This ain't your grandmother's Oldsmobile. This is your grandmother's Model X

Seventy-one-year-old Debbie Carney was fiercely opposed to electric vehicles. Ten years ago, she and her husband popped into a Tesla showroom in Fort Worth, Texas. Just to see. “Oh my God,” Debbie thought, looking at the line-up of Model X’s. “I would never get one of these cars.... it looks like a Buick Enclave!” No way in hell was she ever going to drive one of these apparent monstrosities.

It wasn’t the cost of a Tesla that turned her off initially. “The whole EV charging deal didn’t strike my fancy,” she says. “It’s a lifestyle change.”

But, as fate would have it, that lifestyle change would win them both over. Five years later, Debbie’s husband came home with a brand-new Model 3, and Debbie was floored. “I went, ‘Wow!’ So I went down [to the showroom] and I ordered an X.”

Mad tech skillz

What sparked this 180˚ about-face? Debbie says the first thing that changed her mind was the technology. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve owned BMWs and Mercedes, and I didn’t know how to use half of the tech stuff,” she tells us. “There was no touch screen... it had roller balls! If I wanted to change the bass on the radio, I had to YouTube it to see how to do it. Couldn’t find my way around it. Didn’t even know what was in my Mercedes. So I just didn’t use any of it.”

She adds, “It’s just not as sophisticated. I don’t think there’s anybody out there technology-wise that beats Tesla.” For an older driver like Debbie, Tesla offers a highly user-friendly design, especially when it comes to setting up your vehicle.

So much to love

Another aspect of owning an electric vehicle is the nearly non-existent maintenance schedule. “I like less fluids,” says Debbie. “There’s virtually no maintenance on the vehicle.”

Then there’s the speed and acceleration. For the younger drivers, that’s what they talk about, because it’s sexy and it’s fun. For older and wiser drivers, it’s a matter of safety—the ability to get out of a dangerous situation fast. “I have never floored my vehicle, but I’ll tell you what, when you need it, it’s there. It’s just amazing. With a gas car, if you pass on a two-lane road, there’s hesitation.”

Debbie also echoes a sentiment we’ve heard hundreds of times from Tesla owners: “Sometimes I feel like I get a new car, when the software updates come. I just think it’s a cool car.”

It’s [not] complicated.

Despite her initial opposition to EVs, there was one thing Debbie never enjoyed about gas-powered cars. “I always hated to gas up a vehicle,” she says. But the reason she and her husband both bought EVs wasn’t because of the cost of gasoline, or because of the environment. “We both liked the Tesla because it’s a different driving experience. I love it, you know, it’s just unique. It’s different. I like different.”

Asked if she would consider a hybrid rather than a full battery electric vehicle, Debbie shakes her head adamantly. “I don’t even want to own a plugin hybrid because now you got gas and you got electric. So to me, there’s more that can go wrong. I don’t regret getting my EV and I really don’t want to go back to gas. Some people say, ‘Well, you should have had an EV car and a gas car,’ but we’re all EV.”

As for the specific manufacturer, Debbie and her husband are also all in on Tesla. “To this day, I would not consider another EV,” Debbie says. “[Tesla has] been in business the longest, so I wouldn’t trust another EV.”

Trust the ride

Debbie admits she still gets a little range anxiety. But these days, she’s much more at ease doing longer trips, because she can trust the car. “The car is exactly right with how much you have left before you have to charge up. It just takes you there, instead of having to stop and search for a charger.”

She’s especially pleased with the option to set the minimum battery level to 20%—even if that means stopping to charge a little more frequently. “I’m okay with that because us old people have to pee more,” Debbie says, laughing.

"[The people at ] XCare are so unbelievably quick to respond to my emails and telephone calls, it's instant! I’m impressed."

- Debbie Carney

Safety first, but comfort comes a close second

User friendliness, cool new tech, and acceleration and power are all great. It’s what makes the headlines, juices the social media posts, and gets people excited about a car. But the quiet part about Tesla’s appeal is comfort, safety and security.

“I like the [Model X] because you can slide in and slide out,” Debbie says. “I’ve owned Suburban's before, and you have to step up, or pull yourself up, to get into it. If you are handicapped or have an injury, getting in and out of the car with the Falcon doors, it’s just a piece of cake.”

“I’m 71 and my husband’s 81,” Debbie adds. “From a safety standpoint, I think the older you are, it’s the better car to drive. Because, you know that sucker will yank you back if you’re [in danger].” And it happened, Debbie adds, just the other day. Another car was in her blind spot, and her Model X sounded a collision warning. Debbie avoided an accident.

Of course, nothing is ever 100% fool proof. In those situations where a collision cannot be avoided, the dashcam comes in handy. In June of 2023, Debbie’s husband Pete was T-boned by another driver on a residential street two blocks from their house. Luckily, it was a low-speed collision, and he wasn’t hurt, but his finances could very well have been, were it not for the dash cam. Pete's car was totaled in the accident. The price tag? A pretty $52,000. The other driver’s insurance company initially denied the claim, claiming no fault. So Debbie sent them the dash cam footage from the Model Y, showing beyond a doubt the other driver was at fault. The insurance company had to pay. “That video saved [Pete],” Debbie says.

XCare on the calendar

The flip side of the insurance coin is, of course, the warranty. “I won’t have a car without a warranty,” says Debbie. “I buy the warranty hoping I’ll never have to use it.” This is one experienced driver who’s had her fill of things going wrong. One of her previous cars, a Mercedes GLS 450 that she leased for three years, had a blinker go out. “Well,” says Debbie, “that’s not just replacing a bulb. It’s a whole unit. And the whole unit four years ago was $550, not including labor.” The car was under warranty then—and that’s precisely why Debbie made sure to pick up an XCare policy as soon as she started nearing the 30,000-mile mark on her Model X. She even put it on her calendar to make sure she didn’t go too far over, as she knew higher mileage drives up the rate.

But before she decided which extended warranty to go with, she did her research—like a lot of our members. She joined several online Tesla groups on Facebook. Some commenters would say, “Oh, it’s a waste of money. Just take the money you would spend for it and put it aside.” To that Debbie responds, “Well, I’m sorry, pal. You could have one thing go out and it could be four, five, six thousand dollars.

“Part of the reason I bought XCare,” she explains, “was because a lot of the people who work for XCare are ex-Tesla employees. I wanted to make sure I got the right warranty, and I could have gotten a Tesla two-year (ESA), but I don’t want two years. I want more.”

A tiny little squeak

Size for size, electric vehicles are heavier than their gas-powered counterparts—largely because of the high voltage battery. That means a little more wear and tear on the tires and the suspension. At the same time, there tend to be a lot fewer parts that break overall. In her four and a half years of ownership of the Model X, Debbie says the only thing “that’s gone wrong was the upper and lower control arms. I’m very attuned to my cars, and I noticed a tiny, tiny little squeak.”

At first, the squeak was intermittent. “And then as time went on,” she tells us, “and it wore more, it was all the time, except on a smooth road, say an interstate traveling 50, 60 miles an hour, you didn’t hear it. But you know, you get to know your car. And so I researched. I figured, well, it can only be this, this, or this.”

But to be sure, Debbie made an appointment with Tesla to get the issue diagnosed. When that took too long, she took it to an independent service shop in Dallas, where they confirmed it was the upper and lower control arms.

As far as dealing with XCare for the claim via an independent, non-Tesla shop, Debbie says it was easy peasy. “They filed with you guys—with XCare, and it was bam, bam, bam. I mean, within four days [the shop] had their money, and then they felt so bad they wouldn’t let me pay the hundred-dollar deductible. I mean, they went above and beyond for me. And XCare, they are so unbelievably quick to respond to my emails and telephone calls, it's instant! I’m impressed.”

$1,340 later, all covered by XCare, the little squeaks are gone, and the car drives great.

“The car is like a brand-new car," says Debbie, beaming. "And when this warranty is over, I’ll get another one.”

If you're sitting on the EV fence, maybe go take a test drive. You might just fall off the fence on the right side of transportation history, like Debbie did. And when it's time for that extended warranty, we'll be here.