2018 Tesla Model S Review. The Good, The Bad, and the Real Truth

[Gone_2022]

Yup you are correct. I am pretty sure this rolled out in the last update the cars received. My issues didn’t have anything to do with a “check engine” light or anything so I wasn’t able to try this out.

Really cool feature, esp for things under warranty.

 

[Gone_2022]

Figured I would give an update. I always strived to be 100% honest when it came to this car esp for the skeptics.

Well in the interest of honesty, the car let me down for the first time today in 2 years. I was driving south to pick up the family from the lake house. I had 90 miles in the tank and was headed to Gilman to supercharger. The nav was set and said I would arrive with 16% remaining which is plenty.

Well I arrived and plugged in..... nothing. Moved chargers, nothing. Checked my nav dash and on the screen it said the charger was temp closed and there was no power to it. I don’t remember seeing this on my nav when I was routing there. Normally it gives you a notification so either it wasn’t there or I totally missed it.

Champaign is to far for the car to make and there is nothing out here. So I am forced to slow charge for 3 hours at the lake house until I have a enough juice to make it to champaign.


I’m pretty frustrated. I feel like there should have been warnings all over the dash esp if a charger is totally shut down. Tesla is going to get an earful tomorrow. I haven’t been this mad at a car in a long time.

 

[Mook]

Man that's rough... Having to chill at a lake house.

 

[Gone_2022]

It’s frustrating because it wasn’t expected and further more if I didn’t have a place to go I would have been screwed having to call Tesla to tow me to champaign.

We were planning to simply coming home. Now we have to change plans and waste 4+ hours because of this.

 

[Gone_2022]

Update. Made it to champaign and charged. Took 3 hours of slow charge to be able to get me here. I arrived with 2% battery. Really a frustrating day, haven’t had one like this with the car yet. It really shows the need for multiple superchargers around an area. Like this case if 1 is fully down, you have another option. This rarely ever happens but I just got bit today by it.

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

It almost always comes back to infrastructure. Nothing wrong with an electric car, but society needs to invest in the infrastructure to make it reliable for everyone, and that includes redundancy.

Gas stations really should invest in high voltage charging infrastructure along side the gas pumps (just not directly next to the gas. I won't want to combine 400v and Gas).

 

[Gone_2022]

I doubled checked on my way home when I tried to route there now a big warning comes up. That was not there this morning. So either it went down while I was enroute, or the car never alerted me.

Either way it was not acceptable

 

[Stink Star]

Gas stations really should invest in high voltage charging infrastructure along side the gas pumps (just not directly next to the gas. I won't want to combine 400v and Gas).

this. No reason not to do it. Gas stations make next to nothing on gasoline, but make money on food, cigs, drinks, lotto tickets. You have somebody there for 20 minutes compared to 5 minutes and they are more likely to come in and buy something

 

[Gone_2022]

Out east they already have started this at least with Tesla. Once we hit mid Ohio most of the chargers we stopped at were in a sheetz gas station parking lot. Now it’s not all of them of course, but we don’t have that setup out here. Typically here it’s a meijer or another grocery store

 

[Stink Star]

Yea I guess Wawa has a bunch of stations too

 

[Chet Donnelly]

I love Teslas, but I think it's crazy to take them anywhere out of a city, for this exact reason. Even if there is superchargers available....screw waiting 20 minutes for the thing to charge.

 

[Gone_2022]

I love Teslas, but I think it's crazy to take them anywhere out of a city, for this exact reason. Even if there is superchargers available....screw waiting 20 minutes for the thing to charge.

This weird issue aside it’s really not bad at all. Hell do a road trip with a family esp an infant and you will be stoping a lot. Diaper changes, feedings etc.

 

[Chet Donnelly]

This weird issue aside it’s really not bad at all. Hell do a road trip with a family esp an infant and you will be stoping a lot. Diaper changes, feedings etc.

Made it Mount Prospect to Orlando with 4 kids (2-9 years old at the time) with 3 gas stops, and that's it. Made it back with 3 gas stops and a dinner stop....

I get your point. But when trying to be time efficient, it just makes no sense to take Tesla's out of the metro area.

 

[Stink Star]

Made it Mount Prospect to Orlando with 4 kids (2-9 years old at the time) with 3 gas stops, and that's it. Made it back with 3 gas stops and a dinner stop....

I get your point. But when trying to be time efficient, it just makes no sense to take Tesla's out of the metro area.

I mean I’d rather have a badass car for the 99% of driving I ever do at the expense of a few 20 minute stops rather than have a car that’s slightly more convenient for the one time every few years I drive over 300 miles in a day

 

[Chet Donnelly]

I mean I’d rather have a badass car for the 99% of driving I ever do at the expense of a few 20 minute stops rather than have a car that’s slightly more convenient for the one time every few years I drive over 300 miles in a day

I'd rather just have both, and not road trip with the Tesla...

 

[Gone_2022]

I dunno if I would go to florida with it from Chicago. Trips to Nashville, or similar lengths are a breeze. But a long trip such as orlando would get to be a little much.

 

[Stink Star]

I have family in Nashville and can’t wait to take a trip out there in the tesla

 

[Gone_2022]

It’s super freaking easy you have a long range model so my guess is you will stop once in either mount Vernon IL or Kuttawa, KY