I share your concerns about Tesla. I think Musk has a point when he says establishing a new product in the market is hard and requires taking some big risks - but I don't want to purchase/drive an experiment.
As for the Chinese competitors, China's safety record with automobiles is abysmal, there are valid moral arguments for not supporting their auto industry, and the cars are cheaper because the people building them make nothing by our standards. So I wouldn't necessarily feel better buying one of those.
Once again you're missing the point others are making. China's quality may be abysmal, but so is Teslas. Tesla has had many, many years to fix their problems, but they still appear. Often.
Have you had the chance to try the Performance 3 to see if it is any better?
No, but I want to. That P100D belongs to an employee of mine who had just bought it and asked if I wanted to take it for a spin. They were with me and gave me permission to gun it. It isn't a bad car, but it's grossly overpriced for what it is. If someone's spending $110K+ of their money, there shouldn't be gaps in panels, paint defects or worse, motor problems needing constant replacements. Tesla would be in better hands if it were owned by a consortium.
While the big iPad in the center is cool, it poses safety problems and other minor issues down the road. And I think most of us in here would prefer a physical button or knob to manipulate over a digital pad. My opinion of the Model S's interior is rather grim, too. However, I feel that if Tesla put some R&D into better interior materials and design, my opinion would change.
This isn't me against electrics. I think electrics are cool. I spent most of the late 1980s and early 1990s focused on electric vehicles and renewable energy. There's a few major gaps in electric autos that need to be trimmed down.
Would I ever own one? Maybe. Probably not in the next 10-15 years. At the end of the day, I prefer ICE. We're going to see more efficient and hybridized ICE engines in the coming decade versus more electrics.
Right now if I were shopping for the stereotypical older gentleman's car from the Germans, I'd probably go for the Audi A8 or S8. The S class is nice, but it's very dated at this point. The Audi offers luxury and a high level of tech, and a plethora of safety and comfort features that blow my mind. The BMW 7 isn't bad, but I don't see anything special about it. Plus, the Audi is fairly innocuous compared to the MBZ star or BMW's grille that is the size of two dogs.
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I am still on the fence about supercharging since this truck will go to my daughter in about 3 years as her first vehicle. Don't want her to get into too much trouble. Still might slap on an exhaust, but haven't found one that sounds good yet.
Yeah I'd skip the supercharger. For some reason I thought your kids were older than that. If I were 16 again and my dad gave me a monster of a truck, you bet your ass I'd be driving and hooning it around. I knew girls in my youth who'd drive more maniacally than the guys. Several decades later, they're the same. The concept of us men being the only crazy drivers is rubbish.
Actually bumped into a girl I knew back then a few weeks back at a store. She was with her kids and I joked about their mom being a nutty driver back in the day. They, like all kids so, spilled the beans about her still being a Nascar driver, so to speak. I thought it was hilarious.
That said, I don't know how much horsepower the truck has, but a slow car or a large-ish truck isn't bad for a first car. I mention the truck because you need to drive them more carefully than a regular car and it teaches better situational awareness, IMO.
Point is, how you drive in your youth is how you drive for the rest of your life.
