Archive for April, 2016

Tesla Model S All Electric Car Test Drive Review

Tesla Model S RecallTake the Tesla Model S all-electric car test drive and prepare to be amazed. This is the first time the writer has had an opportunity to drive this particular car. It was truly fantastic in many ways. But first a little background. As an average consumer, I cannot really afford this particular car. I told the salesperson when they asked me if I was interested in the car. The new Model 3 is more in my league with a base price of $35,000 vs. the Model S at $70,000 US. I took a fully upgraded Model S out for a drive. It was listed at $132,000 US with the full sports package, low profile racing tires and rims, etc. They did not seem to mind and offered the test drive to me in any case.

Tesla Model S All Electric Car Test Drive Review

The test drive lasted approximately 30 minutes. It consisted of city driving, highway driving, and cornering on curving mountain roads. A pretty good test for such a short time frame. There are many features on this car, however, I will just cover a few that really stood out for this test driver.

The salesperson was excellent, gave clear instructions, and probably has nerves of steel. Considering what the car is capable of he really was calm throughout the entire drive.

Our Review

Self Parking – The Tesla Model S self-parks perfectly in both parallel and mall parking situations. All you need to do is drive the car into a proper position aligned with the car ahead of the parking spot, place the car in reverse and touch the auto park icon on the screen. It does the rest and comes to a full stop properly positioned between the car in front and the car behind as well as 6 inches from the curb! The same applies to backing into a mall parking spot. It also parks itself in your garage, but obviously, we could not test this feature.

Auto Driving – is where the real action starts. We took the car up to the designated highway speed, turned on the autopilot, and took our hands off the wheel. It maintained the proper position on the road with no difficulty whatsoever. It uses the white lines on the road to maintain position in the lane. Occasionally they would disappear and the car would shift a bit in the lane and then correct itself.

There are all sorts of settings, however, for this test drive, the autopilot was set to follow a car in front to two car lengths spacing. A car pulled in front of us and then turned down a side street. In both cases, our car slowed and even came to a full stop while we waited for the car in front to turn right. It started automatically and came back to full speed once the way was clear.

Changing lanes is really neat. After checking that there are no cars blocking the lane that you are moving to, simply turn the turn signal control in the direction you want to move to and the car moves over. Of course, if there already was a car too close, it would cancel the lane change.

More Features

Speed Control – almost all cars have speed control, which of course the Model S does. It works closely with the autopilot maintaining your speed with 1 mile/hour and 5 mile/hour increments simply by a touch of a lever.

Ludicrous Mode – This is truly special and really demonstrates the power of this car. You can operate this model in regular, sport, and ludicrous mode. We brought the car to a full stop, placed both hands on the wheel, head back against the headrest, set the car to ludicrous mode, and fully depressed the accelerator. Experiencing 0 to 60 miles an hour in less than 6 seconds is truly amazing. Butterflies in the stomach, racing heart rate, and more. This car moves!

Many Other Features – There were many other features and capabilities available on this car all controlled on the large full-screen tablet centered between the passenger and driver’s seats.

You really have to try this car. Don’t take my word for it, take your own Tesla Model S All Electric Car Test Drive!


How to Remove Red Wine Stains from Carpets

how to Remove Red Wine Stains from CarpetsThis is everyone’s nightmare, red wine spilled on a white carpet. Everyone wants to know how to remove red wine stains from carpets and in their minds it is urgent. There is no question you need to move quickly to get rid of the red wine stain, but it is important to clean it up properly and not leave a long term red stain on your carpet. So what do you do to get rid of that red wine on the while carpet? Turns out is fairly easy as long as you act quickly and get to work on the stain. Using while paper towels is the first step. Blot as much of the liquid as you can being careful not to rub the wine in further.

How to Remove Red Wine Stains from Carpets

Step 1: As we mentioned the first step is to blot as much of the liquid up using paper towels being careful to not rub it in further.

Step 2: Pour some cold water over the stain and continue blotting up the liquid. The water will dilute the wine and remove some of the color. Continue blotting as long as you are getting some of the liquid on the paper towels.

Step 3: (Note –  not verified by the writer, try on a test area) Mix baking soda and water in a three to one mixture. Apply it to the affected area and let it dry. Vacuum the next day and it should remove all of the stain.

Step 4: If you do not like the idea of step 3, go to a hardware store. Purchase a stain remover that works with red wine. The spot will stay wet for several hours after steps 1 and 2. So you will have time to go to the store and pick up the product.

If it is more serious or you’re not satisfied you may have to turn to a professional to have the stain removed. For more information on stain removal, click here.

Save


How to Remove Coffee Stains from a Carpet

Remove Coffee Stains from a CarpetWe recently spilled an entire cup of coffee with cream in it on our carpet just like it shows in this picture, but only larger. It was an accident that could have been prevented, but it is too late for assessing blame. We now have to focus on how to remove it. We talked to some friends, did a quick online search and also bought some stain remover from a hardware store. Whether we needed to do all of this is unclear, but the steps we followed based on the input we got, did the job and we want to share it with out readers. This is how to remove coffee stains from a carpet.

Remove Coffee Stains from a Carpet – Follow These Steps

Whatever you do, do  not wait. Get started now and follow these steps before the coffee seeps into the carpet and starts to dry on the fibers.

Step 1: Grab paper towels and begin blotting up as much of the liquid as you can. Do not rub the carpet. This could push the liquid further into the carpet and into the fibers.

Step 2: Dish towels will also work, just don’t rub the carpet. Soak up the liquid as much as you can.

Step 3: Take one cup of water and soak the area with water. Next use more paper towels and again soak up as much of the liquid as you can. The water will help to dilute the remaining coffee stains and  help to remove more of the stain.

Step 4: Mix two cups of warm water and a quarter cup of lemon juice.

Step 5: Apply the solution using a sponge. Cover the entire area and gently sponge up the stain.

Step 6: After use paper towels to soak up the water and more of the stain. The lemon juice acts as a mild acid to remove the coffee from the fibers. Do not use more than a quarter cup to avoid any long term change to the carpet.

Step 7: Rinse the area with cold water and using paper towels to soak up any liquid and dry it as much as you can.

Step 8: This step may not be required. We followed this step after we had completed the previous steps. we purchase a stain remover for carpets that specifically mentioned coffee. Follow the steps outlined on the bottle and remove any final indications of coffee stain.

This worked for us and you would never know that we had spilled coffee on our carpet. For more information about removing stains, click here.

 

Save


Guide to Smarter Heating of Your Home

Many companies are offering smart thermostats for consumers to upgrade their home’s heating or cooling systems. This picture is a generic thermostat. We are not promoting any particular type. We just used this picture as part of our post about a guide to smarter heating of your home. When it comes to smart thermostats there are several basic requirements that consumers need to consider. These include – basic functionality, learning capabilities relative to heating needs, and internet connection via WiFi in your home. Most of all the ability to observe and also control the temperature in your home remotely.

Guide to Smarter Heating of Your Home

The basic objective is to reduce your heating costs and also ensure your home is comfortable. Remote control and internet connections are nice to have, but you really need to evaluate whether you will use these features or not.

A smart thermostat will have multiple time controls for various times of the day and will sense your schedule through manual adjustments that you make to the thermostat. Over time it will learn your schedule and heat your home accordingly.

If you do not have WiFi or if you do not have a smartphone, it is unlikely that this feature will be of much use to you. Of course, you can use your PC to observe and/or make adjustments, but most people want to be able to make adjustments on the go and a smartphone with internet data connections is often the best way to accomplish this.

Before you pay extra for a smart thermostat, evaluate your planned use of the features available. A thermostat will less functionality and lower cost might still deliver the savings you are looking for.


  • Copyright © 1996-2010 Managing Home Maintenance Costs. All rights reserved.
    iDream theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress