Going electric…

On this Friday the 13th, here’s a true, but fun story. Only the name of the hero has been changed to protect his identity. 

Early November of 2021, Charlie ordered a Tesla model Y. At first he was notified that he would only get his dream car around October of 2022, so he had plenty of time to salivate in view of his prized acquisition. 

Towards the end of the winter, things improved as the delivery date range moved from May 24 to July 3, then July 14 to August 25, before returning to May 25 to July 2 and finally happening this week. So, on Tuesday Charlie and his wife drove in their 10 year old Subaru to take possession of the coveted electrical car and sell their aging automobile. 

Before that, Charlie had forked what he thought was the biggest amount of money he ever paid for a car, but had consoled himself by knowing that, six month later, he had “saved” $7,200 dollars over its new, “current” price! 

This sped-up the normally interminable car buying process, and it was further accelerated by a sales person that didn’t want to help his kind of confused customers, just barely set the navigation system up for their next stop, and sent them on their way without explaining anything about the intricate screen-driven controls on the car. Charlie’s sole and remote experience with it was in fact the test drive he took a year before. 

Yet, he got in the car and went 15 miles down the road to sell the beloved “Subie”, his wife following carefully on a crowded freeway. The car that had sat in the sun at the dealership was hot, and Charlie couldn’t find the climate controls on the car impressive and forbiding screen… 

Once they managed to get there, all was good, but they were missing an important document and told to get it and return to complete the sale. That meant an 80 mile round-trip, but there was no choice. 

As they proceeded together in the new Tesla, Charlie noticed a “Low tire pressure” notice on his screen and soon his wife told him “We must have a flat on the front passenger tire!” The only and next best thing was for Charlie to immediately stop in the front entrance of a large Toyota dealership and realize that the front passenger tire was indeed flat. 

After much fumbling with the Tesla phone app, Charlie was connected to the brand’s roadside assistance and told to wait there for one hour and that a technician would probably mount a spare wheel on the brand new car.

Help arrived 60 minutes or so later in the form of a flatbed truck that took the car back to the Tesla service center as all the spare wheels had already been given out. Furious, sad and exhausted, Charlie and his wife were lucky to get on their (quite luckily) unsold car and drive the Subie back home. 

The following day they had to repeat the same process and uneventfully bring the new car to its final destination and that is the end of this electrifying story...