:wrong: Soviet car reviews

[Tar]

Hung out at a buddies house left at full…
This vehicle is something else …
thoughts later … I may have to do a thing …

If it is what you want, then go do that thing, they are really techy cars!

I personally don't hate myself at a gas stop yet, and can't drive/accelerate anyways. So it doesn't make sense for me but I do love the windshield and intelligent/huge screen, and would love it if my unpredictable commuting demands could be supported by an electric car charging network.

My biggest beef is the durability and initial cost aspect. They are expensive vehicles! Gas prices are going to be a primary motivation to consider electric in the future, especially with .gov doing everything in their power to tax it and restrict supply.

[Apex]

Yep… that’s the current thought… y’all don’t know what you’re missing.

I’ve never been in a Tesla, so I am enjoying your well thought out and detailed reviews!

[Johnny_P]

Quiet, fast, comfortable with awesome tech and a very agreeable interior / exterior. A charging network and range that makes range anxiety pointless. What’s not to love?

Do it. They’re incredible vehicles. No need to deal with dillerman horseshit either. They bring someone to your house to service it. Never change oil again. I’d have bought one if I could figure out a charging situation.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

So what's the ideal spec? I still don't see the value proposition at $100k, never will. There's gotta be a sweet spot around the $80k mark?

I'm more and more thinking about an EV truck/SUV for the next vehicle. I'm super curious about the R1T.

[CaleDeRoo]

So what's the ideal spec? I still don't see the value proposition at $100k, never will. There's gotta be a sweet spot around the $80k mark?

I'm more and more thinking about an EV truck/SUV for the next vehicle. I'm super curious about the R1T.

Any reason for the Rivian over the big 3 options? My friend who had a R1T on order cancelled his after seeing one in person while he was in CA, and said it seemed closer to a full sized truck than the midsized he wanted, but with a midsize truck bed and funky proportion.

Buuuuut it still looked midsize ish in his picture.

[max225]

So what's the ideal spec? I still don't see the value proposition at $100k, never will. There's gotta be a sweet spot around the $80k mark?

I'm more and more thinking about an EV truck/SUV for the next vehicle. I'm super curious about the R1T.

There is more to come… sorry guys I don’t mean to but I want to do my first supercharging later on today and I will report back on that experience as well as using my buddies Nissan Leaf charger. And then write up a cohesive review of all that.

In addition I will share my consumption with you all, in case some may want to do the switch. This took me hours to learn but I think I can explain it quickly.

Ideal spec will have to wait further I’ll be borrowing a model Y next weekend… I think. We will see, I just don’t like how common the Y is here.

I’ll write up my final thoughts later today after I return it.

As far as EV competition I have strong thoughts here as well. I am a firm believer that Tesla is superior in this field, especially when it comes to efficiency and charging. Ignoring those two advantages is impossible and more on this later when I do my charging/usage write up. There will be a lot of info for some of you in there.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

So what's the ideal spec? I still don't see the value proposition at $100k, never will. There's gotta be a sweet spot around the $80k mark?

I'm more and more thinking about an EV truck/SUV for the next vehicle. I'm super curious about the R1T.

Any reason for the Rivian over the big 3 options? My friend who had a R1T on order cancelled his after seeing one in person while he was in CA, and said it seemed closer to a full sized truck than the midsized he wanted, but with a midsize truck bed and funky proportion.

Buuuuut it still looked midsize ish in his picture.

I'm really sour on the big 3 for personal reasons. The companies need a drastic wake up call to realize that their way of doing business in total is dead. I want to see companies like Rivian and Tesla eat their lunch and force some real change and innovation. I don't want them failing entirely (that would nuke our economy) but they need to change. The best way to force change is impacting the bottom line. Ive always said that about voting with your wallet. It's why I bought the Cucktrek instead of a Renegayde or Trail Blazer that I don't want.

I'd buy an EV truck from a Japanese OEM, but that's not even remotely on the horizon right now. I know the R1T is more full size than mid, I'd really need to see and experience one before pulling the trigger. That said, I like the Rivian approach to vehicle engineering over Tesla's, and I'm extremely curious to see the products in the flesh.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

So what's the ideal spec? I still don't see the value proposition at $100k, never will. There's gotta be a sweet spot around the $80k mark?

I'm more and more thinking about an EV truck/SUV for the next vehicle. I'm super curious about the R1T.

There is more to come… sorry guys I don’t mean to but I want to do my first supercharging later on today and I will report back on that experience as well as using my buddies Nissan Leaf charger. And then write up a cohesive review of all that.

In addition I will share my consumption with you all, in case some may want to do the switch. This took me hours to learn but I think I can explain it quickly.

Ideal spec will have to wait further I’ll be borrowing a model Y next weekend… I think. We will see, I just don’t like how common the Y is here.

I’ll write up my final thoughts later today after I return it.

As far as EV competition I have strong thoughts here as well. I am a firm believer that Tesla is superior in this field, especially when it comes to efficiency and charging. Ignoring those two advantages is impossible and more on this later when I do my charging/usage write up. There will be a lot of info for some of you in there.

I still think the model y makes more sense. It's not like an X is exactly rare, I see them more here than any other EV. Just because you blew more money doesn't make it better.

[max225]

approved 3rd row. Obviously it is completely unusable for anyone above an amputee.




Tessie side view



took it to the wineries. And raised the air suspension to 11" ground clearance to park off roads.




AZN drivers.


For the record I think she loved the car. She told me she has "never had so much fun driving a car, and that even in the M3 she felt stressed but this thing feels faster and more relaxed at the same time"

[max225]

BAD:
Quality issues:
Loose front fender


Body gaps in rear passenger door inconsistent.




Worst of all... is the paint starting to fail? this is the plain black color... yet this is what the roof looks like. There is no METALLIC. in the paint.

[D Griff]

Dat Tessie

[max225]

Charging info:


You can entertain yourself while charging with the built in games... solitaire and a few racing games where you actually turn the WHEEL while stationary to control the car on the screen.



Here is my total trip.
~169 miles ~57KW or about 2.96miles per KW... do the math at your own charge rates at home.
Superchargers take about ~30 cents per KW so this is about ~10 cents per mile in electricity. I know my friends in texas are at 5 cents per KW vs here, so that makes it insanely cheap to operate if you don't PAY for electricity.




Word of caution:

The charge RATES (time wise ) sort of suck. I used my friends LEAF charger and it was going at 18 miles per hr... that means... 300 mile "tank" so ~ 20 hrs to full. Once again you never go 0-100 in an E car. You're always 20-80, so we were able to go from from 50-80% in about 6 hrs that we spent there. Left on "full" aka 80% after arriving at 1/2 a tank.

The supercharger "rate" is about 200 miles per hr... or about 1.5 hr to go 0-100. We went from 60% to 80% in about 20 min. Didn't feel like waiting any longer.

No matter what E car you have you HAVE TO CHARGE AT HOME. Or figure out a way to charge at work or what not. It does not happen quickly no matter what they advertise. The absolute MINIMUM is 30 min to go from 20>80% which is just about the recommended charging interval. Frankly that's stupid to me. I wouldn't own an E car without at home charging.

Ideally you couple that with solar and then charge for free.

[Apex]

Max, little bit off topic here but in your solar panel quest, did you look into the Tesla Solar Roof panels?

[max225]

Overall thoughts:

Did I love the car ?
NO.
Would I consider purchasing one ?
YES.

Is it all fun and games ? NO. This is a complicated machine that is incredibly complex. Dismissing is as a "fad" is the dumbest thing one can do. It is a completely different vehicle from before. Tesla revolutionized cars period, to deny that is

There are serious drawbacks such as charging/quality. But they are offset by the batshit performance that you can USE every day.. ALL DAY EVERY DAY YOU CAN MASH THE "E"/GAS pedal and it is a rush like you've never experienced in ANYTHING else.
It's quiet, its safe and its FUN. There is no other vehicle on the planet that does this. (Other than maybe a Taycan).

They are not cheap vehicles either... 90k for the base X or 50k for a base 3 ... but it seems worth it to some extent if you're wiling to trade performance/charging/tech for quality.

The tesla is unmatched in that...

Some hidden features that you may or may not know about:

Century mode: (Lock the car and it turns on)
Tesla records everything around it with 6 + cameras... if someone tries to break into your car... hits it etc. It will record the plates/faces etc AND NOTIFY YOU.

Built in Dash Cam: (while driving)
Driving is recorded from the front/side cameras and you can review the footage in case of an accident.

Not to mention auto pilot which is unmatched... Although I did not like using it.

lots of smart features like pre conditioning of the battery as you're pulling up to the supercharger if it is in your nav.

Remembering where you raised your suspension on the map so that it does it automatically...
etc etc etc

The amount of tech in this car is just mind boggling and it is mostly smart and thought out.

[max225]

Max, little bit off topic here but in your solar panel quest, did you look into the Tesla Solar Roof panels?

No because they cost 3x what my tesla solar panels cost... There are also a lot of delays/litigation associated with them. So I would advise against them. However Tesla solar is the best in the biz and also the cheapest.

[CaleDeRoo]

My roommate's uncle has the Tessie panels and just bought a Model 3. He bought the panels before a car. If you or anyone is curious I could ask him about it. I didn't look last time I was there where he had them installed, but he has many more trees than Max so I imagine Max would make better use of them.

[Apex]

Max, little bit off topic here but in your solar panel quest, did you look into the Tesla Solar Roof panels?

No because they cost 3x what my tesla solar panels cost... There are also a lot of delays/litigation associated with them. So I would advise against them. However Tesla solar is the best in the biz and also the cheapest.

Got it, thanks!
Excellent write up on the weekend!

[max225]

Slept on it... not sure if I am 100% running to buy new tessie... It would have to be the "special" one which would make it an incredibly expensive purchase, and at this point the cost may not make full sense. It would be nearly 6 months of "living" expenses over the course of 3/4 years.

My buddy is letting me borrow his model Y next weekend. It costs basically 1/2 of what a model X runs for.

[D Griff]

Thanks for the write-up man, lots of great info on the Tessie! Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

I feel like this car is very big brothery... the car is always phoning home not only your location to the Tessie Corp but also actual live video of exactly where you are and what you're doin. I mean I have an iPhone/google apps so I'm already in this camp, but I guess I'm one of the few remaining people that finds this stuff (and the likes of Amazon Alexa) pretty dang :digsust: and a huge invasion of privacy.

[max225]

Thanks for the write-up man, lots of great info on the Tessie! Glad to hear you enjoyed it.

I feel like this car is very big brothery... the car is always phoning home not only your location to the Tessie Corp but also actual live video of exactly where you are and what you're doin. I mean I have an iPhone/google apps so I'm already in this camp, but I guess I'm one of the few remaining people that finds this stuff (and the likes of Amazon Alexa) pretty dang :digsust: and a huge invasion of privacy.

My Toyota rates the way I drive... I can "opt out" but if you think no one else is tracking you at this point... You gotta go air-cooled or bust.

I do agree there is a lot of big brother stuff in this car. But that isn't my main issue. The long term reliability/cost of ownership that are concerning me the most.

[max225]

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sal ... pe=listing

This is what worries me... 10k per year depreciation...

[D Griff]

Slept on it... not sure if I am 100% running to buy new tessie... It would have to be the "special" one which would make it an incredibly expensive purchase, and at this point the cost may not make full sense. It would be nearly 6 months of "living" expenses over the course of 3/4 years.

My buddy is letting me borrow his model Y next weekend. It costs basically 1/2 of what a model X runs for.

Yeah, I have a tough time with this. I mean, say you drop a hunnit K on on a Lotus or even a Porsche, people will see the car and think that it's cool, special, unique, hot... a $100K Tessie just looks like every other Tessie. Sure, they carry some clout but they are a dime a dozen and all rook same.

I 100% agree that they have changed the game and the cars are , but they certainly aren't special.

[max225]

Slept on it... not sure if I am 100% running to buy new tessie... It would have to be the "special" one which would make it an incredibly expensive purchase, and at this point the cost may not make full sense. It would be nearly 6 months of "living" expenses over the course of 3/4 years.

My buddy is letting me borrow his model Y next weekend. It costs basically 1/2 of what a model X runs for.

Yeah, I have a tough time with this. I mean, say you drop a hunnit K on on a Lotus or even a Porsche, people will see the car and think that it's cool, special, unique, hot... a $100K Tessie just looks like every other Tessie. Sure, they carry some clout but they are a dime a dozen and all rook same.

I 100% agree that they have changed the game and the cars are , but they certainly aren't special.

It was odd... A bunch of people were talking to me this weekend because of the Tesla. This hasn't happened since the corvette. Not saying I wanted to engage in convo and that's my style but it was interesting.

[D Griff]

Yeah, I have a tough time with this. I mean, say you drop a hunnit K on on a Lotus or even a Porsche, people will see the car and think that it's cool, special, unique, hot... a $100K Tessie just looks like every other Tessie. Sure, they carry some clout but they are a dime a dozen and all rook same.

I 100% agree that they have changed the game and the cars are , but they certainly aren't special.

It was odd... A bunch of people were talking to me this weekend because of the Tesla. This hasn't happened since the corvette. Not saying I wanted to engage in convo and that's my style but it was interesting.

Curious if this was mostly other Tessie owners?

The Corvette gets a ton of unwanted attention The Jeep gets a ton of comments as well but mostly compliments on the color, much more palatable than meth heads creaming their pants over the

[max225]

It was odd... A bunch of people were talking to me this weekend because of the Tesla. This hasn't happened since the corvette. Not saying I wanted to engage in convo and that's my style but it was interesting.

Curious if this was mostly other Tessie owners?

The Corvette gets a ton of unwanted attention The Jeep gets a ton of comments as well but mostly compliments on the color, much more palatable than meth heads creaming their pants over the

Mostly non tesla owners. But I felt a bit of the snobbery too ... like "oh look at that rich guy with the tesla" crap. Most people that KNOW the taco sort of love it and give me compliments on the color but that's RARE. The tesla attracted a bit more attention.