Car Transporters

[Ed Snyder]

This has nothing to do with 6066 GMCs, but I thought some of you might be interested in my recent observations anyway.

Wednesday and Thursday my wife and I drove about 1,000 miles from Medford to Yuma to spend a few days with her 95 year old Mom. Driving south on I-5 we saw 5 transporter loads of new Teslas heading north. South of Stockton we passed another 3 loads of Teslas heading south on I-5. Then we passed another one while heading east on I-40. During the whole two days we only saw one other transporter load of new cars -- Audis. We did see lots of transporters hauling used cars including a nice '62 Impala.

Now I'm on my soapbox here: I will never understand how Elon Musk has been able to get away with fleecing the taxpayer for so many years. Tesla has never made a profit. He loses money with every car he sells. And our wonderful government keeps giving him even more money. And his Solyndra is in the same boat. This won't end well!

[Ed Snyder]

My wife and I spent the last two days driving back home from Yuma. Upon leaving our motel in Kettleman City (our halfway point) we passed at least 25 transporter loads of Teslas heading south on I-5 in a little more than an hour. That's an average of about one every three minutes! During that time we saw two loads of used cars and one load of new Audis -- no other new cars. I stopped counting after 25 loads of Teslas, but there were more.

Anybody have any idea what's going on here? Are they going on ro-ro ships (https://www.marineinsight.com/types-...e-ro-ro-ships/) in LA destined for China? Are they being hidden in some big warehouse in LA so that Elon Musk can brag about how many cars he's selling? Or is he actually selling that many every day to gullible Southern Californians?

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Originally Posted by Ed Snyder

My wife and I spent the last two days driving back home from Yuma. Upon leaving our motel in Kettleman City (our halfway point) we passed at least 25 transporter loads of Teslas heading south on I-5 in a little more than an hour. That's an average of about one every three minutes! During that time we saw two loads of used cars and one load of new Audis -- no other new cars. I stopped counting after 25 loads of Teslas, but there were more.

Anybody have any idea what's going on here? Are they going on ro-ro ships (https://www.marineinsight.com/types-...e-ro-ro-ships/) in LA destined for China? Are they being hidden in some big warehouse in LA so that Elon Musk can brag about how many cars he's selling? Or is he actually selling that many every day to gullible Southern Californians?

I think Teslas are only made pre-order so if you saw em, they're selling 'em. A different forum I'm on has a ton of their admirers .Everyone wants them because they're fast, electric, and have that "drive for you" feature. For me, you couldn't get me in an auto-drive car if you paid me a million bucks.

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by FetchMeAPepsi

I think Teslas are only made pre-order so if you saw em, they're selling 'em. A different forum I'm on has a ton of their admirers .Everyone wants them because they're fast, electric, and have that "drive for you" feature. For me, you couldn't get me in an auto-drive car if you paid me a million bucks.

Tesla buyers are going to be up a creek when the company finally goes bankrupt. Good luck finding repair parts or getting warranty work done. Resale values will plummet.

Incidentally, there was a Tesla Supercharger station next to our hotel in Kettleman City. It had 40 charging bays. There were only 3 Teslas there hooked up. Another boondoggle compliments of the taxpayer.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Can't argue with that, Ed. The batteries alone are ridiculously huge and expensive and the tech isn't made to last more than 5-8 years. Can you imagine what our trucks would be worth if they just quit working after 5-8 years because "no powah"?

Give me old tech any day.

[Ed Snyder]

Originally Posted by FetchMeAPepsi

Can't argue with that, Ed. The batteries alone are ridiculously huge and expensive and the tech isn't made to last more than 5-8 years. Can you imagine what our trucks would be worth if they just quit working after 5-8 years because "no powah"?

Give me old tech any day.

If you Google "Tesla brick" you'll find lots of articles like this one: http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=27447. I know it was a common problem with the original Tesla roadsters. I assume they've fixed the problem by now. I can't imagine having to pay $40,000 to replace your battery pack just because you let it drain down all the way thanks to the 24/7 parasitic losses.