All my life I’ve been pragmatic. I’ve driven Toyotas and Hondas. I’ve never had a “nice” car, nor a fast car. Certainly not a beautiful car. My 2014 Prius Plug In was paid off.
My first car ever bought was VW Jetta in 2003 for $16,400 at 2% interest a year or so after I completed my bachelors. Before that I was on bicycle and public transport.
It has been a great car, but after 10-year mark around 2015 or so anything being held in place by adhesive glue started coming loose. The canopy cloth hangs loose now and the insulation from inside the AC ventilation ducts flew out in chunks over time. By 2016 I was thinking do I replace or find a way to repair the AC insulation and canopy etc. I still have it and it still works, just loose canopy and poor AC still.
Then comes the Tesla Model 3 announcement where the car would be $35,000. I had been interested in Tesla, but from a distance like I would view Porche or BMW or other luxury brands I considered out of reach or impractical and here was a car that looks like a Porche in the front with price of a high-trim Sedan. So I put in my reservation and decided to just hold on to my Jetta as long as it takes for the Model 3 to become available.
Of course it took over 2 1/2 years of waiting, and I did end up buying something for roughly $61,500 (Delivered - FTC) instead of the $35,000 I was expecting to spend, but it was paid for in full really by me buying Tesla stocks between 2016 after I put reservation and when I got it. This because the whole time I was waiting (adding more funds to stock like I am making monthly payments), the Tesla stock just grew very favorably, so come time to make full payment, I was able to sell, and the profits alone covered full cost of this premium luxury vehicle I expect to last me 10+ years.
I am very happy with Tesla car. It will be very hard for me to take any other car seriously without similar suite of features including being an EV with Supercharger network and the Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features. Also, there is no going back from the LTE connected large easy to use navigation screen that never has outdated maps. Being able to control things with voice or using large touch screen is too much better than using smartphone to provide navigation.
Note: While my Model 3 is my 2nd car ever, I have bought 3 different vehicles for my wife (Mazda 3 basic new, then KIA Sedona basic used when we had twins, then KIA Sedona 2015 highest trim new), so I wasn't completely out of loop on car technology improvements between my 2003 VW Jetta and 2018 Tesla Model 3. The Model 3 is still a huge jump ahead of anything else including anything else we have taken test drives on. I haven't put reservation yet, but I expect by time Model Y is available, we should be able to replace my wife KIA Sedona minivan with that. In meantime, I am going to try and save up for that eventual transaction. It is much costlier and riskier now to buy Tesla stock, but I still believe that the company hasn't peaked. As an owner I can see how rapidly the car I bought in September 2018 keeps improving every 2-3 weeks with software updates while the cost of ownership for new buyers keeps improving so I believe the future of Tesla is going to be lot more customers geeking out once they also get their hands on one.
