Tesla Model S 85D
Discussion
So quick update:
I replaced all 4 tyres with Michelins at Headley Tyres at a cost of just under £880 for the 4, not exactly the OEM spec but I chose the quieter 69dB BMW spec ones, which do seem quieter than the old Pirellis at speed. The price was pretty much the same as Blackcircles give or take a few quid. The new tyres also seem to have dropped my energy consumption by 5-10% and of course no more vibrations.
I have given up getting anything back with the dealer I got the car from as life is just too short, not helped as the salesman I dealt with is no longer employed there.
I have now got to 29,270 miles just over 7600 miles in just under 4 months. No issues to report. I have given a few more passenger rides and extracted a few more involuntary curses from my victims! For me at least it is the perfect car for my commute and weekend activities! Mrs Spunagain has also bonded with the car after driving it for a week solid while I was in Chengdu in China for work. (Stinky smog, fiery food, crazy taxi drivers and swarms of electric Vespa like scooters!) She now takes the Tesla in preference to the Volvo or Mini.
Unfortunately I have had a small bump. A gentleman in an Audi, drove into the back of me in a traffic queue on the M4, and stamped an image of 4 Audi logo rings and his number-plate into my back bumper.
He has accepted blame and his insurer have approved repairs. I popped down to Body Technic in Slough who are a Tesla approved body shop and preferred by the 3rd party insurer, to get the damage checked out by them. It will need a new rear bumper cover which needs to be sprayed and the rear quarters need to be sprayed to blend the pearl paintwork to match the bumper. Ouch. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the bumper to arrive. Once it is in, the repair should take a week or so. Meanwhile the car is driveable as the damage is minor.
I got a tour of the facilities and they had several recent Maclarens, Ferarris and 30! Teslas in the yard queued up for repair, that is significant chunk of the UK fleet, with what looked like more rear end shunts than frontal collisions. The quality of their work looks excellent to my eyes so I am happy for them to do the work.
They have also tempted me with some of this detailing malarky and ceramic coating, which I will mull over while waiting for the bumper to arrive. It is extremely expensive (not quite a set of tyres worth!) and I am not sure of the benefits, but some protection for the paint might be a good idea as I have read the paint is both soft and thin. It would also be nice to have the car looking like new.
I replaced all 4 tyres with Michelins at Headley Tyres at a cost of just under £880 for the 4, not exactly the OEM spec but I chose the quieter 69dB BMW spec ones, which do seem quieter than the old Pirellis at speed. The price was pretty much the same as Blackcircles give or take a few quid. The new tyres also seem to have dropped my energy consumption by 5-10% and of course no more vibrations.
I have given up getting anything back with the dealer I got the car from as life is just too short, not helped as the salesman I dealt with is no longer employed there.
I have now got to 29,270 miles just over 7600 miles in just under 4 months. No issues to report. I have given a few more passenger rides and extracted a few more involuntary curses from my victims! For me at least it is the perfect car for my commute and weekend activities! Mrs Spunagain has also bonded with the car after driving it for a week solid while I was in Chengdu in China for work. (Stinky smog, fiery food, crazy taxi drivers and swarms of electric Vespa like scooters!) She now takes the Tesla in preference to the Volvo or Mini.
Unfortunately I have had a small bump. A gentleman in an Audi, drove into the back of me in a traffic queue on the M4, and stamped an image of 4 Audi logo rings and his number-plate into my back bumper.
He has accepted blame and his insurer have approved repairs. I popped down to Body Technic in Slough who are a Tesla approved body shop and preferred by the 3rd party insurer, to get the damage checked out by them. It will need a new rear bumper cover which needs to be sprayed and the rear quarters need to be sprayed to blend the pearl paintwork to match the bumper. Ouch. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the bumper to arrive. Once it is in, the repair should take a week or so. Meanwhile the car is driveable as the damage is minor.
I got a tour of the facilities and they had several recent Maclarens, Ferarris and 30! Teslas in the yard queued up for repair, that is significant chunk of the UK fleet, with what looked like more rear end shunts than frontal collisions. The quality of their work looks excellent to my eyes so I am happy for them to do the work.
They have also tempted me with some of this detailing malarky and ceramic coating, which I will mull over while waiting for the bumper to arrive. It is extremely expensive (not quite a set of tyres worth!) and I am not sure of the benefits, but some protection for the paint might be a good idea as I have read the paint is both soft and thin. It would also be nice to have the car looking like new.
Edited by Spunagain on Friday 14th July 18:05
Well it's been a while but Flash is back!
The car was picked up on 22nd of August and I picked it up yesterday - 22 September.
A long time! About 1 week's delay caused as extra clips were needed as it was re-assembled.
Body Technic in Slough have done a great job, You cannot tell the difference between the painted bumper and the rest of the car and the blending of the back bumper is completely invisible.
The car was polished and looking like new when I picked it up so I am vey happy. Bearing in mind when my TVR S needed a new bonnet back in 1996 I was without it for 3 months!
Some photos, but it is difficult to see due to the reflections though!
In other news, Coldfire has used my referral code ordering his new car and it has popped up on my app:
Cheers Coldfire
Once his car is delivered I will get an order code and will be able to spec and order one of the Electric Toy Teslas mentioned in earlier posts!
Sadly I think my girls will be too old to fit but they are will do their damndest to try, but if not, I think I have found a good home for it and will post more on that once it has been ordered.
The code is only valid until December so please keep them coming!
The next possible goodies for me are:
2. Early access to the Solar roof.
3. New set of 21inch alloys
4. Power wall 2
5. Tickets to the launch of the new Tesla Truck .
And you get a £750 discount and free supercharging for life! Just in case, here is the link http://ts.la/phil7565
The car was picked up on 22nd of August and I picked it up yesterday - 22 September.
A long time! About 1 week's delay caused as extra clips were needed as it was re-assembled.
Body Technic in Slough have done a great job, You cannot tell the difference between the painted bumper and the rest of the car and the blending of the back bumper is completely invisible.
The car was polished and looking like new when I picked it up so I am vey happy. Bearing in mind when my TVR S needed a new bonnet back in 1996 I was without it for 3 months!
Some photos, but it is difficult to see due to the reflections though!
In other news, Coldfire has used my referral code ordering his new car and it has popped up on my app:
Cheers Coldfire
Once his car is delivered I will get an order code and will be able to spec and order one of the Electric Toy Teslas mentioned in earlier posts!
Sadly I think my girls will be too old to fit but they are will do their damndest to try, but if not, I think I have found a good home for it and will post more on that once it has been ordered.
The code is only valid until December so please keep them coming!
The next possible goodies for me are:
2. Early access to the Solar roof.
3. New set of 21inch alloys
4. Power wall 2
5. Tickets to the launch of the new Tesla Truck .
And you get a £750 discount and free supercharging for life! Just in case, here is the link http://ts.la/phil7565
Spunagain said:
Well it's been a while but Flash is back!
The car was picked up on 22nd of August and I picked it up yesterday - 22 September.
A long time! About 1 week's delay caused as extra clips were needed as it was re-assembled.
Body Technic in Slough have done a great job, You cannot tell the difference between the painted bumper and the rest of the car and the blending of the back bumper is completely invisible.
The car was polished and looking like new when I picked it up so I am vey happy. Bearing in mind when my TVR S needed a new bonnet back in 1996 I was without it for 3 months!
Some photos, but it is difficult to see due to the reflections though!
In other news, Coldfire has used my referral code ordering his new car and it has popped up on my app:
Cheers Coldfire
Once his car is delivered I will get an order code and will be able to spec and order one of the Electric Toy Teslas mentioned in earlier posts!
Sadly I think my girls will be too old to fit but they are will do their damndest to try, but if not, I think I have found a good home for it and will post more on that once it has been ordered.
The code is only valid until December so please keep them coming!
The next possible goodies for me are:
2. Early access to the Solar roof.
3. New set of 21inch alloys
4. Power wall 2
5. Tickets to the launch of the new Tesla Truck .
And you get a £750 discount and free supercharging for life! Just in case, here is the link http://ts.la/phil7565
Sorry- I missed your reply to my post! It was a great experience working for Tesla and I was fortunate to open 6 stores for them across the South of the UK so got a whole range of experience. They are certainly a commitment, taking up pretty much all of your life; very much an all or nothing job. My record was 17 straight days working anything from 10 to 16 hour days!! But whilst it was tough, I gained so many valuable/transferable skills with exposure I would not have received from many other jobs I could have applied for. As a first job out of uni it was great in this regard and I had significantly underestimated the benefit of having Tesla on my CV once I had left. The car was picked up on 22nd of August and I picked it up yesterday - 22 September.
A long time! About 1 week's delay caused as extra clips were needed as it was re-assembled.
Body Technic in Slough have done a great job, You cannot tell the difference between the painted bumper and the rest of the car and the blending of the back bumper is completely invisible.
The car was polished and looking like new when I picked it up so I am vey happy. Bearing in mind when my TVR S needed a new bonnet back in 1996 I was without it for 3 months!
Some photos, but it is difficult to see due to the reflections though!
In other news, Coldfire has used my referral code ordering his new car and it has popped up on my app:
Cheers Coldfire
Once his car is delivered I will get an order code and will be able to spec and order one of the Electric Toy Teslas mentioned in earlier posts!
Sadly I think my girls will be too old to fit but they are will do their damndest to try, but if not, I think I have found a good home for it and will post more on that once it has been ordered.
The code is only valid until December so please keep them coming!
The next possible goodies for me are:
2. Early access to the Solar roof.
3. New set of 21inch alloys
4. Power wall 2
5. Tickets to the launch of the new Tesla Truck .
And you get a £750 discount and free supercharging for life! Just in case, here is the link http://ts.la/phil7565
When I first joined the UK team was still very small and closely knit- the workhouse over tripled during my tenure (18 odd months) and some of the feel/culture that was present when I first joined had been eroded. There was a much more stringent corporate structure to the sales process that did not prioritise customer experience in my eyes and that was one of the reasons that resulting in my resignation. When the focus became hitting call/email/testdrive KPIs and not sharing this incredible car with the world everything changed for me. I had loved the fact that Tesla were a car company with a very much 'non-car-sales' approach to selling.
The staff turnover rate was very high during my time and this has not changed from what I have heard from friends who are still working there. What I will say is of my friends who have stayed and are now at 2 years+ they are doing very well, having moved quickly up into middle management and beyond and are no doubt setting themselves up for a great future, especially with the upcoming Model 3.
Its funny you mention Body Techniq, the majority of those 30 cars were probably test drive cars that staff had damaged! Take a young 20-something with no experience driving anything other than a 1.2L Polo and give them a car that will do 0 to 60 in 2.3 seconds and no understanding of driving and you end up with lots of broken/bent cars! My favorite was a staff 4 weeks in who lost a 90D doing 120mph on a dual carriageway at 3am! Staff/customers also had a habit of destroying the 21 inch wheels, much to my frustration- no excuse in my opinion.
I cannot remember if your car is on air suspension or coils, but my favourite set up was a P85D I had for a couple of months that was a very strange spec with the 21 inch greys and on coil suspension, the ride was firm but I found it most agreeable and a little more communicative that the air set-up. I always preferred the 21s personally, but saying that Dual Motor cars on 19s and a wet, greasy roundabout were always very good fun!
I have a Model 3 on res. for my father but could certainly see myself buying an old MS in the years to come. There were a couple of cars I spent a fair amount of time in and have the VINs saved just in case I ever come across them in the future!
There must be a nice pre-facelift P85D you can step into for not too much money, surely?!
Hi Magic354
I am glad you enjoyed the Tesla experience sounds like the American company approach of working you hard – I just spent 2000-2016 working for a big US chip maker and it was exhausting!
I hope they can get the balance right, my view is Teslas at the moment are bought very much by enthusiasts who (mostly) can deal with a company which is learning as it goes, but as it goes mainstream they have to get it right, a bad reputation can stick for generations. The reliability in the latest polls is not good (not quite at the bottom but at least they are better than LandRover!) and while they fix the build quality and design niggles the customer service has to be seen as brilliant to allow people to forgive the faults. From what I read on forums and the Facebook pages they get it right a lot, but there are enough disgruntled owners to suggest there is some work to be done. Don’t get me wrong though – most of the posters are over the moon with their purchases, but with a fleet of 5000 cars they should have the resources to keep on top of the issues.
Your comments about bent cars is slightly worrying as I have a feeling that my car may well have been a demo, it was bought by its last owner only a 8 months after is was registered, maybe I should contact him to see if he remembers if it was!
My car is on coils and it is going to be a keeper so the fewer really expensive things to go wrong the better! A “P” car is attractive but for me the 85D is quick enough and still faster than anything I have had before and it is hard enough to not drive like an lunatic as it is!
A couple of small updates.
I have now done over 11,000 miles in 7 months, and have had to call up the insurance company to increase my expected mileage from 12 to 20,000. This cost me another £92, which also included a number plate change. I inherited a post war Crewe issued registration “2nnn TU” from my father – which I was planning to sell as private plates are not really my thing, until my brother pointed out it was the registration from my father’s 1st car – a Mini which we bought when he left his national service in the Cheshire Yeomanry. Family lore tells that he and his mate both over 6 foot 3 strolled into the garage and asked for 2 Minis with modified seat runners paid for with their demob pay. So I can’t possibly sell it now, and the Tesla seems to be a nice place to put it. Mrs Spunagain won’t have it on the Mini as it looks too much like we are trying to hide its age (although I am not sure who from).
Oh, and something has gone wrong, or to be honest might have always been broken… It turns out the driver door handle does not pop out when prodded, I never use this as I the handles present themselves as I approach the car, but I left the keys in the car while faffing about with getting children out of the house the other day and the handles retracted. It is no big issue as prodding the rear door handle gets all of them to pop out again so I will get it fixed next time it goes in for a service or something major breaks. A quick Google shows the wires to the micro-switch which detects you pushing the handle gets work hardened and snaps – the design is poor in that the micro-switches are on the moving part of the handle not the “chassis”. It is something that, if the car were out of warranty and bothered me I would fix myself – loads of how-to videos out there and I am still pretty handy with a soldering iron.
My referral code email has not appeared yet, but my award has now got 2 options – either the toy car or a Tesla wall charger:
This is much more useful as our next car is almost certainly going to be another EV and you only get the government grant on your 1st charger installation.
This round of the referral program comes to an end on the 31st of October. A new round kicks off next month which still gives the £750 discount but will no longer include the free supercharging. So you have 2 days to order a car with my code and get the free supercharging deal! (Yes I am fishing for referrals - see referal code in my last post, and Tesla may change their mind, but I suspect with more cars coming on line they are not likely to in an effort to keep the superchargers available for those who need them on road trips!)
I am glad you enjoyed the Tesla experience sounds like the American company approach of working you hard – I just spent 2000-2016 working for a big US chip maker and it was exhausting!
I hope they can get the balance right, my view is Teslas at the moment are bought very much by enthusiasts who (mostly) can deal with a company which is learning as it goes, but as it goes mainstream they have to get it right, a bad reputation can stick for generations. The reliability in the latest polls is not good (not quite at the bottom but at least they are better than LandRover!) and while they fix the build quality and design niggles the customer service has to be seen as brilliant to allow people to forgive the faults. From what I read on forums and the Facebook pages they get it right a lot, but there are enough disgruntled owners to suggest there is some work to be done. Don’t get me wrong though – most of the posters are over the moon with their purchases, but with a fleet of 5000 cars they should have the resources to keep on top of the issues.
Your comments about bent cars is slightly worrying as I have a feeling that my car may well have been a demo, it was bought by its last owner only a 8 months after is was registered, maybe I should contact him to see if he remembers if it was!
My car is on coils and it is going to be a keeper so the fewer really expensive things to go wrong the better! A “P” car is attractive but for me the 85D is quick enough and still faster than anything I have had before and it is hard enough to not drive like an lunatic as it is!
A couple of small updates.
I have now done over 11,000 miles in 7 months, and have had to call up the insurance company to increase my expected mileage from 12 to 20,000. This cost me another £92, which also included a number plate change. I inherited a post war Crewe issued registration “2nnn TU” from my father – which I was planning to sell as private plates are not really my thing, until my brother pointed out it was the registration from my father’s 1st car – a Mini which we bought when he left his national service in the Cheshire Yeomanry. Family lore tells that he and his mate both over 6 foot 3 strolled into the garage and asked for 2 Minis with modified seat runners paid for with their demob pay. So I can’t possibly sell it now, and the Tesla seems to be a nice place to put it. Mrs Spunagain won’t have it on the Mini as it looks too much like we are trying to hide its age (although I am not sure who from).
Oh, and something has gone wrong, or to be honest might have always been broken… It turns out the driver door handle does not pop out when prodded, I never use this as I the handles present themselves as I approach the car, but I left the keys in the car while faffing about with getting children out of the house the other day and the handles retracted. It is no big issue as prodding the rear door handle gets all of them to pop out again so I will get it fixed next time it goes in for a service or something major breaks. A quick Google shows the wires to the micro-switch which detects you pushing the handle gets work hardened and snaps – the design is poor in that the micro-switches are on the moving part of the handle not the “chassis”. It is something that, if the car were out of warranty and bothered me I would fix myself – loads of how-to videos out there and I am still pretty handy with a soldering iron.
My referral code email has not appeared yet, but my award has now got 2 options – either the toy car or a Tesla wall charger:
This is much more useful as our next car is almost certainly going to be another EV and you only get the government grant on your 1st charger installation.This round of the referral program comes to an end on the 31st of October. A new round kicks off next month which still gives the £750 discount but will no longer include the free supercharging. So you have 2 days to order a car with my code and get the free supercharging deal! (Yes I am fishing for referrals - see referal code in my last post, and Tesla may change their mind, but I suspect with more cars coming on line they are not likely to in an effort to keep the superchargers available for those who need them on road trips!)
I'm man mathsing the Model S I have on demo at the moment, as it's growing on me.
It's startlingly quick - it's a 100d but i've "turned it down" to a 75d as that's what i'll be buying - and composed on the road. ride is firm but not harsh. quiet. and loads of room.
There are some features that I wish it had - blindspot alert, rear cross traffic alert, more advanced phone connectivity but these are minor gripes really and can all be added with firmware updates. For example, when I drove one before Xmas I was surprised that it didn’t have auto-wipers – got to dealers yesterday to find the latest update included auto-wipers which work pretty well but still need some tweaks.
one question Spunagain - servicing costs / frequency.
I've been told that 12,000 is average / recommended which means a trip to dealers every 7 months for me. What happens here? I assume they're checking the brakes and other mechanicals as well as the battery health etc. I was told by the sales guy that 90% of stuff is fixed over the air as it's usually a software issue and that they have seen vehicles with 20-30k between services with no problems.
i'm dropping the car back at the dealers tomorrow so will have a chat with them on cost but I was told by them that the referral program for £750 discount and free supercharging had been extended until end of January...might be clincher
It's startlingly quick - it's a 100d but i've "turned it down" to a 75d as that's what i'll be buying - and composed on the road. ride is firm but not harsh. quiet. and loads of room.
There are some features that I wish it had - blindspot alert, rear cross traffic alert, more advanced phone connectivity but these are minor gripes really and can all be added with firmware updates. For example, when I drove one before Xmas I was surprised that it didn’t have auto-wipers – got to dealers yesterday to find the latest update included auto-wipers which work pretty well but still need some tweaks.
one question Spunagain - servicing costs / frequency.
I've been told that 12,000 is average / recommended which means a trip to dealers every 7 months for me. What happens here? I assume they're checking the brakes and other mechanicals as well as the battery health etc. I was told by the sales guy that 90% of stuff is fixed over the air as it's usually a software issue and that they have seen vehicles with 20-30k between services with no problems.
i'm dropping the car back at the dealers tomorrow so will have a chat with them on cost but I was told by them that the referral program for £750 discount and free supercharging had been extended until end of January...might be clincher
How have you found the build quality?
A friend of mine has taken delivery of a brand new 75D and the fit and finish is a bit iffy in places.
Door seals on the front window whistling away like mad, headlining half in/half out of the door seal, etc.
A lot of admittedly minor niggles that are easily overlooked when wafting along (apart from the wind noise from the window seal) but for the money you’d expect it to be a bit better screwed together.
It feels nowhere near as budget as my Plastic Fantastic PHEV but touch screen apart, it felt a rung below my old F10 5 series.
A friend of mine has taken delivery of a brand new 75D and the fit and finish is a bit iffy in places.
Door seals on the front window whistling away like mad, headlining half in/half out of the door seal, etc.
A lot of admittedly minor niggles that are easily overlooked when wafting along (apart from the wind noise from the window seal) but for the money you’d expect it to be a bit better screwed together.
It feels nowhere near as budget as my Plastic Fantastic PHEV but touch screen apart, it felt a rung below my old F10 5 series.
Build quality was pretty good; no rattles / squeaks / massive panel gaps etc and this was a 3k old demo model with “dirt under it’s fingernails”.
I get that the cost of the tech is what you’re paying for but there were some pretty basic things that weren’t there or not as expected;
1)No door pockets, pockets on back of front seats or a centre armrest make it difficult to have stuff in the back seat - there’s some cup holders and a USB charging points but that’s it.
2)No coat hooks / grab handles - found this when i went to hang my jacket
3)Tonneau covers not hinged or fixed, just free floating - i lifted the boot floor cover out completely on more than one occasion even when i was being gentle.
4)Centre console / arm rest is a hollow plastic shell which surprised me, i know there’s no need to switchgear or mechanical gubbins to be there but doesn’t feel prestige when tapped.
Other than that, good car - i certainly noticed the difference getting back in my Lexus which felt heavy, noisy (especially wind noise), slow, and dingy
I get that the cost of the tech is what you’re paying for but there were some pretty basic things that weren’t there or not as expected;
1)No door pockets, pockets on back of front seats or a centre armrest make it difficult to have stuff in the back seat - there’s some cup holders and a USB charging points but that’s it.
2)No coat hooks / grab handles - found this when i went to hang my jacket
3)Tonneau covers not hinged or fixed, just free floating - i lifted the boot floor cover out completely on more than one occasion even when i was being gentle.
4)Centre console / arm rest is a hollow plastic shell which surprised me, i know there’s no need to switchgear or mechanical gubbins to be there but doesn’t feel prestige when tapped.
Other than that, good car - i certainly noticed the difference getting back in my Lexus which felt heavy, noisy (especially wind noise), slow, and dingy
Hi Arfursleep
Sorry about the delay – I need to check my forum settings as I did not get an email ping when the thread got updated.
Re the service schedule: here is the schedule sheet from my service last year – they seem to do a lot of work but it is still quite pricey IMHO.
.
.
You do not need to service it to keep the warranty. As I had the 24 month service done in April, my plan is to get the next one done next year as I approach 50,000 which is where the non drive train warranty expires or MOT time (end of this year)
Re the pockets and things. You can order aftermarket nets and coat hooks if you really need them, I have not bothered as it just encourages the kids to fill the car with random junk and rotting foodstuffs! But try searching for Tesla and Topfit on Amazon.co.uk and you will find all sorts of goodies.
Hi Stewjohnst
There have been no rattles for me yet apart from the sun roof which was cured with a quick spray of Silicone.
I got my email from Tesla in November for my referral gift and have ordered my Tesla home charger which will replace my existing Rolec.
Sorry about the delay – I need to check my forum settings as I did not get an email ping when the thread got updated.
Re the service schedule: here is the schedule sheet from my service last year – they seem to do a lot of work but it is still quite pricey IMHO.
..You do not need to service it to keep the warranty. As I had the 24 month service done in April, my plan is to get the next one done next year as I approach 50,000 which is where the non drive train warranty expires or MOT time (end of this year)
Re the pockets and things. You can order aftermarket nets and coat hooks if you really need them, I have not bothered as it just encourages the kids to fill the car with random junk and rotting foodstuffs! But try searching for Tesla and Topfit on Amazon.co.uk and you will find all sorts of goodies.
Hi Stewjohnst
There have been no rattles for me yet apart from the sun roof which was cured with a quick spray of Silicone.
I got my email from Tesla in November for my referral gift and have ordered my Tesla home charger which will replace my existing Rolec.
Just got email from a sales bod at Tesla, this is main body of text
"At the end of the month we’ll be leaving behind free supercharging for the life of the vehicle in both our performance electric vehicles. What we’ll move to is currently a little unclear however although the Tesla is still an exceptional car without, having access to a giant network of effectively free fuel is certainly something our customers should be aware of!
Should you have any further questions about our referral scheme, vehicles or related topics (such as charging, financial services, or maintenance) please call,..."
It's not a surprise to me, apart from the poor grammar and punctuation, as I'd been advised when on a test drive before Xmas. I assume they're also using it to potentially push some sales before month end. Could make a huge difference to some people and I can see it increasing costs for me long term if i get one (the free "fuel" on the cross continent trips disappears for example).
It does make some used models with guaranteed free supercharging for life a more interesting proposition.
"At the end of the month we’ll be leaving behind free supercharging for the life of the vehicle in both our performance electric vehicles. What we’ll move to is currently a little unclear however although the Tesla is still an exceptional car without, having access to a giant network of effectively free fuel is certainly something our customers should be aware of!
Should you have any further questions about our referral scheme, vehicles or related topics (such as charging, financial services, or maintenance) please call,..."
It's not a surprise to me, apart from the poor grammar and punctuation, as I'd been advised when on a test drive before Xmas. I assume they're also using it to potentially push some sales before month end. Could make a huge difference to some people and I can see it increasing costs for me long term if i get one (the free "fuel" on the cross continent trips disappears for example).
It does make some used models with guaranteed free supercharging for life a more interesting proposition.
Hi All
So a quite few months have passed since an update but mostly as I have not been driving the car! Unfortunately I have been involved in another accident in November.
While changing lanes on a roundabout I made contact which a lorry which was not there when I checked in mirrors and over my shoulder before indicating. So one of 2 things happened:
a) I managed to not see a something as large as a lorry, in which case I am an idiot and am mortified.
b) Between me checking, indicating and moving the lorry came onto the roundabout at high speed to try and squeeze into the space I was moving in to.
Either way, as I was in the process of changing lanes, as far as my insurance is concerned it is my fault and I will now have to pay a hefty excess to fix the damage. I will be looking at dashcams, but there are rumours of a dashcam feature being added as a SW update soon using the existing autopilot cameras.
Here are some pictures doesn’t look thaaaat bad does is?
The total bill was initially estimated to be about £8k and this covered:
Repaint front bumper
Repaint front wing
Replace front door skin
Repaint rear door
Replace rear wing
Replace rear bumper
Replace 2 wheels
Replace wing mirror
So timelines for the repair was:
The car is driving fine with no rattles or squeaks and the paintwork and panel gaps are as they were before the accident.
Total bill was £7,540 parts and 71 hours of labour! Total cost after VAT or £17,265!
I had been without the car for nearly 4 months.
For me it was not a disaster. Fortunately I had use of another car, but if it was my only car I would have been stuffed and had to either rent or buy a shed to tide me over. I did not ask for a hire car to keep down the insurance cost as I believe it can further affect future insurance quotes. But even if I had needed a car, I noticed my Aviva insurance for the Volvo covers me for a hire car for only 2 weeks for an at-fault accident. Something to be very aware of if you are looking at a Tesla (or any specialist car) as your only Daily driver. There are companies like Nuovo who do specialist Tesla insurance which provides Tesla replacements, but I have not had a quote from them yet.
This accident has cost me over £1000 in fuel I had not planned for and £850 for my insurance excess.
I guess Tesla could make these delays shorter by keeping a sensible stock of parts in the UK to avoid shipping delays. However they are a lot better than they were, as most parts take from 1-2 weeks to arrive whereas before it has been months. But I could also have made is easier by not choosing what seems to be the busiest and most popular Tesla approved body shop in the country – they are seeing 50 Teslas a month! (but they do such great work). There seem to be quite a few approved shops now.
And joy – I have just got my insurance quotation it has gone up from £637 to £1,100 for the year but that includes the extra mileage per year). This is of course due the addition of the at-fault claim, but probably also due to the fact that quite a lot of Teslas seem to be getting bent and they seem to be very expensive to repair. I suspect that right now owners want to use the Tesla Authorised Repair shops who hold a small monopoly which is keeping prices high. As they become more common and more garages get comfortable fixing them I hope prices will come down with increased competition.
The odometer has just clicked over 34,000 miles (12,300 of mine) and car still feels new.
I also got notification of Arfusleep’s use of my referral code phil7565. So I will get another tesla wall charger. Cheers Arfur! Using a referral code when buying a new car now gets you free unlimited supercharging and £375 towards accessories or servicing. One more and I get a new set of 21’ wheels!
So a quite few months have passed since an update but mostly as I have not been driving the car! Unfortunately I have been involved in another accident in November.
While changing lanes on a roundabout I made contact which a lorry which was not there when I checked in mirrors and over my shoulder before indicating. So one of 2 things happened:
a) I managed to not see a something as large as a lorry, in which case I am an idiot and am mortified.
b) Between me checking, indicating and moving the lorry came onto the roundabout at high speed to try and squeeze into the space I was moving in to.
Either way, as I was in the process of changing lanes, as far as my insurance is concerned it is my fault and I will now have to pay a hefty excess to fix the damage. I will be looking at dashcams, but there are rumours of a dashcam feature being added as a SW update soon using the existing autopilot cameras.
Here are some pictures doesn’t look thaaaat bad does is?
The total bill was initially estimated to be about £8k and this covered:
Repaint front bumper
Repaint front wing
Replace front door skin
Repaint rear door
Replace rear wing
Replace rear bumper
Replace 2 wheels
Replace wing mirror
So timelines for the repair was:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 13 Nov 2017 | Accident occurs, claim made on that day |
| ~24th Nov 2017 | Insurance assessor visits |
| ~7th Dec 2018 | Car picked up by Body shop |
| 20th Dec 2018 | Notified Parts have arrived |
| 18th Jan 2018 | Notified that during disassembly we need a new inner rear wing and a new steering rack |
| 25th Jan 2018 | Notified steering rack has arrived but not rear wing |
| 1st February 2018 | Notified waiting on Rear wing |
| 8th February 2018 | Notified Rear Wing has arrived should be ready by 16th Feb! Yay! |
| 15th Feb 2018 | Notified Rear inner wing not actually delivered after all– no date for resending new estimated cost to repair is £17k |
| 28th Feb 2018 | Wing has arrived and car should be complete soon |
| 2nd March 2018 | Car is almost done just waiting on refurb of wheels to match old ones with new ones, ETC for completion 6th March. |
| 6th March 2018 | Wheels arrived and will be fitted tomorrow. |
| 7th March 2018 | No news. |
| 8th March 2018 | I called then in the afternoon. Will finish today, QC check tomorrow morning with delivery tomorrow afternoon |
| 9th March 2018 | Still in QA, but arranged delivery for 12:00 on Monday 12th |
| 12th March 2018 | Delivered at 11:45! |
The car is driving fine with no rattles or squeaks and the paintwork and panel gaps are as they were before the accident.
Total bill was £7,540 parts and 71 hours of labour! Total cost after VAT or £17,265!
I had been without the car for nearly 4 months.
For me it was not a disaster. Fortunately I had use of another car, but if it was my only car I would have been stuffed and had to either rent or buy a shed to tide me over. I did not ask for a hire car to keep down the insurance cost as I believe it can further affect future insurance quotes. But even if I had needed a car, I noticed my Aviva insurance for the Volvo covers me for a hire car for only 2 weeks for an at-fault accident. Something to be very aware of if you are looking at a Tesla (or any specialist car) as your only Daily driver. There are companies like Nuovo who do specialist Tesla insurance which provides Tesla replacements, but I have not had a quote from them yet.
This accident has cost me over £1000 in fuel I had not planned for and £850 for my insurance excess.
I guess Tesla could make these delays shorter by keeping a sensible stock of parts in the UK to avoid shipping delays. However they are a lot better than they were, as most parts take from 1-2 weeks to arrive whereas before it has been months. But I could also have made is easier by not choosing what seems to be the busiest and most popular Tesla approved body shop in the country – they are seeing 50 Teslas a month! (but they do such great work). There seem to be quite a few approved shops now.
And joy – I have just got my insurance quotation it has gone up from £637 to £1,100 for the year but that includes the extra mileage per year). This is of course due the addition of the at-fault claim, but probably also due to the fact that quite a lot of Teslas seem to be getting bent and they seem to be very expensive to repair. I suspect that right now owners want to use the Tesla Authorised Repair shops who hold a small monopoly which is keeping prices high. As they become more common and more garages get comfortable fixing them I hope prices will come down with increased competition.
The odometer has just clicked over 34,000 miles (12,300 of mine) and car still feels new.
I also got notification of Arfusleep’s use of my referral code phil7565. So I will get another tesla wall charger. Cheers Arfur! Using a referral code when buying a new car now gets you free unlimited supercharging and £375 towards accessories or servicing. One more and I get a new set of 21’ wheels!
Hi Steviesam
Tesla provide a model of the range vs. speed here:
So it looks like 90 mph will give you a range of about 150 miles, (I guess at night when the roads are quiet!)
The same model also plotted power vs. speed, shown earlier in this thread and while it’s only a model is does seems to tie in very well with my experience so far of getting 330Wh/mile at 70mph.
Tesla provide a model of the range vs. speed here:
So it looks like 90 mph will give you a range of about 150 miles, (I guess at night when the roads are quiet!)
The same model also plotted power vs. speed, shown earlier in this thread and while it’s only a model is does seems to tie in very well with my experience so far of getting 330Wh/mile at 70mph.
Hi Again
I got a SW update overnight, (2018.4.1), which stated that it updated the tire pressure indicator to now offer the option to choose to display BAR or PSI units, and something to do with heated steering wheel which I do not have. However the car did not unlock as I approached as it normally does and as part of the update the option to unlock the car with proximity to the key fob has been disabled by default – I can switch it back on but have chosen not to for now.
On the Facebook group there has been a number of reports of a spate of Tesla thefts in the London area over the last few weeks – 8 in the last fortnight. These seem to have been stolen by using an RFID relay attack: this is where the crooks use an antenna and booster to amplify the signal between the car and the fob so that the car can be unlocked with the keys still in the house. This is a real thing and I presented a paper on it to an IEE cybercrime conference more than a few years ago having seen it demonstrated in the lab where I used to work on RFID projects. I suspect why this is why the proximity unlock feature has been turned off in the new SW release.
Looking at a Tesla key fob teardown video at 4:54 it looks like there are 2 antennas – the square on the right I suspect is a UHF antenna – something like 433MHz, and the square on the left I recognise as a Low Frequency (LF) 125kHz RFID antenna coil. The UHF antenna is used to lock and unlock the car either using buttons or by proximity – I imagine it is a 2 way radio which responds to a poll from the car. I suspect that turning off the proximity unlocking stops the car from sending the polling signal or from acting on a response to a polled command to avoid spoofing (where someone records the poll command and replays it back).
The LF antenna is designed as a short range link which is used to unlock the car if the other method fails by presenting it to the bottom of the windscreen. My worry is that this could also be exploited using a relay attack. Using the right kit can push the range of a 125k antenna out to a few feet. I managed the development of a 125kHz RFID tag chip over a decade ago and we could get several feet of range out of that and it was a pretty simple radio.
So my (slightly paranoid) response is to keep my key fobs in a tin to avoid this sort of attack and would recommend others with high value cars with these sorts of features to do the same.
Here’s mine:
I got a SW update overnight, (2018.4.1), which stated that it updated the tire pressure indicator to now offer the option to choose to display BAR or PSI units, and something to do with heated steering wheel which I do not have. However the car did not unlock as I approached as it normally does and as part of the update the option to unlock the car with proximity to the key fob has been disabled by default – I can switch it back on but have chosen not to for now.
On the Facebook group there has been a number of reports of a spate of Tesla thefts in the London area over the last few weeks – 8 in the last fortnight. These seem to have been stolen by using an RFID relay attack: this is where the crooks use an antenna and booster to amplify the signal between the car and the fob so that the car can be unlocked with the keys still in the house. This is a real thing and I presented a paper on it to an IEE cybercrime conference more than a few years ago having seen it demonstrated in the lab where I used to work on RFID projects. I suspect why this is why the proximity unlock feature has been turned off in the new SW release.
Looking at a Tesla key fob teardown video at 4:54 it looks like there are 2 antennas – the square on the right I suspect is a UHF antenna – something like 433MHz, and the square on the left I recognise as a Low Frequency (LF) 125kHz RFID antenna coil. The UHF antenna is used to lock and unlock the car either using buttons or by proximity – I imagine it is a 2 way radio which responds to a poll from the car. I suspect that turning off the proximity unlocking stops the car from sending the polling signal or from acting on a response to a polled command to avoid spoofing (where someone records the poll command and replays it back).
The LF antenna is designed as a short range link which is used to unlock the car if the other method fails by presenting it to the bottom of the windscreen. My worry is that this could also be exploited using a relay attack. Using the right kit can push the range of a 125k antenna out to a few feet. I managed the development of a 125kHz RFID tag chip over a decade ago and we could get several feet of range out of that and it was a pretty simple radio.
So my (slightly paranoid) response is to keep my key fobs in a tin to avoid this sort of attack and would recommend others with high value cars with these sorts of features to do the same.
Here’s mine:
Cold Road trip.
Last year I wrote about our drive from Newbury to Sunderland to visit the In-laws, well we have not been up there as a family for a year so it was time to visit again and we chose to go in the Tesla again, this time we did a slightly different route and the cold weather had a noticable effect on the range
We set off fully charged showing 257 miles vs. 263 miles last year so I have dropped 2.3% range in 1 year and 14k miles – but part of that may have been due to the cold so I will check again when it warms up. We headed off to the Warwick Supercharger 72 miles away on the M40. The Tesla sat nav suggested we went straight to Woodall to do the trip with one stop, but we like our 2 stop cadence so we arrived at Warwick with 150 miles of displayed range and we had a very lunch which took less than an hour and had a range of 247 miles when we left. There was one car in the 8 bay charger when we arrived and 2 when we left so no worries about availability. Infact on the round trip there was never more that 2 other cars at the Woodall or Warwick superchargers).
Next stop 45 minutes later we were on our way to Woodall services on the M1 – 95 miles to the next supercharger, (still only has Tesla superchargers on the southbound one, but this time the sat nav sent us around the back roads from Jn 30 rather than doubling back from Jn 31. We stopped there for coffee arriving with around 120 miles of range, less than half an hour later got back to the Tesla with a range of 233 miles.
The final leg was 127 miles to Sunderland and this time we got there with just 44 miles of range remaining (last year we arrived with 104 miles left). The temperature outside was between 3 and 4 degrees and raining pretty much constantly so the extra power to heat us, the batteries, run the headlights and the wipers made quite an impact.
As before, we charged from my FIL’s 13 amp socket in the garage during the stay which easily covered all our short trips and left us ready on Thursday to go home with an almost full battery.
Again carwise the week was uneventful and the car did all that was asked of it, pootling around the North East, visiting relatives and the a quick sightseeing trip to Penshaw monument and a climb up the stairs hidden in one of the pillars onto the roof.
The return journey the same. We started with 242 miles of range and stopped for a half hour lunch at Woodall with 89 miles range when we arrived. We left with over 200 miles but I forget the exact amount.
Next stop was Warwick (it has superchargers at the North and Southbound Services) for a splash and dash – no sitting for coffee this time, arriving with 132 miles and leaving with 169 miles of range. The final leg was 72 miles home and we arrived with 87 miles range remaining.
Still loving the autopilot but being very aware of it’s limitations, I treat is as a smart cruise control, which still takes a lot of effort out of the long motorway stretches.
It looks like the real world motorway touring range is around 200 but reduced to 180-190 miles for colder conditions.
It has now done 35,500 miles, 13,800 miles of mine in the last year which is not bad going considering with 5 months of that year the car was off the road. Still the most miles I have done in any car in a year!
Last year I wrote about our drive from Newbury to Sunderland to visit the In-laws, well we have not been up there as a family for a year so it was time to visit again and we chose to go in the Tesla again, this time we did a slightly different route and the cold weather had a noticable effect on the range
We set off fully charged showing 257 miles vs. 263 miles last year so I have dropped 2.3% range in 1 year and 14k miles – but part of that may have been due to the cold so I will check again when it warms up. We headed off to the Warwick Supercharger 72 miles away on the M40. The Tesla sat nav suggested we went straight to Woodall to do the trip with one stop, but we like our 2 stop cadence so we arrived at Warwick with 150 miles of displayed range and we had a very lunch which took less than an hour and had a range of 247 miles when we left. There was one car in the 8 bay charger when we arrived and 2 when we left so no worries about availability. Infact on the round trip there was never more that 2 other cars at the Woodall or Warwick superchargers).
Next stop 45 minutes later we were on our way to Woodall services on the M1 – 95 miles to the next supercharger, (still only has Tesla superchargers on the southbound one, but this time the sat nav sent us around the back roads from Jn 30 rather than doubling back from Jn 31. We stopped there for coffee arriving with around 120 miles of range, less than half an hour later got back to the Tesla with a range of 233 miles.
The final leg was 127 miles to Sunderland and this time we got there with just 44 miles of range remaining (last year we arrived with 104 miles left). The temperature outside was between 3 and 4 degrees and raining pretty much constantly so the extra power to heat us, the batteries, run the headlights and the wipers made quite an impact.
As before, we charged from my FIL’s 13 amp socket in the garage during the stay which easily covered all our short trips and left us ready on Thursday to go home with an almost full battery.
Again carwise the week was uneventful and the car did all that was asked of it, pootling around the North East, visiting relatives and the a quick sightseeing trip to Penshaw monument and a climb up the stairs hidden in one of the pillars onto the roof.
The return journey the same. We started with 242 miles of range and stopped for a half hour lunch at Woodall with 89 miles range when we arrived. We left with over 200 miles but I forget the exact amount.
Next stop was Warwick (it has superchargers at the North and Southbound Services) for a splash and dash – no sitting for coffee this time, arriving with 132 miles and leaving with 169 miles of range. The final leg was 72 miles home and we arrived with 87 miles range remaining.
Still loving the autopilot but being very aware of it’s limitations, I treat is as a smart cruise control, which still takes a lot of effort out of the long motorway stretches.
It looks like the real world motorway touring range is around 200 but reduced to 180-190 miles for colder conditions.
It has now done 35,500 miles, 13,800 miles of mine in the last year which is not bad going considering with 5 months of that year the car was off the road. Still the most miles I have done in any car in a year!
A few small updates today – the car hit 40,000 miles this week and 18,500 miles by me, which is the most I have done in 12 months or so the car has been on the road.
So what does a 40k mile Model S feel like – well just like a 21k mile one with a few minor glitches which I will get fixed when I get it serviced at Christmas for its MOT or when I approach the 50k warranty limit whichever comes 1st:
1) There is a small occasional buzz coming from the far right ventilation vent, it mostly appears on rough bits of the M4. Can’t hear it at all with music on, but it is audible over talk radio and a small niggle. From what I read on-line the fix is to replace the vent so I will get that done.
2) The driver’s door handle still does not present when pushed (not that I have tried to fix it). The mechanism still works fine and presents when I unlock the car, and presents when I press any of the other handles so no big deal.
3) When engaging Autopilot the car has a tendency to pull slightly to the left and go closer to the left edge of the lane and then gradually centre itself, a minor annoyance and probably down to the positioning of the front camera.
4) The right rear passenger door needs to be a bit better aligned following the accident repair. I will ask if they can rehang the door.
5) The Spotify has got much glitchier, I often have to tap to reconnect, which is not a HW issue and is a SW issue which seems to be pretty universal. Once a song or podcast is playing it is fine but seems to sometimes have trouble getting started.
And that is (accidents aside) all the problems I have. Other than that, the car is as solid as a rock and still makes me smile every day. It make my commute on the almost-always-crawling M4 much less tiring and it was worth purchasing the car for that alone. I am still enjoying driving it but it is still a big old beast and I am hankering after something smaller – I will look at the model 3/Y when they appear in the next couple of years.
Also after a year of listening to the stereo I have decided the standard audio is fine for me and I will not be upgrading – 2nd car ever I have not tinkered with the sound system the other was my MG ZT-T which did have the premium sound which was excellent!
My second referral notification came through last week and I ordered the Tesla home charger (thanks Arfusleep) – now have 2 of those on the way. Once fitted outside the house I will either fit my Rolec charger inside the Garage or Ebay it. The referral treats have changed again and the next one would be early access to a Solar Roof install, and the one after that would be the 21”Arachnid wheels or a week’s loan of a new S or X. The fifth award is now a Powerwall2.
I have just got an over the air update for the latest navigation which replaces the old one. I have read a lot of complaints about both so far but I seem to have been lucky. The display is slightly different from the old one with more information on te dash display no but it is early days and I have not I really used it in anger. I also have new feature allowing me to lock down the max speed limit if I was insane enough to let my daughter drive it when she hits 17. It also sends me texts if the car approaches the set limit.
I am looking forward to the next big release which rumour still suggests will add an integrated dashcam using the autopilot hardware.
I also got to try out auto-park, it is very conservative and when parallel parking it left about 9 inches between the kerb and the tyres. I will carry on parking mandraulically for now.
Update on fuel costs:
I have also been on a couple of mini trips in the car worth mentioning.
I went to the Stoneleigh Kit Car show for the 1st time which was great fun. There were some beautifully built cars as well as some real horror shows. I didn't know there were that many Lotus 7 lookalikes in the world! I came away with a strange urge for a Ginetta G27, an old 70s Nova (looked kind of like the Pink Panther car to my sun addled eyes) and a Sonic 7 (Focus based mid engine roadster) – picture below.
Then last month I went to the Fully Charged Live Show at Silverstone. I have never seen so many electric cars together or so many Teslas in one place. It did seem to show the growing level of interest in electric cars with 5000 people there on the Saturday in what was essentially a live show based on a more than slightly geeky you-tube show.
I went to see the lecture on converting classic cars to electricity which was very interesting particularly the bit about not being able to change chassis, passenger cell or safety features which is why converting modern cars with CAN buses between ABS boxes and ECUs is a lot trickier.
I saw the electric Range Rover featured on PH a few weeks back. It was done nicely – you can see the dual chargers, and dual motor controllers and the big box is one of the battery packs. The 2 motors are underneath the big box and mount via a clutch to the OEM gearbox. What worried me (and may be because it was hidden away), but I could not see either a coolant pipe or a battery management bus for the batteries, which I would definitely include if I were using Telsa batteries in a conversion. Here is under the bonnet:
The Morgan EV3 was there –looks great fun but now not shipping until Q1 next year with a new price of £53k which I think is about £20k too much.
The Nemesis was there – a pre Tesla Roadster Electric Elise which was a beast – engine bay photo below:
The Westfield Electric racer was there too, the guy from the consultancy which developed them for Westfield brought his along, he bought it after the project finished from an Electricity company (I guess one of the sponsors) who had theirs on display, forgot to charge it and “bricked” it. He fixed it and now races it, but is having more trouble with this as circuits are getting very nervous about EV car fires. He was extremely frieldly and happy to answer my many questions. Here is a peek under his bonnet – you can see the motor, controller and charger, the batteries are in a 3 inch deep flat pack under the chassis keeping the weight very low and centered.
There was lots of other EV Geekery, Bikes, scooters, EV friendly power – (5p per kWh for overnight charging anyone?) and cars from most of the main EV makers as well as a few consultancies like Indra who can help with any commercial EV developments you might be considering, as well as companies selling repurposed Tesla batteries and motors with hacked drive units ready to drop into your conversion? I was in hog’s heaven!
That’s all for now!
So what does a 40k mile Model S feel like – well just like a 21k mile one with a few minor glitches which I will get fixed when I get it serviced at Christmas for its MOT or when I approach the 50k warranty limit whichever comes 1st:
1) There is a small occasional buzz coming from the far right ventilation vent, it mostly appears on rough bits of the M4. Can’t hear it at all with music on, but it is audible over talk radio and a small niggle. From what I read on-line the fix is to replace the vent so I will get that done.
2) The driver’s door handle still does not present when pushed (not that I have tried to fix it). The mechanism still works fine and presents when I unlock the car, and presents when I press any of the other handles so no big deal.
3) When engaging Autopilot the car has a tendency to pull slightly to the left and go closer to the left edge of the lane and then gradually centre itself, a minor annoyance and probably down to the positioning of the front camera.
4) The right rear passenger door needs to be a bit better aligned following the accident repair. I will ask if they can rehang the door.
5) The Spotify has got much glitchier, I often have to tap to reconnect, which is not a HW issue and is a SW issue which seems to be pretty universal. Once a song or podcast is playing it is fine but seems to sometimes have trouble getting started.
And that is (accidents aside) all the problems I have. Other than that, the car is as solid as a rock and still makes me smile every day. It make my commute on the almost-always-crawling M4 much less tiring and it was worth purchasing the car for that alone. I am still enjoying driving it but it is still a big old beast and I am hankering after something smaller – I will look at the model 3/Y when they appear in the next couple of years.
Also after a year of listening to the stereo I have decided the standard audio is fine for me and I will not be upgrading – 2nd car ever I have not tinkered with the sound system the other was my MG ZT-T which did have the premium sound which was excellent!
My second referral notification came through last week and I ordered the Tesla home charger (thanks Arfusleep) – now have 2 of those on the way. Once fitted outside the house I will either fit my Rolec charger inside the Garage or Ebay it. The referral treats have changed again and the next one would be early access to a Solar Roof install, and the one after that would be the 21”Arachnid wheels or a week’s loan of a new S or X. The fifth award is now a Powerwall2.
I have just got an over the air update for the latest navigation which replaces the old one. I have read a lot of complaints about both so far but I seem to have been lucky. The display is slightly different from the old one with more information on te dash display no but it is early days and I have not I really used it in anger. I also have new feature allowing me to lock down the max speed limit if I was insane enough to let my daughter drive it when she hits 17. It also sends me texts if the car approaches the set limit.
I am looking forward to the next big release which rumour still suggests will add an integrated dashcam using the autopilot hardware.
I also got to try out auto-park, it is very conservative and when parallel parking it left about 9 inches between the kerb and the tyres. I will carry on parking mandraulically for now.
Update on fuel costs:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Miles when I picked it up | 21664 |
| Miles now | 40200 |
| Total miles done by me | 18536 |
| Supercharger miles | 1640 |
| Average Watt hours per mile while I have owned it | 344 |
| Home charging kWh | 5812.2 |
| Price/kWh | £ 0.1029 |
| Total cost if I had paid for all charging | £ 656.13 |
| Total cost/mile if I paid for all charging | £ 0.035 |
| Total cost to me so far (- supercharging) | £ 598.08 |
| Total cost to me /mile actual | £ 0.032 |
I have also been on a couple of mini trips in the car worth mentioning.
I went to the Stoneleigh Kit Car show for the 1st time which was great fun. There were some beautifully built cars as well as some real horror shows. I didn't know there were that many Lotus 7 lookalikes in the world! I came away with a strange urge for a Ginetta G27, an old 70s Nova (looked kind of like the Pink Panther car to my sun addled eyes) and a Sonic 7 (Focus based mid engine roadster) – picture below.
Then last month I went to the Fully Charged Live Show at Silverstone. I have never seen so many electric cars together or so many Teslas in one place. It did seem to show the growing level of interest in electric cars with 5000 people there on the Saturday in what was essentially a live show based on a more than slightly geeky you-tube show.
I went to see the lecture on converting classic cars to electricity which was very interesting particularly the bit about not being able to change chassis, passenger cell or safety features which is why converting modern cars with CAN buses between ABS boxes and ECUs is a lot trickier.
I saw the electric Range Rover featured on PH a few weeks back. It was done nicely – you can see the dual chargers, and dual motor controllers and the big box is one of the battery packs. The 2 motors are underneath the big box and mount via a clutch to the OEM gearbox. What worried me (and may be because it was hidden away), but I could not see either a coolant pipe or a battery management bus for the batteries, which I would definitely include if I were using Telsa batteries in a conversion. Here is under the bonnet:
The Morgan EV3 was there –looks great fun but now not shipping until Q1 next year with a new price of £53k which I think is about £20k too much.
The Nemesis was there – a pre Tesla Roadster Electric Elise which was a beast – engine bay photo below:
The Westfield Electric racer was there too, the guy from the consultancy which developed them for Westfield brought his along, he bought it after the project finished from an Electricity company (I guess one of the sponsors) who had theirs on display, forgot to charge it and “bricked” it. He fixed it and now races it, but is having more trouble with this as circuits are getting very nervous about EV car fires. He was extremely frieldly and happy to answer my many questions. Here is a peek under his bonnet – you can see the motor, controller and charger, the batteries are in a 3 inch deep flat pack under the chassis keeping the weight very low and centered.
There was lots of other EV Geekery, Bikes, scooters, EV friendly power – (5p per kWh for overnight charging anyone?) and cars from most of the main EV makers as well as a few consultancies like Indra who can help with any commercial EV developments you might be considering, as well as companies selling repurposed Tesla batteries and motors with hacked drive units ready to drop into your conversion? I was in hog’s heaven!
That’s all for now!
A couple of small updates!
My 1st Signature Tesla wall charger referral code gift arrived today. I will get a sparky in to swap it over with my Rolec and put that on Ebay. When the 2nd one arrives I will get it fitted once we get a second electric car. Reading the instructions you can daisy chain more than one wall box so that they load share from a single supply. I have one 32A supply to the garage so I could either get a second supply added from the breaker box (about 20m of cable and trunking) or get the second box added to the existing supply and the boxes would then share out the available current between them.
As it arrived
And inside
I also got notification of Kevin J’s use of my referral code phil7565. This means once his car is delivered get a new set of 21’ Arachnid wheels and tyres which save about 5kg per corner!
Pretty:
These seem to be reselling on ebay for about £3k a set - Cheers Kevin!
Using a referral code when buying a new car now gets you a slightly less exciting £100 worth of supercharging. But the goodies get slightly less expensive too, for my next referral I would get priority access to SW updates.
I have booked in for my 1st MOT in December along with a “small” service and a small but growing list of niggles to resolve before the body warranty expires at 50,000 miles:
1) There is a small occasional buzz coming from the far right ventilation vent, it mostly appears on rough bits of the M4. Can’t hear it at all with music on, but it is audible over talk radio and a small niggle. From what I read on-line the fix is to replace the vent so I will get that done.
2) The driver’s door handle still does not present when pushed.
3) When engaging Autopilot the car has a tendency to pull slightly to the left momentarily.
4) The left passenger door needs to be a bit better aligned, following the accident repair. I will ask if they can rehang the door.
5) The Spotify has got much glitchier, I often have to tap to reconnect, which is not a HW issue and is a SW issue which seems to be pretty universal. Once a song or podcast is playing it is fine but seems to sometimes have trouble getting started.
6) A family of spiders has taken up residence in my passenger tail-light assembly.
7) There is a new slight creak in the driver’s seat.
SW version 9 is due soon, one of the new features I was hoping for was dashcam using the built in front camera, but it turns out only AP2 (Autopilot hardware 2) cars support this and my car is AP1. I can’t say I am massively excited about the other new features and not sure I want the UI to become more model 3 like, but we shall see – the kids are looking forward to the Atari games though!
So the hunt begins for a dashcam – I am liking this one which is nicely integrated. I plan to fit it after the service to avoid any risk of warranty discussions as I will need to splice it into the alarm sensor loom to get 24h power supply coverage when parked.
Finally on vaguely related topic, almost exactly 2 years ago I placed an order for a Morgan EV3 (#86), as you may have read they have now abandoned the project so I have asked for my deposit back. I did get quite excited about that and started a thread on the Talk Morgan board which has now sadly come to nothing. I have however asked what they plan to do with the prototypes but the dealer does not know, now that would make an unusual readers cars thread!
My 1st Signature Tesla wall charger referral code gift arrived today. I will get a sparky in to swap it over with my Rolec and put that on Ebay. When the 2nd one arrives I will get it fitted once we get a second electric car. Reading the instructions you can daisy chain more than one wall box so that they load share from a single supply. I have one 32A supply to the garage so I could either get a second supply added from the breaker box (about 20m of cable and trunking) or get the second box added to the existing supply and the boxes would then share out the available current between them.
As it arrived
And inside
I also got notification of Kevin J’s use of my referral code phil7565. This means once his car is delivered get a new set of 21’ Arachnid wheels and tyres which save about 5kg per corner!
Pretty:
These seem to be reselling on ebay for about £3k a set - Cheers Kevin!
Using a referral code when buying a new car now gets you a slightly less exciting £100 worth of supercharging. But the goodies get slightly less expensive too, for my next referral I would get priority access to SW updates.
I have booked in for my 1st MOT in December along with a “small” service and a small but growing list of niggles to resolve before the body warranty expires at 50,000 miles:
1) There is a small occasional buzz coming from the far right ventilation vent, it mostly appears on rough bits of the M4. Can’t hear it at all with music on, but it is audible over talk radio and a small niggle. From what I read on-line the fix is to replace the vent so I will get that done.
2) The driver’s door handle still does not present when pushed.
3) When engaging Autopilot the car has a tendency to pull slightly to the left momentarily.
4) The left passenger door needs to be a bit better aligned, following the accident repair. I will ask if they can rehang the door.
5) The Spotify has got much glitchier, I often have to tap to reconnect, which is not a HW issue and is a SW issue which seems to be pretty universal. Once a song or podcast is playing it is fine but seems to sometimes have trouble getting started.
6) A family of spiders has taken up residence in my passenger tail-light assembly.
7) There is a new slight creak in the driver’s seat.
SW version 9 is due soon, one of the new features I was hoping for was dashcam using the built in front camera, but it turns out only AP2 (Autopilot hardware 2) cars support this and my car is AP1. I can’t say I am massively excited about the other new features and not sure I want the UI to become more model 3 like, but we shall see – the kids are looking forward to the Atari games though!
So the hunt begins for a dashcam – I am liking this one which is nicely integrated. I plan to fit it after the service to avoid any risk of warranty discussions as I will need to splice it into the alarm sensor loom to get 24h power supply coverage when parked.
Finally on vaguely related topic, almost exactly 2 years ago I placed an order for a Morgan EV3 (#86), as you may have read they have now abandoned the project so I have asked for my deposit back. I did get quite excited about that and started a thread on the Talk Morgan board which has now sadly come to nothing. I have however asked what they plan to do with the prototypes but the dealer does not know, now that would make an unusual readers cars thread!
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