[DonSylver]

Hello ladies n gents!
I currently drive a BMW X4 m40i, which is just a garbage term for a ridiculously looking fast 3.0liter petrol powered SAV/SUV.
Yes, you can booo me now

But seriously I am trying to cross over to the clean energy side and be cleansed of my polluting sins.
When I am not racing in it from red light to red light, I like my car the most when it’s in adaptive mode, cruising through the city with stop start turning off the engine every time for some peace and solitude. I am starting to think I might be seeking an electric car deep inside my heart. I drive the odd 200miles in a day once a month but most of the time I drive my car twice a week to the shop or at weekends since I work from home and do have a second car.

So before you guys came to electric, what car did you drive and do you miss it?
Will you be thinking of going back to fossil fuel powered cars? Any regrets?

[Coastali8]

Porsche 993 C2S
I wish I had never sold it because it’s doubled in value. But other than that, the i8 is a lot more fun to drive.

I wouldn’t go back to a completely fossil fueled car. And I wouldn’t own a pure electric either. The hybrid seems to me to be the best of both worlds.

The i8 hasn’t been the most reliable car I’ve owned but Porsche has their problems too.

My 914-6 3.6 is another story. It’s like driving a go-kart on the street. Fun…but my wife hates it.

[tommyb13662]

I actually ditched a tesla S p100d for my i8. My other cars are Audi TTS, X3 xdrive28d. The x3 is a much better vehicle for trips. The TTS is an awesome autox and short track car. The i8 in general is just fun and awesome cruiser. Its also deceptively quick besides what it says on paper. If you go on trips you need a second vehicle unless you are ok wasting time and taking a longer route if you do buy an EV. There were numerous reasons i got rid of the tesla. Practicality being the main one.

[Coastali8]

There would be “numerous reasons “ I’d get rid of a Tesla too.
Elon being reason number one.

[DonSylver]

Originally Posted by tommyb13662

I actually ditched a tesla S p100d for my i8. My other cars are Audi TTS, X3 xdrive28d. The x3 is a much better vehicle for trips. The TTS is an awesome autox and short track car. The i8 in general is just fun and awesome cruiser. Its also deceptively quick besides what it says on paper. If you go on trips you need a second vehicle unless you are ok wasting time and taking a longer route if you do buy an EV. There were numerous reasons i got rid of the tesla. Practicality being the main one.

Thanks.
You got me a bit confused here. I can understand that X3 is practical but you ditched a Tesla S for an i8 with one of the reasons being practicality? Apart from the charging time issue with Tesla, it has more doors and interior space than the i8, the S is also not as wide as the i8 and clearly more visibility from inside for the S, or is there some other practical the S isn’t more practical than the i8?

[tommyb13662]

Im talking purely USEABILITY/DRIVEABILITY as i only had it 6 months. And as a vehicle with wich the girlfriend liked to take trips in. It seems she always picks the i8 now. Unless we have lots of luggage/camping then its the x3 we take. When i had the Tesla. It was the cool new thing so she always wanted to take that. Even 600ish miles added 2+ extra hours to the trip. 900ish miles being the maximum distance I EVER(in the tesla) covered in a day took over 16hours. The day we covered 900 miles in the S we were at a hotel that night with a level 2 charger. Got there so late the night before it had only 6 hours charge at said charger got us only 50% battery. As many tesla destination chargers are only 30Amp. Thats about 6-7 Kwh which in a tesla takes about 12 hours to get 80%. In the i8 or x3 900 miles is easily covered in about 13-14 hours making most our roadtrips easily 2 days drive max or visiting her friends pretty much any of them a single day drive. In the tesla for one reason or other the main trip we go on most often, Is 600ish miles. The route we had to use in the Tesla had to be about 700 miles because supercharger locations (rural Carolinas/VA per its navigation app) along that route. Its her best friend we seem to go minimum once a month. It was taking us 12 hours roughly. Also I only had the TTS as an alternate DD at the time. I love it but she hates its incredibly stiff suspension and gokarty feel. My 348 Challenge is and has always been my garage queen. All my other vehicles are daily driven. I found I was driving the tesla similar to the 348 barely ever. Our condo complex fines you if the garage door is left open or hoses/wires are seen. Maintenance will come knock on your door demanding the "unsightly" infraction be fixed. So i had trouble charging the tesla overnight. Refused to park the Ferrari outside overnight just to charge the tesla. Other issue is the tesla loses 2-5% charge/day when left unplugged so even not driving it found myself stopping by a supercharger for an hour weekly to top it up. Also supercharger prices back when gas was 2.50-3$/gal were much more than you expect. I saw ranges of $0.20-0.40/Kwh. Also I fear as EV become more common the "free" charging locations you now find will poof more and more. Think of it this way. What grocery store/hotel do you visit that gives you free gas to stop there. If all cars are electric nobody is gonna be giving free "gas" same as it is now.

Now other issues the S had: A leaking sunroof caused headliner to stain/sag. It was white and the paint on the front bumper/frunk chipped horribly. Pillar trim popped off from slightest spirited driving. When they fixed it was permanently scuffed/dirty from it falling off so often. For its price tag it was rather cheap/uncomfortable budget themed interior. My TTS or x3 are more comfortable even being half its original price. Most annoying overall to me was the stereo/audio. Cant crank it up too much or boost the bass. Your interior trim will rattle ruin the music. 99% of the time even short trips i pop on my tunes in the car. I even took it to a car audio shop. They fixed most of it... but if one of the gf songs came on she would bump it up and buzz buzz buzz. I admit my TTS had the issue after an accident but a bit of foam trim on the subwoofer panel fixed it. It seems all the tesla speakers or trim buzz...

This post is much longer than i intended... mostly because the Tesla frustrated me. Its simply not worth it. Loved the quickness and quiet. But once that wore off which was less than a month for me... its quite the boring not practical cheap (quality) car.

[DonSylver]

Originally Posted by tommyb13662

Im talking purely USEABILITY/DRIVEABILITY as i only had it 6 months. And as a vehicle with wich the girlfriend liked to take trips in. It seems she always picks the i8 now. Unless we have lots of luggage/camping then its the x3 we take. When i had the Tesla. It was the cool new thing so she always wanted to take that. Even 600ish miles added 2+ extra hours to the trip. 900ish miles being the maximum distance I EVER(in the tesla) covered in a day took over 16hours. The day we covered 900 miles in the S we were at a hotel that night with a level 2 charger. Got there so late the night before it had only 6 hours charge at said charger got us only 50% battery. As many tesla destination chargers are only 30Amp. Thats about 6-7 Kwh which in a tesla takes about 12 hours to get 80%. In the i8 or x3 900 miles is easily covered in about 13-14 hours making most our roadtrips easily 2 days drive max or visiting her friends pretty much any of them a single day drive. In the tesla for one reason or other the main trip we go on most often, Is 600ish miles. The route we had to use in the Tesla had to be about 700 miles because supercharger locations (rural Carolinas/VA per its navigation app) along that route. Its her best friend we seem to go minimum once a month. It was taking us 12 hours roughly. Also I only had the TTS as an alternate DD at the time. I love it but she hates its incredibly stiff suspension and gokarty feel. My 348 Challenge is and has always been my garage queen. All my other vehicles are daily driven. I found I was driving the tesla similar to the 348 barely ever. Our condo complex fines you if the garage door is left open or hoses/wires are seen. Maintenance will come knock on your door demanding the "unsightly" infraction be fixed. So i had trouble charging the tesla overnight. Refused to park the Ferrari outside overnight just to charge the tesla. Other issue is the tesla loses 2-5% charge/day when left unplugged so even not driving it found myself stopping by a supercharger for an hour weekly to top it up. Also supercharger prices back when gas was 2.50-3$/gal were much more than you expect. I saw ranges of $0.20-0.40/Kwh. Also I fear as EV become more common the "free" charging locations you now find will poof more and more. Think of it this way. What grocery store/hotel do you visit that gives you free gas to stop there. If all cars are electric nobody is gonna be giving free "gas" same as it is now.

Now other issues the S had: A leaking sunroof caused headliner to stain/sag. It was white and the paint on the front bumper/frunk chipped horribly. Pillar trim popped off from slightest spirited driving. When they fixed it was permanently scuffed/dirty from it falling off so often. For its price tag it was rather cheap/uncomfortable budget themed interior. My TTS or x3 are more comfortable even being half its original price. Most annoying overall to me was the stereo/audio. Cant crank it up too much or boost the bass. Your interior trim will rattle ruin the music. 99% of the time even short trips i pop on my tunes in the car. I even took it to a car audio shop. They fixed most of it... but if one of the gf songs came on she would bump it up and buzz buzz buzz. I admit my TTS had the issue after an accident but a bit of foam trim on the subwoofer panel fixed it. It seems all the tesla speakers or trim buzz...

This post is much longer than i intended... mostly because the Tesla frustrated me. Its simply not worth it. Loved the quickness and quiet. But once that wore off which was less than a month for me... its quite the boring not practical cheap (quality) car.

Well explained! I appreciate your explanation, more insight given. It wasn't very practical in that respect.
Tesla S is in my favorite list for EVs but what you said about the charge losses per day and the cheap interior build seems to strike it off my list, given that you were an actual long term user, not a youtube reviewer. I move to an EV for free charging or tax exemption because I know that won't be on offer forever.
If only the EV BMWs had more range then it will be a winner for me hands down!

[tommyb13662]

I saw one of the hyundai ev the other day and actually would rate build quality and interior higher. Like 8/10 vs tesla a 6/10. And personally liked exterior better too. Personally i plan to stick with hybrid for at least 5 more years. And even then unless charging infrastructure is minimum double current will keep with hybrid or ice. The hyundai seats themselves were far better than my S. I would not consider 6 months long term... i think besides an accident totaled a car the S was the shortest i ever owned a car.

Honestly if its plugged in overnight the charge loss wouldnt bother me. But since she is a packrat and i collect cars. There was no room to keep it in the garage. Its supposed to be 2 car garage but is only a foot between 2 cars if both kept in garage.

On our short trips say 4 day weekend with friends etc... we pack light enough to fit things in the back seat of any car we take. Its just us 2. If she catches a kid well they make pills for that std, we havnt decided on an 18 year parasite yet (I Kid)