November 17, 2023

Bye, Accord; Hello, Model Y . . . Soon

It was already dark when the driver arrived to pick up the Accord. I had made the arrangements through Leasehackr, who sent me to a company called AutoNinjas, who purchased the car and arranged pick-up through a company called Translink Logistics, Inc. It was all very professional, even though it suspiciously took place after hours. Still, the driver was polite, and he took photos of the car and had me sign a form on his phone. It immediately sent me a bill of lading which linked to a web site so I could track the car’s progress. The Accord joined two other cars on a trailer, and he was off. Apparently, it was going to Houston, TX, and would be delivered the next day. And that’s exactly what happened.

I’m supposed to get a check for my car’s equity, of which there was a pretty good amount, in a few days, and the lease should be paid off within 15 days. Nice. See ya, Honda. I guess that sounds a bit flip; the Accord was a good car, and it never gave me much trouble. I guess the thing I liked least about it was the infotainment system—connecting to CarPlay was the worst. Out of every ten times, it might have connected flawlessly twice. While CarPlay is a nice idea, I hate having to plug my phone in to use navigation or listen to music or podcasts. In fact, Apple really has to do something to make listening experiences a bit better.

What I like about satellite radio is that I can just pick a station and listen. Apple Music is not that simple. They do have playlists based on my listening, but I often find those redundant or completely wrong. Apple, what about my listening suggests to you that I want to hear anything country? Maybe I’m missing something, but since my Model Y will not even have satellite as an option, I will be listening to Apple Music. Maybe the interface on the Tesla will be better.

Speaking of the Model Y: I’ve done all of the pre-delivery tasks that I am able, and the app has said, “We’ll notify you when it’s time to continue” for several days. It still gives me a delivery estimate between Dec 1 and Dec 26. Since the Accord is gone, I decided to call Kennesaw Tesla to see if I could an update. The reason I bought the car that I did was because it was listed as inventory, so I wouldn’t have to wait a month for a special order.

The sales person who answered the phone was very nice, and he had my order pulled up quickly. He explained that even though the car was listed as inventory, that didn’t necessarily mean they had it yet. In this case, it’s on its way from the factory in Fremont, CA, with a scheduled delivery date in Kennesaw of Dec 3. He said my app should notify me within a couple of days of delivery to schedule my pickup appointment. So it seems I have about two weeks without a car. This coming week should be no problem, as we have the week off for Thanksgiving. We’ll see about the next one.

In all, this whole process has been pretty smooth. I really liked my experience so far with Tesla. I was able to do everything on the app, like submitting insurance and getting the lease price how I wanted it, after the initial downpayment via the Tesla web site. I’m pretty excited to get the car. It’s gonna be a whole new experience.