[branden]

Hello all!

Joining from Charlotte, NC. Coming from a Tesla and general automotive enthusiast background, my girlfriend and I now have a 2021 ID.4 Pro S (primarily driven by me) and a 2022 Mini Cooper SE (all electric - primarily driven by Kalie) and we have a YouTube channel (subscribe if you wish ) that some of you have maybe watched before.

Last year, I ventured to every state in the lower 48 states in my former Tesla and we even spent about 9 months traveling full time - during this time we learned a lot about the state of US EV public infrastructure and living without home charging. We've since settled down a bit in Charlotte, NC but still plan to road trip quite a bit.

 

[Spin]

Welcome to the group!! Will check out the YouTube channel!

 

[branden]

Welcome to the group!! Will check out the YouTube channel!

Channel doesn't have a whole lot of ID.4 content quite yet, but I have a lot of videos in the pipeline. Been catching up on editing some of our Tesla road trip videos from earlier in the summer.

 

[krusshall]

Watched your videos to decide on gray or brown interior accents. I went gray just like yours and white Gradient package exterior as well. Welcome and hope to see your ID.4 in passing one day (Fort Mill).

 

[TCOACH]

Welcome and great...but why the switch to ID4 specifically, and away from Tesla please?

 

[branden]

Watched your videos to decide on gray or brown interior accents. I went gray just like yours and white Gradient package exterior as well. Welcome and hope to see your ID.4 in passing one day (Fort Mill).

I think the white with gray interior is the best combo... I'm not sure who at VW decided those brown accents were a good idea. Glad I could be of help!

 

[branden]

Welcome and great...but why the switch to ID4 specifically, and away from Tesla please?

Both my girlfriend, Kalie, and I had 2015 Model S 70D - I had mine longer from 106k miles to 198k miles and sold it as I posted it for sale on a whim and sold it in about 36 hours for more than I expected. We went to 1 car for a bit while we were traveling full time and that was actually advantageous as Kalie doesn't like to drive at night and driving around the country in two cars is a bit silly. I bought a 2001 Porsche Boxster S in Arizona also on a whim (see a pattern here?) and that was very fun when it was running, but a pain in the ass to drive around the country. Once we settled down in Charlotte a few months later, we posted Kalie's Tesla for sale (she bought at 181k miles) for significantly more than she paid for it just 9 months prior...and it sold. We then bought the ID.4 as I had been eyeing them anyway, had test driven in Florida and Kalie and I's good friend Kyle (from Out of Spec) recommended it. Found the spec we wanted locally and went for it! A few weeks later, I sold my Porsche for more than I paid for it and we flew to Florida to get Kalie's MINI Cooper SE once we found the spec we were looking for.

We went from two Teslas to two non-Tesla EVs in a very roundabout way, but we're very happy about it and it worked out pretty well financially as well. We leased the ID.4 for the instant $7500 and will likely buy it out at some point and as MINI doesn't lease the Cooper SE, we purchased that and will get $7500 tax credit.

Why away from Tesla? That wasn't really the goal, but Model Y isn't very readily available and I didn't see the value in ~$15k more for the Model Y over the ID.4 and much prefer the ride and overall comfort of the ID.4, though I do miss some of the Tesla tech.

 

[hilld]

Thanks for your insights. Personally, I miss the days of when cars had buttons for everything, manual gear shift and you could focus on driving (and all the other drivers as well). We are all caught up in tech this and tech that. I get that passengers want to be entertained and that we need systems to keep us from being distracted (blind spot assist) as we are distracted by touch screens and entertainment galore in cars.

 

[branden]

Thanks for your insights. Personally, I miss the days of when cars had buttons for everything, manual gear shift and you could focus on driving (and all the other drivers as well). We are all caught up in tech this and tech that. I get that passengers want to be entertained and that we need systems to keep us from being distracted (blind spot assist) as we are distracted by touch screens and entertainment galore in cars.

Well, most of the general public is going to be distracted whether it's by their car or otherwise, so I'm all for more safety features. Driving on the interstate can also be quite boring and I became quite spoiled with Autopilot, so I can't imagine going backwards.