Here's Everything I Love About My Cheap Tesla Model S (and Everything I Hate)

The Tesla Experience: A Love-Hate Relationship with Electric Luxury

As I sit behind the wheel of my Tesla, I'm struck by the sheer exhilaration of driving an electric car. The instant torque and acceleration are a thrill to experience, making this vehicle feel almost like a sports car on the road. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows – there are some minor annoyances that come with owning an electric luxury car.

One of my biggest complaints is the occasional complete system failure. I was driving along, enjoying the smooth ride and quiet hum of the electric motor, when suddenly everything went black. The car's systems just shut down, leaving me stranded on the side of the road. It's a bit scary, to be honest – I'm not sure what triggered the failure or how to fix it. Luckily, Tesla offers software updates to improve performance and stability, but I've been hesitant to upgrade my system yet.

The software update process itself is relatively painless, and I'm happy to report that my car drives just fine once everything is rebooted. However, the lack of communication from Tesla about when these updates will be available has left me feeling a bit frustrated. It's not clear why they're hesitant to share diagnostic software or service manuals with independent mechanics, but it's undoubtedly made things more difficult for people who need to troubleshoot and repair their own cars.

Speaking of repairs, I've found the Tesla to be an easy car to work on – most of its components are easily accessible and well-designed. But one area where I feel Tesla falls short is in the comfort of its seats. The standard seating arrangement is rock-hard and uncomfortable, making long road trips a bit of a challenge. I've heard that some other luxury cars have moved away from this design choice, opting for softer, more supportive seats instead.

Despite these minor complaints, I remain thoroughly enamored with my Tesla. The driving experience is unparalleled – it's like floating across the road, with instant acceleration and smooth handling. The regenerative braking system is also a game-changer, allowing me to coast to a stop without ever touching the brake pedal. It's a bit disorienting at first, but once you get used to it, it becomes second nature.

One aspect of the Tesla that I find particularly impressive is its battery technology. It seems like Tesla has nailed the formula for long-range electric driving, and I'm eager to see how well their batteries hold up over time. Of course, there are still some concerns about durability and aging – we'll have to wait and see how this plays out in the years to come.

As I drive my Tesla through the Kansas plains, I feel like a true pioneer – one of the first people to experience the joys and frustrations of owning an electric luxury car. It's not without its challenges, but for now, I'm happy to be part of this select group of Tesla owners. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll get to meet Elon Musk himself and see if he has a seat waiting for me in his Iron Man suit – that would be the ultimate experience!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwell I've had a few weeks to get to know my new cheap Tesla and so far Elan wow you've really outdid yourself with this thing I haven't had a single problem yet and really there is a lot to like about this thing I like oh but at the risk of getting taken off the must family Christmas card list I do have a few things that I hate but but hate is such a strong word don't be mad anyway to review my last few videos about a month ago I found the cheapest Tesla Model S with a clean title available for only thirty two thousand five hundred dollars on autotrader.com a place that I also write for and link below is an article where I detail all the things that I love and hate about this thing so you don't have to watch you can read of it if you want to anyway my Tesla has the larger 85 kilowatt battery which is good but it also has a hundred and seven thousand miles which is really high for one of these and I had to pay a grand over the asking price because people were beating down his door to get this thing he lived in California I lived in Kansas and he was gonna raise this price anyway so I had to pay a thousand dollars more and a thousand dollars to ship it here to Kansas but even at thirty four thousand five hundred dollars invested in it now I think it was totally worth it he was the original owner of this Tesla and he took great care of it really good care of it it's beautiful a lot of the common problems with these early Model S's had already been taken care of with the previous owner like the door handles three out of four have been replaced but there still is one $1,000 dollar handle waiting to fail also the four thousand dollar touchscreen inside has been replaced which is great it's giant it's huge and the drive motor the thing that makes this thing go has been replaced twice twice I know crazy but it's the latest version so it shouldn't break it's still on its original battery and my last video showed it's still putting out about ninety four percent of its original capacity after six years and over a hundred thousand miles it's pretty impressive but electronic battery aside would you just look at it I mean look at it I've always loved this Tesla and the way it looks because that's so clean so smooth and its design it's just beautiful it manages to look great without any crazy styling embellishments like funky creases or spoilers or other stupid things so many cars and electric ones in particular are just so over styled it looks ridiculous but this thing is vague it looks like a vaguely European car and it's just so clean and uncluttered of course looking vaguely European does help with a styling who doesn't want a European looking beautiful car and you can bet the lead designer Franz von hold Hassan wasn't born in Kentucky but even European cars are over styled a lot of the time like the designers just can't help but find a way to make their cars hideous you know put their own little selfish embellishments like a kid with a graffiti tag and none of that is on this Tesla the shape of the rear is even good which is rare most hatchbacks they can't figure out oh I don't have the key this one second back to the hatch back there it's a hatchback it's so practical but most the time hatchbacks they can't figure out how to design and make it look pretty but it's not the case with this Tesla oh you are so beautiful to me still there is one thing that I hate out here and that's this ridiculous horrible panel gap it took me a few days before I notice it but now that I see it I can't unsee it panel gaps and weird fitment of panels isn't really new to Tesla and if anything it got worse when they unveiled the new Model X but I mean they're new to the manufacturing process so I get it Elon I couldn't build a pinewood derby car myself so really Who am I to judge moving on to other things I love and you can't love a Tesla without loving the technology you just that's the coolest part about it you've got these retractable door handles and this giant touchscreen inside and really there's no key it's just a little black pebble there's no on or off switch it just knows you get inside of it it runs the air conditioning it starts up you put it in gear it goes even when you're not inside of it it still runs the air conditioning every once in a while just to keep the car cool same goes with the heat and it's smart enough to know when the battery's low to quit doing that so the sink is super smart there are so many other cool things with this Tesla that I could go all dug de Muro on but instead I'm just gonna show you my favorite part and that's charging it it comes with your own personal magic wand and how could you not be Harry Potter with this thing isla mantas gala mantas Badou Vyas oh yes that's so cool outfit it release you out release release oh it's locked and then you see if it comes the sword and the stone when you want to take it out it won't let you so kids can't walk by and just unplug your Tesla and be jerks alright unlock there we go really seus Tesla Corps Dias but as cutting edge as this Tesla was in 2012 it's amazing how quickly luxury rivals have caught up with their own version of giant techie screens and this main instrument screen really is copied and has been improved upon without E and so many others but this one is pretty glitchy I've had it brick on me multiple times even once while driving the screen has gone black and then the teslic screen comes up and the thing can totally reboots it just totally reboots the car drives just fine but it's a little scary when all this stuff goes black on the inside now I could probably fix this by updating the software and getting it out of the old 3G into like 4G or LTE there's a software update available that I could pay for but that hasn't been done yet on this car it probably explains why the sinner is a little slow and glitchy as well I mean minor annoyance it's hard to call it hate but it is yeah it's a little I hate it when it happens I don't hate the technology now I totally love love the way this Tesla drives it's so easy you almost don't have to think and the ride is ridiculously smooth this thing has the optional air ride suspension and it gives it an s-class quality of ride it's just so good so good but at the same time it handles really well that's because the low center of gravity the battery pack everything's all load to the ground to where this thing actually handles it's weird but of course being a battery powered car the acceleration accelerations also instant as well it's not like a normal car where you have to wait for a turbo to spool up or a town shift just immediate power the moment you hit the pedal it's so impressive and it's a little different one other thing that's different about this car is breaking you really don't have to hit the brakes currently ever because of this regenerative braking system when you let off the gas and you Coast it's already engaging the regenerative braking and slung in the car down so if you get to know this you can kind of coast us up like I'm not touching the pedals right now at all and we're almost stopped we're down to a crawl I didn't touch it it's kind of weird it takes a little bit of getting used to and if you don't like it you can go in the settings and turn it off and then it drives like a normal car but this works it's easy and it also helps keep your battery life up because you're using the regenerative braking add it to a peak it's fully charged us so I like it one more time Oh face now one thing that I haven't gotten used to yet is the seat the seat is pretty uncomfortable for a luxury car it's it's not good but this is my gripe with a lot of luxury cars and a lot of other cars so that they just they don't make them comfortable anymore it feels like just rock-hard just super super stiff and this one isn't even bowls tree to make it sporty so it's just stiff and uncomfortable to be stiff and uncomfortable okay so seats aside I love everything about the way this car drives an electric cars tend to have the benefit of being so simple there's way less moving parts and we're related items to deal with and it seems Tesla nailed it with their battery technology but time will truly tell how well they actually aged I love how everything seems pretty easy to work on but I hate that Tesla seems to define upon di wires and here's probably my biggest gripe with Tesla and that's their unwillingness to help us fix our own cars they won't sell us parts they won't sell independent mechanics parts nor will they share their diagnostic software and service manuals so we can actually figure out how to do this ourselves now I get that Tesla doesn't want to do the normal franchise dealer model for their sales but their infrastructure isn't big enough to not have independents fixing the cars for them and really if I do have a serious problem I got nothing here in Wichita the only Tesla service in Wichita is a single supercharger station and into the spot a parking stall in between a McDonald's and an Applebee's so like the most Kansas place in the world for a supercharger it's it's ridiculous but that's just for charging for a real problem I'd have to spend probably hundreds of dollars shipping it up to Kansas City still none of this worried me enough to stop me from buying one it's such a relaxing easy car to drive but also manages to be fun and interesting at the same time and that's really a rare combination now here in Wichita Kansas people still think the Tesla is a fancy-pants spaceship from the future so I seem like a real high roller in this thing even though it costs less than a new fully loaded Honda Accord multiple people have offered to buy this car from me as well but I'm definitely going to keep it because I'm really do like it and I'm curious how well it'll hold up and be sure to hit that like button if you think I'm disinvited from Elon Sparty's now and I hope not I'd really want to see that Iron Man suit in the basement really thank you for watchingwell I've had a few weeks to get to know my new cheap Tesla and so far Elan wow you've really outdid yourself with this thing I haven't had a single problem yet and really there is a lot to like about this thing I like oh but at the risk of getting taken off the must family Christmas card list I do have a few things that I hate but but hate is such a strong word don't be mad anyway to review my last few videos about a month ago I found the cheapest Tesla Model S with a clean title available for only thirty two thousand five hundred dollars on autotrader.com a place that I also write for and link below is an article where I detail all the things that I love and hate about this thing so you don't have to watch you can read of it if you want to anyway my Tesla has the larger 85 kilowatt battery which is good but it also has a hundred and seven thousand miles which is really high for one of these and I had to pay a grand over the asking price because people were beating down his door to get this thing he lived in California I lived in Kansas and he was gonna raise this price anyway so I had to pay a thousand dollars more and a thousand dollars to ship it here to Kansas but even at thirty four thousand five hundred dollars invested in it now I think it was totally worth it he was the original owner of this Tesla and he took great care of it really good care of it it's beautiful a lot of the common problems with these early Model S's had already been taken care of with the previous owner like the door handles three out of four have been replaced but there still is one $1,000 dollar handle waiting to fail also the four thousand dollar touchscreen inside has been replaced which is great it's giant it's huge and the drive motor the thing that makes this thing go has been replaced twice twice I know crazy but it's the latest version so it shouldn't break it's still on its original battery and my last video showed it's still putting out about ninety four percent of its original capacity after six years and over a hundred thousand miles it's pretty impressive but electronic battery aside would you just look at it I mean look at it I've always loved this Tesla and the way it looks because that's so clean so smooth and its design it's just beautiful it manages to look great without any crazy styling embellishments like funky creases or spoilers or other stupid things so many cars and electric ones in particular are just so over styled it looks ridiculous but this thing is vague it looks like a vaguely European car and it's just so clean and uncluttered of course looking vaguely European does help with a styling who doesn't want a European looking beautiful car and you can bet the lead designer Franz von hold Hassan wasn't born in Kentucky but even European cars are over styled a lot of the time like the designers just can't help but find a way to make their cars hideous you know put their own little selfish embellishments like a kid with a graffiti tag and none of that is on this Tesla the shape of the rear is even good which is rare most hatchbacks they can't figure out oh I don't have the key this one second back to the hatch back there it's a hatchback it's so practical but most the time hatchbacks they can't figure out how to design and make it look pretty but it's not the case with this Tesla oh you are so beautiful to me still there is one thing that I hate out here and that's this ridiculous horrible panel gap it took me a few days before I notice it but now that I see it I can't unsee it panel gaps and weird fitment of panels isn't really new to Tesla and if anything it got worse when they unveiled the new Model X but I mean they're new to the manufacturing process so I get it Elon I couldn't build a pinewood derby car myself so really Who am I to judge moving on to other things I love and you can't love a Tesla without loving the technology you just that's the coolest part about it you've got these retractable door handles and this giant touchscreen inside and really there's no key it's just a little black pebble there's no on or off switch it just knows you get inside of it it runs the air conditioning it starts up you put it in gear it goes even when you're not inside of it it still runs the air conditioning every once in a while just to keep the car cool same goes with the heat and it's smart enough to know when the battery's low to quit doing that so the sink is super smart there are so many other cool things with this Tesla that I could go all dug de Muro on but instead I'm just gonna show you my favorite part and that's charging it it comes with your own personal magic wand and how could you not be Harry Potter with this thing isla mantas gala mantas Badou Vyas oh yes that's so cool outfit it release you out release release oh it's locked and then you see if it comes the sword and the stone when you want to take it out it won't let you so kids can't walk by and just unplug your Tesla and be jerks alright unlock there we go really seus Tesla Corps Dias but as cutting edge as this Tesla was in 2012 it's amazing how quickly luxury rivals have caught up with their own version of giant techie screens and this main instrument screen really is copied and has been improved upon without E and so many others but this one is pretty glitchy I've had it brick on me multiple times even once while driving the screen has gone black and then the teslic screen comes up and the thing can totally reboots it just totally reboots the car drives just fine but it's a little scary when all this stuff goes black on the inside now I could probably fix this by updating the software and getting it out of the old 3G into like 4G or LTE there's a software update available that I could pay for but that hasn't been done yet on this car it probably explains why the sinner is a little slow and glitchy as well I mean minor annoyance it's hard to call it hate but it is yeah it's a little I hate it when it happens I don't hate the technology now I totally love love the way this Tesla drives it's so easy you almost don't have to think and the ride is ridiculously smooth this thing has the optional air ride suspension and it gives it an s-class quality of ride it's just so good so good but at the same time it handles really well that's because the low center of gravity the battery pack everything's all load to the ground to where this thing actually handles it's weird but of course being a battery powered car the acceleration accelerations also instant as well it's not like a normal car where you have to wait for a turbo to spool up or a town shift just immediate power the moment you hit the pedal it's so impressive and it's a little different one other thing that's different about this car is breaking you really don't have to hit the brakes currently ever because of this regenerative braking system when you let off the gas and you Coast it's already engaging the regenerative braking and slung in the car down so if you get to know this you can kind of coast us up like I'm not touching the pedals right now at all and we're almost stopped we're down to a crawl I didn't touch it it's kind of weird it takes a little bit of getting used to and if you don't like it you can go in the settings and turn it off and then it drives like a normal car but this works it's easy and it also helps keep your battery life up because you're using the regenerative braking add it to a peak it's fully charged us so I like it one more time Oh face now one thing that I haven't gotten used to yet is the seat the seat is pretty uncomfortable for a luxury car it's it's not good but this is my gripe with a lot of luxury cars and a lot of other cars so that they just they don't make them comfortable anymore it feels like just rock-hard just super super stiff and this one isn't even bowls tree to make it sporty so it's just stiff and uncomfortable to be stiff and uncomfortable okay so seats aside I love everything about the way this car drives an electric cars tend to have the benefit of being so simple there's way less moving parts and we're related items to deal with and it seems Tesla nailed it with their battery technology but time will truly tell how well they actually aged I love how everything seems pretty easy to work on but I hate that Tesla seems to define upon di wires and here's probably my biggest gripe with Tesla and that's their unwillingness to help us fix our own cars they won't sell us parts they won't sell independent mechanics parts nor will they share their diagnostic software and service manuals so we can actually figure out how to do this ourselves now I get that Tesla doesn't want to do the normal franchise dealer model for their sales but their infrastructure isn't big enough to not have independents fixing the cars for them and really if I do have a serious problem I got nothing here in Wichita the only Tesla service in Wichita is a single supercharger station and into the spot a parking stall in between a McDonald's and an Applebee's so like the most Kansas place in the world for a supercharger it's it's ridiculous but that's just for charging for a real problem I'd have to spend probably hundreds of dollars shipping it up to Kansas City still none of this worried me enough to stop me from buying one it's such a relaxing easy car to drive but also manages to be fun and interesting at the same time and that's really a rare combination now here in Wichita Kansas people still think the Tesla is a fancy-pants spaceship from the future so I seem like a real high roller in this thing even though it costs less than a new fully loaded Honda Accord multiple people have offered to buy this car from me as well but I'm definitely going to keep it because I'm really do like it and I'm curious how well it'll hold up and be sure to hit that like button if you think I'm disinvited from Elon Sparty's now and I hope not I'd really want to see that Iron Man suit in the basement really thank you for watching\n"