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December 26, 2021 5:53 AM   Subscribe

Finnish Man Passes on Paying $22,600 to Replace His Tesla's Battery, Blows Up Car Instead – A Tesla repair shop told a Model S owner that replacing the battery would cost more than $22,600. He decided to stick 66 pounds of dynamite on the car., Gizmodo, Jody Serrano, 12/24/2021. There is a tragic loss of vehicle.
posted by cenoxo (64 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Why would they need permission from Tesla to replace the battery? (I mean what’s the rationale for restricting functional repairs?)
posted by oddman at 6:13 AM on December 26, 2021 [3 favorites]


The rich are different from you and me. They have more money. And dynamite.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:14 AM on December 26, 2021 [20 favorites]


Now that's a way to make a point.
posted by dominik at 6:17 AM on December 26, 2021


I wonder about the environmental impact of blowing up a Tesla. Who cleans up the exploded battery ingredients? I don't even put AAA batteries in the garbage.
posted by srboisvert at 6:25 AM on December 26, 2021 [15 favorites]


According to Katainen, his Model S ran “excellent” for the first 932 miles (1,500 kilometers) after he bought it, but then the error codes started to appear.

So they don't have new car warranties in Finland? Or was this a used car, a fact left out in the original post?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:26 AM on December 26, 2021 [5 favorites]




So they don't have new car warranties in Finland? Or was this a used car, a fact left out in the original post?

I was going to wonder about a Lemon Law.

The article says it was a 2013. I'm guessing it was used. It looks like it'd be out of warranty even if new, baed on cenoxo's link.
posted by MrGuilt at 6:40 AM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


What a fucking giant mess.
posted by nevercalm at 6:45 AM on December 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


but electric cars will save the world from global warming by reducing people's carbon footprint
posted by lalochezia at 6:50 AM on December 26, 2021 [20 favorites]


This is exactly the kind of lateral thinking common in Finland that makes me love the place. On the one hand, fixing homelessness by providing homes to the homeless, on the other hand, if a car is so poorly engineered that repairing it costs a fortune, bring people joy online by blowing it up.
posted by Kattullus at 6:51 AM on December 26, 2021 [42 favorites]


I guess you could say the car was….

Finnished…..

sunglasses appear from top of frame, “yowwwwwww” SFX plays at top volume”
posted by dr_dank at 6:52 AM on December 26, 2021 [70 favorites]


So dude buys a used EV, battery tanks shortly afterward; sounds like he decides to do replacement himself to save some $ (my interpretation of 'needed permission from Tesla'); permission denied so he blows the car up, leaving him with...needing to buy a replacement anyway? I'm getting a strong entitled asshole vibe here.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 6:52 AM on December 26, 2021 [6 favorites]


if any of our civilizations' digital stuff survives for future civilizations to sift through, they will surely be in awe of our slick video production techniques, produced in the harshest evolutionary crucible of [cue: bullet time & 808 bass glissando down] trying to pander to monetizing recommendation algorithms
posted by glonous keming at 6:56 AM on December 26, 2021 [3 favorites]


I'm getting a strong entitled asshole vibe here

Reminds me a bit of those cryptocurrency types shooting their iPhones out of some fit of pique. Some people should not have money, but the universe is not evenly distributed. So it goes.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:00 AM on December 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


Jalopnik: …20,000 euros is an awful lot and changing out a Tesla battery pack is a huge pain in the ass, but it’s not quite like that amount of money would have necessarily totaled the car. Used 2013 Model Ss in Finland look like they go for over 35,000 euros, easy.
posted by cenoxo at 7:12 AM on December 26, 2021


Teslas cost the most to insure. This makes the resale value even more unstable because wealthy people won't be buying the older ones as tax deductions.
posted by Brian B. at 7:14 AM on December 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Dropping Elon Musk from a hovering helicopter was a nice touch. Even better was sitting him in the car before blowing it up.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:16 AM on December 26, 2021 [6 favorites]


I think Tesla is clearly the bigger asshole in this set of circumstances.

This is a car so stupidly designed that the windows have to slightly lower each and every time you open the door otherwise they'll risk breaking. That's why they have to have electronic pushbutton doors. And because they have pushbutton doors, they also have emergency releases, and those emergency releases are way more obvious than the pushbutton, so people unfamiliar with the magical, non-standard, non-intuitive way to open a fucking door are more likely to pull that than hit a seemless button and risk damaging the door.

They're also stupid enough to have a glass cockpit even though tactile feedback is a thing and car designers have spent decades making sure that you can do things like change the radio or turn up the blower without taking your eyes off the road. And until recently Tesla was allowing (passengers) to play video games on that same glass cockpit.

All Teslas should be exploded with dynamite. They're absolutely the worst car ever and they shouldn't even be considered roadworthy.

Why can't they just, you know, make a good electric car? It's not hard. Nissan does it. Just make a car that doesn't summarily reject 90% of everything we know about how to make cars just be disruptive and innovative and ooooh shiny.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:27 AM on December 26, 2021 [107 favorites]


Why would they need permission from Tesla to replace the battery? (I mean what’s the rationale for restricting functional repairs?)


As I understand it, the battery weighs enough that replacing it constitutes work on the frame.
posted by ocschwar at 7:34 AM on December 26, 2021 [3 favorites]


Teslas also have a hidden 12 volt battery which powers the door locks and is only recharged if the main battery is getting charged, which means if you plug your Tesla in and leave it sitting for a couple weeks, you will be locked out and you can't even open the hood. And as James May found out, this battery is buried so deep in the car, it takes hours of removing parts to get enough access to throw a charger on it.

Teslas are designed by techbros who have no idea what they're doing.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:34 AM on December 26, 2021 [65 favorites]


Just make a car that doesn't summarily reject 90% of everything we know about how to make cars just be disruptive and innovative and ooooh shiny.

Haha, you think Telsa started this stuff? You apparently don't remember the Ford Edge/Lincoln MKX from ~2009 (2011 maybe?) with the haptic button to control the fan blower speed on the dash (so no steering wheel option which Telsas do have) with the longer you hold the higher it gets and a short touch always sends it back to low. Guess how easy that thing was to use while driving?

Or the Jeep parking break that no one could figure out how to work so it ran over a bunch of its own drivers (including the actor who played Checkov from the new Star Treck movies).

Automakers love screwing around with the latest tech without any thought of how it's going to work for an average consumer. That's not unique to Tesla.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:41 AM on December 26, 2021 [9 favorites]


This is a car so stupidly designed that the windows have to slightly lower each and every time you open the door

Every frameless window design on every car does this. But even if Tesla were the only ones this would be an incredibly stupid criteria for selecting an EV.
posted by patrick54 at 7:43 AM on December 26, 2021 [10 favorites]


patrick54, you are mistaken, all Subarus up to about 2009 had frameless windows and do not do this. Most cars have hidden vents to the outside with rubber flappers (not actively controlled, they just are displaced by air pressure) which prevent the passenger compartment from being pressurized when a door is closed. They are usually located at the rear sides of the car and are concealed under the bumpers.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:52 AM on December 26, 2021 [22 favorites]


What a fucking giant mess.

YT: Exploding Broken Down Tesla Model S explains they prepped the car pre-boom (including battery pack removal), captured super slo-mo boom from several angles (nice shockwave), and cleaned up the post-boom smithereens.
posted by cenoxo at 7:55 AM on December 26, 2021 [17 favorites]


Teslas are designed by techbros who have no idea what they're doing.

It's a car designed like an Apple product, right down to the proprietary chargers.
posted by octothorpe at 8:13 AM on December 26, 2021 [13 favorites]


I'm getting a strong entitled asshole vibe here.

Some context.
The owner didn't destroy the vehicle himself; he handed it off to these two (previously, previouslier, more previouslier, previously again, my personal favourite previously) and asked them to do it, whereupon they stated in the comments for the video they made of it that "This is was just so stupid project that I thought it's perfect for my channel."

This also occurred in the same country that has wife-carrying championships, mobile phone- and boot-throwing competitions, holds a yearly Beer Floating event, and is the home of the guy who makes toothbrushes sing pop songs.

Not every goat is a dead goat; or, what Kattullus said.
posted by myotahapea at 8:14 AM on December 26, 2021 [23 favorites]


What made it for me was the cardboard cutout of Elon Musk, helicoptered in no less(!) to sit in the doomed, anointed vehicle.
posted by storybored at 8:32 AM on December 26, 2021 [7 favorites]


GM announces the availability of EV components for anyone. So go ahead and retrofit that old classic in the junkyard, or just start your own EV production company out of your garage, including boats.
posted by Brian B. at 8:44 AM on December 26, 2021 [27 favorites]


Heh, talk about throwing your toys out of the pram. With dynamite.

Really though, I can think of a bunch of reasons why Tesla would be unhappy with owners fucking with the main battery, and not all of them are bad reasons. One of the medium-bad reasons would be that every time a Tesla catches on fire, it's global news.

Also, I don't know what he expected, but fixing a rich-people car tends to be pricy.

Also also, I understand that owning an $80k+ car tends to be kind of frowned upon in Scandinavia, socially. So he might have been tired of it for other reasons too.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 8:46 AM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


In his small way, he contributes to entropy, thus helping to move us a tiny bit closer to the heat death of the universe.

Let me be the first to nominate him and his team for the Putzer Price for yet another practical use of dynamite as a tool to demonstrate civilization and enlightenment.
posted by mule98J at 9:26 AM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


Who cleans up the exploded battery ingredients?

They took out the battery and the motor beforehand. Tesla motors are in demand. They are used for EV car conversions.
posted by eye of newt at 10:22 AM on December 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Haven't finished watching the video yet. My favorite part thus far, in response to a question about how much dynamite they have: "We have quite much," and it looks like they do.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:06 AM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


Why can't they just, you know, make a good electric car? It's not hard. Nissan does it. Just make a car that doesn't summarily reject 90% of everything we know about how to make cars just be disruptive and innovative and ooooh shiny.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:27 AM on December 26


Nonsense. If Steve Jobs had thought that way about phones, we might still have a functioning democracy.
posted by eustatic at 12:36 PM on December 26, 2021 [15 favorites]


From what I recall all cars in Scandinavia are hella expensive due to VAT etc. However I would have a heart attack if I had to do a full swap on a five year old battery for 20k. Used car markets should be encouraged. I think that EV companies need to figure out the used market fast - there may be a need for battery insurance or the like.

We had a similar event with a non EV, a few years old diesel Passat we bought new, it tossed a factory fan belt which got in the timing belt and destroyed the motor. We were told the same thing - hey you can buy a new motor for $$$. Insurance was no help. We traded in as a wreck for a used minivan. If dynamite was handy…

My fam are happy Model 3 owners for the most part. My wife is the gear^H^H^H^Hbrushless motörhead and getting it was happy making for her. We owned a Prius then a Volt then a Bolt and now a Pacifica plugin hybrid too, so we have stuff to compare to. I hate with all my heart those doors that freeze in the winter, and the over reliance on the touchscreen and I’d like a heated steering wheel for the money we paid. But it is the most sporty thing I have ever driven and the range and charger system are great. It handles the snow. I won’t use anything past smart cruise control because I am get off my lawn years old in driving mindset. I wish Musk wouldn’t Musk so often. I wish he would embrace public transport but same with the boards of GM and Ford.

We all have our priorities and one of mine is that all people, but esp. less advantaged people have been breathing in particulates and it sucks.*. So I’ll put up with Musk, and the yuppie insults and side-eyes. I like quiet no emissions traffic and I hope we can all get there.

* Edit: the eagle eyed reader will notice I hate particulates but owned a diesel. It was a bad bet on vegetable based fuels. It failed on many levels.
posted by drowsy at 12:38 PM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


It's a car designed like an Apple product, right down to the proprietary chargers.
To give both companies a bit of credit, there weren't comparable standards at the time. Tesla shows no sign of giving up their proprietary charger, but Apple's been moving to Qi and USB-C for some time now.

Tesla clearly wants to be the Apple of EVs, but they still haven't figured out basic fit-and-finish issues. At some point, Apple will be the Apple of EVs, at which point Tesla is in real danger of becoming the Blackberry of EVs.
posted by ArmandoAkimbo at 12:41 PM on December 26, 2021 [7 favorites]


To be fair to OP, after watching both videos it's not exactly clear who's in charge of the project -- Lauri from HPC/Beyond the press and the Pommijätkät guys both made videos and it seems like there were a lot of people and businesses who contributed. I follow HPC and when I saw their video I assumed it was their project; someone who just read the linked article and saw the Pommijätkät video it referenced probably wouldn't make that connection.

I included the HPC MeFi history because their videos are done in the same spirit as this stunt, and the ancillary references as a way to show that this joyful bit of ingenuity and controlled mayhem comes from a cultural wellspring that manifests in many weird and wonderful ways.
posted by myotahapea at 12:44 PM on December 26, 2021 [5 favorites]


I have a feeling that Apple will become the Apple of EVs the same way they became the Siri of voice recognition, the Beats of headphones, the Dark Sky of weather apps (okay, that one's not quite finished yet), etc.--by buying somebody else's good idea.
posted by box at 12:54 PM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


We all have our priorities and one of mine is that all people, but esp. less advantaged people have been breathing in particulates and it sucks.*. So I’ll put up with Musk, and the yuppie insults and side-eyes. I like quiet no emissions traffic and I hope we can all get there.

I've got bad news then about tire and brake particulate emissions, which EVs can make worse because they're substantially heavier. The path to quiet no emissions traffic is, in general, less driving rather than making it the default for everything, and the changes in society and our built environment needed to make that practical.
posted by zachlipton at 1:00 PM on December 26, 2021 [12 favorites]


That is an ex-car.
posted by brundlefly at 1:39 PM on December 26, 2021 [10 favorites]


They're also stupid enough to have a glass cockpit even though tactile feedback is a thing

Since they're using capacitive touchscreens this one is even readily solvable as some car or truck design in the past few years has: a metal knob that makes contact with the screen and which contact by a human hand activates the capacitive screen. You could even get fancy and encode the identity of the control (e.g. blower strength) into the underside of the control so that the display reconfigures based on moving the physical interface element around.

There was a musician who designed similar controls that he could attach to his touchscreens so he could have regular faders for volume control, for instance, as opposed to just having the screen.

It seems appropriate for our age that you can touch everything but nothing has any feel.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 2:50 PM on December 26, 2021 [7 favorites]


YouTuber Rich Rebuilds who has started a Tesla and electric car focused repair shop has found that often a Tesla battery can be fixed by replacing individual cells instead of the whole pack. However Tesla will not support this kind of repair and would rather you pay the $20,000 to swap out the battery. Given potential fire problems in lithium batteries I can see Tesla’s POV.

At the same time a new model S is more than $100,000. A $20,000 battery swap for at least another ten years of life seems like a pretty good deal. Given the lower annual maintenance costs of EV’s you are coming out ahead vs a traditional car especially given the rise of catalytic converter theft.
posted by interogative mood at 3:00 PM on December 26, 2021 [3 favorites]


Previously on Metafilter, re: Rich Benoit.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:09 PM on December 26, 2021


Tesla's biggest (unique to them among car companies) problem other than Elon's shitty management style is their continued hate-on for third party repair. It didn't bug me so much in the past because they were pretty much all under warranty anyway so it wasn't unreasonable for them to have put off selling parts. However, now that they have a substantial number of cars in the wild with expired warranties that are filtering into the used car market, they really need to be beaten over the head until they do better.

And yeah, EVa don't eliminate all the problems with wide scale use of personal automobiles, but they do make most of them (other than traffic/wasted time) better. I'm not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Between the zero tailpipe emissions, most of them using harder tires, and the use of regenerative braking, they do still spew less particulate junk into the air and have drastically reduced lifetime carbon emissions, even taking into account the secondary emissions from production of components like batteries.
posted by wierdo at 3:18 PM on December 26, 2021 [9 favorites]


Anyone else here getting Edsel flashbacks just from reading this thread?
posted by gtrwolf at 3:43 PM on December 26, 2021 [1 favorite]


Somewhere, John Prine’s ghost sings “Blow up your Tesla/Throw out your Musk doll/Strap on the TNT/Film you a boom.”
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:28 PM on December 26, 2021 [4 favorites]


I've got bad news then about tire and brake particulate emissions, which EVs can make worse because they're substantially heavier. The path to quiet no emissions traffic is, in general, less driving rather than making it the default for everything, and the changes in society and our built environment needed to make that practical.

I've got even worse news...
posted by 2N2222 at 6:07 PM on December 26, 2021 [2 favorites]


I've got bad news then about tire and brake particulate emissions, which EVs can make worse because they're substantially heavier.

Define bad news...
Studies mention that in urban environments, brake wear can contribute up to 55 % by mass to total non-exhaust traffic-related PM10 emissions and up to 21 % by mass to total traffic-related PM10 emissions, while in freeways, this contribution is lower due to lower braking frequency. [source]

Arguing about brakes is a popular ruse by people who want to ah-shucks their way out of reducing cars that use internal combustion engines. The reality is that if all those combustion engines were EV's the impact on PM in communities would be enormous even with continued braking.

Also, why is anyone buying a luxury car that is nearly ten years old and expecting it to run like new without costly repairs? My neighbor collects old Mercedes, but no one expects them to run well (and they don't!). Blowing them up would be well, just as ridiculous.
posted by Toddles at 7:15 PM on December 26, 2021 [7 favorites]


It was a bad bet on vegetable based fuels. It failed on many levels.

I'm completely behind on the literature. Can I ask what does this mean and where/how (IE search terms) to look up on this?
posted by cendawanita at 7:24 PM on December 26, 2021


Biodiesel, dawg.
posted by stet at 7:47 PM on December 26, 2021


Because you can't fit a car inside a hydraulic press.
posted by biogeo at 9:03 PM on December 26, 2021 [7 favorites]


Arguing about brakes is a popular ruse by people who want to ah-shucks their way out of reducing cars that use internal combustion engines. The reality is that if all those combustion engines were EV's the impact on PM in communities would be enormous even with continued braking.

The hand wringing about embodied carbon emissions has been so thoroughly debunked, they had to come up with a new one. Never mind that EVs barely use their brakes since regenerative braking takes care of most of the deceleration.

As I said before, EVs aren't a panacea. They still contribute to excessive traffic that in and of itself makes walking and biking much less pleasant than it should be. Despite the tire noise they're still a hell of a lot quieter than the average ICE car, though, and that alone encourages people to walk and bike. Automakers go to great lengths to insulate drivers from the awful racket their cars make, so I don't think most people realize quite how noisy they are at speed. It's really quite unpleasant.

Buses are also unpleasantly loud, for that matter, but at least they are usually carrying more than one or two people and the case for electrification is even better, though the capex is beyond what most transit systems in the US can afford at the moment.
posted by wierdo at 10:47 PM on December 26, 2021 [5 favorites]


EVs (and PHEVs) barely use their brakes at all, which only doubles their benefit to the environment, if you're concerned about brake dust. When you press the brake pedal, it basically hooks up the engine in regeneration mode, recapturing all that energy and feeding it back to the battery. Your "real" brakes only kick in if you do emergency braking and you're asking the engine and batteries to absorb more energy than it can handle - which is a pretty mean feat, given the prodigious outputs the Tesla engines and batteries are capable of. This is naturally very rare.

In fact, the automotive industry had to develop brand new (and expensive) coatings and treatments for the brake rotors because they would corrode and fail due to lack of use...
posted by xdvesper at 11:53 PM on December 26, 2021 [3 favorites]


I really didn't intend to start a derail on non-exhaust particulate emissions in EVs (and not all particulate emissions come from brakes), but they're significant and not just oil company propaganda (and of course EVs have lower carbon emissions):
Globally, road traffic is responsible for an estimated quarter of ambient PM in urban areas. Given increasingly stringent standards regarding the PM content of exhaust emissions, non-exhaust emissions are quickly becoming the dominant source of PM emissions from road traffic, and are expected to comprise the vast majority of all PM from road traffic as early as 2035. While the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) will contribute to reducing exhaust PM in future years, non-exhaust PM will not noticeably fall unless targeted policies are undertaken.

Electric vehicles are estimated to emit 5-19% less PM10 from non-exhaust sources per kilometre than internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) across vehicle classes. However, EVs do not necessarily emit less PM2.5 than ICEVs. Although lightweight EVs emit an estimated 11-13% less PM2.5 than ICEV equivalents, heavier weight EVs emit an estimated 3-8% more PM2.5 than ICEVs. In the absence of targeted policies to reduce non-exhaust emissions, consumer preferences for greater autonomy and larger vehicle size could therefore drive an increase in PM2.5 emissions in future years with the uptake of heavier EVs.

Projection exercises presented in this report show that the total amount of non-exhaust PM (PM2.5 and PM10) emitted by passenger vehicles worldwide will rise by 53.5% along with transport demand, from approximately 0.85 Mtonnes today to 1.3 Mtonnes in 2030 in a business-as-usual scenario with low uptake of heavier weight EVs. The reduction in PM emissions made possible by a scenario assuming greater overall EV uptake is very slight: a doubling of EV uptake leads to an estimated 1.29 tonnes in non-exhaust PM in 2030, or a 52.4% increase.
posted by zachlipton at 12:18 AM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


Automakers love screwing around with the latest tech without any thought of how it's going to work for an average consumer. That's not unique to Tesla.

I'm not saying other automakers don't make the occasional stupid decision when experimenting with new technology, but they still know how to get the basics right. At one point Tesla thought it was a great idea to disrupt fucking steering wheels with a yoke. And having mastered that, they decided to remove the shifter because the car can "guess" which direction the driver wants to go (oh, and there's an option on the touch screen in case the car can't figure it out)

Just...make...a...goddamn...EV. Putting aside for the moment the long-term necessity of changing the way we live and travel, the world is in dire need of a practical, cost-effective, extended-range EV.

Tesla's a crap company that only got to where they are by a) being a luxury brand and first out of the gate b) benefiting from very generous tax credits and c) fostering a personality cult that's second only to the MAGA-heads in it's devotion to worshipping the products of assholes.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:50 AM on December 27, 2021 [14 favorites]


All Teslas should be exploded with dynamite. They're absolutely the worst car ever and they shouldn't even be considered roadworthy.

Yes except, and it's a huge except, Tesla created the electric car industry.

Due to oil price manipulation and perhaps other quiet industry forces in the 90's (and general meh) electric cars were getting what tiny interest and development they had just quashed. This year an electric F150 is coming out - with consumer and general auto press excitement. I'd never buy a tesla personally but it has changed the world for the better.
posted by sammyo at 6:05 AM on December 27, 2021 [8 favorites]


I have a much older friend who recently traded in his plug-in hybrid for a Tesla, and I'm very concerned for his safety and well-being. He's incredibly excited about the car, but he seems to have an unhealthy amount of faith in how advanced it is and what an absolute genius Elon Musk is to the point where I genuinely worry that he can't see the car's limitations. I think he already leans too heavily on the car's self-driving features simply because he can, and I'm concerned that and the general weirdness of the car (seemless door buttons you can't easily find! glass cockpit touch screen! a car that tries to intuit what you want to do!) might get him into trouble some day.

Yes except, and it's a huge except, Tesla created the electric car industry.

I'll accept that. And I don't think it's a coincidence that at the same time Tesla should be fading away as better, more realistic EVs hit the market, Elon Musk has very vocally come out against the same tax breaks which helped to build Tesla.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:18 AM on December 27, 2021 [3 favorites]


Thanks everyone for the non emissions particulate stuff. Makes me want to go harder on speed limits around here.
posted by drowsy at 6:51 AM on December 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


Blowing them up would be well, just as ridiculous.

As the former owner of several used one-pickups, I understand and agree with you about having to invest a significant chunk of cash in tweaking a used-truck purchase.

But blowing them up? Oh hell, I guess if you aren't a fan of recreational explosions I won't be able to successfully convince you of the value of this nearly orgasmic experience.
posted by mule98J at 8:31 AM on December 27, 2021 [3 favorites]


That is an ex-car.

It's probably pining for the fjords.
posted by nickmark at 11:07 AM on December 27, 2021 [5 favorites]


Never wanted to blow up a car, but there were a couple that I dreamed of running into an indie film group that could get the permits to fly one off a cliff, so totally get the explosion catharsis.
posted by sammyo at 1:06 PM on December 27, 2021


He's incredibly excited about the car, but he seems to have an unhealthy amount of faith in how advanced it is and what an absolute genius Elon Musk is to the point where I genuinely worry that he can't see the car's limitations.
There's a point when you are - hypothetically - driving on the highway and you see not one but in fact dozens of cars going in the wrong way that you may want to consider if it is instead you who took the exit ramp to drive on.
posted by patrick54 at 1:13 AM on December 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


I'm not saying other automakers don't make the occasional stupid decision when experimenting with new technology, but they still know how to get the basics right.

The recent savagegeese review of the new Mercedes S class has made me strongly question my belief that it is true that traditional automakers actually have a clue and it's not just sunk cost keeping the switchgear around. The Mach E gave me a similar feeling, but I wrote it off as an electric car affectation that would eventually moderate.
posted by wierdo at 3:12 AM on December 28, 2021


I’m a bit baffled by the argument that a $20,000 battery replacement every ten years puts you ahead of an ICE car.

Are six-figure vehicles that maintenance intensive?
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 9:16 AM on December 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


Despite Telsa's objections, one need not actually spend $20,000 to replace the entire battery pack if something goes wrong. And yes, luxury cars can be incredibly expensive to maintain (properly) after the first few years when the electronics, active suspension, etc start going bad. You're probably not going to spend $20,000 all in one go, but when your repair bills usually start at $4000 it adds up real quick. Tyler Hoover is quite happy to beat this fact into your head in exchange for YouTube views.
posted by wierdo at 4:33 PM on December 28, 2021 [1 favorite]


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