that’s pretty much your best bet. home depot can be great for that since you’d only need it for an hour or so. additionally, there are probably third party delivery services in your town that might be able to pick it up and deliver it for you. unlikely to be much cheaper, but far less effort on your part.
I don’t mind the effort at all (adds to the feeling of having “earned” the item since we’d be getting it second hand in this case). But there are different times in which a pickup would be quite useful.
For example, Every year or so I make a trip to a particular lumber mill that is about 1.5 hour drive away, I load up on all the exotic wood that I purchase, and then drive it back. Currently I have to have it all cut down so it’s no longer than 10 feet in length so it will fit inside my car (a Prius!) and then drive it back. I would prefer to do that sort of trip with a Pickup if the economics were good enough for me.
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Check Enterprise. They’re in town in many places so it’s easier than some of the more airportish based rental cars. I rent the Nissan Frontier for $80/day, unlimited mileage, all taxes - just pay for gas. They also have the bigger Dodge Ram 1500 Quads for $90/day same deal.
If it’s only a short distance or time then the UHaul option sometimes makes sense. The Home Depot & Lowes ones generally don’t - I’m a half hour from there so the 90 minute rental means I have to get it unloaded in half an hour or they’re charging overtime.
But it all depends on what I’m doing. For a weekend where I’m transporting smokers and bbq stuff, the Enterprise option is the one I use. I could get a trailer but that’s a couple grand and then I have to store it somewhere (which the wife is vehemently against 
).
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yeah fortunately for us we’re only maybe ten minutes from home depot, and that’s if traffic’s bad.
well, i say fortunately but i’m sure my wallet disagrees…
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As a current EV owner (who turned in a tuned BMW M3 for a Leaf, EV’s are amazing), and someone waiting for my Model 3, and with a friend that has a Model X, I can say this. I’ve driving his car with Autopilot, and as a car guy I wholeheartedly endorse it. I care about driving skill (having spent a lot of time, money and effort in learning how to do it properly and racing at an amateur level) and after experiencing the car driving I have no doubt that in the not-too-distant future, letting the car drive us around town will be entirely safer than letting people handle it.
My friend also did a 20 hour freeway drive with his kids and actually had to steer for about 30 minutes. His input was needed to get out of the city and back into his destination city. Other than that, the car handled it all, safely, not to mention that the journey was free thanks to the Supercharger network.
No system is every going to be perfect, there will be accidents and people will die with self-driving cars, but I can confidently say that a computer and cameras will be paying attention 100% of the time, which is a darn lot more than any person can claim.
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Didn’t he have to be alert the whole time though in case the car needed help? Being poised for action while idle doesn’t sound relaxing. I’ve never used any autopilot more advanced than old-fashioned cruise control so I could be way off. Everyone does say the Tesla features are awesome.
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You have to be awake and the car will ask you to “check in” now and then but it is hugely more relaxing and restful to let the car handle the thousands of steering and speed corrections that we normally have to do. Those uncountable microcorrections are stressful and tiring when added up, so when the car does the vast majority, even though you are watching what is happening, it is not nearly as taxing to go on long journeys.
You can’t fall asleep, for sure, but it’s surprising how different it feels when the car solidly stays in the center of lane, adjusts for traffic and you can talk to your passengers, listen to the radio, etc.
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That will be pretty nice someday. By the time I get around to buying a new car, it will probably fly too. 
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my 2 cents, me and the girlfriend have been going back and forth about getting a tesla. range is the thing
but we had a big weekend and it still would have been inside the range of the weekend with out a charge for the whole weekend
Range isn’t really an issue any way you slice a tesla these days with the super charger network constantly growing. And thats mostly for people planning long road trips or massive road warriors. You’ve average person isn’t coming close to driving 200 miles a day.
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With an EV, I tend to think of it as what my DAILY needs are. Yes, there will be the occasional long trip or out of the ordinary need to haul something. But with the ease and relative cheapness with which you can rent a car or truck for a one-time event, you can cover all the needs quite easily. The Tesla Supercharger network does make long-distance drives perfectly available with a little bit more planning.
In other words, why compromise 360 days of the year of driving efficiency, smoothness, free charging, and quiet power for the handful of days you need something out of the ordinary routine? That’s the same mindset that drives people to purchase a lifted 4x4 to drive everyday because they go offroading for one weekend per year. Even a low-range EV covers all but perhaps 1 trip a month for my family.
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O I think you guys miss read my comments. I’m fully onboard. Daily drive is not a concern free charging at my place of work. It’s the non typical days of concern like when I have to go to Boston or Harford or to the beach house. Yes I realize both those cites have charges all over the place but if I want to deal with it or not. Or the other times when its time to sew the gas family that could be 400miles in they styixs
Eh don’t have the money right now anyway but hopefully in the next couple years
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Necroing this because I just got my model 3. Glowforge got here first by a mile, though it seemed like both would never come at the time.
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Love to hear your assessment. Which options did you go for?
Did. You have a circuit (40 amp?) put in for charging?
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42A Max on the internal charger (Minus supercharging which is 100~120Kw). Pretty sure engineering had fun with that.
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Congrats on the Model 3! We got an X last September - absolutely love it Lots of fun to drive, and very comfortable too.
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To be in the first wave you have to get some options. I have the extended battery, premium interior, and the smart autopilot. Went with the dark grey color which is really nice in person, and standard wheels.
Love the car, more than I expected and no issues to report so far. It’s my first time in a tesla/electric car and the instant torque is amazing and feels safer to drive. Want to get around someone, hit the accelerator and you’re passing them instantly.
I rent currently, so I am waiting to hear back on the landlord letting me install an outlet. Right now I just plug right into a standard wall outlet and charge overnight. It’s slower, but works fine.
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I’ve heard lots of great stuff about get-up-and-go… how is the braking feel?
I ask because I absolutely hate the feel of the regenerative braking in my girlfriend’s Prius, and I’m curious if the Tesla got that part right.
Breaking is interesting as I find myself regenerative breaking farrrrr more than real breaking. I read there were issues with emergency breaking distance, but it was fixed with the latest patch last week. No emergencies to say one way or the other.
Regenerative breaking is something you need to get used to, but they have settings for it so you can adjust it to be very light or aggressive. I leave it at max for the recharging and it’s a touch jerky from time to time, though it’s more user error as I get used to how much it slows based on accelerator position.
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Thanks!
I’m looking forward to losing the gasoline, oil along with the oil changes, trans fluid and thousands of moving parts. Not to mention the exhaust gasses.
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