Dear Author.
Please add Metric units if you would be so kind. Only the Americans use imperial system and maybe one or 2 other tiny nations.
Thank you
Actually, it was only one other tiny nation (Liberia) and they have since gone metric. Myanmar used its own weights and measures (neither imperial nor metric) but they have since gone metric too. It's only the USA that's still living in the past.
Learn how to convert them yourself, math is important and it’s not hard. 77k mi/0.62 = 124k km.
I think it has more to do with the principle of the thing. In a world of almost 8,000,000,000 people, only 0.4% use the imperial system while the other 99.6% use metric. To post imperial measures is ignorant, arrogant and stupid. I think that Americans don't realise just how tiny a percentage of the world population lives in the USA.
The batteries for these older Teslas have an 8 year warranty (no mileage limit included), so it seems he got unlucky.
That's the problem with warranties. They don't always work. Having said that, Teslas cost more on average than Mercedes or BMW. When they're priced at $140,000 it means that they're aimed at people to whom $20,000 is pocket change.
What happened here is that someone wanted to be a big shot with his fancy Tesla and while he could afford to
buy it, he couldn't afford to
own it. The same is true about German cars. They're not nearly as well-made as Japanese cars but they cost far more to buy and to own. Still, people are buying up VWs, Audis, BMWs and Mercedes by the truckload and bankrupting themselves in the process. Teslas are in this category as well because people who buy Teslas do so because they're status-symbols, not because they're actually good. Let's also keep in mind that $21,000 is only 15% of $140,000 so it would be like if a more common vehicle ($30,000) had an engine or transmission failure and it cost $4,500. That's a number that wouldn't be considered out of this world.
Now, I'm not taking Tesla's side here because for $140,000 you should be able to expect the car to last 20 years or more with just regular maintenance. The problem is that, like any corporation under capitalism, they'll nickel-and-dime you to death in their efforts to maximise their profits. People don't seem to realise that you don't get as rich as Elon Musk by
not screwing people over.
I agree that people shouldn't buy Teslas, but this guy should have done a crapload more homework before he went out and bought one. If he blindly dropped $140,000 on a freakin' car without being rich enough to keep it going, he's as much of a poser as someone who lives in a trailer park and drives a BMW 5-series. If you can spend $140,000 on a car, then a $21,000 repair shouldn't be enough to turn your hair white like with this guy.
What we really need is a 3rd party maker of batteries. Since the Tesla warranty is basically worthless, breaking it won't be an issue and once one company makes Tesla compatible devices, more will follow. Since Tesla doesn't patent his products (he actually brags about this), nothing stops somebody from coming in behind him and taking out patent's that Tesla will have to follow .....
In order to do that, we need some kind of battery standard like we have with car batteries. The manufacturers all want to have proprietary systems so that you have to buy replacements from them. That's a terrible setup for the consumer and people who argue against standards are either fools or have something to gain personally from not having them.
A perfect case-in-point is the standards that we all enjoy when it comes to computers like x86, ATX, USB, PCI-Express, SATA and HDMI. Can you imagine what the world would look like if we
didn't have those standards? It would be like having a dozen different companies like Apple and we'd be royally screwed. Recently, the EU enforced the use of USB-C on ALL mobile devices going forward, something that Apple wasn't happy about because it means that they can't fleece Europeans anymore. These automakers are doing the exact same thing with their proprietary batteries. BCI (Battery Council International) should be made to set a standard for electric car batteries just like they have with every other battery like AA, AAA, AAAA, C, D, 9V and car batteries and governments should enforce those standards.
It's the only smart way forward.
Also, you know what you get into when you sign that contract to buy the car.
I agree. He knew the pitfalls but still wanted to drop $140,000 on a freakin' car because he's clearly compensating for something else. If you can't afford to own an expensive-as-hell car, don't buy one. I actually bought below my means when I bought my Veloster because I didn't need more than that and I prefer cars with manual transmissions.
Velosters are also real lookers, especially in Marathon Blue:
I bought it used (3 years old) with 38,000km on it for $14,000 taxes-in. I literally could have bought TEN of them for what he paid. Here I am eight years later and it still looks and runs like new. I did my homework and discovered that even though it's a rare model, most of the parts are shared with the Accent, Elantra and Sonata so maintenance in the long-term wouldn't be an issue. I also avoided getting a turbo model for the same reason. Turbocharged cars have shorter life spans because they cost more to operate. These are all things that many people fail to take into account when they buy a vehicle. They make their decision based on emotion, not logic and that's extremely dangerous when making a big purchase like a car.
This comment shows exactly how effective clickbait titles are. Tesla, or remote control of any kind, did not lock him out of his car. The door releases require 12V power (not from the main pack, but from a typical 12V car battery, which his car also has) to operate. The same thing happens in a Porsche 996 if the 12V battery dies. You can't open the front trunk to access that battery without applying power to leads near the driver's leg. Not a big deal, but the article implies that Tesla disabled his access to the car because they didn't like him or something. That simply isn't what happened here.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the average human!
Tesla dead battery should default to unlocking doors so at least you would be able to tow your Tesla... Some ***** programmers at Tesla...!
The reason that they don't is because if you couldn't lock your Tesla, someone could steal it. What they
should have done is what most automakers do. My Veloster is a push-start but I
do have a mechanical key that can unlock the car in the event that the power locks, electrical system, battery or fob fail. That's just common sense, something that automakers don't have anymore.
Just look at the power-operated parking brakes. They're absolutely
useless as emergency brakes, something that I've been glad to have in the past. I'll take a manual transmission with a hand brake over the fully-automated-but-will-one-day-fail systems that lazy people buy today. I don't even use my auto-headlamps because I don't want to be dependent on them. I prefer to
know that my headlights are on because I turned them on rather than to forget that they even exist (which
would happen).
Same thing happened to me, 98 Accord, the passenger side sub frame was almost completely rotted through because the AC drain hose drained right into it. Fortunately it wasn't too expensive to fix and the mechanic who did the job redirected the drain line.
Honda did actually fix this on my 10 year newer Accord, the hose drains well away from anything.
That's because the Japanese automakers (specifically Toyota and Honda) are the greatest automakers in the world. If they see a problem, they fix it and it never happens again. There's a reason why Toyota is the world's largest automaker and this is it.