My reasons behind choosing a M3

[Adopado]

• Dealer experience ... a big deal for me. I had cars from most of the German manufacturers. Every time I had to go for a service, repair, etc I felt looked down upon. Just because my car is an A4 and not an A8? Just because I haven't already bought 7 BMWs from that one salesperson? I also considered the GLC and went to the dealership to discuss, wasn't even greated with a "hello", just "have you got an appointment?". In my opinion they are all snobby, I don't need that. If I can have a remote fix, or a drop off / pick up situation ... let's have it.

Ha ha! In the early 2000s Before BMW hived off the new Mini to it's own branding and dealerships they were dealt with through the BMW main dealer ... and my god did I feel like a second class citizen!

 

[Londonb]

Having owned both BMW and Mercedes cars in the past I can confirm that their dealerships that I dealt with didn't seem to be great in terms of customer service. Not sure why, either, and if I had to compare the two I'd say that our local Mercedes dealer is marginally worse than the BMW dealer. The latter got a bit better when the Mini came out, perhaps because the Mini attracts a "different" sort of customer.

One thing positive about Tesla is that I've always found the Service Centre staff to be great and very helpful. Only downside is that the car should never have needed to be returned to the SC several times to get things fixed that should have been put right before delivery, IMHO.

Ha ha! In the early 2000s Before BMW hived off the new Mini to it's own branding and dealerships they were dealt with through the BMW main dealer ... and my god did I feel like a second class citizen!

Just last week drove my Tesla into BMW services to pick up my X1 from an overpriced annual £500 service where nothing needed replacing except some fluids. Nearly remarked how their long term job prospects in jeopardy but held my tongue.

 

[atuk]

On your company fuel cost, you can only claim 4p per mile if its a company car and by your maths it will cost 5p (assuming per mile, my electricity cost is around 13p/kwh, I struggle to get 3 miles per kwh so would be about right) to charge at home, and much more if you supercharge or use other rapid chargers, so you're at least 1p down per mile driven for the company. Personally its not worth worrying about but it depends how tight your maths is

Everyone's experience of dealerships is different,. I've had good and bad at Audi, BMW, I've had willing people at Tesla but often let down by corporate attitude and chronic record keeping. There's nothing magical about the staff, most of them come form other brands of car, but when you're told the reason why your AP steering has started to throw you off the road every time you engage it is down to having a wheel alignment done 6k miles previously so its not covered by warranty you do start to question what's going on.

You are right with the 4p per mile. I was talking of charging at 5p per kwh.

In my Audi I do 43mpg, at a Diesel price of £1.23/l that's £0.13 per mile. At 5p per kwh, assuming an average consumption of 275wh/m, the cost is under 2p per mile. Assuming a 50/50 split between my home charging at 5p and supercharging at 24p, the cost per mile is still only around 4p. To get to the same £0,13 per mile on electricity, it would have to cost over £0.47 per kwh.

So to be safe, if I add a conservative 100% for calculation errors, home charging is 4p/m, mix is 8p/m, supercharging is 13.2p/m.

 

[Dilly]

Dilly said: ↑
How long before I can get new Tesla tomorrow on Amazon Prime...

Next day delivery if ordered before 9pm.

...just don’t leave it behind the wheelie bin

 

[Jagdipa]

You are right with the 4p per mile. I was talking of charging at 5p per kwh.

In my Audi I do 43mpg, at a Diesel price of £1.23/l that's £0.13 per mile. At 5p per kwh, assuming an average consumption of 275wh/m, the cost is under 2p per mile. Assuming a 50/50 split between my home charging at 5p and supercharging at 24p, the cost per mile is still only around 4p. To get to the same £0,13 per mile on electricity, it would have to cost over £0.47 per kwh.

So to be safe, if I add a conservative 100% for calculation errors, home charging is 4p/m, mix is 8p/m, supercharging is 13.2p/m.

I love this - everyone has their own spreadsheet

I have one comparing a new PHEV BMW 530e and the Tesla. The BMW was cheaper in the short term (no home charger, cheaper insurance), but more expensive in the long term (more expensive fuel and servicing). That was assuming constant petrol costs, which we know will answer happen.

 

[Mm2021]

My experience of dealerships in the last 2 years: couldn’t care less attitude from the sales people, enter the showroom and they all pretend to be busy, stand offish attitude. When one did try to talk to them they generally wanted to have the shortest possible conversation. Then the tension of knowing you had to haggle with these same people, try to squeeze a respectable deal, knowing still full well someone else only a few days ago would have got a better deal from them just because of timing or better negotiating skills etc. At the end of the day you still know they would have over charged you with dealership mark ups. I hated the experience.

I am so thankful to Tesla for making the buying process such a breath of fresh air and a total stress free experience. Even if there was a better EV in the future from another company, if I knew I had to be subjected to the same awful dealership experience I would still purchase a Tesla online. My only criticism of the Tesla show rooms I’ve been to pre Covid is that the staff there had no interest in showing off the car or jumping off their chairs to say hello- they acted like high schoolers on a weekend job- disinterested. That’s the only similarity these show rooms shared with the traditional dealerships but then I didn’t need to haggle with these people and the car speaks for itself.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Just last week drove my Tesla into BMW services to pick up my X1 from an overpriced annual £500 service where nothing needed replacing except some fluids. Nearly remarked how their long term job prospects in jeopardy but held my tongue.

This is the thing that must be seriously worrying car dealerships. Without the income from lots of expensive servicing, and with the rise of online sales for both new and used cars, the future for the traditional car dealership doesn't look too bright. I can't say that I'll mourn their passing, although I suspect that the higher end marques may well do better than the others, as there will still be people buying higher end Mercedes, Jaguars etc that will expect personal service (and will pay through the nose for it).

We've been looking at replacing my wife's Yaris Hybrid for the past couple of weeks, and it's been interesting to see how the process has changed, accelerated a fair bit by lockdown, I think. All the dealerships we've contacted have offered a "personal virtual viewing", which has, if anything, been easier to cope with than the usual BS sales pitch you get in a showroom. One big advantage of the virtual viewing is that it really puts you in control, as you're the one directing the sales person to show particular aspects of the car.

Notwithstanding the lockdown effects, I think we'll probably see a permanent shift away from the conventional car sales model. Can't happen too soon as far as my wife is concerned, as she really hates the car buying process, and it always ends up with me negotiating on her behalf. I'd far rather that cars were priced with fair, "this is the price you pay", prices, like Tesla do. We've been looking at a range of EV hatchbacks, all around the £30k to £40k list price range, and all can be had for at least £5k off the list price, if you take the time to shop around; some can be had for a lot more than that off list. It's a frankly daft system, that needs reform.

 

[browellm]

Out of interest, why are you all having kittens about going to dealerships? There are so many online buying resources now with discounts baked in, you never have to set foot in one other than for servicing. And don't forget, the cost of the wonderful Tesla sales experience is that you're paying full whack for your car every single time. That's OK at the moment because the residuals are holding up, but it might not always be so.

 

[Adopado]

Out of interest, why are you all having kittens about going to dealerships? There are so many online buying resources now with discounts baked in, you never have to set foot in one other than for servicing. And don't forget, the cost of the wonderful Tesla sales experience is that you're paying full whack for your car every single time. That's OK at the moment because the residuals are holding up, but it might not always be so.

Yes, my last ICE in 2013 was bought through an agent and delivered to my door ... and at a cheaper price than dealers would offer.

 

[browellm]

Indeed, something like Carwow is quite neat. You're playing them off against each other and you don't have a single interaction with them. Rampant capitalism in action.

Although props to Tesla for getting their sales model off the ground. The margins must be epic.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Yes, my last ICE in 2013 was bought through an agent and delivered to my door ... and at a cheaper price than dealers would offer.

I bought a Prius using Drive the Deal a few years ago. Got a price that was way under the best price the local Toyota dealer was prepared to accept. Daft thing was I bought the car from that same dealer, as they'd offered DtD the best price. Made for an interesting collection experience, paying the same chap that had refused to budge from the list price a heavily discounted price, with him knowing full well that I knew he'd tried to rip me off.

 

[Dilly]

I love this - everyone has their own spreadsheet

I have one comparing a new PHEV BMW 530e and the Tesla. The BMW was cheaper in the short term (no home charger, cheaper insurance), but more expensive in the long term (more expensive fuel and servicing). That was assuming constant petrol costs, which we know will answer happen.

Life before spreadsheets: spent my days fishing
Life after spreadsheets: I spend my days updating spreadsheets

 

[mrobins64495]

LR is a good all round choice. Best range driven carefully, discrete family car, eye watering acceleration!
I’ve had many petrol and diesel cars over the years. Went to hybrid, PHEV, EV and now on second EV.
I run mostly on solar power so dirt cheap to run. My 2076 miles to date has cost the princely sum of £3.62.

How has it only cost you 3.62? Based on my 10000 miles to date it’s cost me around £100 at 5p a kWh.

 

[HenryT]

I quite like some of the things Tesla have done with the used car sales. Offering a 12m/ 10k miles warranty (I appreciate of course it was much better when they offered 4 years on used cars), and in particular that the prices fall more or less daily. Makes for an interesting game of Russian roulette in terms of how long you dare wait before hitting 'buy'.

Less appealing is the fact they switch off free supercharging on MS cars and also disable free 'premium connection'. Also that in many cases you are buying 'sight unseen'.

 

[Neilio]

One thing that has surprised me about this thread is a few people think Tesla have great sound systems? Have I missed something. The "premium interior " sound system in my car is at best average.

 

[ACarneiro]

Horses for courses, I suppose.
I think it’s probably above average for a car and certainly excellent for most people.
You can always find an audiophile who thinks any system isn’t “quite right”.

 

[Drew57]

One thing that has surprised me about this thread is a few people think Tesla have great sound systems? Have I missed something. The "premium interior " sound system in my car is at best average.

In my opinion ‘Premium’ is very good when stationary or moving slowly, especially if playing FLAC files via USB.

However road noise has some of the cancellation properties of white noise, especially at speed. Attempting to mitigate via the equaliser in my car causes the subwoofer to overwhelm & results in panel vibration, noticeable at lower speeds.

Poor external sound insulation is the culprit, particularly the wheel arches.

 

[pdk42]

One thing that has surprised me about this thread is a few people think Tesla have great sound systems? Have I missed something. The "premium interior " sound system in my car is at best average.

I’ve had a lot of cars over my “career” and I can honestly say that the Tesla’s system is, by far, the best stock system I’ve had. I’m talking comparison with BMW’s Harmon Kardon and Audi’s Bose in particular.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

In my opinion ‘Premium’ is very good when stationary or moving slowly, especially if playing FLAC files via USB.

However road noise has some of the cancellation properties of white noise, especially at speed. Attempting to mitigate via the equaliser in my car causes the subwoofer to overwhelm & results in panel vibration, noticeable at lower speeds.

Poor external sound insulation is the culprit, particularly the wheel arches.

Definitely the above - high levels of noise from outside, both road and wind noise, mess up the sound a lot. The Model 3 really is pretty noisy inside.

 

[ACarneiro]

Will be interesting to see more of this active noise cancelling tech that’s supposedly coming to the refreshed S and X...