March 31, 2016

The first step in getting their Tesla Model 3 was to put down a refundable deposit of $1,000 on March 31, 2016. Ginger and her friend Arlene agreed to meet at 8 am but both arrived even earlier. Eventually they found each other and people didn't mind that Ginger moved up a few spaces to join Arlene. They both brought chairs. A clipboard was passed down so we could sign in and list our place in line, Ginger was number 159. At 8am, the service department opened and they announced that people could come inside to use the bathrooms if they needed. At 10am, they started taking reservations. There were about a dozen terminals inside and a Tesla employee was at each one to assist, so the line moved quickly. They were done by 10:45am.

Ginger sitting in line at the Sunnyvale Tesla store

Deposit Line

Click to play videos that Ginger and others shot of people in the Sunnyvale line.
(Ginger and Arlene are barely visible very briefly at the 1 min 27 second mark of the 4th video)

Frame from 4th video with arrow pointing at Ginger, Arlene seated ahead of her

The next step was getting a level 2 electric vehicle charger installed. On May 4, 2016, we had Willow Glen Electric install a NEMA 14-50 outlet in the garage which will be able to power the Tesla when it arrives. In the meantime, it can be used to power the Plugin Prius Hybrid by using a Clipper Creek HCS-40p Charger that plugs into the outlet. A cradle was installed on the wall outside the garage to hold the cord off the ground. A couple of weeks later, the cable was rerouted through a side vent instead of coming under the garage door.

Willow Glen Electric truck

Clipper Creek charger inside the garage

Clipper Creek cradle outside the garage

Ginger and Karen visited Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada and discovered this statue of Nikola Tesla on June 21, 2016.

February 24, 2018

Karen sitting in a Model 3 at the Stanford Shopping Center Tesla Store

February 28, 2018 9:13 PM
Received email: Your Model 3 is Ready to Order

They decided to wait until the Standard Range version was available.

July 2, 2018

They stopped by the Tesla store in Sunnyvale to find out how the recently announced Performance version will affect deliveries. They were thinking of ordering the first production version so they would have a new carpool sticker that could be renewed after the sticker on their Prius Plugin expires December 31, 2018. Tesla was doing an unannounced pilot program of offering test drives, so Ginger signed up for July 3rd and Karen signed up for July 5th.

July 5, 2018

After Karen's test drive, they decided to go ahead and order the First Production model. They chose metallic blue and standard wheels along with Enhanced Auto Pilot.

July 17, 2018

VIN number received, pickup in Fremont scheduled for July 19, 5pm. Leaving for Europe on July 21.

July 20, 2018

Ginger and Karen (in front of Barbara N.'s home)

Karen (in front of her home)

August 25, 2018

First Supercharge (Sunnyvale Target)

September 15, 2018

Charging at home, view of the garage

View of the open charge port

Garage decor, former (IL, KY, VA) and purchased (HI, CA) license plates

October 12, 2018

Charging free at Sequoia Hospital, where Karen had her knee replacement surgery.

Closeup of ChargePoint connector with Tesla adaptor plug

Accident #1 - March 3, 2019

We were involved in a parking lot accident in front of Buck's Restaurant in Woodside, California. The left side camera recorded that we were at a full stop for 20 seconds before a van on our left backed into us. The square trailer hitch of the van pushed in our left rear door. The driver appologized and said it was her fault, she was depending on the van to warn her if there was anything blocking her, so she admitted that she did not look before backing up. Ginger told her there were cameras in our Tesla recording everything and she uploaded the video of the collision to You Tube and gave the address to the other driver's insurance claim agent. When the agent viewed the video, he said that refuted the other driver's version! She reported to her insurance company that we came speeding through the parking lot and cut her off as she backed up. However, the agent said he would assign her 100% at fault because our video proved our version of the accident. An adjuster for the other driver's insurance company (esurance) came to our house the next day and gave us an estimate. The day after that, Ginger took the Tesla to Service King in Fremont because they were listed on the Tesla website as an authorized body repair shop. They said it would take a few weeks to get the parts because they compete with the factory for getting parts from the suppliers! However, the parts came in and Ginger dropped off the Tesla on March 20. Ginger picked up the repaired car on March 25. Esurance paid for all repair costs and a loaner vehicle for March 20-25.

Left side of car right after the accident

Closup of damage on left side of car right after the accident

Back of the van that hit us, notice the square trailer hitch

video of left camera view, collision contact at 40 seconds

Sign inside Service King

April 8, 2019

A neighbor who lives a few blocks away modified their Tesla Model 3 with a wrap that changes color depending on the angle you view it, similar to some butterfly wings. They also covered the chrome door handles and Tesla brand mark in black.

Left side view of neighbor's Model 3

Right side view of neighbor's Model 3

Accident #2 - May 5, 2020

While we were hiking at Rancho San Antonio Park, our car was hit while it was parked. A witness left us a note with the license plate number of the car that hit our Tesla. We called 911 and a County Sheriff deputy quickly came and reported it as a hit and run. While he waited with us, another deputy went to the nearby home of the car owner and waited for the driver, who soon showed up with a bash in his fender! We got the insurance information and were able to make a claim and backed it up with the videos that our sentry mode recorded, as well as a short video clip from the witness.

bumper damage when we returned to the parking lot

playlist of dashcam videos of accident, click to play

December 10, 2021

The neighbors across the street got a Model 3 this fall!

December 11, 2021

The Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley held their first Holiday Frunk Toy Drive. Ginger and Karen attended, along with about 60 other Teslas, delivering toys to the Palo Alto fire station with a fire truck and police escort! Click Here for the link to those photos.

October 19, 2022

"Toonces" now parked outside, Prius was sold 4 days after new Model Y delivered

October 26, 2022

"Toonces" parked outside with dew making the roof glass look red

December 17, 2022

The Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley held their second annual Holiday Frunk Toy Drive. Ginger and Karen attended, along with many other Teslas, delivering toys to the Palo Alto fire station! Click Here for the link to those photos.

Sirius XM

The Model 3 did not come with a Sirius XM radio, Tesla expects you to stream it to your smart phone. However, on long trips in areas without cell phone reception, that won't work! Also, not all programming is available online, some shows are only available through satellite broadcast. Click on the link below to see how we installed a real satellite radio in our Model 3!

Link to Sirius XM Onyx Radio Installation

Dashcam and Sentry Mode Recording

Most USB drives are too slow to reliably record all 4 cameras all the time, so we saw a recommendation on a Tesla forum to use a solid state drive. We bought a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD and connected it with a SATA to USB Cable, Benfei USB 3.0 to SATA III Hard Driver Adapter . Click Here to see a playlist of their best dashcam videos!

Model Y

Karen and Ginger test drove a Model Y on November 18, 2021, then placed an order! Estimated delivery is October of 2022. Here are some photos from the test drive.

Karen in the test drive Model Y

Karen likes the car!

Frunk and Trunk Open

Ginger standing by the test drive car

screen shot of the order number

We got delivery at our house on September 19, 2022

"Cloud 9" parked inside the garage, October 19, 2022