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I was close to buying a used Tesla from Tesla, but this is making me pause. Am I being unreasonable? I live in the Bay Area where I feel like the only person
by newsoul2019 7y ago
I was close to buying a used Tesla from Tesla, but this is making me pause. Am I being unreasonable? I live in the Bay Area where I feel like the only person without a Tesla or two.
- Spooky23 7y agoI would only lease a Tesla. Why be stuck holding the bag if the proverbial shit hits the fan?
- YjSe2GMQ 7y agoWhat's the potential problem for a consumer? No battery replacements? Someone's gotta be making parts even if Tesla goes bust.
- semi-extrinsic 7y agoUnlike other car manufacturers who go bust (like Saab 7 years ago), Tesla has worked hard to limit third-parties from repairing their cars. So if they go bust, you have to hope that their service business gets spun out into a company that lives on, and that this company (which retains a monopoly) doesn't charge you ridiculous rates.
- newnewpdro 7y agoUnless I'm mistaken a major component of the Tesla value prop is the supercharger network. I presume "shit hits the fan" includes goodbye supercharger network. Furthermore, unless I'm again mistaken, a bunch of people are under the impression that they'll have unlimited free supercharger access for the life of the car.
- Spooky23 7y agoJust like with SaaS, when things go boom, you’re screwed. With Tesla, i would assume that in car features like autopilot would go poof, along with the proprietary chargers and spare part availability. Also, who knows what over the air maintenance is happening. With a lease, your liability is capped to the lease payments. With ownership, you can ride it down to zero.
- Cthulhu_ 7y agoI'm fairly sure cars have a required minimal / expected lifetime (especially in the EU), but I wouldn't be surprised if that's well earlier than the expected lifetime of their batteries. So far so good, I haven't heard any news about battery failure or used Tesla cars being worthless due to needing a battery replacement. Mind you that is likely to happen sooner rather than later, it's been nearly 10 years since the first Model S models appeared.
- sk5t 7y agoAFAIK Tesla hasn't been friendly to lease arrangements so far. Parts and repair has always been my concern there--other manufacturers have a good history of parts, a robust aftermarket, etc. Porsche's EV will be the one to watch in this regard.
- fossuser 7y agoPeople have been predicting failure for Tesla since the beginning. At each stage saying they’d fail and not be able to execute. Every time so far they’ve been wrong. I like my model 3 a lot so I’d recommend one - I don’t think the people speculating on Tesla are particularly good at it.
- robocat 7y agoThe question is, can we see how Tesla can get yearly earnings of say $5 billion to justify the valuation? Maintaining a high profit per car seems to depend on selling a premium product, or presuming that other car makers cannot compete. When shifting to the mass market (more than say 1 million vehicles per year), surely the profit per vehicle has to decrease sharply - even if Tesla can earn more than the industry $1k per vehicle (from the quote below). From 2017: "Recently, Tesla’s valuation surpassed both Ford’s and General Motors’. BMW is among the other major carmakers in the rearview mirror. The logic of this is intriguing, given that Ford, for example, is coming off its second-best year in its 112-year history, earning $4.6 billion while selling more than 5.5 million cars worldwide. General Motors earned $9.4 billion selling 9.8 million vehicles." From article: https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/6/26/15872468/tesla-gm-ford-valuation-justifying-disruption https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/6/26/15872468/tesla-gm...
- dd36 7y agoTSLA is the exact same position as AMZN a decade ago. They don’t need to make profits. They need to invest in assets and scale, which is exactly what they’re doing.
- oblio 7y agoAmazon basically never lost money (or at least not in a material way). That's different.
- dd36 7y agoIt's not different. Not even a little bit. TSLA has sold equity and debt to pay for assets to scale. It does not lose money on its sales. AMZN sold equity and debt to pay for assets to scale.
- base698 7y agoI bought a Model S last year and around the time of weedgate I decided the risk was too great and sold the car. It seems from the used market that the value has plummeted. The one I bought is easy $40k less just a year old. Repairs and parts availability is one of the biggest risks. Could easily see situations where a small fender bender causes a total loss.
- NotSammyHagar 7y agoa lot of cars rapidly depreciate in the first year. A model S losing almost half its value in a year or so is no incredible shock.
- sliken 7y agoEspecially now that the perf option used to cost twice as much (now the uprated brakes/wheels are part of the perf package). Now autopilot (not FSB) is included. Also the new motors mean 370 mile range is available with the 100 kwh battery. AP3/HW3 is also now shipping as standard. So yes the rapid progress means that the older cars depreciate quickly. This is only get worse with the next refresh rumored to be fairly soon.
- base698 7y agoLast year this time some of the same models selling for $40k in the used market were $80k. These were for some of the oldest cars in the pre-owned segment. The biggest hit to value came with the Tesla price lowering. Id expect a 20% loss but not 50%. Porsche and Lexus don't lose 50% the first year.
- NotSammyHagar 7y agoI have a 4 year old s85d. A year ago I got an offer to trade in for 50k from tesla. I bet the value went way down because My ~260 range is so much less than 370.
- tomcam 7y agoDon’t understand the downvotes? Not original poster so I hope I can bring this up.
- kylec 7y agoYou should watch the Rich Rebuilds series of videos about the problems he had buying a used Model X from Tesla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ro6kpKlw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ro6kpKlw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMTx_xFezM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMTx_xFezM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxSQuGeoug8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxSQuGeoug8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqwfha-BZ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqwfha-BZ8
- djaychela 7y agoYes, I've seen all these, and I'm staggered at how bad the used tesla experience seems to be. They can't even get simple basics right. Buying a used Tesla should be a simple, straightforward experience and run smoothly - after all, they are not cheap. I buy and sell cheap (sub £2000) cars on the side. I have a better customer experience than that. That is a damning indictment.
- tomcam 7y agoPlease tell me you have a YouTube channel. I would love to watch someone with your hobby. That sounds completely awesome.
- djaychela 7y agoI never set one up for doing that sort of thing - I wish I had done when I first thought of it (maybe 2009?), but I'm a bit lazy! There's now loads of people doing it, although they seem to just be rebuilding lamborghinis, etc... Mine would be a bit more mundane!
- newsoul2019 7y agoI had NOT seen these. I am a fan of Rich Rebuilds. Thank you. What a nightmare!