D's Notebook

Tag: cars (Page 1 of 4)

EV Driving Update

August 22, 2024 /

I am now four months and over 5000 miles into Telsa ownership, err, leasership? Blog rules dictate that an update is in order.

I don’t think I have anything super profound to say. For the most part, I love the car and EV life. I would say it has been a 90–95% positive experience, with mostly small things annoying me. At the same point in my Audi lease, I bet I would have said the same thing.

Driving an EV has ruined driving a traditional, gas car for me. S’s Telluride has a decent amount of power. I was endlessly frustrated driving it to Florida when, while merging onto a highway for example, I punched it and the pickup wasn’t instant. One-pedal driving is still a little odd, but odder is getting back in a traditional car and not getting the expected response when you back off the gas.

I rarely drive very fast or floor it. Yet there is still a thrill in going from a full stop at a red light to 40 or so in the blink of an eye, all in relative silence.

I’m not a mechanical expert, nor a professional car reviewer, so it is hard for me to articulate this next point. Perhaps my favorite thing about the Tesla is how the power and steering are so closely tied to each other. I love the feeling of total control when I’m in a turn. I don’t know if that is just how the steering wheel provides feedback or if it is something else that I don’t understand. In comparison, when I drive the Telluride, I get a little freaked out because the steering is so loose and disconnected from the transmission that I feel like I’m going to miss the first couple turns until I get used to its feel.

To balance that, I have a point for Kia and against Tesla. I drove a lot on our trip to Florida, and Kia’s Highway Driving Assist 2 system seemed to work way better than Tesla’s driving aids. When traffic was manageable I would let it steer and it remained in the middle of the lane, comfortably followed smooth turns on the highway, and never felt like it was being too aggressive. I kept my hands on the steering wheel and it honestly felt like I was turning even when I made no effort to move the wheel. We even let it change lanes a few times and although quirky, that seemed to work when there was plenty of space to do so.

On the other hand, Tesla’s Full Self Driving freaked me out and I only used it a handful of times in the months I had a free trial subscription. Instead I’ve tried to use Auto Steer on highway trips, but it seems super wonky and often disengages for reasons I don’t understand. When I can get it to work, it feels to me like it incorrectly measures big, sweeping highway turns where you can keep your speed pegged at 75–80 without any fear. It feels late rather than early when steering, making me think it is going through the turn then correcting rather late to stay in the proper lane. Tesla also seems to explore the space of the lane you are in a little more than the Kia. It doesn’t exactly ping-pong, but neither does it stay anchored to the center. Maybe I just need to use it a little more. I tried to turn it on once on my trip to Cincinnati over the weekend and it immediately yelled at me and disengaged, so I stuck to adaptive cruise the rest of the trip.

Another Tesla complaint: some of the sight lines are really bad. You can’t see the hood of the car at all because of the angle it sweeps away, so it is difficult to know where your nose is. And, of course, the car doesn’t have a front camera so when pulling into garages, parking spots, etc you have to rely on the parking assist radar image, which I find way too conservative in telling you where you are. I get a little nervous when pulling through a parking spot as sometimes it will insist there is something there when I know there isn’t.

Same goes for looking backwards. The tailgate window view is small – which is more because of the interior than the window itself – as is the rearview mirror. I really struggle to get a good view of what is behind me. I think Tesla should project the image from the rear-facing camera on the rearview mirror. Polestar is doing something a little like this on their upcoming Polestar 4, but that car doesn’t even have a back window so they kind of had to go that route.

I got used to having everything on the main screen pretty quickly. I still wish there were dedicated, physical buttons for some controls. But that just ain’t the Tesla way. And more and more automakers are going away from that model so we all need to get used to navigating screens to control our vehicles.

Every few weeks there seems to be another online debate about the necessity of Apple CarPlay. I can say I survive ok without it. If I can’t have CarPlay, I much prefer a new EV company like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, etc to design the software I am being forced to use. Pretty much every legacy car manufacturer makes crap software and it makes no sense to me why they don’t include CarPlay and Android Auto.

I would much prefer the ability to use Apple Maps on my car display, because I think Google Maps sucks for navigation. So many times Google tries to send me on crazy routes. Even to places where I go routinely. It doesn’t seem to learn based on my past actions, which I thought was a core part of Google’s overall mission. It is also terrible when it comes to regular traffic conditions. If I want, I can run Apple Maps on my phone and mount it off the car display to view it (I generally do this with Waze when I’m on a trip), but full integration into the car’s display would be better.

Where I miss CarPlay is in dealing with text messages. The Tesla will notify me that I’ve received a text, and if I react quick enough, will read it to me. But I can’t get it to send a response via dictation correctly. Maybe it’s me and not the software. If I ignore the initial notification, because I’m, you know, driving, I can’t go back and find it without touching my phone. I like how CarPlay will show a list of all your texts, you can select one that Siri will read to you, then respond via voice easily.

Seems like there should be some kind of middle ground where Apple and Tesla work together, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Charging continues to be fine. The Tesla app claims I’ve saved over $500 compared to a gas car in four months. I think that number is a little conservative, but I’d rather it underestimate than overestimate. I believe my driving will slow down for the next couple months until high school basketball begins, but I’ll remain on track to meet the estimated annual gas savings I used as part of my budgeting process.

You may recall I was having some issues with getting comfortable in the driver’s seat. After several weeks of that, I decided it was more an issue of my body than the car. My back would hurt in whichever of our cars I drove. I mixed in some new back exercises and that seemed to help, although Tesla could make their seats more luxurious and less harsh.

Obviously there is one big annoyance with owning a Tesla, related to someone who thinks they need to be in the news often to prove how smart they are. If that person would just go away I think not only would driving a Tesla be more satisfying, but the world would be a better place, too.

I would continue to recommend getting into the EV space to anyone who has the ability to charge at home and doesn’t need to make frequent, lengthy trips. When I drive to Cincinnati or Louisville, I always need to make a 10–12 minute charging stop on the way home. I can make the same round trip without stopping for gas in the Telluride. Driving to Kansas City, for example, would require at least three stops, compared to one stop for gas. Making our trip to Florida in the Tesla would have required five stops totaling roughly 75 total minutes. As I get older I find I need to stretch my legs more often, but I’m not super excited about adding a full hour to a 12-hour trip. Unless you love to stop or have over $100,000 to drop on a Lucid, long trips in an EV remain problematic.

I am looking forward to seeing how my experience changes when we get to the winter. Gas cars see a drop in mileage in very cold weather, but EVs suffer much more in the same conditions. It takes longer to charge and you lose the charge quicker because of both the ambient temperature and the battery drain to heat the car. I’ve already been studying tips to make that drop in efficiency less noticeable but won’t really know until I have to drive around for a week when the temperature doesn’t get about freezing.

As I said, no real deep thoughts. After the initial rush of switching to an EV, it quickly turned into a normal experience for me. Knock on wood it stays that way.

Car Notes

May 9, 2024 /

I could write about the Pacers-Knicks series today. But given how the first two games have left me royally pissed off, I think you all would rather read more car content rather than me bitching about the referees or the Nova Knicks or how the Pacers refuse to play defense or block out guys four inches shorter than them.

Another Addition

For roughly 60 hours we were a five-car family.

Saturday S and I were browsing through the options for M and we found a Mazda CX-5 that checked almost every box at the CarMax in Cincinnati. That made us laugh. It was listed as a free shipping option so after double-checking its inspection and vehicle history reports, I put in for it to be shipped to Indy.

It left Cincy at 9:00 Monday morning. I test drove it at 3:30 that afternoon. M drove it home around 5:30.

It is a year newer than the CX–5 she drive for two years and that C drives now. It is listed as the same trim level but is missing a few features that C’s has. It seems like it is in great shape. You wouldn’t guess it was a rental for nearly 30,000 miles from its exterior or interior appearance.

I tried to surprise M. She was doing some work for an aunt and when she got home I told her I needed her help with an errand. I tried to hide my checkbook but she saw it, and when I told her to bring her purse she said, “Are we getting a car?”

So she wasn’t surprised but she is happy. Now she needs to get a job that is more regular and pays better than occasionally helping family and friends do things around the house.

Adios, Audi

We took my Q5 back to the dealer this morning, putting us back at four cars. My favorite car I’ve ever had, and it treated me pretty well over the past three years.

I drove it a lot this week, because M accidentally filled it almost all the way up when she put gas in it last week and I wanted to use as much of the fuel I paid for as possible. Still fun to drive, but after driving a Tesla for three weeks, the transmission lags are even more noticeable and frustrating.

While we were waiting on the dealer to check the odometer and finish the paperwork I looked at a nice Q8 that was in the showroom. It will only set you back $90,000!

When I pulled into a parking spot there was a white Q5 in the next spot that had the exact same KU license plate holder. I think it was in for service, because I didn’t see anyone lingering around so couldn’t talk Jayhawk hoops or realignment rumors with its owner.

Tesla Updates

More notes from the new car.

Charging has been super easy. I used the Supercharger around the corner once, before my home charger arrived. Then I used them each time I’ve been to Cincinnati. That could not be simpler. At home I’m keeping the battery charged between 20–80%, which is supposed to be ideal for normal use. So far that’s meant plugging in about once a week, a little more often when L has basketball games over the weekend. My app tells me that at roughly 1400 miles, I’ve saved about $150 compared to gas.

I dig being able to control the climate system from my phone. At basketball last week I got warnings that the interior temperature had surpassed 100 and the fans had kicked on. When L’s games ended, I turned on the AC from inside the gym. In the five minutes it took to walk to the car, the climate system had cooled it to a pleasant 71 degrees inside.

One big annoyance is Tesla’s reliance on Google Maps. Remember when Google Maps were so much better than Apple’s? But years of a bazillion people using iPhones has shifted that. The traffic conditions color coding on Google Maps never seems right. Sunday we pulled into a lengthy slowdown on the interstate. Google gave no warning and showed traffic speeds as normal. Other times I’ll approach an area that shows lots of reds and oranges, indicating slowdowns only to find normal traffic when I pass through. Not sure where they get their info from, but it always seems to be wrong.

I used to laugh when Apple Maps would show heavy traffic in the neighborhood around St. P’s before pickup. It was just dozens of parents parked on the side streets, waiting for the lot to open, scrolling through Twitter on their iPhones that created those “traffic jams.”

One of the many rabbit holes I fell into during my car search was watching car wash videos. I’m not sure how I landed there, but through the process I bought a foam cannon, some microfiber towels, and some good car soap. After both Cincinnati trips I washed the Tesla in the driveway. I wouldn’t say the job was perfect, but the car looked pretty damn good when I was done!

What’s funny about me turning into a Home Car Wash Guy is that a Crew Carwash opened up three blocks from our house in April. It is safe take Teslas through automatic washes; there’s even a special Car Wash Mode to make it easier. I think I’ll save that for the winter, though, and keep doing the driveway thing for now. It takes maybe 15 minutes and is kind of relaxing.

New Car Notes

April 24, 2024 /

Nearly two weeks into Tesla ownership, with two big drives under the hood; time for a status update.[1]

The transition has gone reasonably well. There are still moments when I struggle with one-pedal driving. One example is when cruising towards a right turn where I don’t have to stop, just slow and continue. I feel like I’m often either going into the turn too fast or braking too soon. Sometimes when I’m coasting to a stop I find myself going too fast and have to use the mechanical brake rather than rely on the regenerative brakes. Both things that should get easier the more I drive the Tesla. I also find myself thinking about driving rather than just driving, but I think that happens with any new car.

I drove the Model Y back-and-forth to Cincinnati both trips last weekend, using Full Self Driving briefly a couple times. I don’t think I’m comfortable enough with the car overall yet to let it rip, though, and cancelled it after a few minutes, switching over to traditional cruise control. Once FSD tried to change lanes when I wasn’t expecting it – in a totally safe situation – and it kind of freaked me out. I’m going back to Cincy this Friday to move M home for the summer and may give it more of a shot while I’m driving alone on I–74.

I used the self parking function once over the weekend, in a parking lot Sunday morning where there literally weren’t any cars for several hundred feet. Not exactly a tough problem to solve, but it is both impressive and unnerving to sit in the driver’s seat while the wheel turns itself and the car carefully, perfectly backs into a spot.

I also used FSD when L and I were coming home from practice last night. It had rained earlier in the day, so there was some moisture on the ground. When you engage FSD, the windshield wipers and high beams switch into automatic mode. Thus I was able to experience to two of the most common complaints people have about the current Tesla software: the wipers turned on despite it not raining and the high beams turned on too early and off too late. I knew about these flaws, so keep both on manual control under normal conditions. Engineering is hard.

What has been really strange is when I hop into one of our other cars. I took C’s car to fill it up with gas Monday night. I likely looked like I was brand new to driving the way I was jerking around, racing the engine or braking too hard. The obvious thing that worries me is forgetting that I don’t have regenerative brakes and not stepping on the brake pedal, but that hasn’t been an issue. Yet. Right now I’m parking the Audi outside, and when the lawn service comes I move into either S’s or C’s garage spot. I’ve been a little aggressive backing up a couple times, forgetting about its sensitivity. Luckily always with nothing behind me!

To be fair I always struggled going from any of my cars to any of the Grand Cherokees S drove because of their weird accelerator sensitivities.

After driving at higher speeds on the highway I found that the Tesla indeed allows more road noise in than the Audi. You have to turn the music up pretty high to cover it. And apparently the 2024 models are quieter than previous ones. I think it definitely rides rougher than the Audi when there are bumps in the road.

I thought I had one semi-major issue but think I resolved it last night.

Suddenly last weekend I was not comfortable at all in the driver’s seat. There was a constant pressure on my lower back, which caused strain in my middle back, and every few minutes I was fidgeting or adjusting the various seat controls to try to find a more pleasant position. I took a tape measure and took measurements for how my Audi seat was set up just to compare. After a few days I realized that the lower part of the Tesla seat, where the lumbar support is, seemed to be curved differently than any car I’ve had before. I kept messing with the lumbar support buttons but that didn’t seem to help.

Tuesday I tried placing a thin cushion between my upper back and the seat to plug that gap, and it seemed to help, taking some of the pressure off my mid-back.

Later I read up about Tesla seats and learned that the lumbar system is very finicky. I found several Reddit and message board posts about people who had the exact sensation I had: it almost felt like a basketball was pushing on the lower back. The support is comprised of two airbags that inflate based on different actions. When they deflate, they do so passively, and sometimes they don’t release all the air. The posts included a few tips for getting the bags to flatten that I tried, and I think they are now totally deflated. I usually don’t need much lumbar support, so I’m going to do my best to never touch those buttons again.

I still find the seats to be a little constricting. They need to have just a little more width in the upper bolsters.

Another minor complaint. Before I bought, I debated whether to go with the white or black interior. The white seems to really open up the car and looks futuristic. Surprisingly/allegedly it’s not that tough to keep clean. A consistent criticism, though, was how the strip of white trim on the dashboard causes a glare on the side mirrors than can make it tough to view traffic coming up on your left.

The white interior is more expensive so I went with black for purely budget reasons.

I’ve noticed that the wood trim piece that replaces that white strip in black interior models also causes a glare in the driver’s view of the side mirror. During the day at least, you have to really focus to see what’s behind you. Or just turn on your turn signal and look at the blind-spot camera.

I picked a very strange time to get a Tesla.

Two days after I brought mine home Tesla eliminated the inventory discounts that have been in place for over two years. Had we waited two days, we would have spent an additional $1800 over our three year lease. There were rumors that Tesla was going to shift to sub–1% financing rather than discounts. But, three days later, some of the discounts returned. This Tuesday, as the company was reporting its Q1 earnings, the full inventory discounts came back. In a 10-day stretch prices went up anywhere from $3000–5000 depending on model and then fell by the same amounts.

A sign of a well-run company.

We noticed that the sales people we dealt with on pick-up day seemed a little off. Or at least compared to when I had been in for test drives. I chalked it up to Saturdays being busy and them rushing around.

Also two days after I brought my Model Y home, Tesla announced big layoffs, potentially up to 20% of the company when they wrap up. Several sources reported that rumors of layoffs had been circulating through the company over the weekend. So I wondered if folks weren’t stressed because of Saturday deliveries but more because they weren’t sure they were going to have jobs on Monday. I hope the two who assisted me, who were both super nice and helpful, made it through.

I may have found a hack to get support people to stop harassing you when you call to cancel an account. I used the online chat feature to cancel my SiriusXM account. When they asked for a reason I told them I got a Tesla which doesn’t support SXM. The agent then tried to push me into staying subscribed via their app and offered to “get started setting that up for you!”

I declined, saying I had tried it over the weekend and found it dangerous to use when driving.

The agent quickly backed off, cancelled my account, and issued me a credit for the unused part of my subscription.

Next time a subscription service is dragging their feet to cancel, find a way to say that keeping it endangers your safety and see if they dial back the pressure.

I wasn’t lying. While you can certainly stream music from your phone via Bluetooth, there’s no radio-like way to switch channels on the app without digging through its interface. It used to be a lot easier to navigate, but at some point it was updated and lacks a clear listing of channels or favorites that can be selected quickly and safely while driving. I’ll miss SXM.

I did discover last night that there is indeed a traditional radio. I believe at some point Teslas did not include an AM/FM tuner. Not that I listen to radio very much, but I was able to follow to the Pacers game as L and I came home from her practice.[2] I need to take a closer look and see if it supports HD radio, and then if there are any cool, secondary channels in our area for the times when I’m bored with Spotify or podcasts.

A couple quirks with the phone key. Once it just stopped working, telling me to use the key card to start the vehicle. Not sure what happened but about an hour later the phone key worked just fine without me resetting it. Monday landscapers came to do our mulch. I parked next door at my gym’s lot so I could come-and-go freely. Both times I parked over there the car didn’t lock itself automatically as I walked away. It took me awhile but I finally realized the gym is close enough to our house to register as being at “home,” and thus not lock automatically.

  1. Do you say “under the hood” for an EV since there’s just a frunk there and nothing mechanical?  ↩
  2. Hey! The Pacers won their first playoff game since 2018 Tuesday night!  ↩

Car Buying Notes: Something New, Something Blue

April 16, 2024 /

I said there was some bigger news from the weekend. I wasn’t lying. Saturday I brought home a 2024 Tesla Model Y Long Range.

I’m pretty pumped about it so far. However, even with my two test drives and literally hours of watching videos about how to drive Teslas, I’m still deep in learning curve mode.

The purchase, or lease actually, happened pretty quickly after two months of research. And obviously a little quicker than I had expected. Prepare yourselves for a classic, lengthy, D’s Notebook breakdown of the process!

Thursday is S’s day off. We had an exciting day planned featuring a Costco run. The Tesla dealership is basically next door to our nearest Costco. I figured I would swing through the Tesla lot on the way, since S hasn’t been involved in this process at all. Well other than giving me a budget and approving my choice. I guess those are pretty important aspects. What I’m saying is she hadn’t gone a test drive or watched any videos with me, just knew I was neck-deep in research for the last eight weeks and would pretend to care when I was all fired up and dropped EV knowledge on her.

Thursday she beat me to the punch, though. “Can we drive by the Tesla place?” she asked as soon as we left our house.

Of course we can!

Our dealership stores a bunch of their inventory across the street in a dying mall’s parking lot. We drove up and down the four rows of cars stationed there, and I pointed out the differences between the models, the colors I was interested in, and what wheels I preferred. As a bonus, two big carrier trucks were parked with a bunch more cars to unload. It was also the first time I’ve seen a Cybertruck in person.

Ugly.
As.
Hell.

Anyway, we browsed for a few minutes, went to Costco, and then back home. S asked me how many cars in the configuration I wanted were available. I pulled up the inventory list and showed her. She thought about it for a minute then said, “Well, we probably need to get one this weekend because of our schedule the rest of the month, so go ahead and do it.”[1] I tried to play it cool, although I’m sure I looked like a kid on Christmas morning who sees some big boxes with his name on them.

Every blue Model Y LR with 19” wheels showed as being in transit. I called my sales lady and asked if she had an ETA on the cheapest one on the list.[2] “It’s actually on a truck between here and Chicago, so it will be here tomorrow and can be picked up Saturday.”

Perfect! I put down my $250 deposit to reserve it roughly 2.5 seconds later.

The buying process is kind of amazing with Tesla. You can do almost all of it on your phone.

I put down my deposit using ApplePay.

Then a series of tasks showed up on the Tesla app. I uploaded our drivers licenses and selfies to prove it was really us. I filled out the lease application. I received a lease agreement to sign less than 90 seconds later. Once I had insurance coverage, I uploaded a copy of our policy. All the disclosure nonsense? A series of opening PDFs, which automatically checks them as being reviewed. Not a single nudge to get clear coat protection or buy an extended warranty. Then I set an appointment for picking up the car.

Saturday we headed to the dealership after L’s games. When we walked into the store I got a notification to open the app and show the number displayed to a Tesla staff. They sent us to the corresponding spot in the parking lot with instructions on how to pair my phone to the car and the keycards, then to fill out the state registration paperwork that was in the front seat. S and I signed in all the proper places, did a quick check for dents, dings, and other imperfections, walked the paperwork back in, and we were free to go.

Literally about a minute of face-to-face interaction with another human being. I know some people – let’s call them freaks – enjoy the give-and-take of the car buying process. I am 100% down for this method.

S left in her car, I took a few minutes to get comfortable in my new one, then raced home. S and L jumped in for a quick ride around the neighborhood. Later in the evening we drove it up to S’s parents to give them a quick run up-and-down a busy road they live off of. Sunday L and I took it on the highway to basketball. C rode in it for the first time Monday night. It’s been hilarious to watch the reactions of everyone I’ve had as a passenger when I floor it. Their eyes always get really big and they either start laughing, cuss, or lulled into gasping silence by the speed.

My raggedy-ass Audi is now sitting in the driveway, waiting for M to come home to claim it for a couple weeks before it goes back to the dealer.[3]

I used a referral code from a friend so the Tesla came with Full Self Driving for free for three months. As with my second test drive, I’ve kicked it in a couple times, briefly. But I need to get more comfortable with the car in general before I think about using it for real. I’m driving back-and-forth to Cincinnati twice this weekend, so that could be an opportunity if there’s not too much traffic.

So far I’ve really enjoyed driving it. Being so technical, I feel like the learning curve is a lot steeper than a normal car. Had I not done so much research I would be much less comfortable, I’m sure. There are some frustrations, as with any car. For example, somehow I ended up with three driver’s profiles and couldn’t figure out how to get back to the one that was tied to my Tesla account, so had to start over from scratch. All the mirrors, side and rearview, are pretty small, which gives you a less expansive view than I’m used to. Balancing that, the blind spot cameras, which kick in when changing lanes, are high definition and give you an excellent view of what’s to either side.

The weirdest thing so far is backing up. I know that sounds weird, but here’s why. In a traditional, automatic car, you drop it into reverse, ease off the brake, and the car starts rolling. You can back out of a spot without ever touching the gas if you want to. Teslas are totally the opposite. Flip it to reverse, take your foot off the brake, and the car does not move. It won’t until you apply pressure to the accelerator. I’m so nervous about how much power it has that I use a very light foot and reluctantly crawl backwards. I know the power is regulated in reverse, yet I’m still super careful when giving it juice. I did give it a little too much foot backing out this morning and had a moment of panic. I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon and zip out of the garage and parking spots like I used to.

Another big frustration is how there is no camera or ultrasonic sensor on the front bumper. Since the hood curves down and I can’t see the front of the car, pulling into our garage is a bit dicey. My Audi had cameras and sensors. S’s Telluride has both. Neither her Grand Cherokee nor my Tahoe had forward cameras, but they both had robust sensors that told you exactly when to stop before hitting anything. The Tesla uses its other cameras to “map” what’s in front of you, but is very conservative in placing those objects. So it yells at me that I’m about to hit the wall when I still have a good two feet of space. I hung a thin string – but no tennis ball! – from the garage ceiling to mark the right spot because I do not trust the readings I get at all. Last night it was flashing “STOP!” at me when I still had a good 18” before I would have bumped anything.

OK, now one awesome thing: power in roundabouts and from full or partial stops. Hallelujah! Could not be more different than in my Audi. Saturday morning when we were going to basketball the Audi tried to kill us one last time by nearly stalling as we were pulling out of our street into the main one. Such strange behavior from an otherwise well-engineered car. When I went to the grocery store in Carmel Monday and traversed approximately 50 roundabouts, I never feared for my life and always had more power than I needed.

Ride quality? It seems pretty similar to the Audi to me. On good pavement it’s just fine. If you go through a bumpy patch you are going to feel it. It is most certainly not an elegant ride as you would expect from a higher end luxury car. L had an open gym at CHS Monday night and the Tesla took the speed bumps on campus much better than the Audi.

I really like not having to carry a key. Teslas come with two credit card sized keys, sort of like checking into a hotel. You pair those with your phone and as long as you have your phone with you, the car unlocks when you approach it, and locks when you walk away. You tuck a card into your wallet for backup. Most cars these days have proximity keys, so this isn’t a huge difference. I don’t have to carry a key fob in my pocket anymore. Our front door has a keyless lock, so I don’t have a house key, either. For the first time since I was like eight years old, I have zero keys in my pockets, which is kind of crazy. I like carrying as little crap as possible, so this is a huge bonus.

Since this was kind of a sudden purchase, I hadn’t ordered a home charging kit when I reserved the car. It’s kind of dumb they don’t just come with the car like they used to. Or that you can’t purchase one in the store and take it home the day you receive your new car. I put that order in Friday and it should be here Wednesday or Thursday.

C needed to make a pre-prom Target run Monday night so I ran her over and parked at the Supercharger there to grab some electrons while we went inside. Couldn’t have been easier. Got enough juice to keep me going until I can start home charging in a couple days. I will almost never use that Supercharger by our house, which is a bummer because it is rarely busy and has a Target, Starbucks, and Whole Foods in the same lot. Charging at home is cheaper and more efficient, so Superchargers will just be used on the rare occasions we take a car trip in the Tesla.

In a fun coincidence, the hotel I booked two months ago for our trip to Cincinnati this weekend has a grocery store with a Supercharger five minutes away. Our trip has gotten a little weird – more on that next week – so I’m not sure whether I’ll have to use it or not. All my future basketball trips will include trying to select a hotel with a Supercharger nearby.

Tesla is infamous for its rigorous cost cutting. That’s why the ultrasonic sensors were removed a couple years ago. That’s why they keep finding ways to make the interior more spare, shifting as many functions to the screen as possible. That also means Tesla owners, perhaps more than regular car owners, end up buying customized accessories to fill gaps in equipment. There are sites filled with nothing but Tesla accessories, from upgraded interior lighting to special phone mounts to whole RGB light kits that require removing pieces of trim to connect to the car’s electrical systems. There are even additional screens you can install where the traditional gauge dash would go that can be used to integrate CarPlay or display car information.

I’ve only bought a few. So far. I ordered all weather floor mats. My Audi came with them and I now much prefer how that style confines debris compared to the cheap-ish carpeted ones that come with the Tesla. I got a little tray for one of the center console storage areas so vital items don’t fall into the bottom of the fairly deep compartment.

Biggest of all, since I got the 19” wheels with the generic covers, I bought some third party wheel covers. This is quite the racket, and I spent hours researching them. Best I can tell, they are basically five or six kinds that are all exactly the same and likely made in the same facility. But one place will charge you $300 for a set, while another will be closer to $200. Then you can find them on AliExpress for like $90 if you can wait 3–6 weeks for them to show up. I got some on Amazon that had a coupon for $110. Paying as little as possible makes sense since I have no idea how they’ll hold up to being removed once per year to rotate the tires. Your mileage may vary on whether you like the blacked-out wheel look. I’m not always a fan, but I think these look way better than the “how little effort can we put into designing these” ugly ones that came on the car.

Finally, for now, I saw a brilliant bumper sticker on a car that was in for service at the dealer Saturday. I’m not a big bumper sticker guy, but I have ordered one that I will put on our garage storage closet where I slap stickers from places we’ve visited or products I’ve purchased.

Because fuck him.

As with the last time I went through this process, I’ll give a few updates as I get deeper into Tesla ownership. So this series, or at least its 2024 edition, isn’t quite done. Plus we’re about to buy a car for M so I can share some thoughts on buying a used car in the Internet age!

  1. This weekend I’m going to Cincinnati for basketball. Next Friday M comes home for the summer. We don’t have to have four cars the minute she gets home, but as she has jury duty her first Monday home, it sure would be helpful.  ↩
  2. A reminder that there are limited options for Teslas, and vehicles get steady discounts as they move through the distribution pipeline. I had my eye on six cars scaled in a $2500 range, all exactly the same.  ↩
  3. I kid, it’s not raggedy ass at all. After a few days sitting outside, covered in pollen, it sure looks older than it actually is.  ↩

Car Buying Notes: Early April Update

April 11, 2024 /

Things have quieted down a lot on the car buying front. Which is weird because I will likely have a new car before the end of April. How is that possible? It’s not as interesting to share what I’m learning when it is all centered on one car rather than a comparison of several. Or at least it seems that way to me.

There was a moment of drama while we were on spring break. I had several price alerts set and got a message that the Volkswagen dealer in Lafayette marked down their 2023 ID.4s over $15,000. One that fit most of what I was looking for was marked down nearly $18,000. Crazy!

I spent a few hours back in the research rabbit hole, reviewing my numbers and lists, but eventually realized that even for that much off MSRP, I would be unhappy leasing a car that was about to be replaced with a version that fixed most of its flaws. Factoring in the Federal tax credit, even with the dealer markdowns the ID.4 was barely cheaper than a Tesla Model Y. Even less so on a lease.

So no ID.4 unless the nicer 2024s show up in April.

Last week I test drove a Model Y for a second time. The first drive in February I was just trying to get a general feel for the car, and comparing it to the Kia EV6 I had driven the previous day. This time, after nearly two months of reading and watching videos about the car, I wanted to pay more attention to the little things. I wouldn’t say I did a highly technical test drive. I just wanted to remind myself how it felt, how easily I could access settings on the screen, etc. I even kicked it into Full Self Driving mode for a moment, although I’m not sure I did it correctly so I wouldn’t say I actually turned the car loose. I wasn’t brave enough to let it change lanes on its own so took over after traveling less than half a mile with it on.

When I was finished, I was confident I had my next car. Now it’s just a matter of deciding what exterior and interior colors I want.

Unless something crazy happens in the market in the next two weeks, of course. There’s still time for one more frenzied period of comparing cars against each other.

It has been fascinating to watch the Tesla market over the past couple of months. The company had been in a cycle of steep price cuts to solidify its market lead. But on both March 1 and April 1, Tesla raised prices by $1000. I figured these were ploys to drive end-of-month and end-of-quarter sales. That proved to be true as the price increases only applied to buyers who were ordering custom builds. Cars that were in transit or on lots still get fat price cuts.

And the crazy thing about Tesla is that the longer a car sits on the dealer lot, the more they get discounted. It seems to be $400–500 per day. But sometimes it’s less, sometimes it doesn’t change at all. There’s a science to letting a car sit on the lot long enough to drop another $1000 or so before someone else snatches it up. In a period when Tesla sales have slowed significantly, I’m not sure there’s been a better time to buy one. I will likely bring home my new car at a sales price close to $30,000 less than what a friend of mine paid for his Model Y just over two years ago.[1]

One thing I’ve tried to keep in mind as I’ve gotten deeper into this process is that, as great a tool as the Internet is for researching any purchase, it also tends to focus on and magnify negatives. In my many hours of research, I’ve often slipped into worrying about which set of flaws I was choosing to take on rather than concentrating on each car’s strong points. That’s always part of the process. You don’t want to buy a car that does ten things great but one thing horribly, and that flaw counter-balances all the good. See why I stopped shopping the Kia/Hyundai EVs because of their electrical issues.

This fear of the bad gets reinforced by how negative message boards and YouTube videos can be.[2] As I get closer to pulling the trigger, I’ve had to remind myself that even with its shortcomings, whatever car I bring home will be an amazing piece of technology that makes what I was driving just a few years ago look woefully primitive in comparison.

  1. He bought, I’m leasing, so you can’t exactly compare our outlays. And he also got his factory wrapped. But, still, I’m getting a much better deal than his.  ↩

  2. Or more correctly, YouTube video descriptions. So many will say something like “I Bought A Tesla. Did I Make A Terrible Mistake????” or something like that. Then you watch the video and there’s literally nothing negative in it. The titles are designed to generate outrage/clicks.  ↩

Car Buying Notes

March 14, 2024 /

As promised, a second Car Buying post for the week. I’ve had to revamp this one several times, because my brain has been overloaded with info the past few days, and I’ve struggled to turn it into a coherent piece. Today’s mostly revolves around Ze Germans.

Why I Am Ditching Audi

I think I addressed this a bit in my first post, more about why I’m stepping down from my Audi in terms of finances. But I know the question is out there that goes along the lines of, “Your Audi was your favorite car ever. Why not just buy it when your lease ends and stick with it for a few more years?”

A very good question. One I considered for a bit.

There are a few answers.

The first regards short term expenses. Beyond just buying the car and paying the associated taxes, the next ownership year would be an expensive one. The Q5 needs new tires. We just spent $300 to put a new tire on S’s Telluride. Multiply times four and I’m dropping $1200-ish on top of the purchase price.

Then the next scheduled maintenance for the Audi is a beast, with a whole swath of “required” tasks hitting at the 40,000 mile mark. I was quoted $1500 by the dealer, and that’s before any unexpected repairs or replacement parts. I would likely take it to an independent shop to reduce the cost a bit, but I don’t think that would knock more than a couple hundred bucks off the price.

Audis, like most German cars, aren’t known for aging affordably, either. Looking at cost of ownership curves online, once you get five years into ownership, you can count on dropping at least a grand each year on service and repairs.

Between tires, maintenance, taxes, and the lease buyout, I was in the ballpark of what it would cost to get into a new, non-electric car. It always seems smarter to start over rather than stick with a car with miles and wear-and-tear on it for the same price.

Then the EV market got flooded with incentives and they became an option, which totally changed my thinking on what my new car would be.

The second reason for not staying with the Audi is the normal annoyances that come with driving something every day for three years.

I’ve had the tailgate fixed three times. Do I trust it to keep working normally after it is out of warranty? Not really. I’m shocked it hasn’t glitched out again since its last repair.

My biggest issue with the car has been the transmission and the Auto Start/Stop function. The transmission is sluggish in low gears. When I’m backing out of the garage and changing directions, for example, it often seems bubbly and hesitant. It reminds me of cruising at idle speed in a boat and that weird, wet, gurgling sound I would hear when I first started our boat and backed it out of the dock. If you ever need to punch it to go from low speeds to high quickly, the car is hesitant as hell. The engine revs, trying to supply the asked for power, but the transmission just can’t move it to the axles fast enough.

The Auto Start/Stop is terrible on Audis. It will get you killed if you’re not careful. There have been so many times in the past three years when I was coasting into a roundabout or yield sign, the car decided to shut off the engine, then I needed power and it refused to reengage immediately. Your heart rate will crank up a few notches when you see a car coming right at you as you mash the gas pedal and nothing happens for a few seconds, then the engine reluctantly kicks in and gives you just enough power to avoid being smashed.

Contrast that with S’s old Jeep Grand Cherokee or current Telluride, where the engine supplies full power quickly.

Or compare to an EV, where the power is never truly cut and the car responds instantly.

Even if you turn Auto Start/Stop off – which must be done each time you re-start the car – the Audi struggles in those quick stop-and-go situations.

I’m all for saving gas and cutting emissions, but not at the expense of safety.

I’ve also found Audi’s drive-assist functions to be annoying. Adaptive Cruise Control is far too conservative. Lane assist is too aggressive. For 2021, Audi had a pretty good package of “self driving” functions. I was never confident enough to use them all at the same time.

Obviously these are super first world problems. I’m lucky to have an Audi in the first place, let alone be in a position to either keep it or replace it with something that might be less expensive but is still very nice. I’m sharing all this more to explain my car shopping than as true complaints.[1]

VW ID.4

I’ve written about the Volkswagen ID.4 a little already.

Kyle Conner, the main guy behind the Out Of Spec videos, is the biggest EV geek I’ve come across in my research. He owns and drives high end EVs on a daily basis. His videos are often about squeezing as much performance out of an EV as possible.

Where other reviewers are lukewarm about the ID.4, he absolutely loves them. He agrees they are quirky, not as exciting or technologically advanced as competitors, and have a few things that will drive you crazy. But, he counters, they perform just fine as a daily driver.

Last week I wondered how important it was to have a car that can leverage the Tesla charging network when I rarely take long trips, and when I do they are almost always to big cities with mature charging networks. And do I need 400 horsepower when that is mostly a party trick to use momentarily? The instant power of any EV will allow me to easily floor it to pass, merge, or momentarily avoid trouble.

Suddenly I was looking at ID.4s again. And there were still some great deals.

So I went and test drove one Monday.

I think Kyle’s assessment was perfect: it is indeed quirky, but it also a completely competent and enjoyable ride. The screen graphics seem 20 years old compared to a Tesla. There are some wild controls scattered through the cabin. The infotainment system is frustrating. The steering wheel buttons are easy to accidentally hit and, for example, turn on the steering wheel heater when you are making a right turn. It lacks some key functions that leverage the promise of electric motors.

It rides nicer than the Tesla Model Y, though. It has Apple CarPlay, supports SiriusXM, and has HomeLink integration. It manages an estimated 275 miles on a full charge, enough to get to Cincinnati and back without charging in ideal conditions. It comes with three years of free charging on the troublesome Electrify America network. For all of EA’s issues, the cities I will visit most often – Cincy and Louisville – feature EA chargers at the same locations as Tesla Superchargers, and these are often the best maintained and functioning EA spots.

For getting around town, which is 80% of my driving, it does the job just fine. With all the current incentives it comes in cheaper than the Tesla Model Y. Plus, VW Finance would waive my Audi turn-in fee since VW owns Audi, saving us another $500.

I got quotes from our insurance agent Tuesday. A Tesla Model Y would increase our premium by $400 a year. An ID.4 would decrease it by the same amount. So the ID.4 saves us almost a grand right there before you even get to sticker price, lease amount, and so on. Throw in the forgiven disposition fee and that’s nearly $1500 in savings.

Would it make more sense to go ahead and get a 2023 ID.4, despite their flaws and the fixes expected on the soon-to-arrive 2024 models, as the dealers try to push them off the lot?

For about 24 hours I thought the answer to that question was yes.

The big catch is I would have to buy one right now. With two payments still owed to Audi. There was only one on the lot that I liked, a gorgeous Silver Mist Pro S rear wheel drive with Cosmic interior, and I can’t imagine it will sit there for six more weeks.

The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense to sit tight. Tesla prices are fluctuating again. They just went up, but many expect them to take another drop soon. For a couple grand less, the ID.4 makes sense. If they are priced equally, I think you have to go with Tesla. Once the updated 2024 VWs land, the trim level I would want will check in about $4000 higher than the Model Y. The software in current VWs is being eliminated and replaced with a new Android Auto system, likely in the 2025 models. Even on a lease, not sure how comfortable I am buying a car running software that is no longer in development.

VW showed off the 2024 models a couple weeks ago, but there is zero guidance on when those will show up. If you go to VW’s website, it still allows you to spec a 2023 model then points you to existing inventory. There isn’t even a Coming Soon page showing the improvements in the ‘24s. The VW sales guy I met with – who was a very tall, very German guy, which seemed perfect – said they haven’t been told when to expect the new ones or when orders will open up.

I spent pretty much all of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday making lists, watching videos, reading reviews and message boards, and generally making myself crazy trying to figure out what the best path forward was.

Tesla Questions

My re-interest in the ID.4 was prompted not just from reevaluating what my driving needs are, but also because I have one serious concern about Tesla.

As I’ve mentioned before, Tesla has dropped radar/ultrasonic sensors, relying solely on cameras and “neural network” processing to control all the driver assist functions. This can cause phantom braking, when the camera thinks it sees something and slams on the brakes for no reason, among other issues.

That seems like a huge flaw to me. While I won’t be on the highway a ton, if I can’t trust the adaptive cruise control and, thus, can’t use it, the Teslas take a big step back. Tesla is constantly tweaking its software in attempts to make improvements. I’m not sure that a bunch of new code will ever replace sensors shooting energy out and making calculations based on the returns.

Then I read five bad things about the ID.4 and it seems dumb not to go with Tesla, even with their issues.

I’m glad spring break is coming up so I can stop thinking about cars for a few days.

Electrical

We had an electrician out Wednesday to run the line for a garage charger.

I don’t think I shared how crazy the process was to find someone to even give me a quote. I sent messages to seven or eight different services, and only got responses from two. The first company sent a guy out and gave me an estimate on the high end of what I expected based on my research. The second had me send them pictures of our electrical box, basement, and garage plus a video of where the line would run. They quoted me about 30% less. I went with the second folks. They were also on the official Tesla Approved list of businesses, so hopefully that means I can trust them.

The bummer of the project was that our garage wall is on the far north side of our house while our electrical box is in the basement on the far south side. That required running about 75 feet of wire. If our box had been directly below our garage, or even in the garage in an older home, we would have saved another 50%.

  1. There is a car YouTuber I’ve watched over the last month who, multiple times, has said a good problem to have is a “Third World Problem.” I mean, come on…  ↩

Car Buying Notes

March 12, 2024 /

I’m finding the titles of these posts to be cumbersome. Plus they overlap with my high school hoops post titles. So, going forward, I’m just using this generic title.

It’s been an eventful week on the EV front. Not just for me, but also in the news. For today’s post I figured I would knock out thoughts on some of those macro issues. As this is a pretty quiet week leading into spring break, I may have another car post this week to continue to clear out some of the topics I want to hit.

New Rivians

Rivian announced three new vehicles last week. The R2, which was expected, and the R3 and R3X, which were surprises. All are designed to make the brand more accessible, with prices starting in the high $40,000s compared to the $70,000+ the R1T and R1S check in at. The event made quite the buzz in the EV scene, as the vehicles all look awesome. So many of the people I follow in the EV space put down deposits immediately. If the timing was different, I might have done the same.

The big catch is that the R2 isn’t expected to hit the market until 2026, with the R3s to follow. Given how Rivian is hemorrhaging money at the moment, there is a question of whether the company will survive long enough to release these new models.

Below is the best summary of the event I watched. I had never heard CEO RJ Scaringe speak before. Why aren’t there more tech CEOs like him? He seems very chill and normal, not the usual freak show that so many of his contemporaries are. Or at least one of them. I liked how he sat back and let Marques Browlee do most of the talking, where other CEOs would have taken control of the conversation to make sure they got all their talking points in.

Blazers

After pulling their Blazer EVs from the market because of serious software issues, Chevy re-launched the line last week. Since I’m in the market I took a look and it blew me away that they start in the $60,000 range. SIXTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A BLAZER!!!

Checking local inventory, most seem to land in the high–40s to mid–50s, but that is after the Federal tax incentive is applied. Not sure how that’s a winning strategy to make waves in the space when the Blazers’ competitors, most of which are much better reviewed, are dipping well into the $40s currently.

Ford Charging

Ford was the first manufacturer to gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network a week ago. It will take some time for adapters to be released to current Ford owners and their models to switch to native support of the Tesla plug, but this is a big first step to leveling the landscape in the fast public charging space. Hopefully it also forces Electrify America to get their shit together so they are a legitimate competitor to Tesla charging and we have some real competition in the market.

EVs in the Cold

I’ve had several people ask me why I would get an EV after what happened in Chicago and other northern cities during February’s cold snap.

That’s a very good question.

From everything I’ve read, the charging meltdown, which left dozens of EVs stranded without power and charging stations operating at limited capacity, primarily affected EV owners who are unable to charge at home. Which is much more common in big cities, where apartments/condos and parking difficulties make it almost impossible for people to do overnight charging at home.

I will have a home charger so am not too worried about bitter cold rendering my future EV useless. And if we had to take a long trip in super wintry weather, we would just take S’s car.

EVs are very much affected by cold weather. But so are traditional gas vehicles. When there’s a gas station every five miles we don’t register how bad our mileage can get when the temps dip and the winds blow. A few years ago I was driving my Suburban in a bitter storm and checked my fuel economy for grins. When I saw I was getting seven miles per gallon, I turned that screen off so I didn’t think about how fast I was ripping through my gas tank.

Sales People

I’ve been a little surprised that the Kia dealership I visited last month hasn’t hounded me more. They are known for being super aggressive, but other than a cursory follow-up email, I hadn’t heard much.

Until last week. When I got this crazy email. I’ll share the entire text so you can take it all in.

Hello again. Several days have passed since your visit to our dealership, and I want to let you know that our interest in earning your business has only grown since your visit. I would like to ask a favor of you, present me with a challenge that I would need to overcome for you to take home a 2024 Kia EV6. It can be anything: trade in value, price, terms, or perhaps a different vehicle that you were first considering.
Allow me the chance, and I will get the job done.

Yowsa.

It seems a little desperate, doesn’t it?

I’ve never seen a sales pitch like that, but it sure fits that dealer’s reputation. S and I laughed, then brainstormed “challenges” we could throw at him.

Do 100 pushups in a minute.
Take another $10,000 off the sales price.
Give me a straight answer about the electrical issues that Kia/Hyundai seem to have in their EVs.
Let me punch him square in the jaw.
Do a shot a minute until he passes out.

Or, my favorite: shut the fuck up.

I know car sales is a tough racket. You have to deal with casual shoppers who are just browsing, or are cross-shopping against the car they really want, who you have no chance of making a sale to. You have a-holes who will spend hours working you for every last cent on a deal. And you have your sales manager breathing down your neck about why a customer walked out the door without a deal in place.

Yet I’m constantly amazed by how many sales people do such a bad job of reading their customers or do weird shit like this. The “challenge” did make me laugh. Are there actually people who read that message and think, “You know what, I like the way this guy asked me for a challenge. I think I’ll buy a car from him!”?

My Buying Process

There has been some movement in my EV journey over the past few days. I won’t go into the details yet, as the situation remains fluid and I don’t want to share something that I end up backing away from in two days.

I did test drive a new vehicle on Monday, though. And may test drive something else today.

The electrician is coming tomorrow to run the 240 volt line to our garage for a level two charger.

I’m also waiting for some information from our insurance agent, which could make-or-break this whole undertaking.

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 4

March 5, 2024 /

I said in my last car post that despite deciding to get a Tesla Model Y, I would continue to research EVs until I actually pulled the trigger to make certain of my final decision. It doesn’t take much to send me down research rabbit holes, and I spent a decent chunk of the weekend re-evaluating my choice and diving back into review videos and posts.

It started Friday when my brother-in-law in Boston, Uncle Maaaahk, mentioned that if I had time for more test drives, he has a friend who owns a Volkswagen ID.4 and loves it. The ID.4 had, in fact, been on my initial list of EVs. But I was underwhelmed with its specs and while reviews were generally positive, they also pointed out serious software flaws in the vehicle.


I checked prices Friday and was floored to see the ID.4s at our local dealer were all marked down anywhere from $10–12,000. They support Apple CarPlay, SiriusXM, and have HomeLink modules, all things missing from Tesla. Reviewers and owners raved about how nice they rode. Maybe I owed them another look!

Here’s where things got weird. Last week Volkswagen showed off the updated ID.4s to the public for the first time. These updates make the car more powerful, solve a lot of the software flaws, and smooth out some other issues. If these fixes worked, might the ID.4 be on equal footing with the Model Y? And if VW was cutting prices, maybe I should run over and test drive one on Saturday?

Then I realized the cars on the lot are all 2023s, while the ones that had hit YouTube are all 2024 model years. It looked like VW was marking down the ’23s at dealers to clear them out for the ’24s which should start rolling out of the Chattanooga plant soon. Some of the software updates might hit the existing models, but VW generally gets poor grades on their software strategy and there has been no clear guidance on how much, if any, of the improvements will be available for the pre–24 models.

Still, a seed was planted and I spent several hours Friday night and Saturday morning reading up on the ID.4, making lists, and comparing specs.

In the end it came down to the ’23 ID.4 having too many quirks and software issues to match the Model Y, especially when priced the same. Had VW cut prices further, so they were cheaper than the Model Y, then I would have been more interested.

My Saturday research then pivoted and landed on a car I really like but had also cut from my list because of price and charging network, the Polestar 2.


I think these look incredible. They get positive reviews. Like the VW, they also support Apple CarPlay and SiriusXM. They are more car than SUV but I just love their looks.

The hook for me was that the used Polestar market, as with so many EVs, has crashed over the past year. I found several that were under 20,000 miles and could he had for half their original price. I smelled blood in the water.

Again, I dove into videos and spec comparison lists.

Then S pointed out something very important that I had not thought of: since there is no Polestar dealer in Indy, what would I do if I needed service? I can have the tires rotated anywhere. But if it won’t start one day or I get a display full of warning lights, who would I call?

The nearest Polestar dealer and service center is in Columbus, OH. Polestar will pay to have your vehicle transported up to 150 miles if needed for service. Columbus is 180 miles away.

Plus it uses the wrong charging network (for now).

Fortunately I only spent about an hour diving into Polestar info.

That wasn’t the end of my hemming-and-hawing, though.

Tesla recently refreshed their Model 3s, the sports car sibling of the Model Y. The new ones look incredible! I’m not usually a red car guy, but I love the new red available on the Model 3.


The newest Model 3 also comes with several other interesting upgrades and improvements, ones that the Model Y will likely receive in 2025. Even better, the low-end Model 3 is the cheapest car in the Tesla lineup, checking in below forty-grand.

Alas, there is almost no backseat space in the Model 3, that low-end model is rear wheel drive, and I recalled from when I drove the Audi A5 for a week last year that I did not like being low to the ground, or at least the getting in-and-out of the low car.

So it’s back to the Model Y. Which isn’t a bad place to be. I’m just making sure.

One other thing about non-Teslas I’ve considered. There was a series of videos about the Kia EV6 I watched at the beginning of this process that got me really juiced about that car. The guy who made them just released a podcast discussing his two year experience with the car. He had the dreaded 12 volt battery issue that scared me away, although he said a simple jump start brought his car back to life. He said other EV6 owners he knows have almost all had a separate, major electrical issue right around 30,000 miles, a milestone he is about to hit. He assumes his car will have the same issue. He confirmed what I had read, that Kia corporate doesn’t seem nimble enough to deal with these issues and the dealerships in his area are clueless when it comes to fixing them.

He loves his EV6 and has been mostly happy with it. He and his wife own three cars between then, so one going out of commission is more of a bummer than a life-altering incident. He confirmed most of my fears about Kia, though. I felt validated.

That’s your update for this week. There’s still plenty in my notebook, so look for more posts about 1) why I’m ditching Audi, 2) my on-going sales experience with Kia, 3) how New Car 2024 fits into my long-term plans, and more.

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 3

February 27, 2024 /

When I realized that the Kia EV6 likely wasn’t the car for me, I started thinking about the areas where it failed to be sure about what I was looking for. Kia is fairly new to EVs, so their products are not mature. They don’t seem to have a strong organizational commitment, on either the corporate or dealer side, to EVs at the moment. With the electric market softening over the past year, I wonder about how serious they will continue to be about their models going forward. If they are already having difficulty identifying and fixing wide-spread electrical issues now, what happens if their EV sales tank? Kias currently rely on the less common and reliable charging network, although with the Tesla network opening to other brands in the next 18 months, that will change. If I want an EV, I need one that addresses all these shortcomings.

There was an easy answer to most of these questions.

Oh, God.

Fuck.

Tuesday I test drove a Tesla Model Y.

As usual, we back up before we go forward.

One year to the day before my Tesla test drive, M and I rode down to Cincinnati for a campus visit with her buddy A and her dad T in his Model Y.[1] He is a true convert, ditching a BMW for his Tesla, and extolled the car’s virtues during our roughly four hours in it. This was my first long-term ride in a Tesla, and I liked it, quizzing T about his perspective along the way. As soon as we got home M said, “You’re going to get a Tesla now, aren’t you?”

I said no but, dammit, the girl might have been right.

OK, back to last Tuesday.

I arrived at the dealership, signed a waiver, and an associate led me to a Model Y. She showed me how to get the steering wheel and mirrors to comfortable positions. Being a Tesla, this is not as straightforward as in most cars. Then she guided me on how to find pretty much everything I would need during the drive on the car’s touchscreen.

The dealership sits right in the middle of a huge construction area, so I asked her for a suggestion on the best route to get to the highway. Knowing I had never driven a Tesla before, she recommended taking a couple laps around the next door mall’s parking lot to get used to the acceleration and braking before I drove on the actual street.

Good advice! Kia dude just had me jump on the street and go.

Then she plotted me a route, saying it would take me through neighborhoods and on four-lane streets so I could get a feel of how the car reacted to those scenarios. From there I knew how to get to the nearest interstate on my own.

Then she said, “OK, take it wherever you want, just be back in half an hour or so,” and walked away. No yappy sales person sitting next to me. I was on my own!

The full regenerative braking on the Tesla is trippy. I got the hang of it pretty quickly, although it was weird to have the car slow in proportion to how little pressure I put on the accelerator. I never had an “Oh shit!” moment of panic or confusion. Rather, sometimes I would forget to hit the accelerator when a light turned green since my foot wasn’t putting pressure on anything. Kind of a weird mental block.

I took her advised route, which led me through a rough section of pavement that confirmed that the Model Y has a relatively stiff suspension. Not sure I love that, but it’s not a deal breaker either. I would prefer a more cushioned ride, but also want sporty responsiveness. Those often don’t go together in the budget range I’m currently in. The Tesla definitely leans to the sporty side of that equation.

Once I got to the interstate I zipped around between traffic but, without any big openings, didn’t get a chance to properly punch it. I exited and prepared to turn back towards the dealership. I was the first car at a red light with a long entrance ramp ahead. This was my moment. And then a big ass tractor trailer truck pulled onto the ramp just before I got a green light. Ass.

No worries. Once he got onto the interstate, he quickly moved to the left and I blew by him in the right lane. The dealer had set a speed limit of 85 MPH. I hit that pretty quickly and started laughing. Going from 50-to–85 might be more impressive than 0-to–60. It felt instantaneous. There wasn’t much traffic around me this direction so I let my speed drop and floored it several times just to feel that sensation again.

The big knock about the Tesla driving experience is that so many things are accomplished via the touchscreen.

Like 98% of car functions are controlled through the giant, iPad-like screen. It is a little odd, especially the lack of a center display in the dashboard, but I found it to be very intuitive. You can set shortcuts for most-used settings at the bottom of the screen. I think once you get those dialed in to your preferences, it’s pretty easy to interact with for someone who is fairly tech savvy. The screen is incredibly responsive, very Apple-like, in fact. I didn’t detect any lags in my brief time playing with it.

I much prefer physical knobs and switches. I think it is super annoying that everyday controls are a layer deep on a display. But Tesla’s screen seems to work good enough that this can be overcome. I think their system would be annoying for a casual driver. S and I rarely swap cars. That will likely happen even less often if I get a Tesla because these controls would drive her crazy.

Which brings up one big negative: Tesla does not support Apple CarPlay in any way. You can connect your phone via Bluetooth, but unlike a CarPlay-equipped vehicle, you don’t get access to the entire screen for your media, just small controls at the bottom of the screen. If you want to change playlists in Spotify, or switch between audio apps, that must be done on your phone’s screen. Which isn’t super safe at 75 MPH. But even my buddy who works at Apple and owned a Tesla admitted that their systems are good enough that he didn’t mind having to use them over CarPlay. That said, he now drives a Lucid which does support CarPlay.

There are some third party adapters that allow you to add a CarPlay screen, but they seem pretty janky. For their cost you might as well pay for Tesla’s Premium Connectivity to run Spotify or Apple Music natively.

Another bummer is that Model Ys do not support SiriusXM. I’ve been an SXM subscriber for ten years and it is a huge part of my music life. I could still stream it via the app and Bluetooth, but I’m not sure that’s worth the annual cost given the lack of on-screen controls.

The car’s interior is very spare. There is a ton of storage room, like amazing amounts. I think that can lead to having too much crap in your car. But I also find my Audi has like 20% too little space, making it difficult to store necessities within reach of the driver. Other than all that storage, the Tesla is pretty spartan inside. I would describe it as nice but not luxurious by any measure.

I’ve also learned that Tesla has moved from a combination of ultrasonic sensors and cameras similar to my Audi, to exclusively using cameras for proximity alerts. While their cameras are of amazing quality, they are far less accurate and users complain that the car will often scream at them that they are about to hit a wall, parked car, etc when they are actually several feet away. Not sure how cool that is when the charging port is in the rear of the vehicle, normally requiring the driver to back into a charging station. The lack of sensors can also make some of the assistive driving functions a little wonky, especially in poor lighting conditions. I guess these are all things that you get used to, and may be adjusted with future software refreshes. It seems like a misguided cost-cutting move, though, to ditch the sensors.

In summary, the Tesla felt far more competent than the Kia. Teslas aren’t without their issues; a lot of owners complain about fit and finish issues inside and out. The driving software can be temperamental. Apparently the automatic windshield wipers are infuriating in their lack of consistency. But Tesla is also famous for a constant flow of software updates that both fix reported issues and roll out new functionality. When mechanically possible, a Tesla that is several years old can have the exact same, updated functionality as a car straight off the production line. Teslas have been around for a decade and are backed by a company that is solely focused on EVs. Throw in their massive, easy-to-use Supercharger network, and the Model Y was a clear winner over the Kia EV6.

After I returned to the dealer the lady who had helped me get set up was out on a break so I talked to another associate. He was very chill. I asked him how come their website shows a bunch of cars on the lot that are exactly the same with incrementally different prices. Other than the type of motor (Rear wheel, all wheel Long Range, or all wheel Performance), about all you can select as options are exterior and interior colors, tire size, five versus seven seats, and if you want to add a towing hitch or not.

“Honestly I couldn’t tell you,” he said. His best guess was their pricing algorithm is based on how long a car has been on the lot and inserts discounts to move the oldest first for tax purposes. “They are all the same. My best advice is to find what you want and pick the cheapest one.”

I liked this process much more than Kia’s. Hell, if S was into EVs, she would 100% buy a Tesla just because of their laid-back, low-contact sales interactions. You can actually buy a car on your phone without ever talking to another human if you want!

Tesla’s current incentives aren’t quite as aggressive as Kia’s. Kia’s are generous enough at the moment that we were considering buying one even with two months left on my Audi lease. Tesla’s current price cuts are not as steep, meaning there’s no rush. They’ve been aggressive with price cuts over the past year, so I bet they’ll drop prices again between now and the day my lease expires.

So as of today, I think I will be replacing my Audi Q5 with a Tesla Model Y Long Range. I already got my buddy T’s referral code so we can both earn some goodies out of it.

I had one electrician out last week to get an estimate to run a line for a home charger, and have messages out to several others to take a look. Being able to charge your EV at home is a game changer, the step that truly makes owning an EV radically different from a traditional car. Superchargers are great for road trips, but charging at home for everyday travel is cheaper and far more convenient.

I’ll continue to do research over the next couple months to make sure this is the right choice. I’ve been reading about a few other cars, but nothing has jumped out at me as requiring a test drive.

To close this post, I want to make a very important point: Elon still fucking sucks. If I get a Tesla I might get a bumper sticker that says “Fuck Elon.” That’ll start some conversations!

  1. I apologize for all the initials, I know it makes for awkward reading.  ↩

Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 2 Part 2

February 22, 2024 /

Things are moving quickly compared to my last car buying adventure. As I shared yesterday, in the span of about 36 hours I went from casually looking at one set of cars with a planned acquisition date in early May to suddenly test driving a totally different car with the chance of bringing it home soon.

Part of that adjustment was adding electric vehicles to my list. I’ve been interested in EVs for some time. In fact, almost since I got my Audi, I’ve been keeping tabs on the latest developments in the EV world. Despite that attention, I kept saying that EVs would be right for me two cars down the road, not in my next car.

A lot went into this assertion. Mostly it was about cost. If my budget was going down with Car 2024, I would be getting further away from EVs rather than closer to them.

Two things changed that. The EV market has softened in the last year, and prices in general have decreased. Second, as I mentioned in my first post, several manufacturers are offering pretty big incentives to close out the current quarter.

Monday I test drove a Kia EV6.

(Not the car I drove, nor my house.)

I’ve been a passenger in a Tesla several times, and spent a fun weekend being ferried around in a friend’s Lucid. But I’ve never sat in the driver’s seat of an EV. Monday was fun for that alone.

I can’t say my test driving experience was the best, though. We have a rough history with Kia salespeople, specifically when we test drove a Telluride four years ago. We also have several friends who have had terrible encounters with Kia dealers. The only reason S has a Telluride is because she desperately wanted one and found a dealer who would do everything via email so she didn’t have to put up with their nonsense.

The sales guy who helped me Monday, Jason, wasn’t terrible, but he did check a lot of the Kia boxes. Very young. A little too enthusiastic. A little too agreeable. Just a little much in general, although he was a nice enough guy.

The real issue was him not being familiar with the car. Despite scheduling ahead to test drive a specific car, they still didn’t have an EV expert to help me. I got a kid who couldn’t even find the charging port when we were doing a walk-around. He knew lots of specs, but struggled to show off anything that was different from the standard Kia setup. Even when I asked whether the current promotions on EVs would expire next week, he nodded slowly and said “That sounds right,” without much confidence.

I think that is typical of a lot of traditional dealerships that are easing into the EV world. Their sales staff, service crew, and entire organizations are focused on the ICE vehicles that make up the bulk of their sales and services appointments. I had read about people having similar encounters, but it was still disappointing.

“What about the test drive, you dick?” I can hear you asking.

I enjoyed it. Everything everyone who owns an EV tells you is true. The instant power is incredible. It’s shocking even when you expect it. We were able to get on a stretch of state highway where I could punch it a couple times. When you punch it, it goes. I didn’t go zero-to–80 or anything, but closer to a realistic boost needed when passing or trying to merge onto a highway. No engine noise, no lag, no pauses as the transmission worked through the gears. It is an amazing experience.

The car rides lighter than I expected. I figured with the extra weight of the batteries it would feel heavy, akin to driving a Suburban or Tahoe. I wouldn’t say it drove like a nimble little sportster, but I was surprised a bit by the feel.

I also experienced regenerative braking for the first time. Kia uses paddles on the steering wheel to control the amount of regen, allowing the driver to dial in the feel they enjoy most. Luckily I knew that coming into the drive, because Jason never mentioned it to me. Being new to regen braking, I scaled it back so I was still using the brake pedal at full stops. It is weird to back off the throttle and feel the car immediately slow down, though.

I made this same observation three years ago, but it is annoying when you’re taking a test drive, trying to get a sense of how a car drives and reacts and feels, and your sales person talks the entire time. This is multiplied in an EV, which is a whole new kind of driving. I didn’t need total silence but if homie could have eased up on the Sales Guy schtick some it would have been helpful.

Because of that, I didn’t walk away from the drive with a ton of insight. I enjoyed it. It was comfortable. The tech mostly made sense. But as I think back on the drive, I hear more of Jason talking than distinct memories of the car.

One thing that did really stand out was that the model I drove, the Light Long Range AWD, was lacking a lot of features. No sun roof, although to be honest this doesn’t bother me as much as it looks weird. There were some switches and infotainment options that S has on her Telluride that were missing from the Light. And unless the Jason really failed me by not pointing them out, the car has a single, rear-facing camera. Almost all Kias have side cameras that kick in when you are changing lanes, displaying your blind spots. I find these a little distracting in the Telluride, but they are highly useful when parking. Especially when backing into a charging stall as visibility is poor out the small, back window of the EV6. I made sure to back the car up when we got back to the dealership and had to rely just on the single camera in the tail gate. Also no front camera to assist with pulling into garages, etc.

Speaking of charging, Jason didn’t demonstrate how to charge the vehicle, either. Or really talk about charging at all. That would seem like an important point.

There were a few other options that kick in when you jump to the Wind trim tier, but the cameras were the most significant absences.

We went inside so he could give me his card and call over the sales manager for the obligatory “Hey, how ya doin’?” before I left. I had told Jason that I had two months left on my lease, so I was in no hurry to buy. I had also mentioned at some point that I would have to talk to my wife before I made any decision. He told me three times he respected that. It is good to be respected. This led to the strangest part of my visit.

He went over to grab his sales manager and came back with a weird look on his face. “He’ll be over in a minute. But I have a question for you. Would you want to take the car home for the night, so you could show it to her?”

Wait, WHAT?!?!? He was seriously offering to let me take the car home??? I was, honestly, a little taken aback and didn’t know how to respond at first. Eventually I told him I wasn’t comfortable leaving my car there and thanked him for the offer, but declined. Very strange.

Later a Black friend of mine said this was like the Eddie Murphy “White Like Me” sketch. That made me laugh.

My takeaways from the test drive were also tempered a bit because of something my research had uncovered earlier in the day.

Kia/Hyundai have a rather serious issue with the 12 volt battery in some of their EVs. It causes the car to shut down completely, even if the main batteries are fully charged. Kia doesn’t seem to know how to handle it, despite being present for several years. They will often just replace the battery – if they have one – and send you home until it fails again. Some dealerships will hold your car for weeks, waiting for their “EV expert” to come in and diagnose the dead battery. Some dealers claim replacing it with a more expensive battery solves the problem. Others say you have to replace it with a battery that is an exact match. People who get bit by the bug once often get bit again. This does not affect most EV6 drivers, but I couldn’t find clear numbers on how many do have their cars crippled by it. It may be a very small percentage, but those people are extremely vocal on the various forums I popped into.

The more I read, the more I found about other flakey issues like this in the electrical system or in the software that manages vital systems. Corporate Kia can’t seem to get a handle on them. Local dealerships don’t seem educated in what to do when owners show up with their EV6 on a tow truck.

Even though the EV6 is one of the best rated cars in its class, if there is a persistent problem that could leave me stranded, and the company can’t find a fix, that is a major red flag.

Sunday night I could not have been more excited about the Kia EV6. The price was down to a very comfortable point. It seemed refined in a way Teslas are not and far more capable than a Volkswagen ID.4. Every major review praised its quality, putting it best in class in nearly every category. But Kia’s lack of quality control made me wonder how committed they are to EVs, and whether my time as an owner would be marred by bad experiences like the ones I read about.[1]

I test drove the EV6 on Monday. Tuesday I test drove another EV. We’ll talk about that next week.

  1. To be fair anyone can get a lemon from any manufacturer. My Audi has had three major issues with the rear lift gate. But those didn’t keep me from driving the car.  ↩
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