Am I being an idiot by not taking delivery before year end?

[tubaprde]

My situation is somewhat unique. I love my current p85d but the warranty expired last week. It’s been a pretty darn reliable car since I bot used 4 years ago and the battery seems strong.

I put a deposit on a brand new 2023 demo performance model 3 that I could have picked up yesterday (total off msrp was 10k, price was $55,450), but I backed out because my longer term goal is to save money to buy a house. I make enough money now that I won’t qualify for the $7500 off next year. I just felt that given my situation, I shouldn’t be buying a new car and saddling myself with $1000 car payments for 5 years. On the other hand!…, if the p85d starts to break down, it won’t take much before buying the new car makes better sense financially! Like if the battery goes for example, or the drivetrain and a couple other things.

At this point I think I still have time to take it off “final hold” and buy the new car, and sell the old

Thoughts? Thank you

 

[mongo]

Ugg, tough choice. Guaranteed $1k a month versus unknown $ at some point.
If you expect to replace the current car within the next few years, the difference is the intervening months without a car payment (and insurance) versus depreciation and potential repair of current car. The $7,500 discount is 7.5 months of payment offset.

You can live in your car, but you can't drive a house to work...

 

[VT_EE]

My situation is somewhat unique. I love my current p85d but the warranty expired last week. It’s been a pretty darn reliable car since I bot used 4 years ago and the battery seems strong.

I put a deposit on a brand new 2023 demo performance model 3 that I could have picked up yesterday (total off msrp was 10k, price was $55,450), but I backed out because my longer term goal is to save money to buy a house. I make enough money now that I won’t qualify for the $7500 off next year. I just felt that given my situation, I shouldn’t be buying a new car and saddling myself with $1000 car payments for 5 years. On the other hand!…, if the p85d starts to break down, it won’t take much before buying the new car makes better sense financially! Like if the battery goes for example, or the drivetrain and a couple other things.

At this point I think I still have time to take it off “final hold” and buy the new car, and sell the old

Thoughts? Thank you

I would have definitely taken the vehicle for $10k off given your existing P85 is one of Tesla's early models with a high likelihood of needing expensive service in the future.

 

[tubaprde]

I would have definitely taken the vehicle for $10k off given your existing P85 is one of Tesla's early models with a high likelihood of needing expensive service in the future.

Well it’s a p85d late 2014 build, which from what I’ve read, they worked out a lot of the issues. It’s got 83k miles and I drive only 10k/year

 

[ElectricIAC]

Keep your money ready to buy home as market normalizes.

 

[mtmra70]

If you are trying to save for a house (smart choice) then you should certainly not be saddling yourself with 5 years of $1,000 payments.

 

[tubaprde]

Ugg, tough choice. Guaranteed $1k a month versus unknown $ at some point.
If you expect to replace the current car within the next few years, the difference is the intervening months without a car payment (and insurance) versus depreciation and potential repair of current car. The $7,500 discount is 7.5 months of payment offset.

You can live in your car, but you can't drive a house to work...

Interesting point about depreciation…. One could argue the old perf model S will have worse depreciation over the next 4 years vs the new perf model 3, especially as the new car will likely not qualify for the $7500 discount next year as it’s too expensive. Ugh this mental gymnastics is making my head hurt lol. The really smart thing to do would be sell the S, take the 23k cash and buy a new Chevy bolt outright lol.

 

[mongo]

Interesting point about depreciation…. One could argue the old perf model S will have worse depreciation over the next 4 years vs the new perf model 3, especially as the new car will likely not qualify for the $7500 discount next year as it’s too expensive. Ugh this mental gymnastics is making my head hurt lol. The really smart thing to do would be sell the S, take the 23k cash and buy a new Chevy bolt outright lol.

S will depreciate, but only has $23k to go max. 3 may fair better due to inital discount.
Could also sell the S and buy a used something and invest the difference.

 

[tubaprde]

S will depreciate, but only has $23k to go max. 3 may fair better due to inital discount.
Could also sell the S and buy a used something and invest the difference.

Sorry I should have been more clear- I owe 19k, I expect to sell it for 42k currently, so it has 42k to drop + whatever it costs to fix what breaks which could be huge

 

[mongo]

Sorry I should have been more clear- I owe 19k, I expect to sell it for 42k currently, so it had 42k to drop

Ohhhhh....
If you currently have payments anyway (1 or 2 years to go?), get the new car. 19k is 19 months of payments on the 3. 10k off is 10 month equivalent.
Warranty peace of mind is priceless.

 

[tubaprde]

Ohhhhh....
If you currently have payments anyway (1 or 2 years to go?), get the new car. 19k is 19 months of payments on the 3. 10k off is 10 month equivalent.
Warranty peace of mind is priceless.

Interesting way to think about it thanks

 

[TesslaBull]

Buying an expensive brand new car is *never* the financially optimal choice. It will always be an expensive splurge, period. If you want to be financially prudent, keep your car. It might go five more years with negligible maintenance. No way you will spend $1,000 month in additional maintenance cost compared to a new car over those five years. Even if you spend $15,000 total including a brand new battery, that's only $250/month averaged over 5 years and you have a perfectly good EV with a brand new battery! Or you could just need a couple of cabin air filters, tires, and wipers.

Broke people think in terms of monthly payments. Think in terms of total cost.

I was deciding between financially optimal or wasting a bunch of money on an expensive luxury splurge. I could have purchased a 2021 Hyundai Ionic PHEV with 30 miles of daily EV commuting range, 60 mpg long range for under $25k plus a $4k tax credit AND the factory 10 year warranty! Instead, I chose to splurge an extra $40k on a 2023 M3 LR AWD. But I'm fully aware that it was not a financially optimal purchase by any stretch of the imagination. I'm also aware I lost the opportunity to invest an additional $40k into the market which makes me little bit sad. At least I didn't fleece. And it could be worse, I could have purchase a $60-$80k Super Duty clown truck with 12 mpg haha.

@tubaprde here's an idea. Since you are trying to focus on a more important goal of saving for a house, do something special with your current car. Take it to the best car detailer in town and have it detailed. Get the windows tinted. Have some really nice custom molded all weather floor mats installed. Pay for an acceleration boost software upgrade. Maybe this will give you the warm and fuzzies similar to a new car but for a very small fraction of the cost!

 

[mongo]

Buying an expensive brand new car is *never* the financially optimal choice. It will always be an expensive splurge, period. If you want to be financially prudent, keep your car. It might go five more years with negligible maintenance. No way you will spend $1,000 month in additional maintenance cost compared to a new car over those five years. Even if you spend $15,000 total including a brand new battery, that's only $250/month averaged over 5 years and you have a perfectly good EV with a brand new battery! Or you could just need a couple of cabin air filters, tires, and wipers.

Broke people think in terms of monthly payments. Think in terms of total cost.

I was deciding between financially optimal or wasting a bunch of money on an expensive luxury splurge. I could have purchased a 2021 Hyundai Ionic PHEV with 30 miles of daily EV commuting range, 60 mpg long range for under $25k plus a $4k tax credit AND the factory 10 year warranty! Instead, I chose to splurge an extra $40k on a 2023 M3 LR AWD. But I'm fully aware that it was not a financially optimal purchase by any stretch of the imagination. I'm also aware I lost the opportunity to invest an additional $40k into the market which makes me little bit sad. At least I didn't fleece. And it could be worse, I could have purchase a $60-$80k Super Duty clown truck with 12 mpg haha.

@tubaprde here's an idea. Since you are trying to focus on a more important goal of saving for a house, do something special with your current car. Take it to the best car detailer in town and have it detailed. Get the windows tinted. Have some really nice custom molded all weather floor mats installed. Pay for an acceleration boost software upgrade. Maybe this will give you the warm and fuzzies similar to a new car but for a very small fraction of the cost!

Good thoughts.

Counterpoint: battery dies sooner, no cash on hand to replace it, and still making payments.

 

[anniebuttnanni]

My situation is somewhat unique. I love my current p85d but the warranty expired last week. It’s been a pretty darn reliable car since I bot used 4 years ago and the battery seems strong.

I put a deposit on a brand new 2023 demo performance model 3 that I could have picked up yesterday (total off msrp was 10k, price was $55,450), but I backed out because my longer term goal is to save money to buy a house. I make enough money now that I won’t qualify for the $7500 off next year. I just felt that given my situation, I shouldn’t be buying a new car and saddling myself with $1000 car payments for 5 years. On the other hand!…, if the p85d starts to break down, it won’t take much before buying the new car makes better sense financially! Like if the battery goes for example, or the drivetrain and a couple other things.

At this point I think I still have time to take it off “final hold” and buy the new car, and sell the old

Thoughts? Thank you

Going thru a tesla nightmare trying to help my aunt. Her Model 3 shuts down in traffic and randomly accelerates. Her touchscreen shows things not actually happening. It has 1800 miles on it. It is unsafe to drive. All the tesla service center can say is that she is at fault. She must have removed her seat belt (not!) or left the driver seat while the car was in motion (again, not). They just shrug at the touchscreen issues. I wouldn't buy a Tesla at all.

 

[VT_EE]

Good thoughts.

Counterpoint: battery dies sooner, no cash on hand to replace it, and still making payments.

The 10-year old battery is what I would be worried about. The newer batteries should last longer than the original Teslas version on the P85D.

 

[VT_EE]

Going thru a tesla nightmare trying to help my aunt. Her Model 3 shuts down in traffic and randomly accelerates. Her touchscreen shows things not actually happening. It has 1800 miles on it. It is unsafe to drive. All the tesla service center can say is that she is at fault. She must have removed her seat belt (not!) or left the driver seat while the car was in motion (again, not). They just shrug at the touchscreen issues. I wouldn't buy a Tesla at all.

Time to install a camera in the vehicle to capture this bizarre behavior. Once there is evidence, you can submit it to the NTSB as well as Tesla.

 

[tubaprde]

Good thoughts.

Counterpoint: battery dies sooner, no cash on hand to replace it, and still making payments.

So in my case I do have cash on hand, however, in my mind I’d be throwing 20k at an 8 year old car with 100,000 miles. Just doesn’t feel right

 

[tubaprde]

Going thru a tesla nightmare trying to help my aunt. Her Model 3 shuts down in traffic and randomly accelerates. Her touchscreen shows things not actually happening. It has 1800 miles on it. It is unsafe to drive. All the tesla service center can say is that she is at fault. She must have removed her seat belt (not!) or left the driver seat while the car was in motion (again, not). They just shrug at the touchscreen issues. I wouldn't buy a Tesla at all.

Jeez, Was this happening with AP on or off?

 

[TesslaBull]

Good thoughts.

Counterpoint: battery dies sooner, no cash on hand to replace it, and still making payments.

We are *sort of* getting a bit off topic here, but IMO, no one should be financing a $50k car if they don't have 3-6 months of cash emergency fund savings. I don't think there are many 4-5 year old Tesla's with complete battery failures...this seems like an extremely low likelihood event that I wouldn't be basing decisions on. I haven't researched that, just making an assumption that we are close to a 0% chance of that happening.

Assuming one has adequate emergency savings before buying an expensive luxury vehicle, I'd stick with current vehicle for OP's situation and focus on saving down payment for the house if both can't be achieved simultaneously.

 

[anniebuttnanni]

Jeez, Was this happening with AP on or off?

Off