A Lofty High School Dream

My journey with Tesla began back in high school while watching my parents decide on which German gasoline car would be their next. I distinctly remember impatiently sitting in the back seat of each car and hearing the list of tradeoffs.

"The navigation system is slow and I can’t pinch to zoom like on my phone, but the acceleration is great."

"We could sit in these seats for hours, but there are more buttons on the steering wheel than the cockpit of an airplane."

"It’s perfect, except the reliability and safety scores online are uncomfortably low. We’ll pass on this one."

Being a teenager, I concluded that buying a car was a process of prioritizing features you cared about and sacrificing attributes that you could try to ignore. Later that year, my view of owning a car changed while reading an article about the Model S. Not only did Tesla refuse to sacrifice on any features, it encompassed everything I care about: advanced technology, protecting the environment and insane acceleration.

It was during my high school chemistry class that it became my childish goal to somehow afford to buy a Tesla when I graduate college and prove to my family that a car exists where you don’t have to sacrifice on anything.

Making the Dream a Reality

The race was on throughout college to do every freelance job I could find, create every mobile app that came to my mind and work as hard as possible to achieve the goal of owning the best car I’ve ever known. Those late nights of working until 3:00AM attempting to balance school work, my companies and hustling to make some money finally paid off when I put my deposit down for a Model S.

I will always remember the day driving down to the Tesla Store and walking into the room where the car of my dreams was parked. The experience was incredible; we talked through every feature, learned about every aspect of the Model S and I drove away feeling extremely confident with every aspect of the car. I’d witnessed a few car deliveries from friends and family, but the experience at Tesla is something else.

A Change of Thought

The day I picked up the Model S comprised of creating random excuses to drive places because the simple joy of accelerating around curves and using Autopilot to amaze my friends. It felt like I was an ambassador of Tesla while showing the car to my friends and family because their perception on electric cars completely changed when they sat behind the steering wheel.

900 Mile Road Trip

My family and I immediately took the Model S on a road trip from Connecticut to Indiana, which lead to doubts that Tesla had covered the route with their Supercharger network. To my surprise, we didn't have any issues. Even with the 60KWh battery pack, we drove between stations with plenty of charge remaining, and the overall experience was significantly less stressful than with our previous gasoline car.

We probably picked the worst possible time to take a road trip too because sporadically throughout the trip we would run into sudden snow storms or a fairly heavy freezing rain. The all-wheel dual motor handled the situations perfectly while we passed multiple cars stopped on the side of the road waiting for better weather.

The Verdict

No car is perfect. Some cars lack intuitive and useful technology, while others lack powerful acceleration and great handling. Some cars have sub par reliability or compromise on fit and finish to build exotic features. The Model S strikes the right balance between every feature; making the product useful, yet fun and delightful. My first car was a Tesla and I can guarantee my next car will be as well.

Follow me on Instagram @liambolling to see my adventures with my Model S.