I call Tesla pricing policy an inverse pyramid - it entices new buyers while alienating considerable percentage of previous ones. I've seen this happen to a few folks who could afford earlier Model S/X. They could afford the car but wanted to feel good about their purchases and they didn't due to how fast the value and uniqueness/rarity of their purchase went down. Those folks are waiting for the likes of Porsche/Audi to take their money to next; while performance/price may not be as good as Tesla the car would feel more luxury and more unique and they'd feel better about the purchase.
I miscalculated ... I wanted a fast sleeper car that would give me freedom to politely move through the traffic and have fun on twisty side roads and mountain roads. A car with few other cars on the road to match the performance. I projected my cost of ownership over 6-7-8 year I planned to own the car and ordered Model 3 Performance. I was pissed that Tesla forced me to pay $5K when I didn't want a $67K car without a modern cruise control so I got EAP.
Now 8 month later the same configuration I wanted is $16K less (I would have been happy with basic AP). So, the resale value of my 8 month old car is more where I saw it in 5 years or more. These $16K very considerably increase the amount I pay for tabs ($900/year in Seattle area) and insurance (my insurance company gives lower quotes for 2019 M3P compared to 2018, crazy, yeah?). This can easily amount to more than $1.5K additional over my expected term of ownership. Accounting on $7.5K-$2K bigger tax break than the current buyers are getting and $1.6K more tax I had to pay it is still roughly $13.5K more translated to the new car price. So, my projections of the cost of ownership were very considerably off. Performance wise the car feels much less unique as much higher percentage of Tesla buyers in Seattle area buy Model 3 Performance. Autopilot actually got less usable for me as, due to phantom breaking, I am more reluctant to engage it during my daily commute to work.
Am I sorry I got a Tesla? Somewhat. My other option was to spend less than 2/3 of price of my Model 3 to get a slightly used performance car and modify it to improve handling and performance to have 0-60 at 4s or slightly below. Compared to Model 3 Performance it would have less immediate torque and slightly slower 0-60 but would be more playful on twisty roads and in the snow. It would have held its value way better.
I miscalculated ... I wanted a fast sleeper car that would give me freedom to politely move through the traffic and have fun on twisty side roads and mountain roads. A car with few other cars on the road to match the performance. I projected my cost of ownership over 6-7-8 year I planned to own the car and ordered Model 3 Performance. I was pissed that Tesla forced me to pay $5K when I didn't want a $67K car without a modern cruise control so I got EAP.
Now 8 month later the same configuration I wanted is $16K less (I would have been happy with basic AP). So, the resale value of my 8 month old car is more where I saw it in 5 years or more. These $16K very considerably increase the amount I pay for tabs ($900/year in Seattle area) and insurance (my insurance company gives lower quotes for 2019 M3P compared to 2018, crazy, yeah?). This can easily amount to more than $1.5K additional over my expected term of ownership. Accounting on $7.5K-$2K bigger tax break than the current buyers are getting and $1.6K more tax I had to pay it is still roughly $13.5K more translated to the new car price. So, my projections of the cost of ownership were very considerably off. Performance wise the car feels much less unique as much higher percentage of Tesla buyers in Seattle area buy Model 3 Performance. Autopilot actually got less usable for me as, due to phantom breaking, I am more reluctant to engage it during my daily commute to work.
Am I sorry I got a Tesla? Somewhat. My other option was to spend less than 2/3 of price of my Model 3 to get a slightly used performance car and modify it to improve handling and performance to have 0-60 at 4s or slightly below. Compared to Model 3 Performance it would have less immediate torque and slightly slower 0-60 but would be more playful on twisty roads and in the snow. It would have held its value way better.