In 1979, I bought a Mazda RX-7, sight unseen, after reading an article about about its performance and rotary engine. I picked up the vehicle at a railroad yard, with the greasestick Japanese shipping information still written across its windshield. And then, for the next 40 years, I didn’t buy a new car.
I did have several cars over that period. I had a used Honda Civic that was a nifty little car until a T-boning pickup turned it into a trapezoid. I had a used Geo Metro whose top speed was somewhere around 55 mph whose noise level at any speed involved cats caught in a rock crusher. I had a used Toyota Prius that encouraged me to be really irritating to those not trying to milk ever M per G. And I had a used Chevy Volt that was by far the nicest car I had owned and which allowed me to get through a decade of daily commutes while rarely hearing a gas engine.
When the mileage on that Volt got well into 6-figures, I decided to start scouting around for something new, and this time I wanted to go full EV, However, having read that Warren Buffet thing about never buying a new car somewhere in my 20s, I was scanning the auto sites for a few years old Leaf, or maybe something like a lightly used fleet EV of some less common design. Only … I kept watching videos about the Tesla Model 3.
It wasn’t my first exposure to Tesla. In 2012, I took a test drive in a Model S. The young woman who conducted the drive showed that she was the best salesperson in the history of salespersons by greeting me with “Are you the Mark Sumner who wrote Devil’s Tower? I loved that book!” Too bad her Academy Award level acting couldn’t find a way to stuff $70k into my empty pocket. Despite the flattery, I did not buy the car.
And honestly, my pockets were seriously unready to part with the $35K necessary to pick up the basest of base Model 3s. Until I watched a particular video … and got stupid.
I happened to watch that video in a week when I had already tried to buy a slightly newer Volt, only to have it purchased before I could fully make a decision. And a week in which I had driven all the way across the state and back to look at 2014 Chevy Spark which really did seem to be the electric equivalent to my long gone and none too lamented Metro. And a week where some medical issues nudged me with the idea that, at a rate of one car per decade, this wasn’t something I was likely to face again. (and if I do … yah!)
The particular Model 3 video that got to me was nothing special — just another in a long line of YouTube videos in which people recounted their experiences picking up their cars. Only in this video the new Tesla owner (who I’m sure is a perfectly nice person) made a comment about “not being a kid anymore” and “being ready for a real car.” She was, according to the video, 24.
And that kind of made me pause for a moment. Did I want to see my bank account go down by half the price of my house? I did not. But it also seemed like a long time since I had really treated myself to something I wanted. Something that I honestly could have if I simply decided to have it.
So, just under a month ago, I pressed the button and committed myself to buying a new Tesla Model 3. I splurged another $1k to buy the car in “midnight silver” rather than the stock black. Ten days later I picked the car up from the local service center.
To be honest … I kind of love it. I had liked Teslas in abstract before, both for their electric drive trains and their relentless approach to minimalism. But driving the car is a genuinely new experience. It’s the same, but different. It’s responsive in a way that no car I’ve owned in the past has been when it comes to translating my thoughts into motion. It’s fast. It’s quiet. It’s just impossibly smooth.
It’s the best gadget I ever bought.
I would go on at length about the benefits of EVs. In fact, I have talked on that topic many times. But not today, because my little auto-biography is getting too long as it stands.
I’m happy to answer any questions anyone has about the car, but I don’t want to be a Tesla evangelist. It’s a very fun car, but it’s not like every other car. There are certainly going to be people who don’t like it. My wife, for example, who says only “Well … it’s definitely your car.” Though, hey, if you are going to buy one, please give me a kick and get my referral code. It’ll be good for us both.
What the Model 3 is really like to live with I won’t know for five years, or ten. I tend to hang onto vehicles a long time and trade them only when it’s clear that the utility / cost curve is getting badly out of whack. But at the moment, I definitely have things to say about Tesla’s AutoPilot, the supercharger network, the system of software upgrades, and the value for dollar of the car. I’ll say those things … soon.
Oh, and if you’re wondering what happened to that 1979 RX-7, the answer is nothing. I drove it for years. When I moved to St. Louis, the car’s inability to function when flake one of snow hit the ground encouraged me to send it back to my home town, where my father drove it for years more. When dad died, the car ended up gathering dust in a storage unit. Then, just last year, I gave it to a friend who had the time and inclination to fix it up.
I’m hoping to take a ride in it later this month. That might be even more fun that the Model 3.