which is which? The owner picked it up late last week, so maybe it's the new one.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I think the body is the same as a Lotus Elise, which makes it very low with no useful trunk space. The transmission is just a 1-speed, so that's probably the cause of the slowdown you felt when you took your foot off the throttle.

Did you just drive it on a straight road? Or did you get to take it over some curves?

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Damn, chem teachers must make pretty good money these days!

Cool that she let you all try it out.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Around a loop in the parking lot at very low speeds. I'll get another chance, on more road, tomorrow.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't that amazing? That thing is not cheap!

Are you free tomorrow morning? IM me?

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

They had a voluntary recall to replace the transmission. It seems it was draining charge while "off", and it had some problems with acceleration/deceleration (although I don't know the specifics of that bit).

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I'm working, but can be reached by telephone or IM at work. I'm not sure that I have your IM.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Enjoy! It should be fun. If it drives like an Elise, it'll feel like it's almost glued to the road.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

It was designed by Lotus people so it shares a lot of the same characteristics, but it was designed from a clean slate.

[gorillashaman.livejournal.com]

I'm envious

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

Okay, that looks way cool.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

Totally jealous.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Way Cool!
I have a feeling your teacher does more than teach chemistry, but Good for Her!
I'm jealous. The most I will ever afford is my Prius.

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

A lovely looking car -- but US$80K (the difference between it and, say, a Smart Car) still buys a heck of a lot of gas... all other considerations aside, of course (I'm a pedestrian, myself...).

[brooksmoses]

Oooh, nifty!

I hope I get a chance to drive my brother's someday; I'd really like to. (The main barrier to this is not that he's in San Diego, but that the only Tesla he currently owns is the desktop wallpaper on his computer. But hopefully they'll still be making them by the time he saves enough to get one -- I'm not sure how serious he is, so I have no idea how long that will take!)

DROOL *zap*

[eichin.livejournal.com]

:-) I'm waiting until they open the New York sales/maintenance office (flatbedding it 200 miles for major repairs is plausible, 3000 miles is not) but by that point, the Aptera (http://www.aptera.com/) might be plausible (though the Mini-E probably won't be...)

The new transmissions are supposed to be shipping "now" so it could have one - the "easy" way to tell is if you can get to 120mph from 0 without shifting or only 60 :-)

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

WAIT YOUR BROTHER HAS A -- ::finishes reading parenthetical:: Oh. Never mind then.

[nosrednayduj]

It's possible the slowdown is regenerative braking kicking in. I have an old Solectria Force which hardly has any pickup at all, but boy does that regen slow you down!

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

niiiiiiice!

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

My question is would us over-six-footers fit in the darned thing?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

(sorry, previous one was me; fixing.) There's hope, because the seat bottom basically scrapes the roadway. I'll look again.

[airporter.livejournal.com]

So. If you were working on arousing jealousy in car geeks and greenies, you couldn't have done better. Being a bit of both hurts sometimes, especially when there's not enough spare for a Tesla.

Does your chem teacher need a houseboy?

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Cooooooool!

But... Pennies per mile... Hmmm... Even when gas was $4/gallon, even if you only got 20 mpg, wazzat -- 20 cents per mile? And now that gas is closer to $1.50, and realistically I do get 30 mpg, wazzat, 5 cents per mile? Guess I wanna know how many pennies. Not detracting from the coolness -- just saying that "economy" is probably not the reason to buy one. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Economy is definitely not the reason to buy a car with a price in the six figures. :-)