Considering swapping my M3P for a Lotus Eletre. What will I miss?

[DJP31]

I love reading these threads which are littered with man maths and comparsions about the best way to combat depreciation etc etc. As we all know you can't beat depreciation only minimse the impact of it. The best way to do that, as my wife loves to tell me, is to keep the car until it becomes uneconomical to run . BORING and IMO life's too short to adopt that sort of attitude, providing you can afford to chop it in for a new/newer one. The affordability will be an individual calculation and based on where we individually see value for our money and what's important to us.

I've PCP'd more times than I've had hot dinners and only once (this time) leased. I've either not had or not been prepared to buy a new car outright, and PCP gave me the purchase/part ex option that leasing generally doesn't. In '20 I leased my current Model S as the total cost over the 4 years was £10k less than PCP'ing and I didn't see any prospect that the value would be £10k more than the balloon.

I looked at the Eletra and liked it, enjoyed the test drive and the golf clubs and trolley can be chucked in the boot like they can with the S. However, we all know what LOTUS stands for I didn't want to be a Beta guinea pig like I have been with Tesla for the last 7 yrs (FSD x 2 ). Lurking the Lotus FB group and a couple of forums sees mutliple posts detailing many of the issues expressed here and more.

I am still a glutton for some punishment though, and have a Polestar 4 on order, due sometime in August (highly unlikely). As for paying for it, I could buy it outright, but know I've never kept any car more than 4 years and the prospect of taking a huge hit doesn't appeal (and I can see the wife's steely gaze) so I'm PCP'ing with a twist. I'm going to make a "max partial settlement" which will leave only the balloon payment on finance, and thus save a huge chunk of the interest costs (APR 6.9%). I can't earn the equivalent amount without taking investment risk, and I'm not wishing to do that. This way I protect against the car being worth next to nothing but don't pay through the nose for the privilege. Of course it's just another way of getting the nice new shiny thing on the drive but you're a long time dead .

 

[FastLaneJB]

Just be aware that like in the Tesla, the range it shows in the dash is not based on your driving. It’s the WLTP range. If you are going off what it says in the energy consumption on a trip, that isn’t accurate in my experience either. I think it’s only counting the energy to turn the wheels but not other drains in the car. I did some maths on it a few times and the battery seems to drain somewhat quicker than what it should based on that chart.

If you are happy with the range though then all good. Above all else that was my biggest but near as we almost ran out of charge a couple of times despite being told we’d get to destination with say 20% left.

Most of the issues are software so they’ll hopefully sort them anyway sooner or later. We don’t have a lot of choice here sadly, Plaid Model S was my one want but wasn’t to be.

Just to add to this, someone else noticed this. This guy had a base Eletre so they get quite a bit more range than you'll get in an R. He also noticed that the consumption the car reports and what it really uses doesn't match.

I don't want to say they are lying, just there's no rule that says what's reported needs to be all the power draw of the car or just the power to drive the wheels and everything else isn't included. It seems like some of the Chinese brands don't include all the power required and Lotus is one of them.

I only repeat this so you are aware and don't end up disappointed. The range it shows on the drivers display is the WLTP, it's not based at all on how you drive it and trying to calculate the range from the energy graph is going to give you a number too high. It uses more power per mile than that is reporting.

In fact just saw a video from Tesla Bjorn testing a BYD and the figures the car claimed were lower than what Scan My Tesla was showing him. Whatcar have picked up on this as well as they've done some testing to see how accurate the displayed energy usage is vs what is really used. I have a feeling a few Chinese companies might be like this, potentially sharing tech and software in places. The claimed efficiency here is what the cars reported. Good to see Tesla is being completely honest and bang on the money.

 

[Billbrown1982]

I love reading these threads which are littered with man maths and comparsions about the best way to combat depreciation etc etc. As we all know you can't beat depreciation only minimse the impact of it. The best way to do that, as my wife loves to tell me, is to keep the car until it becomes uneconomical to run . BORING and IMO life's too short to adopt that sort of attitude, providing you can afford to chop it in for a new/newer one. The affordability will be an individual calculation and based on where we individually see value for our money and what's important to us.

I've PCP'd more times than I've had hot dinners and only once (this time) leased. I've either not had or not been prepared to buy a new car outright, and PCP gave me the purchase/part ex option that leasing generally doesn't. In '20 I leased my current Model S as the total cost over the 4 years was £10k less than PCP'ing and I didn't see any prospect that the value would be £10k more than the balloon.

I looked at the Eletra and liked it, enjoyed the test drive and the golf clubs and trolley can be chucked in the boot like they can with the S. However, we all know what LOTUS stands for I didn't want to be a Beta guinea pig like I have been with Tesla for the last 7 yrs (FSD x 2 ). Lurking the Lotus FB group and a couple of forums sees mutliple posts detailing many of the issues expressed here and more.

I am still a glutton for some punishment though, and have a Polestar 4 on order, due sometime in August (highly unlikely). As for paying for it, I could buy it outright, but know I've never kept any car more than 4 years and the prospect of taking a huge hit doesn't appeal (and I can see the wife's steely gaze) so I'm PCP'ing with a twist. I'm going to make a "max partial settlement" which will leave only the balloon payment on finance, and thus save a huge chunk of the interest costs (APR 6.9%). I can't earn the equivalent amount without taking investment risk, and I'm not wishing to do that. This way I protect against the car being worth next to nothing but don't pay through the nose for the privilege. Of course it's just another way of getting the nice new shiny thing on the drive but you're a long time dead .

I had my last cars on PCP and eventually felt like I was being hard done by, essentially starting from scratch every 3 or 4 years and not building up any equity.

So this time, I got my first Tesla, on finance and paid it off early.

Well that worked out great didnt it...

 

[Whyone]

.... As we all know you can't beat depreciation only minimse the impact of it. .....

You can 'beat' depreciation if you buy the right car at the right point in time.

My last two 'interesting' cars both appreciated.

My NSX (currently formally valued for insurance purposes at ~4x what I paid for it) was used as a daily driver for 5 years, commuting 50 miles a day in all weathers. Admittedly, it leads a less stressful existence these days.

 

[M3P_W8]

You start of with 3k down over 3 years
You assume that running costs will be equal over the next 3 years
You assume that your m3p will be worth -3k in the next 3 years
You assume that your 20k investment at whatever rate between now and then will make you some profit over the next 3 years.
You assume that your circumstances will not change in the next 3 years.

There is your man maths and nothing wrong with it if you are investing in yourself with a positive attitude

I had to go and Google 'man maths'! - Man Maths. The act of loosely guestimating whether a goal is achievable, often without fully thinking through the ramifications of achieving said goal

I'm not keeping my M3P for another 3 years. Maybe 1 more year at most if I don't take the plunge now with the Eletre. That's a given as I'm feeling ready for something new. So I'm not assuming anything about what it will be worth 3 years from now. I'm also not assuming anything about what I might or might not gain on the £20k investment I'll be able to make should I sell my M3P now and take the lease offer. That's just an opportunity if I decide to sell and then lease that I won't have if I buy another vehicle outright again.

I take note of the £2.5k extra running costs over 3 years for servicing and tyres for the Lotus Eletre. That would make the total cost over 3 years for leasing the Eletre £40k (based on Carwow offer) . That's 'just' £5.5k more expensive than my cost of owning my M3P for the same period (based on current Motorway estimate).

I probably should do the sums to estimate the additional electricity costs due to the Eletre's worse efficiency, but the vast majority of my charging is on the intelligent octopus overnight cheap rate and I don't do huge mileage so I would not expect it to be too significant. But then who knows what might happen to future electricity prices so that would just be a man maths calc too!

 

[M3P_W8]

Glad some of you guys have the finances to get a new car so often, I just wish I had the same cushion .

There are cars I can afford to buy.

There are other cars I can't afford to buy but I can afford to lease.

There are other cars I can neither afford to buy or lease.

 

[Js1977]

But then who knows what might happen to future electricity prices so that would just be a man maths calc too!

Invest in solar and batteries if you haven't already

 

[Foucault]

Only if you got in before Nov 2020. More or less anytime after that and you would be worse off.

View attachment 1058767

I don’t think that allows for the August 2022 three-for-one stock split

 

[gangzoom]

There are cars I can afford to buy.

There are other cars I can't afford to buy but I can afford to lease.

There are other cars I can neither afford to buy or lease.

Best things that's happened to me in recent years is losing interest in cars....



.....though finding interest in seeing if we can bring 'architecture' concepts on paper to real life has caused much more issues for the bank account than cars ever did .

 

[HenryT]

I don’t think that allows for the August 2022 three-for-one stock split

It does actually.

It had closed at $891 the day before the split and opened at $302 the next day.

Aug 25 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc's (TSLA.O), opens new tab shares closed 2% lower on Thursday as a three-for-one stock split announced by the world's most valuable automaker to woo retail investors came into effect.
The stock opened at $302 and closed at $296.07 as the split allowed investors to get two additional shares for each they owned as of Aug. 17. It had closed at $891.29 before the split on Wednesday.

Reuters

 

[FastLaneJB]

I had my last cars on PCP and eventually felt like I was being hard done by, essentially starting from scratch every 3 or 4 years and not building up any equity.

So this time, I got my first Tesla, on finance and paid it off early.

Well that worked out great didnt it...

You can never win with cars (Unless you can afford some super expensive, super rare model) I just enjoy them though so it's not just getting from A to B but also some memories. You get nothing for going on holiday either but we all still sink money into that as well.

 

[FastLaneJB]

You can 'beat' depreciation if you buy the right car at the right point in time.

My last two 'interesting' cars both appreciated.

My NSX (currently formally valued for insurance purposes at ~4x what I paid for it) was used as a daily driver for 5 years, commuting 50 miles a day in all weathers. Admittedly, it leads a less stressful existence these days.

Yes if you buy second hand, I just like a new car with the latest tech so get suckered into the new models.

 

[Whyone]

You can never win with cars (Unless you can afford some super expensive, super rare model) ....

Yes you have to slum it a pre-owned car, but it most certainly doesn't have to be super expensive.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Yes.you have to slum it a pre-owned car, but it most certainly doesn't have to be super expensive.

Ewww Might end up with a Swiss Tony type sales rep hand me down.

I'll see how I get on with my Highland longer term and what happens next year. Frankly the depreciation that I'll get on this is tiny compared to what I've had in the past plus I think it'll get handed to the misses afterwards so could be something we'll keep for 8 odd years. Unsure how I'll feel once the battery warranty runs out but also in tech terms it'll probably be the equivalent of a cassette stereo by then.

 

[M3P_W8]

Something I might miss if I take the plunge with the Lotus Eletre will be the 20+ years of no claims discount that I've built up (through not claiming, not through protecting).

Despite having this, I'm being quoted 3x times less for an Eletre S with the policy in my wife's name and me as a named driver, despite having zero no claims discount! £2.4k for me, £800 for my wife. For reference, the M3P insurance in my name with my wife as the named driver costs just short of £700.

 

[James-R10]

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Something I might miss if I take the plunge with the Lotus Eletre will be the 20+ years of no claims discount that I've built up (through not claiming, not through protecting).

Despite having this, I'm being quoted 3x times less for an Eletre S with the policy in my wife's name and me as a named driver, despite having zero no claims discount! £2.4k for me, £800 for my wife. For reference, the M3P insurance in my name with my wife as the named driver costs just short of £700.

lotus r was cheaper than our myp for me an the wife. We share car.

 

[FastLaneJB]

My Model 3 Long Range is cheaper than the Eletre R but not massively so. Think you'll find most use Admiral and I did also as at least when I got mine, had the best deals. Also not as man companies would insure one back then.

One other think to mention if you've never had a high end car and don't know if Lotus will fall into this but when I had my M760Li you couldn't trade it in at most places for another car. I had to find a specialist performance cars place to buy it.

 

[M3P_W8]

My Model 3 Long Range is cheaper than the Eletre R but not massively so. Think you'll find most use Admiral and I did also as at least when I got mine, had the best deals. Also not as man companies would insure one back then.

One other think to mention if you've never had a high end car and don't know if Lotus will fall into this but when I had my M760Li you couldn't trade it in at most places for another car. I had to find a specialist performance cars place to buy it.

That's the strange thing. I'm currently with Admiral for my M3P. If I edit the policy to swap for an Eletre S, they say they'll refund me £42! But I just can't get a sensible quote on any of the comparison sites with me as the policy holder. None of the usual suspects appear and instead I get £2k+ quotes from the likes of Gogirl and Insure2Drive who I've never heard of! Different story with my wife as the policy holder.

Thanks for the heads-up about the trade in, but if I take the plunge I'll be taking advantage of the very good lease rates on offer so that won't be an issue for me as I'll be handing it back in 3 years.

 

[FastLaneJB]

That's the strange thing. I'm currently with Admiral for my M3P. If I edit the policy to swap for an Eletre S, they say they'll refund me £42! But I just can't get a sensible quote on any of the comparison sites with me as the policy holder. None of the usual suspects appear and instead I get £2k+ quotes from the likes of Gogirl and Insure2Drive who I've never heard of! Different story with my wife as the policy holder.

Thanks for the heads-up about the trade in, but if I take the plunge I'll be taking advantage of the very good lease rates on offer so that won't be an issue for me as I'll be handing it back in 3 years.

Feels like maybe a sign from the gods about the car

Good luck though whichever way you decide to go.