Rent a Tesla, they said. Same price as a subcompact.
So we tried out what turned out to be the Tesla Y for the weekend and getting in, thought, Niiiice.
We said to the guy at Budget, How do you charge this thing?
Him, and I quote: “How the bleep would *I* know?” (Hey! Someone who uses my favorite swear word!)
Okay then. The paperwork requires we fill it with gas before returning. Uh, guys…
I do have to stop here and mention the doors. They look so cool but on the outside, you have to put a lot of oomph into pushing in one side of the half-a-pair-of-tongs to pull open the other end with the other hand and it really wants to snap right back on you. Hard. I was honestly afraid we were going to break my 92-year-old mother’s hand with it and I tried to get to it every time before she did. Defiance of aging is not a good design feature.
We found a public charging station–it was across town–and tried to charge it before the funeral. We took Mom home after the funeral for a rest and went and tried again. We spent three bleeping hours on a Saturday out of the two full days we were in town to see people trying to get that car to charge. We couldn’t.
Oh and did I mention that it was 92F, the car was black, and the AC turned off while we were trying because the car was too low?
What I didn’t know is that people pull in to charge, walk out to shop at the strip mall while it does, and get back whenever they get back while meantime other people have pulled up and are standing in line to get the next slot for their about fifteen minutes of time with it. Three of the charging stations were out of order, including the one we had tried in the morning that was labeled as such by the afternoon. Thanks guys.
The second time, we waited for a slot and got one we knew had just worked for the guy pulling out. We spent a long long time again. Trying everything. Trying to reach anyone. Even the teen in the next car tried to help.
Turns out the car belonged to Budget and Tesla was not going to let someone whose name was not Budget fill the d*** thing. It actually said Charging at one point–and then the station turned itself off. Didn’t matter that we wanted to pay for it, we were interlopers.
So then we had to watch where we drove very carefully.
We did not drive way down the freeway to his sister’s for a visit. We couldn’t.
We got it back to the airport okay on Monday, low (it had been at 75% when we’d gotten it, 80% is as full as you’re supposed to do, why I don’t know) and tried to give them a heads-up on what their new inventory was like for their customers. Their car kept us from doing some of what we had paid for this trip to get to do. I missed a cousin get-together after the funeral. (Oh let’s just go fill the car while we wait for a text back with the address.) We ordered delivery rather than dare even going out to the grocery store.
I am going to be keeping a close eye on that credit card bill.
I have often thought one should always rent a car, if possible, before ever buying it.
Which I am now definitely never going to do. If nothing else, I’m not risking my knitter’s hands on those doors.