Extensive family EV ride, including a Tesla FSD 14 for a member with Parkinson’s disease

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With the purchase of a second Tesla Model Y in the past few weeks, my family now has 5 Teslas. My brother and I were early adopters of electric cars. My first lease was a Nissan Leaf for $200 a month starting February 31, 2014. I followed that with two more Leafs and finally a 2019 Tesla Model 3 that just passed its 6th anniversary with over 160,000 miles. My brother was next with a 2015 and 2016 BMW i3, followed by the family’s first Tesla, a 2017 Model S. He recently upgraded to the 2025 Tesla Model Y you see below. My daughter was next shortly after with a 2017 Tesla Model After pestering me for 9 years about electric cars, my son followed me out by stealing a 2018 Model 3 he bought last June. He paid just over $10,000 after the government deductible of $4,200. His car is in the first photo below. The most recent Tesla purchased by a family member was a used 2023 Model Y purchased last month. He has advanced Parkinson’s disease and benefits from the V14’s supervised full self-driving. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to drive at all.

The 2018 Model 3 was a steal at $11,000 after a $4,200 government rebate that Trump has since rescinded. The car had 82,000 miles on it, so it still had approximately 40,000 miles and 2 years left on the transmission and battery warranty. I helped him get an assessment of the battery condition, which means he can drive cross-country if necessary. When we entered the VIN number, it turned out to be the performance model. However, it does not have red calipers and brakes as most performance models do.

My daughter’s Model X (above) has three rows of two captain’s chairs, which was perfect for her family of 5 plus a friend. She’s been driving it for almost 8 years and it’s still going strong. He runs up the valley from her home in Park City to her children’s school and other errands in Salt Lake City without missing a thing.

The first three electric cars I owned were Nissan Leafs that had such a short range that cross-country driving was out of the question. Even relatively local driving was often a challenge and sometimes required wearing warm weather gear because the heater reduced range too much. See the 2014 paper in the image above.

The 2019 Model 3 (above) just passed its 6 year and 160,000 mile anniversary and is still going strong. I just had some body work done by driving the van through the parking lot, so it looks new now. My Tesla Model 3 has been on both the east and west coasts, making the 1,500 mile trip from Utah to northern Wisconsin and back 6 times carrying two large e-bikes on a rack in the back. It’s a twin-engined vehicle, so it’s good for downhill skiing in the winter. However, do not try to drive in deep snow, as the ground clearance is very low.

My brother had two 2015 and 2016 BMW i3s (see above), which were pretty much a joke for cross-country driving due to their electric-only range of 80 miles and a gas tank of just over 1 gallon. He later did a routine cross-country drive for 7 years in his 2017 Model S (also above) with an 80 kWh battery. He recently upgraded to a 2024 Tesla Model Y.

The car shown above is the story of the most amazing car in the family. Our brother-in-law, now a former brother-in-law, rode freight trains and drove trucks for years. He traded in his Toyota 4Runner SUV for a massive Toyota Land Cruiser SUV a few years ago. Unfortunately, he has advanced Parkinson’s disease, which often makes driving impossible. He was recently rescued from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where he was undergoing treatment by one of his children. Then he sold my daughter’s Land Cruiser and bought a 2023 Tesla Model Y. He was knowledgeable enough to buy one with a Hardware 4 computer and HW4 cameras. This means that it drives the car with a fully autonomous V14 engine. It makes driving difficult for him, which would otherwise be impossible.

EV breakthrough in Utah

As I drove around Utah County, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, the roads were packed with Teslas — mostly Model Ys and Model 3s, but also often Model Ss, Xs, and a few Cybertrucks. I also sometimes see a Ford Mustang Mach-E as well as Rivian pickup trucks, SUVs, and Amazon Prime delivery trucks in the neighborhoods. Ford F-150 Lightnings, Hyundai and Kia EVs, as well as electric vehicles from other brands, are hard to spot.

New electric vehicle sales in Utah have topped 10% in recent months, but that will likely be lower in the coming months since Trump ended government subsidies for new and used electric vehicles.

Advantages of electric car

The superiority of an electric drivetrain is evident every day to me when I get silent acceleration from my Tesla Model 3’s motor. This is also confirmed by occasionally renting a gasoline car where I notice delayed acceleration and engine roar as the transmission slows down and downshifts when you hit the accelerator.

The superiority of the electric drivetrain was also demonstrated twice last year. First, we had to give away a used car to my granddaughter because a $2,500 timing chain repair wasn’t worth doing on an older car. Then we recently decided to replace the $1,300 timing chain on another car for my granddaughter: a 2008 Mazda with 160,000 miles. Electric vehicles do not have timing chains.

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