Jul 4, 2011
cinergi I fold up my registration into business-card size and paperclip it together with my insurance card and drop that into the glove box. Together with fast-pass, pen, tire pressure gauge, Bluetooth headset, iPhone cable, ... I'm sure I'm missing something. Not bad. I tend to keep a rag in the passenger seat and put my sunglasses case in the storage area in front of the 12v accessory outlet. Sometimes I stuff things behind the seats.
For the soft top, I just put it directly in the trunk (no bag).
Best of luck to you with the coolant error!�
Jul 4, 2011
Dragon I can't, because I don't have a good camera. But it's this one, Mitrovic had it too.
Tesla is apparantly looking into it, but don't have an answer until now.�
Jul 4, 2011
dsm363 That's actually the exact error I had (I have a picture with same error message too). They had to truck it all the way back to Chicago to fix it after working on it 8 hours at my house. It ended up being some sensor the measured internal cabin temperature that malfunctioned. This caused the the air conditioning to not turn on. The car drove but was too hot to really go anywhere. I'm sure this error can apply to many things and hopefully your fix is easier.�
Jul 4, 2011
Dragon I think it might be a sensor problem as well. The cooling system does definitely turn on, I can see the water flowing.
Crap. Didn't hear anything for the license as well. It should have come last week, everyday they keep telling me it should be "the next day".
With my luck the summer is gone till I can enjoy this car.
On the VMS it states the car was build on 11th April. Now we have the 4th Juli and I've driven 3,2 km in total. Just great.�
Jul 4, 2011
dsm363 The cooling system for my car's battery was actually fine. The problem my car had was a sensor that measured the passenger/cabin temperature (inside the car) wasn't working so the air conditioning wouldn't turn on. They were able to use the GSM modem to diagnose my car and let me know it was safe to drive. Are you close to the dealership? Since you don't have your plates, maybe they can pick it up and fix it while you wait for your plates.
You're definitely going to enjoy this car a lot once you actually get to drive it. Hopefully it'll be soon.�
Jul 4, 2011
Dragon The dealership is more than 200 miles away. And their service manager is in the holidays. I'll know more today, if they don't get in contact with me I'll call them again.�
Jul 5, 2011
Eberhard Better to call the munic store�
Jul 5, 2011
NigelM When I bought my Roadster, Tesla gave me the name and number of my "Customer Advocate" in Palo Alto who would answer all my questions and help solve any issues. I only needed to get in touch once or twice, but it's great service - doesn't Tesla do that in Europe?�
Jul 5, 2011
Dragon I don't even know what a customer advocate is.
I have the number of my sales manager, the service manager and the store coordinator. For the license I'm in contact with the store coordinator, for this problem with the sales manager, since the service manager is in holidays.
I don't really know who is my number 1 reference.
It seems that tomorrow someone from Tesla Munich will show up and check the problem. But I am not really sure about that.�
Jul 5, 2011
suxxer Hey Dragon
Congrats for finally receiving your roadster (I just came back from holidays). It looks awesome! I nearly ordered mine in Lightning Green but then I switched for glacier blue.
Be sure to have a look at the carbon spoiler offered from CarbonOne - Lightning Green looks great in combination with carbon.
Have fun�
Jul 5, 2011
bonnie I can't believe the different experience you're obviously having, Dragan. As with Nigel, I was assigned a customer advocate who has always been very responsive. Additionally, my sales person has always been available. And I can't say enough good things about one of the mechanics in Menlo Park who has repeatedly gone out of his way not just for me, but for others on this forum (yay Jake). I wonder if it's because I typically am dealing with people at Tesla headquarters.
In any case, your experience has been horrid - hopefully the joy of owning this car will soon wipe out all the bad experiences.�
Jul 5, 2011
daniel Here in the States, when you buy a Roadster, you are given a "customer advocate" who is a first point of contact with Tesla. You can ask any question or report any problem or concern, and this person will either know the answer, or know who to contact, or will find out who to contact. This person will act on your behalf as a liaison with the rest of the company. My customer advocate has been very friendly and helpful. A couple of times in the first couple of days, when I had a question about how do do something and my customer advocate was away from her desk, I phoned my salesman, and he was always happy to answer my questions.�
Jul 5, 2011
vfx Anyone in the Los Angeles area have a Customer Advocate?�
Jul 5, 2011
DrComputer The whole idea of having a customer "advocate" implies there is an adversarial relationship between the customer and TM corporate. If TM wants to make customers feel special why don't they assign us "concierge representatives" or just plain old "customer service" people.�
Jul 5, 2011
daniel While the term "advocate" might imply something adversarial, that's purely a linguistic consideration. I do not feel any adversarial attitudes from Tesla. "Customer service representative" sounds too much like the usual c.s.r. who treats customers like mushrooms. "Concierge" sounds ostentatious and Frenchified to me. Personally, I like the sound of "advocate." Someone who acts on my behalf.�
Jul 5, 2011
bonnie Definitely not adversarial, but more along the lines of concierge. When I was planning my first distance trip, Stephen plotted out a route with places to charge, plus gave other advice to maximize the fun on the trip. When I have questions about 'when is Tesla going to do x', he's the one with answers for me. Everyone has been responsive and helpful. That's why it's such a surprise for me to hear these other stories. Definitely not my experience.�
Jul 6, 2011
Mitrovic At least you have your car! Sorry to hear about all the problems, I will not comment on that!
But yes, I had this error msg, but at the same time I had a "Powertrain Problem" msg, and they had to tow away the car, but in 24 hours the car was ready again.
So there is hope! What's up with the licence plate?�
Jul 6, 2011
Slackjaw My understanding was that the intent of this person is to advocate Tesla customers to the rest of the World, not to arbitrate or act between us and the corporate megamind. For example, when we're fed up with trying to find chargers on a road trip route, the Customer Advocate would call some hotels and sweet-talk them into getting charging facilities set up, or something like that.
In the light of this discussion maybe I got it backwards. Although I'm not a fan of Corporate Hug-Speak, I do like the term "Customer Advocate", but if the intent is more like DrC's take on it then it's a bit Good Cop / Bad Cop, since they all work for TM. In the scope of my/our relationship with them the New York team and our contacts at TM have all been really outstanding and the service nas been exemplary so I'll call them whatever they want.
I only wish the Italian Tesla Motors team was as good as the people we have here, for Dragon's sake.
P.S. (EDIT): Just saw Bonnie1194's comment which is what I was talking about here. Cheerleaders rather than Drill Instructors.�
Jul 6, 2011
Doug_G My Customer Advocate helped get the Tesla Ranger fees reduced for Canadian customers to something more in line with the USA fees. They used to be over 60% higher. So in that particular case "advocate" was a really good term.�
Jul 6, 2011
Dragon The Coolant System problem was solved today by a technician from Munich. He was very competent and did a good work.
Turned out the problem was simply a sensor checking the temperature in the HVAC-System. It was showing the cabin temperature at 98� Celsius. Substituted that, everything works fine again.
He explained some interesting things too. With the new firmware you don't need anymore to charge in Range Mode for balancing the batteries. This now will be done in Standard Mode as well, but needs a couple of times charging. So you should really use Range Mode only if you need the extended range.
As for the licence plate, the papers etc. I can only say that it's not only the fault of the Tesla guys. They made some errors with the procedure, but there are many italian burocraty issues involved in it as well.
The last days they surely did care about me. I have the hope that things will get better. If all goes as planned I can drive the car this weekend with a temporary permission, I'll know more tomorrow.�
Jul 6, 2011
Mitrovic Yessssss!�
Jul 6, 2011
doug Someone may still be waiting for his bribe... (j/k)�
Jul 6, 2011
dpeilow There are other Roadsters in Italy - I think for around two years - so what's the problem this time? I don't get it.�
Jul 6, 2011
daniel Good luck on getting the papers. Our thoughts are with you.
My sister lived in Italy for three years, about 45 years ago. She said at that time that the bureaucracy was archaic and dreadful. Bribes were the norm. Utility bills had to be paid in cash and in person. Red tape was impossible to negotiate. She loved the country, but hated the way things were run.�
Jul 6, 2011
Dragon Hi dpeilow, I explained it already 2 or 3 times in this thread. However, it's really getting a long thread so... here we go again.
My car is the first one that they tried to register through Tesla Milan, the store which opened in december 2010. All the other cars were registered through Tesla Monaco, which they couldn't do anymore once they had the store in Milan. I don't know the details, but at first it seems they had problems to be accepted as italian company that can register cars. Then they made a mistake to pay not enough added value tax. These things delayed the registration for about a month. The other month and half it seems the italian authorities were just crazy slow to check if everything is ok with this strange new electric car.
Well, you have to know that in Italy nothing goes forward on it's own. You have to call and ask and beg. Every day, then maybe they will slowly proceed.
I didn't do this, because I thought Tesla Milan would do this for me. They didn't do it, because they had no experience with things like this and/or because they believed the company they commissioned to get the papers would do this. At first, always in my humble opinion, it seemed they really didn't care much about it. After all this time and me getting mad, they sure do now.
But still nobody can say when they get the paperworks done. They keep saying "tomorrow" lately. The last two weeks were full of tomorrows.
If I get to know who is responsible for this I'll use the silence of the Tesla to run him over.�
Jul 6, 2011
Dragon Yesterday a guy who preordered a Model S and heard I had the Roadster came all the way at my home to see it in person. Crazy things, nobody did that for my Toyota Corolla!
Since nobody else was at home and we came to speek about the honk, I warned him and said that I will push it. Despite this, he got pretty scared. :biggrin:
Later I scared myself when I tried to close the car with the keys and had the hood still open. Damn! :frown:
I like it.
�
Jul 7, 2011
Slackjaw Dragon, thanks for the updates and entertaining stories from your experience. You reminded me of something - not sure if this should be filed under "things to do in your Roadster" or "things to not do in your Roadster"...
Since we've only had our Roadster about three weeks, I am still working through all the people who asked to see the Roadster when it arrived; on Monday (July 4th holiday here) I took it to show an old boss, and I let him drive it around the block. He was nervous and drove very slowly. To give you the correct mental image, this happens to be in a very wealthy and very Jewish neighbourhood of New Jersey. It's very peaceful at the weekends. Lots of people in these neighbourhoods just go out walking, and the pavements/sidewalks are wide and clean and the roads are very well maintained. There is basically no motorised traffic.
So, nobody noticed us creeping around at 10 mph in near slience. We went around and around but nobody looked. This was very annoying to my old boss, who wanted people to see him in the futuristic sports car. Eventually, as we ghosted about six feet from two oblivious people he had singled out, he lost patience and asked me where the horn was. I was trying to warn him about the sound but as soon as I showed him he let out a two-second semi-truck blast and yelled "Hey Rabbi! Check this out!" at which point the poor old guy looked like he'd been Tazered and almost fell into some bushes. When he recovered his composure he just stood staring, paralysed (the term "fear of God" comes to mind) and I am convinced that he didn't recognise the driver. He probably still wonders who it was.
On a similar note, I've noticed that as a general rule, people don't recognise me in the Roadster. Even when they see it is me and have no excuse at all, e.g. with the top down, they have a look of "did you just *steal* that car?" on their faces. I think seeing me in that car is something people subconsciously erase from memory; so completely unlikely that it can only have been a hallucination. This is probably because people in our neighbourhood only know me from seeing me walking our dogs, with me dressed in what amounts to pyjamas.�
Jul 7, 2011
Mitrovic Yes, Italy works differently. Sometimes it is very annoying, and sometimes it is so charming! B.t.w. my annoyance is that the HPC's in the Milano store worked only when Elon Musk was there and now they do not work, and it seems that they will not start to work very soon, but on the other hand, we can get surprised by Italians!
But Dragon you asked about the licence plates. I know here in Switzerland everything is very different, and you can use your plates on several cars, but here is how the plates are fixed on my car. I think the car has lived as a demonstrator in Germany, Monaco and Italy, so that is why those nasty wholes in the back:
In the front:
and from beneath
�
Jul 7, 2011
Dragon Unleashed the Dragon!!!
It was a chaotic day, with Tesla Milan telling me I could drive with a temporary permission paper whilest the motorization office at Bolzano I asked for support told me it wouldn't be possible with the paper I had received from Tesla. Well, Tesla Milan asked the motorization office from Milan and they confirmed it would be possible. A problem could be that some parts are not filled out. Well, I got the plates and was able to insure the car (they made a mistake too and couldn't change it for now, but I'll pass on this one...), so everything that is missing now is the property certificate and the drive paper. I'm not sure if I'm legaly on the safe side, but with plates mounted, insurance made and this strange temporary permission paper I at least don't think I'm doing so wrong.
Now to the interesting part. I drove about 150 km and had a blast. I stopped at a gas station to pick something up and was surrounded by curious people. Then back on the street I think I pissed some BMW and Mercedes drivers off, showing them how superior my acceleration was. After a while I picked my mom up at home. The first time I accelerated she got really scared. After a while and getting more confident with the car (and maybe my abilities to drive it...) she said to push the accelerator again only for begging to slow down a few seconds later. It sure was fun.
The not so fun part was, approaching home, we got in a really heavy rain. There were short moments I couldn't see anything, partially blaming the bad headlights and the windshield wiper which smeared because it was his first time being used. Safely back in the garage I encountered two old friends of the Roadster driver: Mr. Fogging Headlights and Sir Door Sill Problem.
Tomorrow it will be perfect summer weather. The car is charging now in the garage, waiting for some topless action. What a pity friday is a working day.�
Jul 7, 2011
Mycroft Fantastic! Of course you'll need to update your status again. Perhaps "Your Roadster is now semi-sorta licensed and on the road!"�
Jul 7, 2011
NigelM Dragon, enjoy the fun - it doesn't wear off! Funny how quickly the thrill of driving a Tesla makes you forget everything else, huh? By the way, Service Ranger told me yesterday that they are expecting a fix for the fogging headlights "sometime soon".�
Jul 7, 2011
Slackjaw Great news Dragon. I scraped up one of our wheels (luckily, tiny marks) two days after we got the car; don't let the excitement get the better of you. But you may already have driven farther than me! Have a great weekend.�
Jul 7, 2011
Doug_G And he did! Priceless!
Congrats on finally getting your feet, uh door sills, wet!�
Jul 7, 2011
bonnie Congrats, Dragon! What wonderful news
By the way, the fogging headlights can be fixed. The Menlo Park store needed my car about 4 hours to take care of it - I've not seen any fog since then.�
Jul 8, 2011
NigelM That's interesting! A Service Ranger told me this week that a fix would be forthcoming "sometime soon". My car has to go back to the shop for a leaky window (rainy season has started!) in the next week or two, guess I can push them on the foggy lights now.�
Jul 8, 2011
daniel Dragon: I'm glad you finally got your license and papers and can drive your car! Drive carefully, and enjoy!
I, too, have fogging headlights. It's been clear, sunny, dry weather, and they fog up. What causes that? Can the Tesla Rangers fix it without taking the car to the shop? That's a LONG trip from here, just a bit too long to drive without a stop for charging.�
Jul 8, 2011
DaveD @daniel, Charging in Ellensburg, and Riverstone Resort in Vantage, if you can't quite make it to Ellensburg. Then, it's an easy hop over the Cascades to the Seattle Tesla Store. C'mon, you know you want to do a cross-country trip in that new car of yours. :wink:�
Jul 8, 2011
Jaff Glad you're finally on the road dragon!
Just a note about your new friends...Mr. Fogging Headlights & Sir Doorsill Problem are well known to most of us & we're all still waiting for the landlord to come & evict them...:wink:�
Jul 8, 2011
TEG I recall stories of opening up an access port and blowing dry air in with a hair-dryer. Might only be a temporary fix, but at least it is portable.�
Jul 8, 2011
Jaff Yes, then they "plug" the access port / hole with a Gortex patch (lets moisture out, but not in)...a smart fix, but I understand that they are out of these patches and are looking for a new supplier...
�
Jul 8, 2011
Dragon Just came back from a driving session. Driving at 22pm with the top off is fresh and funny. I'm a fan of dance music. Now I can finally follow the instructions when they sing to "Put your hands up in the air!"
The headlights fogged up again, not as bad as yesterday, but today it wasn't even raining.
I tried to charge on a free charging station (max. 16 Ampere) a few km from here and got a "extension cord detected" error, the car showed it received only max. 6-7 Ampere. I had a 3 � Schuko adapter plugged on my standard charging cable and thought that may be the problem. Then at home I tried using two adapters in a row, the car charged without problem. I guess something is wrong with that charging station. Great. Well, it could be possible I was the first one who tried to charge there after months. It's very hidden, you won't find it if you don't know the exact location.
The car is fun and really easy to drive. If it weren't for the hard steering (I feel like I'll build up some muscles because of that) even an 8 years old child could drive it.�
Jul 8, 2011
Eberhard Hi Dragon,
the car drags the amount of current its set for, but the voltage may drop quite a lot. The bad quality of the pins of the plug may heat up the pins. copper is a good carrier of heat and the cable will get very hot.�
Jul 9, 2011
daniel Actually, I don't. I LOVE the car. It's SO much fun to drive! But after about an hour and a half, my left foot becomes uncomfortable because it's so cramped in there. A 4-hour trip does not sound like fun. And the two-hour (?) charging stop would be very dull. And I do not like driving in a city like Seattle. For that matter, I hate long driving trips if I don't have company. The only time I do it (in the Prius, which is more comfortable) is for my hiking trips to Canada, because hiking is my favorite thing ever, and driving is the only way to get there. If I have to go to Seattle, I'll fly.
Mine clear up pretty fast once the car is off.
In my experience with clothing, Goretex does not really breathe very much.
Hardly worth it, so close to home, when an hour's charging is probably only going to get you about 18 km of range.
It's MUCH easier to turn the wheel if you are moving even just a little bit.�
Jul 9, 2011
Dragon Mine are always fogging up and staying like that for hours. It's the humid summer weather we are having lately.
Sure, but if it's there, why not try? The same charging system is in some other places in my region. Aaand you never know if you're going to approach home with only a few km's left and such a charging for an half hour could save your battery from going to zero.
I know that, have driven cars without steering support before.�
Jul 9, 2011
Dragon Charged with the same Schuko-plug at home and didn't have a problem. There's definitely something wrong with that charging station. The Roadster showed me a stabil voltage of 220 V, it was the Ampere reading which was under 10A.�
Jul 10, 2011
Dragon Quick sum up of my first free day with the Roadster:
In the morning I drove to a grocery store and buyed quite a lot of things. I had to put the soft top up, so everything fitted fine in the back. There's plenty of space there.
I recharged the car and went off in the afternoon with 266 km ideal range. I did drive for 175 km and at the end I had 85 km ideal range left.
There were plenty of cars to outrun in the curvy roads. I drove behind a really nice looking green and pimped up Ford Focus with two tailpipes you could shove a tennis ball in. He accelerated with a loud rumbling noise and I went after him. I had no problem to keep up. Well, consider that Ford Focus will cost probably around 40.000 to 50.000 �, but you get the idea how crazy fast the Roadster is. It seemed the Focus didn't even try to accelerate, but his engine sound told something else.
I was in a dangerous situation too. On our roads in the summer there are many motorbikes. They underestimate the power of the Roadster. I wanted to overtake a slow car and there were some bikes behind me. They wanted to overtake me even though I had the signal blinker (you know what I mean...) going, probably thinking they would already have passed me before I could even touch the other lane. The bike after me had to break hard and fortunately I was going fast enough to not have him hit me. After that he passed me with what had to be almost 180 kmh (110 miles). The lesson I learned was that there exist vehicles on the street that are faster than me (and driving even crazier) for which I have to pay extra attention.�
Jul 10, 2011
Jaff Your experience aside Daniel, I've not read of anyone having this fix done who is still complaining about fogging...�
Jul 10, 2011
bonnie Agreed. I had pretty extreme fogging in both headlamp assemblies (and was getting really tired of people saying, 'Nice car ... did you know about the fogging?'. No fogging at all since the fix was applied.�
Jul 10, 2011
vfx I always smile at this. The noise and bluster screams how hard they were trying. Motorcycles included.�
Jul 10, 2011
Dragon Yeah, this happens to me too. :frown:
Today I noticed, for the second time, that the PEM at the right side of the car was really dirty, while the left almost clean. Is this a coincidence or what?
After 4 days of driving I'm always more convinced that this has to be the best car in the world.
Today i went driving on the mountain roads with street inclines of ca. 20%. The Roadster managed them without problem. I was surprised when one of the mountain people approached me and said "First thought it's a Lotus, but then I didn't hear the motor. Nice Tesla Roadster!"
The moment was seriously disturbed by his friend which, after I spoke about the regeneration, was convinced Tesla had invented the perpetuum mobile. Needed some time to tell him that this won't work.
Ah and they told me that time ago a Ferrari tried to climb up to this nice village. It failed, damaging the front spoiler.
I'm sorry I had no camera with me. Would have been some nice pictures with the mountain scenario and my green love.�
Jul 10, 2011
Mycroft Dragon, the stories of your experiences are fascinating and your writing style is excellent. Please keep it up! And yes, pictures!�
Jul 11, 2011
Dragon Animals... dogs, cats, birds... they seem all very relaxed when I approach with the Roadster. They won't bother to go out of the way until the very last moment. I found this pretty irritating today with a group of birds which were on the street. At first they didn't see and hear me, then when they did, they didn't care.
Maybe the green color is helping too... they even poop on the car. How respectless!
If they get more confident with it they're gonna use it as ride!
![[?IMG]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vhly69Cukccyll7wj4hAKnPU-WSiw1nqzPKIWmY42ZdGU7LbJlV0WOTEgjQpEkPqX3kQNmLFqTz9i8xDqupXcq1eTmn_-JdT4J-foipsIn4B_l91IOlMRTphYhuJ0cpiHk-ueX95vEL5OyTnQx_rqEK0GukaCMdksO1ezwLWo=s0-d)
�
Jul 11, 2011
Dragon Thanks! But are you mocking me? My english is bad (ok, writing is easier than talking and listening). It's only the third language here. Well, who cares? Thanks again!�
Jul 11, 2011
TEG I think they were serious.
Your conversation writing style is fun to read. We can sense the enthusiasm, frustrations and triumphs as you start your Roadster adventure.
You write like you are making a mini-novel.
Your English "mistakes" tend to be amusing and endearing.
(They may seem odd at times, but we know what you are saying.)�
Jul 11, 2011
benji4 Dragon, your English is excellent and completely understandable. One thing that makes your writing very fun to read is that you use a lot of syntactically correct phrases that a native speaker would not (and could not) normally come up with. Hard to believe English is your third language. You are obviously a very talented and funny guy! The 'Legend of Lightning Green' is one of the more interesting and amusing threads to read on this forum and you verify that by the amazing number of posts. 18+ pages already!!! Great job and I'm very happy to hear that you love your car. Looking forward to reading about more of your adventures.�
Jul 11, 2011
Mycroft Heck no!�
Jul 11, 2011
SByer Man, now you make me wish I had taken a picture of my dog as I took him to / brought him home from the vet. He's not tall, so he (seems to) love the Roadster as it allows him to look out front as I drive. His fur also matches the leather accent color perfectly.�
Jul 12, 2011
Dragon Hey, I wasn't really serious with my reply. My english is so bad I couldn't make clear I'm joking. :wink: I was surprised to get a compliment like that.
I should've used some smilies to make it understandable.�
Jul 12, 2011
daniel Let me add to the chorus: Dragon, while you make mistakes in your English, you have a knack for relating a story, and your mistakes are never such as would change the meaning of what you say. You express yourself well even when your choice of words is not what a native speaker would use. The purpose of language is communication, and you communicate well even with an imperfect knowledge of the language. What's your other language? French, perhaps, since France and Italy share a border? (And I imagine French would be easier for an Italian to learn than German.)
I'm not surprised that you speak three languages. Only in America are people who speak only one language permitted to call themselves educated.�
Jul 12, 2011
Dragon German, italian, english and spanish in this order. :wink:
I don't like the french language, it doesn't sound good in my ears.
Came home just a half hour ago. Have to go out now. I have the urge to drive something... something green maybe.�
Jul 13, 2011
daniel Wow! Four languages! I'm not all that surprised, though. French sounds okay to me. I don't care for the sound of German, though my mother tried to learn German after falling in love with the sound of it after listening to recordings of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Bach. My favorite is Spanish as spoken in Madrid and the surrounding area. I learned Spanish mostly in Mexico, where educated people speak a good, solid, clear Spanish. Cubans and Sevillanos speak an ugly Spanish, but Madrilenos speak such a beautiful Spanish that I'd like to marry a woman from Madrid. But only if we could live somewhere else. I don't like the city. It's too big.
Sorry for the digression. I'm impressed by your linguistic skills. And your English, though not perfect or always precisely correct, is fine.�
Jul 13, 2011
Dragon I like spanish very much myself and am planning a Roadster trip to Spain, because I never was there and I think I would like it very much. It's not a big deal with the spoken languages, in my region almost everyone speaks three or at least two languages.�
Jul 13, 2011
Mycroft That's the thing. For example, if Californians' primary language was Spanish, Arizonians' German, Nevadans' Italian, and Oregonians' French, then I think most Americans would be speaking two or more languages.
So Dragon, what's the story about the turkey buzzard like creature on your front seat in that picture?!�
Jul 13, 2011
TEG I don't think that picture was him. Maybe he just found a picture of a bird in a car (not a Roadster) showing an example of how birds find the (quiet) Roadster to be un-frightening. (Although a quick blast of the go pedal would probably give them reason to reconsider.)
---
I will never forget a time I was in a restaurant in the center of Switzerland and the waitress was waiting on different tables in different languages. There was a French, German and Italian couple and us Americans. After switching tables and languages multiple times she went to wait on a Swiss couple and started speaking a hybrid language that seemed to favor the "best" words from all of the above languages. It was fascinating and impressive.�
Jul 13, 2011
Eberhard I hope you will find save places for the night like I did�
Jul 16, 2011
Dragon My old and my new car together. They are almost identical in any possible aspect. Well, they both have wheels and doors!
�
Jul 16, 2011
Lloyd Your car port looks like a good place to suppliment with some solar panels!�
Jul 16, 2011
dsm363 Dragon: You have a car port now? Seems much better than that garage you had before (bigger anyway).�
Jul 17, 2011
Dragon It's there for some years now. The problem is, that there's no electricity.
Solar panels? I spent all my money for the Roadster. Maybe in 1-3 years, but then I'll put them on the house.
If you look well on the screen you can see the fogged headlights. Need to fix that soon.�
Jul 17, 2011
Dragon What a trip today!
I started from Merano (325m above sea level) and went to the Penser Joch (2211m), then down to Vipiteno (~900m) and back up to the Jaufenpass (2094m) and then to Merano again.
When I drove down the Jaufenpass it was very strange seeing a 150km ideal range together with a 299km estimated range. A funny coincidence was that I encountered the same green pimped up Ford Focus from my last trip again. Sadly he was driving in the other direction.
I had charged in range mode until 371 km of range (at first I wanted to go to Innsbruck). I drove only in standard mode for 185 km with 115 km ideal range left.
The weather was bad, the roads slippery wet. I managed to lose the rear for 2 times for a very very short period, the TC kicked in and saved the day. I think I did climb the Jaufenpass in 1/3 of the time I needed with my old car.
The Penser Joch. The fog is nothing compared to what I've found at the Jaufenpass. You could see only 5m around, it made no sense taking pics.
What a mess!
�
Jul 17, 2011
ChargeIt! "heck" for non-german speakers ... in this case means "rear"
(Nice report; too bad about the weather.)�
Jul 17, 2011
Dragon What the heck? :wink:
Thanks for the correction, I thought it's english too.�
Jul 17, 2011
Mycroft Ah, that makes a bit more sense.
Once upon a time, I had a Pontiac Fiero with the engine in the same place as the Roadster's battery pack. Twice I lost control of the rear and did a 360; the second was a total. What I would have given for computer assisted traction control. :-/�
Jul 17, 2011
daniel Thanks for the clarification. I wondered.�
Jul 18, 2011
Slackjaw Sounds like a nice drive Dragon! I took our car on the its longest drive yesterday, approx 100 miles total, and we got throught the 1000 miles on the odometer. It was not as remarkable as yours, only from New Jersey to Staten Island and then back, with quite some time spent on the notorious "New Jersey Turnpike". It was also the longest drive I ever made on my own - I just never liked to drive until we got the Tesla!
One question... What's the warning "!" on this screen? Sorry if you explained this already.
http://gggalaxy.net/tesla/trip3.jpg�
Jul 18, 2011
NigelM I get that when I dismiss a warning screen but don't correct the situation. E.g. Key in ignition but door open.�
Jul 18, 2011
Dragon On my way home I tried to charge again at that solar charging station I already tried once and couldn't charge. Neither this time it worked. It's strange, there was a Think City charging happily. Seems like the additional Schuko plug doesn't work in this case. At my home I don't have problems with it.
The error on the screen you mentioned is from that charging problem. It was impossible to clear it manualy, it only cleared when I was back at home charging in the garage.
The charging station, there are 3 of this kind in my region. Seems like I can forget them.
The white thing is the adapter I use, the original plug is an italian one.
And here's the nice error message.
�
Jul 18, 2011
Dragon Rainy trip
Today I did 300 km from Merano to Innsbruck and back. The weather was bad again, had it raining almost every time. Later I need to clean the door sills... again. :frown:
On the brake discs there is already much rust, it looks a bit strange.
I was confident to easily reach the 300 km Google maps showed the trip would take with a standard charge, I didn't even bother to charge in range mode. I switched to range mode (getting additional 40 km) when the car told me it had limited the power. With 80 km left and only 50 km still to drive I hit the accelerator and did 130 kmh for some km. When it showed still 40 km of ideal range left, the car suddenly switched to -- ideal range unknown, telling me "I've no idea how much range is left, *sugar* happens. Your problem. Have a nice short drive."
Needless to say I was very surprised, didn't expect this to happen after the screen told me there were still 40 km ideal range left. My remaining distance to go where 15 km and I made it home safely. But damn, I learned something important for the future.�
Jul 18, 2011
Dragon After 2 hours of charging with 200V/16A the car shows 15 km ideal range. I'm charging in standard mode, so probably I would have 55 km with range mode left. That means, I should have left 15-25km of total range when I got back at home. Am I right?�
Jul 18, 2011
Eberhard This always happens, when you get below 40km ideal range in range mode.
In standard mode you were on zero.
i alway try to keep this 40km as a reserve. Its harmful to the battery as well if you deplete the battery to much.�
Jul 18, 2011
Doug_G �
Jul 18, 2011
Dragon Didn't know that with this 40 km ideal range limit.
What is more harmful to the battery? Charge it in range mode up to 100% and using the top 40 km range or using the lower 40 km range? I know that both are harmful to the battery, but maybe it would be better to use the top % of the battery instead the lower %.�
Jul 18, 2011
TEG Good question! (But, sorry, I don't know the answer.)
Guess: charging to 100% isn't so bad as long as you drive it soon, and don't do it in very hot conditions.
(Worst case you charge to 100%, unplug it and leave it sitting out in some very hot environment for a long time.)
Guess: running the battery to near empty is probably bad right away. Leaving it like that even worse, but some of the "damage has already been done."
So I guess it depends on what you do with the car next after you hit one of those extremes. Best to get it "out of the penalty box" as quickly as practical.�
Jul 18, 2011
benji4 Don't worry about that. The rust goes away completely when you use the brakes.�
Jul 27, 2011
Dragon I'm now over the 2500 km on my odometer. I have 3 bad things to report: The rear left suspension started to squeak, sometimes it's really annoying, sometimes I can hardly hear it. Yesterday I could reproduce it by pressing down and releasing the car body right over the rear tire. Today I couldn't hear anything by doing that. I contacted a technician, it would be bad if the car stayed quiet when he is checking it. The next bad thing are the door sills. There are already over 5 places where a stone hit them and has pelted off the paint.
How much does a paint refine cost?
Well, the third bad news is entirely my fault. Some of you will remember my really thight and difficult garage entrance. Yesterday I did something wrong and went really near to the wall, there was like 2 cm left between it and the side mirror. I didn't hear anything and I thought everything was fine, but when connecting the charge cable I could see some scratches. The Roadster has a fat ass, seems like I miscalculated that.
But the car is for driving. The only way to keep it without scratches and in perfect shape is to keep it in a box and only look at it. That would be a waste.
At the end some pics I took last week. Again only with a badass handy cam.
�
Jul 27, 2011
NigelM It's always like new cars are guaranteed to get scratches somewhere - I can't believe mine doesn't have any yet; it'll be a real bummer when that happens. Lightening green is still a beautiful car though. I was very tempted to order a green one, but living by the ocean sort of swung me to the blue.
Just curious, how do you get on what looks like a narrow road and then be faced with a no-entry sign? (The top pic)�
Jul 27, 2011
Talkredius Did you open your headlights for defogging ? Perhaps this was the reason for the fog ? :biggrin:�
Jul 28, 2011
Dragon I'm not sure if I understand your question. Something like that is really common where I live. We have many roads which are narrow and have only place for one car in width, even in villages. This one in the pic is a typical access road for a tractor. After that sign it would be impossible for a normal car to drive along.
Hmm. What if the headlights of the Roadster produce fog? It's not the humidity getting into the lights, it's coming out from them! Like a ghost car. Kinda scary.�
Jul 29, 2011
Dragon This evening I went for a relaxing drive but suddenly had a Honda NSX in front of me. What a great car!
Could not find a better video. The Honda I was behind had 4 tailpipes and was silver. That sucker was crazy fast, accelerating up to 160 kmh on a 70 and 90 kmh limit windy street. That was a "once in a lifetime" situation, so I was FORCED to keep up with him. The rumbling of the NSX was brute and violent, the acceleration too. These are the times where you realize what a Tesla Roadster is all about. The Green Lightning followed silently, kept up without problem. He was clearly trying to shake me off, but did not succeed. I was somehow releaved when after about 10 minutes he drove into another street, because in Italy there are severe laws regarding speeding. But it was a pity I couldn't talk to him.�
Jul 29, 2011
doug LOVE the NSX. That is a great drive. Was sad when they killed it.�
Jul 29, 2011
TEG In the USA they sold it under the Acura name instead of Honda.
Is this the one you chased? :
NSX from italy - NSX Prime
![[?IMG]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sMCDblKZdybBAs8fK68UH8GrctW5xB0quvtuvYMOZOAkgWCtEbRCZ2RkY69tjLQE_JWOa5iVttWn7QkbqBB5S0vCrZz75xd_D7gSqpyQNyJb_kIQY=s0-d)
�
![[?IMG]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tM61y2UoCWwdlCXiyTBwsCPzoP_n3eFG3LQw1lTomUHWu9li_7e0AcJ2f1tpB8gLc4UlnS1x97mgAinaToK5m5XWmDK44p2DS855Za8V18aW74Vow=s0-d)
Jul 29, 2011
Dragon Great find TEG! The car really looked exactly (or almost) like this. But it had a swiss plate from Z�rich.�
Aug 22, 2011
Dragon I'm back! Have many stories to tell, many places I've been. Approaching the 5000 km mark on the odometer.
Let's begin from a trip to Innsbruck again to meet german Tesla owner Talkredius. It was nice to see the red twin of my Lightning Green. The 24 hours charging station in Innsbruck was closed, so we moved some km away to a nice quite village where a guy could provide us with 16A. He sure didn't expect two Tesla Roadsters to show up! All the people I've met were really kind and we spent some nice hours together.
More images to follow the next time I have time.
�
Aug 22, 2011
doug Looking forward to it.�
Aug 24, 2011
Talkredius Hey Jaff,
do you see what is missing here ?
your car and we would have had the colours of the Italian flag:biggrin:
my wife was impressed by the colour of Dragon's car. It was my luck that she had chosen the colour of my car
Imagine the discussions I would have had on the way back ...
and indeed it was a really nice meeting.�
Aug 24, 2011
TEG Well at least you got some Christmas colors...
�
Aug 24, 2011
Jaff Hey Talk, when I drive over to collect my beer, we'll have to take some pics! :wink::biggrin:
�
Sep 20, 2011
Dragon Hey guys and girls!
Some random pics today as appetizer for the pics of my drive to the king of the high road trips, the "Passo dello Stelvio". Have you ever been on 2757 meter above sea with the Roadster?
Two really powerfull cars! I prefer the green one.
The sun is shining.
Group foto with two electric cars. Who can name them? (beside TEG)
They can't see me. Stealth mode is activated.
�
Sep 21, 2011
Adm Tezzari Zero.. Pff TEG who? ;-)�
Oct 9, 2011
Dragon "Laaaaadies and gentlemen, start your engines!
I said, start your engines!
What!? You already did?!"
Today I'm gonna tell you a tale of a lightning green Roadster who went all the way up to the Stelvio pass for a surprise meeting with his step brothers.
It all began on a bright and sunny day in the summer (sigh, I miss you Mr. Summer) of '11. It should become a memorable day.
If you don't know the Stelvio pass I recommend you to read this link: Stelvio Pass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And here come the pics!
The way up was hard and steep. The 180� turns where difficult to handle with the Roadster, but I managed. And after every turn... pedal to the metal!
Then the first and only time since today came, when the Roadster told me he will turn down the power, the motor was getting yellow hot. Well, ICE-cars where driving with sluggisch 40 km/h.
I finally made it to the top. What a view. 2757m above the sea, maybe no Roadster before has come to this altitude.
Suprise, surprise! I was sitting in my car, prepared to leave the place. Then I heard really loud motor engine sound. And there they were: 4 Lotus from Germany showed up. It was fun, we talked about tires (they used Toyo Proxes 888), tiny trunk spaces (the Lotus ones are RI-DI-CU-LOUS, they envyed me) and a smell of hot engines was in the air. I particularly liked the black Lotus.
On the way down I smelled the smell of burned brakes. I thought it were mine, cause no one else was in the near. After 10 minutes I was approaching an ICE car, it was his brakes! I used regeneration a lot, but the road was so steep I had to use the brakes a lot as well. But everything fine. The passenger in the ICE before me leaned out of the window and took some pics of me (well not me, my car of course). Funny. Then it began to rain like hell. What an adventure!
Very happy with the performance of my Roadster, he was clearly superior to all other cars.
Ideal range 999km, estimated range 2 km? WTF? The steep roads of the Stelvio pass were too much for the algorithm of the car. I gave the data to Tesla, they will look into it. Never happened again.�
Oct 9, 2011
Mycroft Thanks for the story and the pics! Beauty!!!�
Oct 10, 2011
TEG Awesome! Those poor Lotuses were probably starting to gasp for air at that altitude. Meanwhile your Roadster motors along without a care about air density. (Actually probably did well with less wind resistance.)�
Oct 11, 2011
Dragon Yeah. The motor retains 100% of its power, even on almost 3000m of altitude. The Lotus were stinking a lot (well, I like that smell). But not only, you have great advantages going downhill as well. The brakes of the ICEs were all overheating, while I could use regenerative breaking.
The most amazing part was driving up the road, I wondered why everyone else was going so slow (as said, 40 km/h). I was travelling at double speed without effort, it was really an amazing contrast. All the cars would try hard to get out of my way when I was approaching. :biggrin:
When I think back of my days with an ICE car climbing that road I feel really sorry for all the other ICE-owners. Second gear and pedal to the metal for reaching max. 50 km/h until the next turn... what a pity.�
Oct 11, 2011
TEG Yes, high altitude twisty mountain roads separate the real modern cars from those tired old relics.
![[?IMG]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_udIHSbPZdVtzq2bdsNuwVxz2e7JN4_uUmmLT3a6G3WQgnhSYqrf3sm3GfKTPvdjszTaNdEkQh506j90NYC46qkXLXty_GZ3rCJT6VKJXSWMksMdSBY0Plv3-jbl0sDrVgKGeE=s0-d)
�
Oct 23, 2011
Talkredius Great Pics. And 999 km Ideal Range, where can I get this battery ?:love:�
Oct 24, 2011
VolkerP DBM Energy�
Nov 9, 2011
Dragon Ok guys and girls, it's time for another set of pictures.
This is my contribution to the "Pics of people taking pics of Roadsters"-Thread.
That's in Val Gardena at the Passo Sella. Amazing and breath taking place. But not only the nature was attracting fascinated looks, there was a human created green little thingy that was admired as well.
That's in Selva in Val Gardena. It attracts ski tourists from all over the world. I find it more beautiful in summer.
My visit at the Tesla Store in Munich. First time I charged the car with over 16A. The preceding trip to arrive there was 320 km long. I made it there with --- ideal range left.
The store itself is beautiful and at a very good central location. After charging I went to a nearby hotel. Charging there did not work, my car pulling 16A in the garage was too much for the circuit. When I came back from my city exploration tour, the plug was unplugged and the car had an out of sync error.
On my trip to Munich and on the trip back I got several times into heavy traffic jams. It's great how the car consumes almost nothing in such a situation and does not pollute too.
Never seen animals acting so careless when a car was near. This one seemed to want to come over and taste from this strange colored green grass thingy.
Another cow walked by and touched the car slightly with her body. Seemed like she even didn't recognise me as "living object".
Charging in my garage. I love the flashing charge lights.
This is one of my favorite pics, altough the camera had great problems with the light. The real thing looked really amazing. I couldn't resist driving through this meadow.
And a picture from behind. While I was taking pics the owner of the piece of land came by with a dog barking. Didn't want to know if hostile or not, so I escaped as soon as possible. The owner looked really puzzled, like "What the f**k is this guy doing here? Wait... where the f**k is the engine sound? What car is that? Hah!?!?".
�
Nov 9, 2011
Mycroft Awesome! Thanks for the pics Dragon! You're right, the car under that arbor looks other-worldly.�
Nov 9, 2011
PV4EV Dragon - Thanks for taking the time to post all the write ups of your various exploits. I've just read the lot. Excellent !
There cant be too many Tesla's that have been up the Stelvio Pass��
Nov 9, 2011
augkuo Great pics! I really liked the one of the vineyards�
Nov 17, 2011
Dragon Thanks for the replies. Saturday morning I'm planning to do my longest trip ever. Starting from Italy I'll head to the Reschenpass, go over the Fernpass and make a pit stop in Munich. Then I will head north again, passing Regensburg to finally reach my goal after 9 hours (including 3 hours pit stop) and 500 km.
When I come back a week later the car will have run over 10.000 km in just 4,5 months.�
Nov 17, 2011
Mycroft 10,000 petrol-free miles to boot!�
Nov 17, 2011
Mycroft Actually, since you're in Italy, that would be 10,000 petrol-free miles *in* the boot! gd&r. I kill me! :biggrin:�
Nov 17, 2011
felixtb dragon,
i must say, after having had so many problems in the delivery of your car you sure have savored the relationship!!! wow! I have had my car for 9 months now and only have a handful of miles. However, I do spend most of my time away............ that kinda bites......!
have a great trip and hope to hear all about it!�
Nov 17, 2011
Dragon The reference to the boot is a good one, bravo.
But I can't resist the urge of pointing out two errors in this sentence.
1) Since I'm going to Germany there are some km driven outside the boot!
2) It's km and not miles.
But that doesn't matter anymore, since you killed yourself.�
Nov 20, 2011
vfx That would be Das Boot!�
Nov 20, 2011
Botbldr45 That way totally outstanding ......... congratulations!!!!�
Nov 20, 2011
Tech26 Just read the entire thread from start to finish. It really is a bit like a Tesla novel :smile:
Thanks for taking the time to post up the pictures and telling a good story. I love happy endings!�
Nov 29, 2011
Dragon I am back from Germany and at about 10.700 km now. There is a lot to be told. At one point I was 65 km (40,39 miles) away from my destination with 35 km (21,75 miles) of range left. Did I make it home without charging? Did I need to recharge at some strange location for 2 hours? Or did the battery explode, causing a heavy fire? Stay tuned for it!�
Nov 29, 2011
Eberhard i guess you was on the summits top? Like i was in the karpaten mountains more than 2000m in altitude. i have have to go to Sibiu 65km away and only 40km left�
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