[WM: Funny you’d mention European vehicles. Our former Mercedes ML550 got the same gas mileage as a UPS truck. BMW, Range Rover, Jaguar, and Bentley aren’t much better. So I’m not sure your logic holds for all European cars except perhaps the Fiat and VW bug. Curious what that 220 MPG vehicle looks like.]

Sorry to hear of the S issues – ouch. I would offer I think that is pretty rare however, unfortunate you were the "lucky" one. Had a friend with a train-wreck X delivery experience & returned car – swore the brand off forever, until I reached out to someone inside I know who contacted them a couple months after they cooled down – and they have a 2nd X now and swear they will never go back to gas (very happy).

Tesla’s biggest weak spot really is customer facing communication – too many young folks who haven’t been trained correctly or simply are lacking the understanding of how important a little professional/prompt communication goes (this isn’t smartphone sales).

If you ever want to get an interesting insight into what Tesla is doing that far exceeds anything the auto industry has *ever* done or been able to do – watch a bit of Sandy Munro (the teardown specialist for the defense & auto industries) he even has a recent interview with Musk that is quite interesting. Certainly, gives another perspective that at least for me makes me a little more forgiving/patient in light of the items that otherwise grind my gears.

To Tesla’s credit they have been an unusually fervent stand-up citizen unlike most companies for customer data privacy (and being a tech company have managed security an order magnitude better than the car companies so far anyway).

Also, those cameras although risky as you say have caught innumerable hit-and-run folks damaging cars, lying to police after accidents, etc. to the saving grace of the Tesla owner whose cameras caught it all – so there is another side to that as well that is pretty valuable not to discard.

[WM: I agree with much of what you’ve said above. We’re on our sixth Escalade and second Tesla. Despite one flat tire, we’ve never had any issues with the Escalades. Wish I could say the same for Tesla. While the Model X has been reliable, it’s only six months old. Our previous Model S had a total system failure (literally) in the middle of nowhere. Took a day to get it towed 200+ miles to Tesla, and they kept it 5 weeks before discovering they had bent a pin while replacing a defective MCU. So much for fault-tolerance. As for charging a Tesla, what you’ve said makes perfect sense IF you have a garage and your own 240v outlet. For those that live in apartments and condos, they’re pretty much at the mercy of Tesla Supercharger pricing.]

And all those cameras everywhere seems like a hackers wet dream come true. No thanks.

If I could offer, extended family has owned 4 Escalades so have *alot* of experience in the expenses to keeping one running, having test drove the ’21 Escalade (for mother in law), and owning a Tesla Model X (now to be my 3rd Model X with a ’21 purchase coming) – and having put 65,000 miles into Tesla Model X …. as a car guy with a love of manuals, smell of gas, and the roar of an engine … I think the evaluation misses the point a little (though I understand the frustration driving it).

That is, yes the Escalade Auto-Pilot equivalent may be a bit more refined today than Tesla’s at the moment (software updates will sooner than later change as is Tesla’s history, and Cadillac/GM cannot truly provide), however, it will *never* do what Tesla’s FSD is doing right now in a wide Beta among select owners (See Sandy Munro’s review – Google it) & to be released to 10x more drivers this year. The car will never protect your investment with full vehicle software updates or more importantly factory offered full computer upgrade/swaps for $1500 … instead of "buy a new model year to upgrade" as we all know Caddy and the rest practice for the last century. So far no car in history is as safe for you & your family than Tesla’s per NHTSA. And a bit more.

Equally, the car like all gas (ICE) vehicles has 3x times the parts of an EV, 10x times the maintenance/expense to keep it running (see TeslaCar maintenance records for 300,000mile Model X’s used as taxi’s/car-service – with only $18k in repairs of which $12k was tires alone), and as for fuel costs … nobody except possibly folks in apartments & very-long-distance road-warrior drivers base their daily driving on SuperChargers — so the fuel cost evaluation is more oranges to apples.

Based on home electricity rates using time-based power as most use with EV’s (i.e. charge after 10pm at home for cheapest power to get your daily morning "full tank" every day, without ever going to a gas station no less) the per mile costs of EV’s are still multiples below gas (even in Florida with gas at 60% of other states pricing).

Personally, an ocean of unnecessary buttons we rarely use and a giant screen filled with nonsense ultimately still only showing me what can be seen on something a fraction of that size don’t highlight advancement but rather desperation to create the allusion of advancement – and just more things to break & have to fix eventually (Escalades do not have a good track record in this regard).

From this car loving traditionalists view, the ’21 Escalade is a lovely vehicle for the demographic that typically buys them of course – however, in terms of reducing maintenance, total cost per mile, long-term investment, simplification of daily driving, pure technological capability & possibility, and ultimately *safety* (every Tesla has passed NHTSA with 5-stars in every category, a historical first no car manufacturer has ever achieved – still) — there is just no comparison, not even close; other than personal styling preferences, extra cargo space, and other more general needs if you don’t care about all the other costs/safety/repairs/simplification-of-life of course.

One car enthusiasts slightly differing perspective in case there is an item or two in there that provides another consideration.