New York Times prints blatant Lies about the Tesla Model S

[gwoods]

Dear Nico friend and frienemies,

I know many of us here are big fans of the new Tesla S sedan. It just seems to do everything right, 0-60 in low 4 second range, up to 300 mile range on a single charge, the ability to carry 7 !SEVEN! passengers.

In shock, shock I tell you I read an New York Times article written by some halfwit hack of a journalist named John Broder.

A link to his work of fiction is located here http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/autom ... biles&_r=0

A link to Elon Musk's rebuttal is located here
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/ ... 25527.html

John Broder wrote lies about when and how long he charged the Tesla. He wrote lies about how fast he drove. He even at one point circled a parking lot for 5 min to make the car die but it would not. John Broder left a hotel with 35 miles of range left and the car went 51 miles before it shut down to protect its batteries from the maniac behind the wheel.

As an automotive enthusiast and fan of the Tesla Model S I am pulling out my IBM Selectric tonight and will be drafting the New York Times a scathing email demanding the demotion or termination of John Broder. I urge you all to do the same.

Best regards,

Gwoods

[Jesda]

I'm very suspicious of NYT and how the media has handled plug-in cars, but the guy did run out of juice. The towers had to call Tesla to figure out how to disengage the electric e-brake since it had no charge left.

However, it appears he aggressively depleted the battery capacity on purpose.

[gwoods]

He also drove much faster 80 mph at one point then he 'reported' he had been driving. He left the heater on longer then he said he did. NYT Public Editor says she is reviewing the story and the complaints. You can send her a message by email as I have done.

[email protected]

To the Public Editor,

Article Headline:
Date Published:
Web or Print:
Your Concern (please limit to 300 words):

---

Your Name:
Location:
Your E-mail:
Phone Number:



http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... est-drive/

[gwoods]

What Broder did is no different then a automobile reviewer purposefully running a new Infiniti out of gas and then blaming the car.

The difference between the Tesla and Infiniti is the Infiniti can pull into any service station and top off in 5 min or less. The electric car takes 30min to get 150 miles of range at a Tesla (90kw) Supercharger station.

http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger

If Broder wanted to prove the point that the electric car takes longer to 'fill up' on the road he could have done it without lying.

I am as mad about this as I would be if some had insulted one of my kids and I can't fully explain why.

[darylzero]

I saw that story at Yahoo auto the other day (yesterday?) and can't believe NYT published a s*** story.

The real sad part about this is if you can't trust the New York Times to report the facts/truth then who can you trust? Hopefully the NYT fires this John M. Broder.

Edit: just saw this, http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comm ... el_s_over/

[Ace2cool]

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02 ... ore-180855

He went back and is trying to save face and "explain" what happened. He's trying to spin it back to being Tesla's fault. All I know is, if something tells me I can go X distance without charging, and my destination is twice that far away, I'M NOT GONNA LEAVE TILL IT HAS MORE CHARGE

[Razi]

Two CNN reporters just finished doing the same route as him.
Had 96 miles to spare.

https://twitter.com/AbigailBassett

[Dattebayo]

If you read the writer's response, it just sounds like he had no clue what he was doing, nor does it sound like he really wanted to do it. I would also believe that someone at Tesla was not doing their customer service the best either, but that's not really important. If they wanted their test to go as planned, they should have sent someone who knew what they were doing along with the guy. Personally, If I were driving a different kind of car like that, I would always overcharge the vehicle. Just to plan for anything unexpected, you know?

And he's got to be an idiot if he thinks the range of a parked electric vehicle wouldn't go down after a few hours sitting. Derp. Does the guy own a cell phone? Well then, he must know they lose charge in the cold even when they're turned off, too. I guess he figured that some magical new rules apply to this electrical appliance.

To bring up a funny idea, it makes me think this is what would probably happen if my dad were at the wheel of this thing and had to write something about it...
He would bungle something up like this, not be able to find the charger and either not connect the charge correctly or take it off early and expect 110% out of the thing. Oh yes, and he would complain endlessly about what a pile of crap it was, too. I wonder if Broder is just some kind of useless old fogey...