Oh damn. Worth every $142k I spent on it. Crazy fun car. About as fast as my GTR but fit and finish is so good IMO. Kudos Musk!
Picked it up today. Never driven one, never sat in one until I got mine. Only saw one once from about 10 feet away for about 2 minutes. Was worried on this blind purchase but couldn’t be happier.
$142k going green has a whole new meaning …
Congrats!
I bought an 85D in April. It’s already got more than 23,000 miles on it. My gasoline car sits in the garage and gets driven a couple of times per month just to keep the battery charged. I take my Tesla everywhere. It’s sitting ready to go every morning in the garage, freshly charged.
Two weeks after buying it I did a loop from the Sacramento area down the central valley, Las Vegas, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Moab, and then Salt Lake City and home via I80 through Nevada.
I’ve been to Seattle once. A couple of months later, I drove to Whistler.
My longest trip was to Migration in Dallas with a slight detour on the way home 
I’m currently #12 on the most number of superchargers visited (77) on the list at
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showwiki.php?title=Superchargers+Visited
The guy at #1 has been to 200. That’s impressive given there are presently 238 supercharger stations in the US.
Enjoy the car; I certainly have. I had sat in a Tesla before buying it. But, the first time I actually drove one was driving it off the lot after taking delivery. No regrets. So far not a single problem.
Love the car. Cannot abide the idea that our federal government subsidized Ryan’s purchase with $7,500 that was taxed from some single mom making her way as a restaurant server, or teacher, or soldier. I’d buy one if not for that.
The car is wonderful in every iteration. Electric power is superior for a car. Where it comes from, well…
You have to request the credit on your tax return (in the year you took delivery). You are not forced to do so.
I am hopefully taking delivery of the Model X next month, a founders edition P90D that I qualified for by referring over 10 folks to buy the Model S. My wife is very excited - she has been waiting for the X for years…
I see that you buy your cars like your buy your planes…!
Nothing like the push of electric power!
Although the thing that kills the electric drive for me is the lack of sound. If Tesla had the option to pick your exhaust note and have it pipe through the speaker system they’d have a killer supercar option. Hmmm today I want it to sound like an Italia, no actually a hellcat…click.
Ryan,
lt is interesting that you like the fit and finish. I was all set to buy one until I sat in it. It did not feel like the interior of the 700 series BMW or the S class Mercedes to me. I elected not to order one after that.
Do you feel it compares favorably to those cars?
t
Does anyone park their Tesla outside their garage vs inside and have the power cord attach directly outside the garage ?? I’m thinking the power cord and a rain event might be a conflict ?
The inside of my garage has cars that I want to keep on display.
I look at the tax credit as a return of my tax dollars stolen by the Federal Government. It’s likely that the single mom paid $0.00 in taxes.
When I get my Tesla I’ll slap on a Powered By Coal bumper sticker. [:D]
From what I understand, if you lease the vehicle, the tax credit goes to the bank leasing company and not to whom it’s registered to.
The brutal reality is that the single mom making her way as a restaurant server is likely pocketing the cash tips, and even if she was reporting the income, would likely be in the 45 percent of Americans who pay no federal income tax. Same likely with the school teacher (median income) or soldiers (whom I have too much respect for and should be exempt from all tax in my opinion) that may fall into the 45 percent as well.
So the perception that restaurant servers, teachers and soldiers are subsidizing the 7500 is simply not rational and should not be the basis of a decision in my opinion. If the IRS is OK with giving the credit, I’m 100% fine with taking it, namely when I see what I pay in taxes.
Just say’n
You forgot American mined Coal and or Natural gas as here in Oklahoma. [;)]
Rain and snow is no issue. The plug is not “live” until there is a handshake with the car that it is ready to receive power. There is also a ground fault interrupter in the circuitry. As soon as you attempt to remove the plug the power is cut. This is for safety as well as to prevent arcing. A level 1 or level 2 charger is actually a sophisticated extension cord. The reason the technology works across different car manufacturers is they aligned on how to get the AC power to the car and the battery charger itself is in the car.
Similar safety systems are used on the supercharger connectors (DC). Another 10-100x in battery power density and this is how you will be charging your plane. 
Rationalizing can be addicting. The generalization that servers, teachers and soldiers pay no taxes is just wrong. In my town the average high school teacher salary is over $100K. Every day I see finance applications for military with income of $75K to $100K. Since you’re into brutal reality, the brutal reality is that many servers, teachers and (to a lesser extent) soldiers pay a larger percentage of their spendable income than we 1 percenters do. With soldiers, much of their compensation is already tax-free.
Yes, some people are poor and pay no taxes. If we taxed them more, would we think more kindly of them? Should we try to wring some tax revenue out of these folks? Before you answer, keep in mind there is not much to get. Taxing low-income people is mostly an ideological issue, not a revenue issue.
P.S. It’s Congress, not the IRS, who is OK with the Tesla tax credit.
Just say’n.
“Likely”
And I choose my words very carefully.
Congrats Ryan. You can now take it back to get the seat belts checked. [:S]
If Tesla had a super charger in the Asheville, NC area I might be interested. Tested the BMW I3 and was impressed. All Carbon Fiber and drove like a BMW. Cost like a BMW too. [:(]
Did you pony up for the ludicrous mode? Not sure you need it, but it is fun!
My neighbor has one, and I have driven it a little bit. I love the self driving mode on the highway, and the car is just fantastic. I didn’t want to give it back!
At the price point it is at though, I think they do need to improve the interior. I would say the best interior I have seen IMHO is the Audi A8. If you look at the Telsa against a Mercedes, BMW or Audi at the same price point it falls pretty far behind. I expect that they will address that before the cheaper model 3 comes out.
I’ve had my Tesla for almost 3 years and over 42,000 miles. It’s always been outside as I don’t even have a garage. High Power Wall Connector is on outside of house. I just leave the cord dangling outside when not in use. Rain, snow, ice, all no problem. (Sometimes in the winter, I have to break off the ice that has formed on the tail light cover as it won’t close after I unplug the car.)
When I first bought I was worried about this issue, but they assured me it was perfectly safe and designed to be left outside.
Ryan, congrats on your new Tesla.
We absolutely love our P85D. Now we’re just patiently waiting for our Ludicrous upgrade to be scheduled in and our Model X reservation to go online with the design studio.
You’ll find that one of the other niceties about owning a Tesla is that you have a car that keeps improving over time with the OTA software updates. Very cool and very innovative… and a LOT of fun to drive. Nothing else quite like it out there.
Back atcha, Jim. While I won’t get in to the political aspect of your post, if you think your town is average for teachers salary, that is maybe not irrational; rather, uninformed.
Mom & Dad were teachers. Three sisters were. One daughter is, and the other about to be. We have 6 (about to be 7) in my close family. It would be more fingers and toes than I have to count on in the extended family, in a number of states. We have one Senior VP with Pearson - the largest text book publishing company in the world. I’m very familiar with teachers and their salaries. The average is FAR from 6 figures.
Some people are middle class - at least, what it takes to be around here - and pay no taxes. The poor get paid - pay none and still get a return.
With that said, I know what I pay, and my two companies pay. I would gladly take the credit, as my taxes paid are so out of proportion to start with.
As to the OP, Teslas are COOL! Never sat in one, or driven it, but the video of the auto pilot is incredible.