Tesla gets Slammed!!!!

[ppi]

WOW!

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/12/15/video-top-gear-finally-tests-the-tesla-roadster/

[Derwin]

VIDEO: Top Gear finally tests the Tesla Roadster

Posted Dec 15th 2008 at 12:10PM by Sam Abuelsamid
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors, UK

"Say goodbye to dial-up and say hello to broad band motoring!" That's the assessment of of Top Gear's chief wordsmith, Jeremy Clarkson, after testing the Tesla Roadster last night on Top Gear. Clarkson pitted the electric Roadster against the car which provided its chassis DNA on the TG test track and unsurprisingly came away with a startlingly different result from when he tested the G-Wiz.

The extra torque of the version 1.5 drivetrain means it left the Lotus Elise in the dust, although the 1,000 lb battery pack in the middle took it's toll when going around corners. And then there is the issue of range. We all know about Tesla's claims of a 230+ mile range. That, of course, is based on the EPA driving cycle which comes nowhere near to taking advantage of the Roadster's full dynamic range. Our own estimate from our first drive last January is more like half the official number.

Top Gear's range on the track? well let's just say it was considerably less than that. The TG crew actually had two examples on hand which proved helpful when Clarkson discovered the thermal limits of the Roadster's motor and brake issues with one car. When they finally handed the car over to the Stig he managed to match the lap time of the Porsche 911 GT3 under similarly damp track conditions.

Here is the video:

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[Mark Tomlinson]

Fans of the show and of the Roadster pretty much expected some negativity. After all, it's well known that Top Gear, and especially Jeremy Clarkson, don't like electric cars. But there were plenty of blatant outright misrepresentations that really disappointed me.

Only fifty-five miles per charge on the Top Gear track? Well, yes, of course. What was the MPG on the Lotus, I dare ask? If I had an abandoned runway to race a Lotus on at 125 MPH, I bet I could do a number on the car's efficiency as well. In the real world, people claim between something like 150 to 210 miles per charge. Won't be taking any cross-country road trips in it, but I wouldn't with the Lotus either.

Sixteen hours to charge it? Sure, but he did mention that he was using a 13 amp circuit. With a 20 amp (common in the US) it's 8 hours. And when plugged into a 220 volt circuit like your air conditioner or electric dryer, it's only 3.5. Couple that with, say, a 150 mile range and topping off while en-route, and charging time doesn't appear to be an issue with the 100+ people that own them so far.

And the "limp mode" is not a "reliability" issue - it's a feature; two features. When you floor it around an abandoned runway for hours and it overheats, the car doesn't slow to a crawl like we saw in the video; it reduces the top speed to somewhere well above the legal limit for everything except the Autobahn. If you run the batteries down to "empty", it slows the car down even more so you can get it to a plug.

Sure, the car is not for me. It's the first highway capable electric car, and I didn't by the very first flat screen TV or DVD player either. But just wait till they introduce the sedan...

[Miracleman89]

I am actually quite impressed by the review!!! If anyone knows Jeremy Clarkson, I was waiting to hear about how americans can't build cars!

[Jack Willard]

I was waiting to hear about how americans can't build cars! ... without a BAILOUT ... or ... that people want to buy. o:o:p:s12

Well, if I had 92,000 pounds sterling to blow on it, I suppose I would be in the class of people that have more money than they know what to do with. Hmm ... how about a new "play toy"? :burning:rubber:

Meanwhile, the rest of us regular folks are sitting here ... patiently ... waiting for the likes of Persu Mobility to restore my faith in American innovation and bring us Stylish, Affordable, Green, and WAY FUN TOO!

Persu ... Persu ... Persu ... Persu ... :threadjacked:

[willk]

standard british outlets are 220V

[Mark Tomlinson]

standard british outlets are 220V
Yeah, I didn't know and was too tired to look it up. But Clarkson did say 13 amps, and that's why it would take 16 hours.

By the way, Tesla was P.O.'d. I guess they never watched the show before giving them the cars! Grandstanding was to be expected. But the Tesla rep who was there during filming says the car never ran out of juice - although it did hit 20% power and reduce speed to "a legal limit". The car was never pushed off the track, although it was pushed around in the garage. And the broken brakes was really a blown fuse that made the idiot light come on. It was replaced in minutes and they were never without a functioning car.

I love the show. But after the Tesla debacle and James May's trumpeting hydrogen and the $700,000 Honda (oh, they didn't mention it's $700,000?), I'm seriously going to reconsider listening to their reviews.

[snave]

TG hasn't been about `reviews` for years. Its entertainment for the masses, and therefore Lowest Common Denominator TV of the most successful kind. There was probably no-one watching who could afford a Tesla, and all it's acheived is negative publicity as for all the performance advantages, its only the negatives that everyone remembers from any Top Gear show..

Tesla made a catastrophic PR mistake loaning them a car and should fire the idiot responsible for saying yes, if TG asked, or offering, if they didn't...

Mind you, a GT3 is what? £80K. A £12,000 price difference buys a lot of fuel, even at five pounds a gallon... somewhere around 60,000 miles-worth, given typical GT3 consumption.

On that basis, the Tesla makes no sense anyway, so negative publicity from a Top Gear review is really the least of the problems.

[WarpedOne]

Who minds TG, when owners love the car?

John Carmack (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, ...) has this to say on his new car (http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=364):


This is only tangentially related to Armadillo, but many of you will still be interested. My Tesla roadster, number 30 in the production run, arrived this month. I used to be known for my crazy turbocharged Ferraris, and I have a lot of great car stories to tell from those days, but Armadillo wound up getting me out of the supercar world by taking over all of my discretionary spending and eventually making me fairly frugal and money conscious.

When I first heard about the Tesla, it piqued my interest because I had occasionally looked in on the high performance / homebrew electric car world, and I personally knew Elon Musk through SpaceX. Elon was daily driving a McLaren F1 when I first met him, and he has been one of the most open and honest people I have met in the aerospace world, so I asked him for a straight up opinion about the prototype vehicle. "It is blow-your-mind awesome." he replied.

I talked about the car a fair amount, but I hadn't made any six-figure personal purchases since founding Armadillo, and Armadillo was still bleeding lots of money at the time, so it probably wasn't going to amount to anything. Out of the blue, Anna decided to get one for my birthday (my wife is awesome!). That was a few years ago. Being a software developer, I am sympathetic to schedule slips, so I didn't fret much about it. Every month or so, someone would ask me when the Tesla would be getting here, and I would just say "sometime soon". Finally, "soon" came.

At the peak of its modifications, my twin-turbo Testarossa had pulled 1010 hp at the rear wheels on a dyno. This is a level of performance that has basically ruined the experience of most high performance cars for me. When I later bought a stock F50, my driving impression was basically "Meh. Pleasantly quick, I suppose." (I committed a sacrilege and put a mild turbo system on it to make it live up to its looks). The Tesla wasn't going to knock me out with neck snapping acceleration, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

For years, my drive to the Id Software office afforded me an almost daily opportunity to run out fourth gear on the service road, which let the crazy cars earn their keep. After we moved to a new location, the route just wasn't there anymore, and I would find that weeks had passed without the throttle ever going to the floor. For just tooling around town, high winding, high boost engines just don't come into their own -- it takes a degree of planning before aiming for 9000 rpm and 25 pounds of boost. They were also, well, "loud" is understating it a bit. Everyone at the office always knew when I was arriving, and in a lot of situations, exercising the cars would just be anti-social.

Responsiveness is what I wanted from the Tesla, and it delivers. There is only a single forward gear, so there is no shifting or being in the wrong gear. You have the full torque of the motor from a dead stop, with no power band and clutch to deal with. Your right foot really is an "accelerator" rather than a "throttle", and it honestly does transform the driving experience. Coupled with excellent traction control, there is very little reason not to floor it every time you come away from a stop, getting smoothly pulled forward like you are on an enormous rubber band. As Robert Duffy put it, "You are driving a railgun." The car is obviously very quiet, but the engine has a nice whine as you accelerate. It doesn't have the wide-eyed, slack-jawed, religious-experience type of performance that my Testarossa used to have, but there is a lot to be said for racking up a dozen happy-car-grins a day with your normal driving.

Internal combustion drive trains, with all the gears, clutch, oil, and exhaust start seeming remarkably primitive in very short order. I have hopped back and forth between BMWs and the Tesla for a couple weeks now, and while there are plenty of creature comforts that are much better in the BMWs, every time I pull away, I wish I was in the Tesla. I am using it as my daily driver now, whenever I don't have to haul any big packages for Armadillo. As I am driving it, the range is only about 150 miles on a charge, but that is still plenty for what I need, and I just plug it in every night.

I do also confess to enjoying the irony of my driving an electric car. I am fairly hostile to most of the environmental movement, finding it generally a modern tribal religion that justifies condemnation and control of others in the name of protecting the environment. I care nothing at all for the environment in isolation, only for how it positively impacts human life -- civilization is all about beating the environment into forms that suit us better. An "electric car" used to be a conspicuous sign of righteous sacrifice, but you won't get any self-flagellation points for driving a Tesla. Too much fun.

Too much fun

[AZEqualizer]

This reported at GreenCarAdvisor (http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/01/lotus-reportedly-developing-its-own-electric-sports-car---a-tesla-competitor.html) and Edmunds Inside Line (http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=138666):

http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/LostusLogoPic300.jpg

Lotus, which builds the Tesla electric roadster under contract and has said it will spend upwards of $100 million in the next few years developing green car technologies, says it wants to launch an electric sports car of its own.
In a report in London's Financial Times (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/59842844-d83a-11dd-bcc0-000077b07658.html) newspaper, Lotus Chief Executive Mike Kimberly says we shouldn't be surprised to "see an electric Lotus shortly. We are working on the technologies that will go behind it."
Indeed, Kimberly said in an interview earlier last year that the company had six electric car projects under way (http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2008/07/stop-the-speculating-a-hybrid-lotus-is-in-the-works-perhaps-even-five.html), along with a multitude of hybrid car projects. The context then was projects being done for outside clients, but perhaps Kimberly was being cagey and at least one was being developed for the Lotus brand.
Whether he was talking to the Financial Times about a retail model or merely a concept that will show off Lotus' R&D, design and car-building prowess was unclear.
The report quotes Kimbely saying the Lotus electric car car would "become one of the showcases for the world of what you can do with electric vehicle technology."
If it is to be a retail model - and we hope that's the case - it would likely compete with the Tesla and with the upcoming Fisker Karma.
Lotus, which is owned by Malaysian automaker Proton but remains based in England, also is working, according to the report, on a range extender system for plug-in hybrids.
Click here for Inside Line's take (http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=138666) on the report.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor

The Lotus electric will likely compete with the Tesla Roadster and the Fisker Karma. Fisker Automotive has said its Karma plug-in hybrid will go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2009.

[AZEqualizer]

Dodge (a re-badged Lotus) names their version of the Tesla electric roadster The "Circuit EV" with an added traditional Dodge grille and a orange paint job that has graced a great many muscle cars.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2009/01/00_circuitev_opt.jpg

In this announcement from the Detroit Auto Show as reported by AutoBloggreen (http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/11/detroit-2009-crosshairs-on-a-europa-make-a-dodge-circuit-ev/):

The Dodge Circuit EV utilizes just three powertrain components. These include a 200 kW (268 horsepower) electric motor to drive the wheels, an advanced lithium-ion battery system to power the electric-drive motor, and a controller that manages energy flow.

Working with the latest advanced lithium-ion battery technology (A123 battery pack), the Dodge Circuit EV has a driving range of 150 to 200 miles between charges – more than triple the average daily commute of most consumers. Recharging the vehicle is a simple one-step process: plugging into a standard 110-volt household outlet. The recharge time can be cut in half by using a typical 220-volt household appliance power outlet.

The Dodge Circuit EV offers driving enthusiasts a performance sports car that can be driven to work every day – without consuming gasoline or producing tailpipe emissions.

[ziggy951]

Lotus is making out quite well with the EV frenzy eh?

Well played my light weight sportscar friends, well played.



Z

[AZEqualizer]

Tesla offers laundry list of new options, $12k prepaid battery replacement :

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2008/11/00_jasonstesla_opt.jpg

Autobloggreen's Sam Abuelsamid had this summation (http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/17/tesla-offers-laundry-list-of-new-options-12k-prepaid-battery-r/) of the article posted on Jason Calacanis's (http://jasoncalacanis.posterous.com/tesla-customer-update) blog (sent out by Elon Musk):

One of the long-time keys to profitability in the car business is the up-sell. The extended warranties, under-coating, improved audio systems, wheels, pin-stripes and so on. It looks like Tesla Motors is no exception. The company has just sent out an update to owners and those on the waiting list outlining some of the new optional extras that are now available. There is the usual assortment of interior and exterior trim upgrades. There are also a couple of warranty options. One is a $5,000 extended warranty that covers everything but the battery for an extra two years or 24,000 miles. Considering that the mechanical simplicity of electric drive systems is considered one of the big selling points of EVs, one might be surprised that the original warranty on a Roadster is only two years to begin with. An extra two years of coverage for five grand seems rather steep.

The other surprise is a pre-paid battery replacement deal. The current cost of replacing the Roadster battery pack is $30,000! That may be the first time that Tesla has publicly acknowledged the replacement cost of the battery. Owners can now pre-pay for a replacement battery pack at a cost of only $12,000. Tesla has previously said the Roadster pack should last five years, but is now quoting seven years. It's not clear what kind of condition they expect the battery to be in after seven years. Considering these are laptop cobalt oxide cells and the pack is being cycled through most of its range, odds are it won't be anywhere near full capacity. If the batteries need replacement before the cost can be driven down, this deal could end up costing Tesla a lot of money.

[AZEqualizer]

Autobloggreen (http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/17/prospective-tesla-owners-not-happy-about-price-increases-on-lock/) and Tom Saxton's blog (http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2009/01/tesla-price-increase.html) had this news from Tesla Motors:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autobloggreen.com/media/2009/01/03_jasonstesla-450.jpg

It turns out that customers who already locked in orders recently have been unlocked and asked to reselect options. Some of the previously selected options are now higher priced and other previously standard features are now extra cost options. Among those are the wheels that we've seen on every Roadster up until now. They have been replaced by a new, presumably less expensive design with the original design now fetching an extra $3,000. Audio system upgrades are now also more expensive. Perhaps most annoying is that the cable that allows the car to be plugged into the high power home charger for a three-hour charge has become a pricey add-on. Until now, these have been included in the cars. Drivers who want three-hour charges going forward will have to fork over an extra $3,000 to get this hefty extension cord.

" Tesla Motors announced the new options and pricing to all owners on Friday, January 16th. I've posted an updated analysis (http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2009/01/new-tesla-prices.html)... This is coming as a big surprise to owners being informed of this given that they locked in their options and price months ago. A casual reading of our contract sure makes it sound like once we locked in our choices we were committed to buying the Roadster with those options, and Tesla Motors was committed to delivering that package for the price we agreed to." Tom Saxton published on January 15, 2009

[Mark Tomlinson]

This is a HUGE discussion over at TeslaMotorsClub (http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla-roadster/2199-tesla-increases-prices-existing-2008-orders.html). Essentially it amounts to almost a $12,000 price increase for some individuals. I've read two posts from people who have Roadsters on order who suggest that they will have to cancel their orders because "options" like thermal windshields that keep the interior from baking are a must in their climates. Or that they wouldn't have considered paying that much for a car - any car - without the "options" that were originally bundled in. If two people take the time to openly mention they are cancelling, how many are just going to cancel without making a public announcement?

This is a huge faux pas for Tesla. Essentially the same as my early complaints about Venture - integrety. Start-ups have no history, so their word is everything. They break their promises and they have nothing left. One customer went so far as to publish (in the owners forum and TeslaMotorsClub) an open letter to Elon Musk asking him to 'get over his ego' and correct the situation. Others have suggested that this is going to end up in court.

[ziggy951]

Bad move. A contract is a contract, and trying to prove its not a contract will cost more than honoring the contract in the first place. Faux pas indeed. Hopefully the next generation of new vehicle startups will learn from all of the mistakes the current crop is making.



Z

[AZEqualizer]

In a newsletter (as reported on GreenCar Advisor (http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/02/tesla-battery-pack-replacement-would-be-36000-today-musk-says.html)) by Tesla's Elon Musk: (http://www.teslamotors.com/blog2/?p=70) Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the laboriously hand-assembled lithium-ion battery pack in the Tesla Roadster would cost about $36,000 to replace today, but should last at least 100,000 miles, or about 7 years.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/assets_c/2009/02/teslabatterycompo-thumb-375x457.jpg
The company is selling what amounts to Tesla battery replacement futures. Pay $12,000 now, Musk wrote, and reserve a replacement battery for seven years from now (if your original lasts longer, there will be a pro-rated refund; if you need a new one sooner, you pay a little more).

[Mark Tomlinson]

Bad move. A contract is a contract, and trying to prove its not a contract will cost more than honoring the contract in the first place. Faux pas indeed. Hopefully the next generation of new vehicle startups will learn from all of the mistakes the current crop is making.

Z
Oh, hey, I forgot to post a follow up on this.

Tesla held a couple of 'town hall' meetings to discuss a number of things with their customers. This, obviously, was the topic of the day. Once Mr. Musk got done explaining, the general sense was, "Oh, if you put it that way...". This is not to say people were happy. But they moved on to acceptance fairly quickly.

I guess the gist was that Tesla needs the DOE loan to build the factory for the Model S. The DOE loan depends, in part, on proving viability which means they need to raise venture capital. But venture capital dried up and none would be found if they couldn't show that the Roadster will turn a profit, and the Roadster wasn't going to turn a profit if they didn't unbundle the options. Musk went on to unapologeticly apologize for the way they handled it (you have to follow Tesla to understand that). I know of only one person who openly canceled his order because he felt deceived. Most either reconsidered their options or canceled because they were already too stretched to afford the car. The upshot is they got the venture capital and now feel the DOE loan is assured. The Model S sedan will be introduced on March 26.

Anyway, that's my take.

[PHEVadvocate]

Leftlane to stream live video of Tesla Model S unveiling

http://www.leftlanenews.com/tesla-model-s-live.html

The stream will begin around 3:30 p.m. ET, or 12:30 p.m. PT, Thursday, March 26th, 2009.

dr:ive1)

Sneak Peak:

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/03/26/leak-tesla-model-s-pics-surface-on-web-ahead-of-todays-debut/

[Mike kZ]

That's really nice! 0-60 in 5.5 seconds! Cool. Persu needs to go over there and take note on how to develop a car and get it to market!

[TazmanianKoala]

But then it will be way over-priced :shup:

[Mark Tomlinson]

Right! And they'd lose one of their founders and be plagued with delays.

Oh, wait...

[TazmanianKoala]

I found another article about the new model of Tesla

I found it on the Wired Website (http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/03/first-look-of-t.html).

I think it looks really OK
http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/03/26/tesla1.jpg

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/03/26/tesla5.jpg

And I like the fancy interior.

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/03/26/tesla7.jpg

I really can't wait until this beauty will become available.

[AZEqualizer]

Musk, confirmed that the base model of the "S" will cost $57,400. Which may be affordable to some .... but it is too pricy for me.

[RAN]

Nice pics Taz! :taz:

If Tesla can bring this to market at the prices they're talking about, it will be a home run. It comes with an onboard charger that can handle 480v, enough batteries for a 150 mile range, the option of up to a 300 mile range, easy battery swap and you'll be able to rent a 300 mile pack for trips.

It's a little bigger than I need, but at least it errs on the practical side.

The only thing missing is even a patchy network of high speed charging/battery swap stations. I guess we have time on those. thu:mbs:up:22

[TazmanianKoala]

Well, priced at $57,400 it is too expensive for me too.
I see this as a nice showcase for what is possible in the near future.

[Mark Tomlinson]

The Tesla Model S is my next car. Seriously. I still intend to get a Persu hybrid when (and if) they come available. But I'm at that point in my life when the last generation started looking a Lincoln Towncars. So I talked to my wife about it and we're going to take the plunge.

The thing won't be in my driveway until 2012. And we're not dropping the $5,000 deposit until sometime this summer when Tesla opens their Chicago store. We'll be opting for the 230 mile range, and I'll be hoping some of these remarkable battery breakthroughs we read about get commercialized before I have to lock in my options.

For more information, see http://www.teslamotors.com/models/index.php.

P.S. The fancy interior will change before they go to production. People have already balked at the big touchscreen, for instance, because it requires looking at it (instead of the road) if you want to turn down the heater.

[WarpedOne]

I wish I could say the same but economy around here doesn't yet allow me such level of expenses. I can only hope someday it will.

[Mark Tomlinson]

I wish I could say the same but economy around here doesn't yet allow me such level of expenses. I can only hope someday it will.
Yeah, I know. I am fortunate enough to be in a key position in an industry that's only marginally affected by the recession. But all around me friends and family are finding themselves out of work or impacted by declining stocks. My parents are retired and had saved nicely, but now their retirement funds are disappearing. My brother and my daughter are in the fringes of the housing industry and struggling to find work.

So I hesitated before I mentioned my intention of getting the Model S. It sounds arrogant. I've been following it's development for a long time, but still fought with the decision. In the end, however, I believe in the car and the technology so much that I won't compromise.

[WarpedOne]

So I hesitated before I mentioned my intention of getting the Model S. It sounds arrogant

No! Please don't fell guilty about it :)
This is the next best thing to owning one - knowing someone that does. Please do tell everyone about your decision, it's inspiring.

[MVRacing]

No! Please don't fell guilty about it :)
This is the next best thing to owning one - knowing someone that does. Please do tell everyone about your decision, it's inspiring.

Agreed! Can't wait to here all about it.

[Mark Tomlinson]

Since I won't have the Model S in my driveway till 2012, there's not much to tell. But keeping this in context to the FlyTheRoadClub, I knew that I would need to replace my Saturn L200 in the next few years and had decided I would not purchase another vehicle that got anything under 30MPG city. The Venture One caught my eye and fits my needs exactly for 90% of my driving. But I'd still need a sedan.

Backing up a bit, when we bought the Saturn, my wife and I decided it was time we bought an adult car. We'd both worked hard and achieved some moderate middle-class success. Our kids were growing up and would soon move on. So we opted for the L200 with heated leather seats, power everything, OnStar (which we later dropped), heated side mirrors, great handling, etc. It's six years old now, and we're ready to move on. We don't spoil ourselves much, and both feel it's time for a real luxury car. So although I'm still waiting for (now) the Persu Hybrid, it won't fill the luxury sedan gap.

Problem with luxury sedans is they run counter to our principals. Beyond the obvious pollution and oil consumption, they represent wasteful showiness. So I followed Tesla's Model S development for the last couple of years mentioning that I would buy one, but not really meaning it.

March 26th was the turning point. Tesla introduced the Model S and I knew right then that it would be my next car. Beyond being a luxury sedan, it can hold "a 50 inch television, a surfboard and a mountain bike - at the same time". In fact, they even promise optional "jump seats" that work like the rumble seat in a station wagon and increase the occupancy to seven! If the Roadster gets 134MPGe, then this thing must get about that (the Roadster has 6831 batteries with a 220 range, one configuration of the Model S has about 7000 of the same batteries with a 230 mile range). Oh, and it's drop-dead gorgeous.

I almost sprung for the $5,000 deposit, but I'd have to take it out of the money for my duaghter's wedding. Not a good plan there. Plus, there's my son's college education to worry about. So I'm waiting till the Chicago store opens this summer. By then the Model S factory should be under construction and we'll have a better idea of what the finished product will look like.

So, the Pursu Hybrid is still on the shopping list. That will be my commuter car and the fun weekend getaway vehicle. But the Model S will be the pampering vehicle, perfect for taking another couple to shows in Chicago, hauling around friends during our annual getaway to the Grand Geneva resort, or just driving when I feel the need for an adult car.