What is an old school guy like me doing with a Tesla Electronic truck?
I am analog in a digital landscape; carburetion in a fuel-injected world. Costco gas pumps love me because my collection includes a 1969 Mustang1967 F-100, 1977 F-2501966 F-100 is in the midst of a restoration and boldly enters Y2K, a 2003 escort ship coupe.
And now, a new Cybertruck.
Like my kids, I won’t pick a favorite. Vette accelerates, brake and corners like a performance car that can still cruise comfortably on back roads. The F-250 sits high, rides as smoothly as the old double I-beam suspension will allow, and I don’t mind filling the bed with a pile of gravel.
However, the Cybertruck combines all of that and more.
There’s no doubt it’s a big rig, weighing 6,800 pounds and over 18.5 feet long, but it performs like a performance vehicle. After about 350 miles and nearly two weeks of driving this bizarre looking car, I was completely smitten. And that’s from a guy who had never seriously thought about owning an electric car, let alone this one.
That changed in December when I came home from a day of golf and my wife greeted me: “Guess what we’re buying!?” She and our son, one Model Y owner and Tesla fanatic, had been texting all afternoon after receiving an offer to buy the Foundation Series Cybertruck – a supposedly limited-production model that includes dual motors (600 horsepower) or tri-motor all-wheel drive (845 horsepower), special interior trim, lifetime connectivity, Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” hands-free driving system when available, Foundation Series badges, and a few other extras like all-weather floor matslanyard, etc
Our son was one of the first to pre-order when it became available in 2019 and that helped him get an invite in December. At this stage of life with a growing family, he can’t put $100,000 into the Foundation Series. But we did so after our son reminded us, “You can’t get any younger.”
Technically, he and my wife are the owners because his name is reserved and Tesla will not allow more than one other name to be registered. But it’s in my garage, I’ve driven it and here are some thoughts after 350 miles:
Ordering/delivery process
The lack of effective communication with Tesla is what bothers me the most. That information is false, inconsistent, or non-existent. Right from placing the order in December to receiving the delivery date on May 1, we had a clear idea of truckstatus of. With expected delivery times ranging from January to March, will we receive them sooner or later? It would be nice to have an approximate timetable because, you know, we like to plan.
Calls to Tesla and even visits to the local service center did not help. The most common answer is “They don’t tell us anything.” One day we were told that it was only “one stop” from the service center. A few days later, “It was still in Texas.”
You can order a pizza and know what stage of production and delivery it is in. I had a vehicle shipped from Arizona to Seattle a few weeks ago and knew its location throughout the journey, including a stop south of Vegas when the driver had a leak. And yet, one of the most technologically advanced companies in the world is having difficulty tracking our Cybertruck’s location during the build/shipping/delivery process.
When we got the Cybertruck on May 1st, I was surprised at how clean it was. I’ve seen a few Cybertrucks fresh off the transporter and they look as if they’ve been going off-road, with dirt everywhere on the outside. Thankfully, the only bummer about my delivery day was that no one touched the dusty wheel wells.
We double-checked its fit/finish and found two burrs on the edges of the stainless steel plate, along with a small scratch on the right quarter plate that will hopefully be smoothed out soon at the service appointment. The accelerator pedal housing, the subject of a recall in April, was temporarily secured with rivets but also had some unsightly wrinkles from (I assume) someone clipped it during the recall Repair. That cover will be replaced.
How does it feel to drive the Cybertruck?
It takes a while to feel comfortable with any new carBut the Cybertruck’s learning curve is steep, especially for first-time electric vehicle drivers.
How did you start it? (Press the brake pedal.)
How do you convert? (Swipe up to go forward and down to reverse on the left side of the 18-inch touchscreen. There’s another shifter controller on top.)
Turn it off? (Press P, between forward and backward, on the screen and exit.)
Buttons on the steering wheel activate the turn signals, wipers (singular – there is a 4-foot long arm that sweeps the large windshield), high beams, camera, volume, voice commands and cruise control submit.
And the rest of the controls – temperature and climate, suspension and performance settings, audio, video and more – are all on the touchscreen. I’m not technologically illiterate, but it took a few days to get used to the basics and I’m learning something new with every ride.
Visibility out the windshield is good, that’s all. The tiny rearview mirror inside the cabin becomes useless when the tonneau cover is extended under the bed. Side mirrors are adequate, but front, rear and side cameras provide the best view from multiple angles, and they continue to show at speed. One major annoyance: The thick A-pillar makes it difficult to see forward, especially to the left, and I found myself having to double and triple check around that blind spot.
Cybertruck accelerates impressively even in “relaxation mode” and quickly fills the stomach in “sports mode”.
The ride in “relaxation mode” is extremely smooth. It cruises the open road and handles bumps and potholes like they were small ripples in the road. My wife is prone to aches and pains and needs cushioning in her seat (and under her feet when she’s in the passenger seat) to cushion the bumps and vibrations that can make her feel uncomfortable. However, during our first weekend with the Cybertruck, she felt fine after driving on the highway as well as winding, bumpy roads. The suspension is just as good; The seats are supportive and comfortable.
The unique steering system may be the most impressive part of the driving experience. The variable-ratio, by-wire control system is very responsive, and with lock-to-lock capability in less than one full revolution of the wheel, it takes some getting used to. At first it felt like I was doing a tank slap when turning. Now, I feel like an IndyCar driver.
Even though the Cybertruck doesn’t drive like a big machine, it’s still huge – just over 18.5 feet long and nearly 8 feet wide. So far, I’ve avoided getting curb rash or rubbing it against anything in my garage. I never worried that the garage was big enough because it actually contained something even bigger: I used to own a ’77 Lincoln Mark V and all 19+ feet of that land yacht fit. Just enough.
We haven’t driven it enough to test its range, but charging the battery to 80% should give it more than 250 miles, so the 300-mile estimate seems accurate.
A look
I wasn’t a fan when the Cybertruck concept was introduced in 2019. But I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
The outside looks like a badly folded paper airplane with wheels, something I probably doodled in fifth grade when I should have been paying attention in math class. But I applaud the Cybertruck’s innovative thinking and styling that fits the idea of what a pickup truck should look like. You can walk five times around this thing and find a new angle that matches all the other angles and triangles. It refracts light in dozens of ways depending on how you look at it.
It attracts a crowd wherever it is parked. Kids love it, 35-year-olds think it looks amazing, and older people wonder what just fell from the sky. Most don’t know what it is and some don’t hesitate to say how hideous it looks.
“That was the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” said a neighbor.
“Hope you can get your money back,” an older man said, adding, “You wouldn’t haul gravel in that thing, would you?”
My answer: “Of course not. I have another truck like yours that hauls gravel.”
Some owners have covered their Cybertrucks in a variety of wraps color and samples. Ours will be stainless because I like the originality and roughness of the steel which I appreciate. If anything, I’ll add a small Holley carburetor sticker because I like to mess with people.
And because I’m old.
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