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Tesla P85 or 2013 Civic SI with forced induction?

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Owning an EV is a pretty life changing event--especially if it's a Tesla. I'm not sure that deciding to spend $100k on a car is a no brainer decision, though :)


I'm sure my mom would say it is a 'no brain' er decision.. a $20k car is good enough


keep an eye on used S' If they do an AWD version I am sure you'll see a few at decent prices in the next year or so. when the X is out there should be quite a few, sounds like in ~1 year or less you can really 'afford' one


..also my skis fit in my S better than they did in a Rav4 :tongue:
and I think you'll be way better off in an S than a civic in snow
 
What are you looking for?

It sounds like you already made your mind up on the P85.

Space for friends/stuff. Biking and other activities. Needs 4 doors and back seats. Needs performance. And good mpg. Its hard for any car to meet all of those. A major difference in spending 10k for upgrades and what 95k+ for a P85.
 
I just had to share my favorite quote from the 9thgencivic forum when presenting the same thread:

The Tesla is a money pit - you're not saving a single cent. Even hybrids today make little economic sense, the price of entry makes them far less economical than they might sound on paper. Stop with the silly tree hugging and get real... combustion engines today have come a long long ways from the early days.
 
I just had to share my favorite quote from the 9thgencivic forum when presenting the same thread:
The Tesla is a money pit - you're not saving a single cent. Even hybrids today make little economic sense, the price of entry makes them far less economical than they might sound on paper. Stop with the silly tree hugging and get real... combustion engines today have come a long long ways from the early days.
There's a modicum of truth to that - if you compare hybrid and non-hybrid versions of the same car, the hybrid often doesn't make economic sense.

As an example, base on the Civic Sedan is $19,180, highway MPG 36. Base on the Civic Hybrid is $25,425 for 47 MPG highway. Assuming $3.75/gal (it's a bit lower now in MA), it takes over 250,000 miles to break even:

Non-hybrid: 60,000 mi/36 MPG = 6944 gal * 3.75 = $26041 gas + $19180 = $45,222 gas+car
Hybrid: 60,000 mi/47 MPG = 5319 gal * 3.75 = $19947 gas + $25425 = $45,372 gas+car

You generally don't buy a hybrid for economic reasons only.

EDIT - I just went back to the civic thread (there was 1 reply when I looked) - it's getting amusing.
 
Posting the same thread on two forums was perhaps the most informative action I could have taken.

I mean, we are biased for sure, but holy crap! I am laughing so hard at the ignorance of the comments on that forum. I hope and trust you already know better. If there is anything they posted that you cannot see through, please ask for clarification. I don't want to go and create an account on their forums just to correct them because that is bad internet manners. But I really don't want you to make your decision off of some misinformation about the Tesla.

As someone who actually used to own a Civic (although, it was NOT an SI, so I didn't have all that performance) and a manual transmission to boot, I can honestly say I do NOT miss having a transmission. And you will likely beat just about anyone in a 1/4 mile just because they will not get the shifting exactly perfect... which is required in order to hit the advertised numbers. To add, the advertised numbers on the Tesla are also wrong, 4.2 seconds is actually a worst case scenario and most people get 4 seconds or slightly better.

I am drawn to this post in particular on the first page:
Your clueless and are reading too much print as far as the REAL tesla goes.
I didn't see a mention on your cons list of highly explosive super capacitors under your feet.that tend to blow up during a serious impact.or catch car on fire.

Or waiting list.
Or no dealer for warranty work.
Or many bugs still unfixed.
Or NOWHERE to buy parts from
Or regenerative brake maintenance.
Or finding someone to work on the maintenance portion of it in a timelyanner.

Or being strapped to a power cord for life.
Or having to plan out trips to make sure you have a hookup

Or high insurance

Or cost of disassembly when you need to replace the batt pack under your feet which require extensive labor that you can't do at home unless you want to kill yourself.

Am I missing something? Yes plenty but those are something elon forgot to mention to people

The fire issue has been talked about ad nauseum here on these forums and with the new underbody shielding is virtually a non-issue... unless you happen to be doing 100+ in a 25, crash through 6 objects and split the car in half, you should be fine... so uhhh, a little advice... don't do that! :p

waiting list... yeah that's true... technically that would also be true for any custom ordered car that you can't buy straight off the lot. There are ways around this, if you choose.

Dealer/Warranty - FUD, plain and simple. Tesla has proactively repaired many things on the car without you having to scream about it. Depending on where you live, they should have an SC near enough to you that you get a decent turn around. This is also quickly growing and is primarily what they are expanding their footprint on right now. So in 6mo to a year any worry you might have here will be gone.

bugs unfixed? I guess the guy would have to clarify what he is referring. There are minor, we will call them, gripes about the car, but no car is perfect. Most anything serious that people have faced you will not deal with because they are about to start their third year of production on this model.

Parts: true/untrue. If you want to fix the car yourself... true. If Tesla (or in the case of body repair, an authorized repair shop) is going to fix it, untrue. Hope this changes in the future but for now, it is tightly controlled.

regen break maintenance? Do they even realize how regen works? All that is done through the motor itself. This actually leads to LESS maintenance on your actual real breaks... you will get 100k+ miles on your breaks (which are some of the best breaks in the world)

timely maintenance? true/untrue: When you actually get your car in for service (which by the way, they come and pick the car up from your location and leave you with a loaner... Honda isn't a "luxury brand" so you are unlikely to get that kind of service) their average turn around time is 1 day. The true part is that because they have so few service centers right now, they are a bit overloaded and it can take a while for you to get an appointment for a non-major issue (like 1-2 months). This will of course also resolve itself over time.

strapped to power cord: you are currently strapped to gas... I and most others find this a pro, not a con.
planning your trips, anything along a main supercharger route requires almost no planning. As density improves this will be reduced further. In a few years, this will likely be a total non-issue. I also am assuming they will further improve the software of the car to assist here. But this is generally way over blown.

high insurance? depends on perspective. Compared to other 100k performance cars, most here have reported that the insurance is actually much lower. Going from my 08 civic to the Tesla S85 was only a double on the premium. I was paying 70$ a month and now pay 140$. I would say that is not a bad jump considering I went from a 16k car to a 96k car.

cost of disassembly? ummm yeah, I don't think most people have the electrical expertise to do this, but there are enthusiasts out there who are learning. Go check out some of the work that people have done with Roadsters outside of Tesla's control. This will shift as more people pick up these skills. I am sure some things will eventually become as common as "changing the oil" or "changing the breaks". That is what you get for being on the cutting edge of technology. I don't think you are going to have a ton of luck working on a Bugatti Veyron either without going to a specialist... not much difference here.

- - - Updated - - -

whoops, I missed that you actually replied to the guy I was griping about with those same corrections. Nevermind you are apparently pretty well informed :)

I do reiterate though that if anything seems confusing or misunderstood to please feel free to ask here, I am many others will not fluff the truth about the car. It is what it is and you either love it or don't (and most people love it!)
 
Not strictly true. An extreme commuter who could always use superchargers could make up the cost difference in 5-10 years. Also potential medical bills could be huge in a Civic.

Given the mileage I have put on my car (10.5k in 5 months) I would suggest that the savings is quite apparent even without getting a ton of "free miles". Pulling all the data from my paid for miles (note I have a solid 3K+ miles that were free) I come to a cost of $172.60 or $0.016 per mile. A 30MPG car (what my Civic got... I am sure a heavily modified SI would suck down the fuel quite hard... but I was pretend you always baby it) would have used 350 Gallons. Over that same 5 month period gas has averaged from 3.65 to 3.95 (and that is just Regular... not premium... for my city in the US) so we will take the middle value there of $3.80 coming to a cost of $1,330.00. So already I have realized a savings of $1,157.40.

If we chart this out over 8 years, I think this was the comparison we were attempting to make right? Let's be generous and assume all costs remain flat (this gives favor toward gas... not electric... and assumes again 30 MPG for the life of the car... that also drops over time) I come up with $3,313.92 assuming I continue to drive just as many miles, compared to $25,536 to drive the Civic for the same total distance. This gives a lifetime savings (I am assuming I ditch the car after 8 years) of $22,222.08

BTW: That will be putting 201,600 miles on the car over 8 years, and I have that battery warranty to cover me for that same time period... I feel pretty good about making the switch.

Also, an SI out of the box costs what? 25k? plus the 10k mods you plan to make would hit you at 35k. And I am not taking maintenance costs into account given you just blew your entire warranty... So the numbers really do start to come closer together in terms of real cost.
 
Also, an SI out of the box costs what? 25k? plus the 10k mods you plan to make would hit you at 35k. And I am not taking maintenance costs into account given you just blew your entire warranty... So the numbers really do start to come closer together in terms of real cost.
The only flaw I see in the logic is that he already owns the Civic - it's a sunk cost, so you can't factor the price of a new Civic into the equation. You can, however, certainly include its current value if he sold/traded it to acquire the Model S.
 
The only flaw I see in the logic is that he already owns the Civic - it's a sunk cost, so you can't factor the price of a new Civic into the equation. You can, however, certainly include its current value if he sold/traded it to acquire the Model S.

Good point, but at that point it is going to be value lost... So it might give credence toward keeping the car until Model 3. and with it also very likely being a bottom heavy car and smaller, it is likely to take corners EVEN BETTER than both the S and the Civic :D
 
The only flaw I see in the logic is that he already owns the Civic - it's a sunk cost, so you can't factor the price of a new Civic into the equation. You can, however, certainly include its current value if he sold/traded it to acquire the Model S.
Yes, and one scenario I'm considering is keeping the Civic SI to pass down to my fiancee. This would allow me to purchase either the Roadster or a new (2013+ model) Corvette and not worry about the 2 seats. If I kept the Civic SI, then I could handle some unreliability because I can always use the Civic SI in emergencies.

In the scenario of keeping the Civic SI, what do you all think - Corvette, Roadster, or Model S? I really need to hear from Roadster owners regarding its reliability and viability as a daily driver.