All started with a rental at Turo. Turo.com is a site where you can rent your neighbor's car for a reasonable rate. So sky is the limit, becuase you can find all types of posh cars too. My curiosity of driving a Tesla made me rent a 2013 Model S85 there. It had 90,000 miles on it, but felt and drove really great. The owner was also very consultative to explain about the car and process.
When it comes to buying a Tesla, your options are to buy a) a brand new if you can afford, or b) certified pre-owned (aka CPO). Tesla.com keeps national inventory of their certified pre-owned cars online for easy access, you can even immediately put down a deposit to buy one. Compared to dealers selling at similar prices, if you buy pre-owned from Tesla, your car comes with 4 years/50,000 miles warranty and they also refurbish it with new tires, new brake pads, even a new drive unit if needed. Ev-CPO is a privately owned website, which you can search in more details the preowned Tesla models, and get notified when something appears matching your criteria. 2 week trial is free, and extending it at $8/mo is not a big expense compared to what you are intending to buy.
Teslas are referred with last 5 digits in their VIN. This is the serial of the car manufactured, and shows your cars sequence in the manufacturing line. e.g. 5YJSA1CG5DFP24262 is the 24,262nd Tesla manufactured.
I made my due diligance and understood the options within a few weeks. Your CPO options are Model S, sedan, and Model X, SUV. Submodels are represented by letters and numbers. P for performance (faster acceleration), D for dual motor (4 wheel drive) and number showing the KWatt battery capacity. Front hood covers cargo space called frunk, as there is no engine, but frunk is smaller in dual motor models because of the front motor.
Lowest battery option is 60, highest is 100. In between are 70, 85, 90 depending on the year. The power consumption is around 300 watts/mile in ideal driving conditions, goes up to 350 with AC in a normal day. You can calculate the range which would be between 200 to 300 miles. Tesla recommends not to charge your battery full unless going to a trip, so assume that you will use 80% of that capacity. Standard home/wall charger gives you around 9kwh, so a charging time of 6-10 hours. Supercharger network is conveniently located on highways, and charges your car with DC power in 30-50 minutes. However, distance between those charges are not that long, so you usually spend 15-30 mins to get enough power to next charger.
Coming to options, glass roof is good to have, especially if you intend to carry load over the roof because you cannot fit rails to models with body color roof. However, not a must, and it does not feel more spacious for the front seat people. The Performance Plus package only adds upgraded dampers, bushings, stabilizer bars, and tires; some reviews say that the tires would have less miles with P+. I did not find sound system upgrade required unless you want Sirius XM, but Tesla's streaming system is sufficient itself. Tech package is almost a must and adds onboard maps and navigation, daytime LED running lights, LED cornering lights, automatic keyless entry, lighted door handles, electrochromatic mirrors, power heated folding side mirrors, power liftgate, GPS-enabled Homelink, and memory seats and mirrors. Subzero package gives you heated rear seats and wipers, only required for cold zones. Air Suspension is cool to have, it lowers your car over a set speed, or raises it at defined spots (your driveway or bumpy roads). Rear facing child seats could be useful if you are really a crowded family and willing to put your kids into trunk with racer seatbelts. You are also sacrificing some cargo space, although the seats can be removed with some effort. No, they cannot be fitted to another Tesla or afterwards as those cars have special body support at the rear for collision. Auto Folding mirrors are important, but not an option, it comes default around after 25000 (2014) cars. After serial 12000, wiring may be there but you need to pay extra for the function to work. Dual charger enables your car to get charged 2x faster at 80A however you need to find a 80A charger. At home, I am not in a rush. In a hotel, I would be anyways staying overnight so I do not find it worth $2000. Dual charger has no affect at Superchargers as they are not AC but DC. Coming to wheels, I found 21" tires to be more noisy than 19", but cooler. I did not feel much difference in driving comfort. I love red brake calipers, but instead of paying $1500, you can paint them yourself with this kit. Fiber spoiler is also a good esthetic accesory. The windows do not come tinted from factory, so you need to have it tinted if you want. The leather seats look cheesy and vinyl, so I would buy premium seats available in newer models.
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