Jason Bloomberg
Member
You're missing the point. When you say "the repair exceeds the value of the car", you are being inaccurate. It was the upgrade which was discretionary, not necessity that cost $22k for a trade in value with a damaged battery vehicle where an offer from Tesla was given at $17k.A quick Google suggests somewhere in the $200-300 range.
There was the option of us just not doing any hard acceleration at < 50% SOC. Cost? No dollars, but missing out on fun other than above 50% SOC.
Alternatively, I could have driven the car to Gruber Motors and had them do their lock out of bad cells for about $5k. Who knows what they would charge to replace bad cells? Certainly less than what we paid. We also could have had a remanufactured 85kWh battery with the same characteristics as our original with a 1 year warranty, installed for about $16k. Any of these options would restore the vehicle "market value" (if we wanted to sell it) to ~$30k (it is a Signature Red P85 with carbon fiber trim and every option other than rear facing jump seats, offered at the time).
Instead, we chose to UPGRADE for $22k and get:
Much faster charging, longer range, more sustained acceleration (power), and a 4 year / 50,000 mile warranty covering parts and labor. The new battery with warranty raises the market value beyond what it was with the original battery under ideal conditions. I'm not going to put an amount to it because upgrading a car, like upgrading a house, should be done primarily for one's own enjoyment rather than fantasies about market values. There are better ways to invest money (which we have done).
Be as churlish as you desire, but don't conflate your curmudgeonly condescension for anything objective. Like most things pertaining to expensive cars, value is largely subjective, in keeping, selling, or buying such vehicles.