I had a mobile service technician tell me not to worry about the price drops b/c Teslas hold their value; not if they keep dropping the prices the way they do. I bought my Plaid when it was $130k and came out to $145k after everything. Put $20k down with a loan that was 2.39% through Logix. I go upside on my loan every time they drop the price just as I’m getting ahead. Upside down as of today. Luckily my insurance automatically includes 20% gap insurance just in case anything happens, but still pisses me off.
While I respect Elon, this is artificial depreciation caused by one person. I have never seen any other car manufacturer reduce their new price by over 30% in a year. You’ll see $5k, $10k, maybe even $15k (assuming $100k vehicle), but that’s usually to push out the old in order to bring in the new model year. And the new model year will always be priced higher. The difference between Tesla and other dealerships is that you can negotiate at other dealerships. If you don’t like the deal, you just go to another dealership or even go out of state. That’s what I did with my 2021 Ram 1500 Limited. I was able to get 14% below MSRP. Used value is 20% below what I bought it at, but it’s also a year older. Even if I purchased at MSRP, I’d be down about 30%. And it’s not even considered a luxury vehicle. While I don’t expect cars to appreciate in value, I also don’t expect them to depreciate so quickly the way my Plaid did. Yes, I’ve had fun with it, even with the 40mph vibration issue, but I don’t anticipate buying a new Tesla again. And they have the nerve to charge their existing Plaid owners $2700 for the upgraded brake pads and calipers that all new Plaids get. What rattles my cage the most is that I could get a new Plaid now, add the insanely expensive Track Package, and it would still be less than what I paid last May.
End rant.