Wonderful write up, with lots of great information. I’m really excited to see a challenger to Tesla enter the market. (FWIW, my 2013 Model S P85 (RWD) has averaged 323 Wh/mile over 60,000 miles in snow country.)

That reminds me: My wife and I relocated from Maine to Oregon, and the first day of the drive, we had to make it from Portland, ME to Bear Run, PA, where Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water house is. We had non-refundable tickets for the architectural tour (first tour of the day) where they take you everywhere.

Oh, the irony of them being assholes and working for a company named “Karma”...

Sudden inspiration:

Oh, now its 500 miles between charges?

SOMETHING SHINY!

Sprinters still have them. We have a 2018 Sprinter with an antenna on the front panel above the windshield. 2019s still have them there too. And they stick up a bit higher than the actual vehicle, so they’re good for an over-height detector...

Pfff. I bought this kit in 1994:

Run.

We had a 2011 Jetta Sportwagen 6 speed that we loved. We actually ended up selling it just 2 weeks before Dieselgate broke out in the news. That put it at about 4 years old, and it had about 40,000 miles on it. We were sad to sell it, but it ended up going to a nice family that we’ve actually stayed in touch with.…

Powerful story, and I’m in a somewhat parallel path, but not nearly the same severity.

Its a 0% interest loan. Its not like interest is being charged on top of it making the car actually be more expensive than when you take it off the lot.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, or, in this case, the public media attention. Tesla gets a ton of media attention, and I get the sense that journalists generally look to be the one to break a new bad story about the company.

I live in a relatively small town (100,000 people) in the center of a larger western state. The closest service centers for both our Tesla and our Sprinter are in the same city, and its over 180 miles from where we are.  There is also a significant mountain range between us and the service centers.

Your statement does not invalidate my direct experiences, nor does your opinion of my experiences change the reality of that past. I’d be happy to post photos, repair logs and dates, but as you mention, a single data point is not too important. Nevertheless, my experiences have been what they’ve been.

Welp, I’ve had the exact opposite experience with my Tesla and my Mercedes Sprinter. We’ve owned our Tesla Model S for over 4 years now, and our service center has been fantastic. They give me a Tesla loaner when I need it, they perform the work they say they’ll perform, and my car comes back clean and detailed.

*Cough* Ronald McDonald houses. And if you don’t know what those are: they are places where loved ones and family members can stay when their loved one or family member is in the hospital, and they cater mostly to lower income folks.

“swirls and swoops”

Thankfully, I don’t have any food allergies, although I suspect a mild allergic sensitivity to some nuts (mostly of the political variety, but that’s another story). However, I am highly (evil-pen* level allergic) to bees (yellow jacket wasps in particular), so, can relate to the situational reality of being in the…