X Appeal

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Long-time readers know I’ve written many times about my Tesla Model S, and I’ve mentioned cars enough times to indicate that I’ve had a long-time fondness for the creatures. I put down my reservation cash for the Tesla Model X a while ago, It’s basically Tesla’s stab at the SUV market, although in person it looks like someone shoved an airhose up the Tesla S’s backside and gave it a bubble butt.

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The gee-whiz of the car, as you can see, is the gull wings. Once we get it (it won’t be delivered until sometime next year), we’ll be a “pure” Tesla family, but I have to confess, the apple of temptation was dangled in front of my eyes a while ago, and its name is the i8.

The BMW “i” line has been getting plenty of press lately, since it is their very serious, very expensive push into the hybrid market. When I saw the first photos of the i8, I fell instantly in love, because its design is oh-my-heavenly-father gorgeous. Behold:

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This instantly became a battle between vanity and practicality. The vain part of me told me how utterly awesome I would look tooling around the Bay Area in this creature, toting kids from place to place (which is pretty much all I do when I’m not charting). This is an incredibly sexy car, and I gotta tell ya, my Tesla S grabbed attention a year ago, but these days, it’s become the Honda Civic around town. They are everywhere.

The practical part of me took out its secret weapon, though: the knowledge that the i8 is a hybrid, not a pure electric car. It’s got a 3-cylinder (yep, 3) engine, and that means all the nasty stuff I left behind – – the visits to the dirty gas station, the expensive, annoying smog checks every two years, the oil changes, the filter changes – – all the crap that accompanies fossil-fuel burning contraptions – – would be back in my life.

So I’m going to stick with the Tesla X, which given the i8’s $150,000 price tag and gorgeous appearance, makes me seem downright prudish. Practicality wins.