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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3966 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 19, 2024

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Are Teslas any good? I need a new car soon and I’m thinking about getting a Tesla. What is autopilot like? Is listed range legit? Is maintenance a nightmare? How do they hold up to wear and tear? Will Elon throttle me if he finds out I’m short Tesla stock?

Tesla model 3 supply is piling up, so discounts should start coming through anytime now. If you're in a state/county with credits, then a Tesla model 3/Y ends up being pretty cheap for the car you're getting.

Is maintenance a nightmare

There is no maintenence unless you get into a lot of accidents. (I don't mean this passive aggressively, just a numbers thing. You know your stats). If you get into accdeints, then fixes are admittedly expensive.

How do they hold up to wear and tear?

Well enough. Teslas are known to have wierd manufacturing defects, but they're more often cosmetic than something that degrades over time.

If you are set on buying an EV, then I would recommend a Tesla purely for the charging network and the ease of availing credits. Every other EV is a pain in the ass to charge.

The model Y seems to strike the best balane of space, price, credits and convienence - https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/electric-cars-plug-in-hybrids-that-qualify-for-tax-credits-a7820795671/ . I am personally a small car guy and would buy a Mazda 3 turbo hatchback, but that's just me.

Will Elon throttle me if he finds out I’m short Tesla stock?

You probably meant this as a joke, but I'd be wary of buying a car from a tech company. What happens in X years when they shut the servers down that it wants to connect to? Or what happens if your account gets banned?

Tesla employees have been caught sharing videos from the cameras on the cars. That tells me that a) they can access whatever you can, and b) there isn't much stopping even individual employees screwing around with people's cars, neither in terms of IT security or company culture.

What happens in X years when they shut the servers down that it wants to connect to?

Or when they decide that actually, heated seats should be a subscription, and force-disables that feature remotely.

Or you get a software update to Autopilot, and then the weird intersection you've been driving through just fine for years all of a sudden stops being recognized, and now it tries to drive you into the barriers at 70 mph.

Tesla is not a [tech] company that prides itself on actually serving the customer.

The reason I decided I'm not going to get a Tesla was basically like this. They updated the UI in a software update so that the defrost function was no longer on the screen, but in a menu. I already thought that having a touchscreen instead of physical controls was a horrible idea, but I was barely willing to tolerate it if the UI didn't change. But since they are willing to just push out UI changes like that, I'm never going to buy a Tesla. It is flat out dangerous to have to stare at a screen (because they moved shit on you) while operating essential features of the car.

Oh yeah, and that's ignoring the fact that those software updates render the car undriveable while they install.

Just test drive one.

Important things to consider is how widespread the charger network is in your area, your ability to charge at home and/or at work and what you use the car for. The value of an electric car depends as much on those things as the car itself. It's probably a good idea to ask people around you who have electric cars how much or little of an issue this is.

I'm personally not a fan of Tesla due to design choices and lackluster build quality but it's much better for you to test it yourself than relying on online people to tell you what to think.

  • Autopilot is nice. You can't rely on it completely, but the latest versions are pretty excellent and would make long trips far, far more pleasant.
  • The range is "legit" in the summer. A new Tesla will frequently get very close to the advertised range. Temperature, elevation changes, and how heavy your foot is literally mean YMMV.
  • Maintenance is non-existent/easy, though getting parts is still annoying unless you're in one of four US metros. The one thing people forget and talk too little about, though, is that if you get a performance model with low-profile tires, you will rip through them. If you hit a pothole, the tire is done, and each tire is more than $250. They also wear insanely fast if you drive the car the way you should, IMO.

I assume someone else will be able to answer your specific questions better than me. My general impression is that with the federal tax credit they are fine. Especially as a second car for the household. Also, especially if you have garage parking where installing a charger will be easy. The tires are expensive, but it's more than offset by the cheaper fueling cost. People report mixed experiences with Autopilot, it's pretty good in easy conditions, but does get confused sometimes, with some notable crashes by drivers who overestimated its abilities. I guess Elon throttling you is fine, as long as he doesn't decide to have your car drive you into a jersey barrier.

If you travel a bunch of on business and are signed up for your companies preferred vendor rewards program, it should be doable to arrange for one as a rental on your next trip. I know people who regularly get offered a Tesla "upgrade", both on Hertz and Avis. You can also rent them at somewhat reasonable rates if you are flexible with the date and a little lucky, if you want an extended test drive.

I know people who regularly get offered a Tesla "upgrade", both on Hertz and Avis.

I noticed this while renting a car for a group trip recently, that it was cheaper to get the electric vehicles in comparable price ranges than the internal combustion engine vehicles. I can only imagine what unholy set of federal subsidies are encouraging this behavior from rental companies.

Maintenance is also much cheaper.

Maybe it’s down to maintenance?

How long does the conventional rental serve before getting sold off as a used car? I know when I was car shopping, you could pretty low-mileage examples which had that history.

The insurance for rentals has already got to be crazy, so I could see fuel/maint costs making the difference.

Rental companies don’t pay for fuel(that’s on the customer), but if electric cars really do take no maintenance, as is indicated upthread, that’s a pretty big cost saving- mechanics are paid by the job and fleet managers are almost never people who know anything about auto work, so rental companies get fleeced on maintenance costs. Same as how the conventional wisdom is not to have a woman go to the auto shop alone, but applied to an absentee landlord.

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