I mean, should I?

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
I've been trying to figure out what to do long term with my car. I love it. It's my dream car. 3 years ago it was a pipe dream to own one. Now I find myself wondering if I should hunker down and make the changes to it that will allow me to love it for years or sell it while it has some warranty and potentially upgrade.

My car is an early build which means I don't get some of the creature comforts like folding mirrors and parking sensors. Some of the components on my car are also very early revision parts that have since been replaced by newer versions, sometimes twice. The upside is the early cars came with a lot of standard equipment that is now optional. So that's held the price of the used cars up because as Tesla ups the price on the new cars or breaks off standard equipment into option packages, it becomes more enticing to purchase a used car.

I paid $52,000 for the car and I owe about $40,000 on it. So I'm pretty comfortable there but the stock trader in me says that the car is going to lose a lot of value as the Model 3's start trickling out and so if I'm going to sell it, now is the time as it still has 5,000 miles of warranty.

Beepi guaranteed $50,000 for the car. With the IL taxes I paid ($1500) that works out to having paid $3,500 for the 10 months I've owned it, or $350 a month for those that are bad at math.

The problem is that to get a new facelifted Model S is a significant bump up in price. For me not to drop in range I'd need to get a 90D. That's $90,000 for a cheap one. Optioned out it's $100,000. That means putting down a lot of money and paying probably double what I pay now. And what am I really getting for that? A facelift car, Autopilot, better seats and that's about it. Because I already own a Model S, it's impossible not to consider that the cost to upgrade is just for those missing features. So essentially I'm paying $60,000 difference for Auto-Pilot, LED headlights, the new bumper, new seats and some other stupid stuff.

Is that worth it? No. No it's not. That seems like a really foolish way to spend money. I briefly considered and basically the instant I ran the math I decided against that.

But then tonight, this... https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...for-700-mnth-on-the-new-24-month-lease.75855/

Now my gears are turning. I don't want a P90D either. The 90D is faster than the old P85 (which is as fast as an M5) and it gets better range than the P90D. So theoretically it would be even cheaper. Taking the $10,000 proceeds from the sale of my car and applying it towards the lease, I'd theoretically end up with a similar payment as right now for a demo car that's improved over mine in many ways. The difference in how I can claim the lease on my business taxes would also be an added benefit. Currently I can only take actually mileage which some months isn't very much even though it accounts for 80% of my driving. On a lease I could write off 80% of that payment.

Am I nuts? Should I just keep my car? I'm going to see what kind of numbers the dealer can work up tomorrow either way.
 

Rent Free

TCG Elite Member
Jan 26, 2015
24,427
20,287
Nowheresville North Dakota
i cant wrap my head around the Teslas because ive never drove one but ive come to realize upgrading to a newer model or newer vehicle beats the hell out of modding one.

id run the numbers maybe hold out until the next Tesla model is released and see if the demand comes down a bit for the S? dunno of the demand will ever come down though to make any difference.

then again would it be worth if for you to take the depreciation hit on a new one when you basically stole the one you already have?

either way i dont see any problem always searching and crunching the numbers.

hell after buying my 2016 mustang the only thing i regret is not going straight for the gt350. id feel less compelled to mod this one then.
 

TCG Member 5219

TCG Elite Member
Mar 22, 2005
12,447
18
I've been trying to figure out what to do long term with my car. I love it. It's my dream car. 3 years ago it was a pipe dream to own one. Now I find myself wondering if I should hunker down and make the changes to it that will allow me to love it for years or sell it while it has some warranty and potentially upgrade.

My car is an early build which means I don't get some of the creature comforts like folding mirrors and parking sensors. Some of the components on my car are also very early revision parts that have since been replaced by newer versions, sometimes twice. The upside is the early cars came with a lot of standard equipment that is now optional. So that's held the price of the used cars up because as Tesla ups the price on the new cars or breaks off standard equipment into option packages, it becomes more enticing to purchase a used car.

I paid $52,000 for the car and I owe about $40,000 on it. So I'm pretty comfortable there but the stock trader in me says that the car is going to lose a lot of value as the Model 3's start trickling out and so if I'm going to sell it, now is the time as it still has 5,000 miles of warranty.

Beepi guaranteed $50,000 for the car. With the IL taxes I paid ($1500) that works out to having paid $3,500 for the 10 months I've owned it, or $350 a month for those that are bad at math.

The problem is that to get a new facelifted Model S is a significant bump up in price. For me not to drop in range I'd need to get a 90D. That's $90,000 for a cheap one. Optioned out it's $100,000. That means putting down a lot of money and paying probably double what I pay now. And what am I really getting for that? A facelift car, Autopilot, better seats and that's about it. Because I already own a Model S, it's impossible not to consider that the cost to upgrade is just for those missing features. So essentially I'm paying $60,000 difference for Auto-Pilot, LED headlights, the new bumper, new seats and some other stupid stuff.

Is that worth it? No. No it's not. That seems like a really foolish way to spend money. I briefly considered and basically the instant I ran the math I decided against that.

But then tonight, this... https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/thr...for-700-mnth-on-the-new-24-month-lease.75855/

Now my gears are turning. I don't want a P90D either. The 90D is faster than the old P85 (which is as fast as an M5) and it gets better range than the P90D. So theoretically it would be even cheaper. Taking the $10,000 proceeds from the sale of my car and applying it towards the lease, I'd theoretically end up with a similar payment as right now for a demo car that's improved over mine in many ways. The difference in how I can claim the lease on my business taxes would also be an added benefit. Currently I can only take actually mileage which some months isn't very much even though it accounts for 80% of my driving. On a lease I could write off 80% of that payment.

Am I nuts? Should I just keep my car? I'm going to see what kind of numbers the dealer can work up tomorrow either way.

yolo_hashtag.jpg
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
Am I missing something ? I thought you paid $20k

I bought and sold that car in 2 weeks and then bought my non-salvage car. The car I own is a clean title 2013.

So, I'm trying to wrap my head around your post.

You paid $52,000 for the car. It's still worth $50,000? You pay $350 a month for a $50,000 car that you still owe $40,000 on? My math must suck!

If I can get 50k for it that means that with taxes it will have cost me $3500 for 10 months of ownership... or $350 a month. $52,000 + $1500 Taxes - $50,000 selling price / 10.
 

Grabber

Oh Hai
Dec 11, 2007
4,363
860
Wheeling, IL
I bought and sold that car in 2 weeks and then bought my non-salvage car. The car I own is a clean title 2013.



If I can get 50k for it that means that with taxes it will have cost me $3500 for 10 months of ownership... or $350 a month. $52,000 + $1500 Taxes - $50,000 selling price / 10.

Do these cars really hold their value that well that you lose just about nothing when getting rid of it?

Impressive.
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
I think he means did you take out a 12 year loan to get $350 a month payment on over a $40k loan ?

No. I bought the car for $52,000. I paid $1,500 to Illinois for private party taxes and registration. That brings us to $53,500 total paid. If I sold the car for the $50,000 they are guarantying me it means that I would have effectively paid $3500 for the entire time I've used it. Spread that over 10 months of ownership and you have an effective monthly cost of $350.

Do these cars really hold their value that well that you lose just about nothing when getting rid of it?

Impressive.

I got a great deal on it when I purchased. I sat waiting for a couple months, ready to buy when the right deal presented itself. They hold their value well but in my case it was just a matter of buying for the right price.
 

SleeperLS

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Oct 19, 2008
14,355
8,187
West of the Mississippi
Faster (low 12 second car versus low 13 second car), more range (290 vs 256), folding mirrors, parking sensors, Auto-Pilot, misc tax savings, better seats and a new warranty.

That would be enough for me to do the trade in. Those are some pretty awesome upgrades for a similar payment. Didn't you end up really enjoying some of the upgraded options that you didn't think you would before? Is there a way to test drive the car for a bit and test out the upgrades to see if you are feeling it or not?

I might add that the speed and range alone would make it worth it IMO.
 

Bru

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Staff member
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May 24, 2007
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Autopilot will be a worthy upgrade if you're slogging through LA traffic. I haven't driven Tesla's version, but other semi-autonomous modes in Volvo and Benz cars take a huge load off your mind driving in awful stop-and-go traffic. You can go an hour and a half traveling 20 miles and not be frustrated at the end. Well, to a degree anyway.
 

Bru

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May 24, 2007
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Plus, you'll have the latest car, which will likely be more available to upgrades as new features come out. Tesla is good about updating older platforms with the new software and features but obviously there's a limit.
 

sickmint79

I Drink Your Milkshake
Mar 2, 2008
26,909
16,622
grayslake
Beepi guaranteed $50,000 for the car. With the IL taxes I paid ($1500) that works out to having paid $3,500 for the 10 months I've owned it, or $350 a month for those that are bad at math.

is this like a floor that tesla paid for or something? how long does it last? or is that just a beepi estimate where they are sure you will get at least that? not familiar with them.

Now my gears are turning. I don't want a P90D either. The 90D is faster than the old P85 (which is as fast as an M5) and it gets better range than the P90D. So theoretically it would be even cheaper. Taking the $10,000 proceeds from the sale of my car and applying it towards the lease, I'd theoretically end up with a similar payment as right now for a demo car that's improved over mine in many ways. The difference in how I can claim the lease on my business taxes would also be an added benefit. Currently I can only take actually mileage which some months isn't very much even though it accounts for 80% of my driving. On a lease I could write off 80% of that payment.

Am I nuts? Should I just keep my car? I'm going to see what kind of numbers the dealer can work up tomorrow either way.

seems like with the biz you may be able to work out something that doesn't sound too crazy. i personally would have a hard time owning a 100k depreciating asset but i guess you wouldn't even be owning it. just looking at the payments, would the marginal utility of the new one be worth it? it wouldn't be to me.
 

Mike K

TCG Elite Member
Apr 11, 2008
13,214
2,586
is this like a floor that tesla paid for or something? how long does it last? or is that just a beepi estimate where they are sure you will get at least that? not familiar with them.

I've never used them but from what I gather, they give you a guaranteed price contingent on condition. If I accept, they send someone out to inspect the car and give me a hard number which is guaranteed. They'll attempt to sell it for 30 days and if they can't they'll buy it themselves for that guaranteed amount. And honestly, I thought the car was worth 50k private party so if they want to throw me 50k for it I'm all for that.


seems like with the biz you may be able to work out something that doesn't sound too crazy. i personally would have a hard time owning a 100k depreciating asset but i guess you wouldn't even be owning it. just looking at the payments, would the marginal utility of the new one be worth it? it wouldn't be to me.

Not sure what you mean on marginal utility. It wouldn't be worth buying. I wouldn't consider buying a 100k car. I'm not at that point in my life. But the lease in my example works out to be about $5,000 more expensive than my car over two years and for all the extra stuff I can totally deal with that.

Coming home yesterday my seatbelt retractor broke. My fucking seatbelt. So I called a couple stores and asked them what they had. To my surprise they were aware of the deals but the closest one could get was $852 a month plus 9% tax for a car with no air suspension or premium audio. It might sound like I'm splitting hairs but the base stereo is terrible and I need air suspension to get into my driveway so it was a no go either way.

Either way I have to sell my car. I've learned a lot about these over the past 10 months of ownership and where I thought my car was going to have a lot of issues that could easily be fixed, I've gradually come to learn that the early cars are different in huge ways. Entire systems in my car are completely different. My battery is completely different than the new cars, my panoramic roof that they can't seem to fit a seal to properly is completely different than the new cars, the AC compressor, suspension components, tire pressure monitoring system, even the LCD touch screen.

I stand by my assessment that the car is reliable in the sense that it doesn't break down and it hasn't. I'd drive it to New York tomorrow with no fear of anything breaking. Unfortunately, it's the rest of the first run components on an early production car that are breaking and now I'm dealing with obscure stuff like a seat belt. The car has been out of service for two weeks and I've already got two items added to the list for the next service visit.

Had I known just how different the early run cars are from the later cars I wouldn't have bought this. I haven't lost faith in Tesla. In fact, judging from the forums my car is an outlier for early run cars in terms of issues but more importantly, the newer cars don't really have any issues at all.

So I emailed the regional manager that helped get my car serviced a few weeks ago and just flat out told him I don't trust my car but I still love the brand. Then I showed him the thread on the lease deals, told him I couldn't find one and asked if he'd reach out and see if he had any luck finding one. If I can get into one of those lease specials I'll likely bite the bullet on that right now. Otherwise I'm going to sell this car and I'll wait for the price of an Autopilot 85kwh to come down to the same price (prob 6 months or so). Either way, it looks like my run with this car is coming to a close.

But I do want to say, issues or not, Tesla has bent over backwards to fix them and for a car that's number 5700 off of a startup company's production line, it's been fucking fantastic. It's by far the best car I've owned and that's a statement that stands on it's own but when you add in the fact that this is the company's first product and one of the first versions of that first product, I have to say that I'm dumbfounded by how much they got right. It's sheer genius. Even if they can't get my panoramic roof seal to stay in place. ;-)
 
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