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The savings from daily driving a Cheapo car vs new Model 3 devaluation

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So, I guess this is PART 2 of the other popular thread I wrote about 6 months ago. Link here:
The savings from giving up your Tesla...

In this new predicament, I wanted to weigh out what would be better: Daily driving my Brand New Tesla Model 3 OR buying a Cheapo old car for this specific purpose??

Let me explain:
In case you didn't read the other thread, I bought a brand new Tesla Model 3 back in February. It is my 4th Tesla ever, since 2013, that I've been in and out of Teslas. My reasoning was to buy a cheapo old car to "save money", to see if I could save enough to be worth giving up my old Model 3 that I had until March of 2021. I bought a Model 3 in July of 2019, and it was great, but I had it under a car loan, and of course, the payment wasn't pretty. So, I thought about selling it a year and a half later to buy a $3000.00 2004 e46 BMW (since I am very familiar with those cars and can mostly fix them myself). Over the next year, I calculated how much it cost me to own an maintain and repair the cheapo BMW versus if I would have kept the Model 3. Turns out, I spent more on the cheapo than if I would have never sold the Tesla. So, that made me give up on the idea, and just re-buy the Model 3, which I did, in February of this year.

But now, the predicament. Now that I know it's definitely not worth it (ESPECIALLY with Gas Prices and Inflation) to go back to a Gasoline car. I 've had to daily drive my daughter to school, to and fro, every single day. We're just outside of the Bus Route range, and there's no other option where we live. Fortunately, I'm retired, and I can do that no problem, but after 5 months of doing it so far, there's something that's been on my mind - HOW MUCH AM I DEVALUING THE CAR PUTTING THAT MANY MILES ON IT???

I've tried to sell a Tesla back to the company at one point, and they do the "1 dollar per mile, +" rule. So, I have 3000 miles on the car already - 90% from the School driving - that's already at LEAST $3000.00 off of the value of the car.

At this rate, school starts back up in mid August - so, I'll be driving again, for another 4 months, putting probably another 3000-3500 miles on the car by the end of the year. I'm not happy about it, but I have to do it, I have no other choice. Unless....

...what if I bought another cheapo car, this time as a 2nd car instead of a replacement, but ONLY for the purpose of this school driving?

Say, I bought another $3000.00. In 1 year of daily driving, would this cost me LESS than daily driving the Model 3 and devaluing it because of the miles.

In my experience selling/buying used Teslas, Mileage is the #1 factor in determining value (aside from whether the car has any issues). Now, I'm NOT planning on selling this Model 3 anytime soon - or at all, in the future. This is my "forever car". But I also don't want to cause it the wear and tear of 5 years worth, in the first year of ownership.
If I bought a cheapo car, I wouldn't really buy anything for it, like wheels, tires, sound system, etc. I would literally only pay for it to drive and not leave me stranded on the highway. All other expense would only be from the fuel. And since I wouldn't be using the car for anything else other than the 25 daily miles, I don't think I would spend more than the aforementioned. So, 1 cheapo old car ONLY to daily drive to school - and for no other purpose; and my Model 3 for literally everything else, which isn't much. I stay home mostly, I get most things delivered, I have a gym at home, etc. I have very little reason to leave the house.

So, this thread is different because I have not actually crunched the numbers. It's more of a theoretical approach. But I believe, based on the other 3 Teslas I've sold, that I would be "saving" money by buying this cheapo car and putting the mileage on THAT car, instead of the brand new Model 3.

What do you think?
 
What kind of cheap old car?

If it is a BMW, it will likely be expensive, as you found out.

If it is a Toyota Corolla, maybe less so.

But would the extra cost of fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc. on an old Toyota Corolla (over the baseline cost of insurance, electricity, and maintenance on the Model 3) be lower than the added depreciation that 3,000 miles per year would cause on the Model 3?
 
What kind of cheap old car?

If it is a BMW, it will likely be expensive, as you found out.

If it is a Toyota Corolla, maybe less so.

But would the extra cost of fuel, insurance, maintenance, etc. on an old Toyota Corolla (over the baseline cost of insurance, electricity, and maintenance on the Model 3) be lower than the added depreciation that 3,000 miles per year would cause on the Model 3?
It doesn't really matter what kind of old car. Even if it's a BMW, like the other post, I am not going to spend anything on upgrades or big maintenance. I literally would only spend enough to have it run without leaving me on the freeway (like if the ac doesn't work, or if the radio doesn't work, whathaveyou.)

Would it be lower? - That's exactly the question of this post. I believe it would be. Fuel, you're talking about 25 miles - so, virtually 1 gallon of gas every day. I'm in Texas, so, that's almost 4.80 at the moment. Insurance - I'm old, and have perfect driving record, so, that would be an extra 5-10 bucks a month (if that. My model 3 insurance is already low enough).
Maintenance - as I said, I won't do anything that's not "major". Tires, I don't care if they're super low, as long as they're not on the brink of popping.
So, 100 bucks on gas a month. Plus 5 bucks insurance. And say 1 oil change at $50 bucks. For 4 months (after August). And say I pay $3000 for the car that's $3470. Whereas putting another, say 3500 miles on the Model 3 would bring it to 7000 miles. I don't like the sound of that, not for a "brand new car", less than 12 months old.

What do you think?
 
Whereas putting another, say 3500 miles on the Model 3 would bring it to 7000 miles. I don't like the sound of that, not for a "brand new car", less than 12 months old.

What do you think?
7,000 miles in a year is below average to begin with, so it is likely that the mileage effect on depreciation will be relatively small compared to the age effect on depreciation.

Besides, why have a nice new car if you are unwilling to drive it?
 
7,000 miles in a year is below average to begin with, so it is likely that the mileage effect on depreciation will be relatively small compared to the age effect on depreciation.

Besides, why have a nice new car if you are unwilling to drive it?
Well, as I was saying, if they go by the "1 dollar/mile", my "brand new" Model 3 will be worth $7000.00 just from this alone, before the first year of ownership is up - at least.

I'm not "unwilling to drive it". As I explained, this is a situation where if my kid's bus route was 1/2 mile longer, I would not have to put 7000 miles on the car AT ALL. So, this driving is virtually unnecessary on the Model 3, aside from the fact that it's necessary because of a technicality. If I didn't have to drive her, and she could take the bus, my Model 3 would have a total of about 600 miles on it so far - which is much closer to my ACTUAL driving.

Imagine if you bought, I dunno, a $2000. tuxedo, to wear at wedding, or something. You're taking into account that you probably won't wear it very much. But you come to find out that, because of an unexpected situation, you have to wear it EVERY DAY, for the next 4 months. If you found that out, you probably would want to wear something else, something much more expendable, for whatever event you have every single day for the next 4 months.

Actually, I'm going to disagree a bit with what you said. In my experience, Mileage has trumped Age of the car. I've seen some cars that are of the previous year, but with high mileage, because they use it for Uber or something - come down A LOT because of Mileage depreciation. Much much more than if the car was 5 years old, but had low miles. At least that's been my experience.
 
Actually, I'm going to disagree a bit with what you said. In my experience, Mileage has trumped Age of the car. I've seen some cars that are of the previous year, but with high mileage, because they use it for Uber or something - come down A LOT because of Mileage depreciation. Much much more than if the car was 5 years old, but had low miles. At least that's been my experience.
Yes, but that is a different scenario of higher than typical mileage for its age.

A ten year old car with 35,000 or 70,000 miles (instead of a more typical 120,000 miles) is still a ten year old car.
 
Yes, but that is a different scenario of higher than typical mileage for its age.

A ten year old car with 35,000 or 70,000 miles (instead of a more typical 120,000 miles) is still a ten year old car.
Definitely. You're right. I guess I'm looking too much into the immediate future, how much mileage would impact it. Which doesn't make much sense since I 'm not planning on selling the car any time soon, or at all.
A 5000 mile Model S, 2012 with a 40kwh battery has low mileage, but who wants that car?!.....Whereas a 57000 mile Model S performance, but 2020, is still selling at $94,000.

But again, if I can put all those "unnecessary miles" on an old car, for which I don't care about depreciation, I might still rather do that. If you were in that situation, and I were to gift you a cheapo old car, to drive those extra miles, would you drive the cheapo? Or would you not care, and put the extra miles on the Tesla?
 
But again, if I can put all those "unnecessary miles" on an old car, for which I don't care about depreciation, I might still rather do that. If you were in that situation, and I were to gift you a cheapo old car, to drive those extra miles, would you drive the cheapo? Or would you not care, and put the extra miles on the Tesla?
I would only use the cheap car when it is less desirable to drive the nice car (e.g. driving to park at a place where Teslas attract thieves who think that there are valuable things in them, but would not bother with a cheap car). Driving a kid to school (or school bus stop or whatever) seems like an obvious use case for the nice car (safer, cheaper (electric versus gasoline, less maintenance), nicer in most ways).
 
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No fumes in the garage alone keeps me away from any kind of gas vehicle or equipment. I think I breathe in enough carcinogens without adding to it myself! Plus, there's the health of your daughter. The younger you are the more time there is to affect things. Why in the world would you subject her to the vibration, noise, pollution, and just all the smells of an old car? Let her ride in the new one! That's why you bought it. Enjoy life!

Ps I've got well over 250k miles on my model s. Sure, it's worth pretty much nothing now. But I really enjoyed driving it!
 
Couldn’t agree more.. I was reading this thinking wtf? Why? Who would care this much? And if the cost is that big of a decision to you it sounds like you can’t afford a car period let alone a Tesla.. just take public transportation
Public transportation?! Did you look up where they live?

It's fine to try to find value.

But, personally, I think that you should extract as much use out of an EV as soon as you can, because manufacturers both want to control access to their software, and ditch older battery technology as soon as they can.
 
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So, I guess this is PART 2 of the other popular thread I wrote about 6 months ago. Link here:
The savings from giving up your Tesla...

In this new predicament, I wanted to weigh out what would be better: Daily driving my Brand New Tesla Model 3 OR buying a Cheapo old car for this specific purpose??

Let me explain:
In case you didn't read the other thread, I bought a brand new Tesla Model 3 back in February. It is my 4th Tesla ever, since 2013, that I've been in and out of Teslas. My reasoning was to buy a cheapo old car to "save money", to see if I could save enough to be worth giving up my old Model 3 that I had until March of 2021. I bought a Model 3 in July of 2019, and it was great, but I had it under a car loan, and of course, the payment wasn't pretty. So, I thought about selling it a year and a half later to buy a $3000.00 2004 e46 BMW (since I am very familiar with those cars and can mostly fix them myself). Over the next year, I calculated how much it cost me to own an maintain and repair the cheapo BMW versus if I would have kept the Model 3. Turns out, I spent more on the cheapo than if I would have never sold the Tesla. So, that made me give up on the idea, and just re-buy the Model 3, which I did, in February of this year.

But now, the predicament. Now that I know it's definitely not worth it (ESPECIALLY with Gas Prices and Inflation) to go back to a Gasoline car. I 've had to daily drive my daughter to school, to and fro, every single day. We're just outside of the Bus Route range, and there's no other option where we live. Fortunately, I'm retired, and I can do that no problem, but after 5 months of doing it so far, there's something that's been on my mind - HOW MUCH AM I DEVALUING THE CAR PUTTING THAT MANY MILES ON IT???

I've tried to sell a Tesla back to the company at one point, and they do the "1 dollar per mile, +" rule. So, I have 3000 miles on the car already - 90% from the School driving - that's already at LEAST $3000.00 off of the value of the car.

At this rate, school starts back up in mid August - so, I'll be driving again, for another 4 months, putting probably another 3000-3500 miles on the car by the end of the year. I'm not happy about it, but I have to do it, I have no other choice. Unless....

...what if I bought another cheapo car, this time as a 2nd car instead of a replacement, but ONLY for the purpose of this school driving?

Say, I bought another $3000.00. In 1 year of daily driving, would this cost me LESS than daily driving the Model 3 and devaluing it because of the miles.

In my experience selling/buying used Teslas, Mileage is the #1 factor in determining value (aside from whether the car has any issues). Now, I'm NOT planning on selling this Model 3 anytime soon - or at all, in the future. This is my "forever car". But I also don't want to cause it the wear and tear of 5 years worth, in the first year of ownership.
If I bought a cheapo car, I wouldn't really buy anything for it, like wheels, tires, sound system, etc. I would literally only pay for it to drive and not leave me stranded on the highway. All other expense would only be from the fuel. And since I wouldn't be using the car for anything else other than the 25 daily miles, I don't think I would spend more than the aforementioned. So, 1 cheapo old car ONLY to daily drive to school - and for no other purpose; and my Model 3 for literally everything else, which isn't much. I stay home mostly, I get most things delivered, I have a gym at home, etc. I have very little reason to leave the house.

So, this thread is different because I have not actually crunched the numbers. It's more of a theoretical approach. But I believe, based on the other 3 Teslas I've sold, that I would be "saving" money by buying this cheapo car and putting the mileage on THAT car, instead of the brand new Model 3.

What do you think?

I have 160,000 miles on my Model 3 and it definitely hasn't devalued by $160,000, or even $60,000, so the $1 per mile doesn't hold true if you're keeping the car long term. Kelly Blue Book suggests it's worth $26,000 private party (which seems low), resulting in depreciation of $0.25 per mile.

Cost per mile aside, wouldn't you want to drive your kid to school in the safest car made instead of some clapped-out beater? What value do you ascribe to safety?
 
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Ok, some posts are starting to take a rude and disrespectful turn. I would say if you don't see something valuable to get from this conversation, you are not required to engage. There's a point to this post.
But I will try to answer a bit of what I read so far:

1. I'm a finance/investor at heart. I usually don't buy or invest in something without taking into consideration the value thereof and how much of it will it retain, or how much it will appreciate over time. At times, I will buy something fully knowing it will hold no value, but I will also not lose much at all - however, it will accomplish something that would otherwise cause a higher cost in a different avenue of approach. Hence the question: "Does it cost more in the end, to buy an old beater for $2000 and drive it 25 miles a day, for a year? -than it would to drive a nice car and put the miles knowing the depreciation thereof??"
You can further understand this concept if you think of an extreme: Which will cost more - to drive an old $1000.00 94' Honda Civic, to work 50 miles a day? Or a Brand New $140,000 Model X - taking into consideration the depreciation from the mileage?

2. Sell your house and buy a new one? - As facetious as this is, it actually is something that I've been considering. I'm not too fond of the exact area I live in, but my loved ones are. But it is somewhat inconvenient, unless you drive everywhere, more often than not.

3. This is not necessarily about "maximizing savings." This post is about "what would eat up more money at the end of the day?" type of thing. And the roads leading to the house are not "walkable". There's no sidewalks, and also, the distance from the front door to the front door of her school is about 7 miles total. I'd be asking for my not-teenage-yet child to walk 14 miles every single day to school. That's not feasible or rational or responsible. Also, there's no public transportation where we live, unless I got her a taxi every single day.

4. I'm sure the "1$ per mile" is not absolute, and doesn't apply past a certain mileage/time of ownership. The last 3 times I've contacted Tesla to trade in my car, considering the car was relatively new-ish, they did their calculations, basing some of it on the 1$/1 mile formula. The point of it is to try to find the most, formulaically purposeful way to use cost/depreciation for this need to transport. Just like companies weigh that out: "does it cost more to ship this via boat or plane - speed vs cost", etc.

The overall concept of this post is relatively simple. Just like I suggested to the first poster, take the question: If I gave you an old beater, one that wouldn't cost you a lot/anything in maintenance, got 25ish MPG - and I gave it to you for free. And you had a job where it was 40 miles roundtrip, every day - and your Tesla (given you own one) was brand new - would you CHOOSE to drive the beater over the Tesla, to save on the depreciation? Or would you not care putting so many miles on the Tesla by this necessary driving?
Cost per mile aside, wouldn't you want to drive your kid to school in the safest car made instead of some clapped-out beater? What value do you ascribe to safety?
That's fair. But unfortunately, I'm of the mind that safety is subjective, depending on where you live and other drivers. You could be in the safest car, but there's still an idiot who could T-bone you and push you off a cliff. I trust my driving, and I drive very defensively. But I don't trust most other people around me. Especially on the roads I have to drive, which are all high speed semi-highways. But I do see myself buckling down with your point, and just saying "well, the Tesla is a lot safer and nicer - the depreciation is worth it."


Thanks for your posts.
 
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If I gave you an old beater, one that wouldn't cost you a lot/anything in maintenance, got 25ish MPG - and I gave it to you for free. And you had a job where it was 40 miles roundtrip, every day - and your Tesla (given you own one) was brand new - would you CHOOSE to drive the beater over the Tesla, to save on the depreciation? Or would you not care putting so many miles on the Tesla by this necessary driving?
The people willing to drive the old beater would be driving an old beater in reality and would not be posting here, because they would not be buying newish Teslas. Those choosing strictly from a cost standpoint would likely be choosing something that gets better than 25mpg and has lower maintenance and repair costs, like a Toyota Corolla or Yaris. I.e. they would do as you tried to do, but with an old car that is not a money pit like an old BMW.
 
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The people willing to drive the old beater would be driving an old beater in reality and would not be posting here, because they would not be buying newish Teslas. Those choosing strictly from a cost standpoint would likely be choosing something that gets better than 25mpg and has lower maintenance and repair costs, like a Toyota Corolla or Yaris. I.e. they would do as you tried to do, but with an old car that is not a money pit like an old BMW.
In my situation both me and my wife work from home so 90% of the time we only need one car and since we both like nice cars we decided to get a model Y and use it for majority of our needs. Depreciation from mileage is very tricky to calculate in todays car market as the model y I ordered in November today is already $9k more so even at $1 per mile I could technically do 9000 miles on it and still break even. So my plan is to use Tesla for majority of our needs and I have a second beater car that is only worth $2k at the moment but just like your plan it still runs ok. But the car is old and you never know when it will fail as just recently ABS module failed in mine which caused the car not to start 50% of the time randomly leaving you stranded occasionally and a new ABS module run me $1400 so not a cheap repair. But hopefully since I will be only using that car in rare situations when both me and my wife will be out in different areas at the same time I’m hoping it will last me another year or two. But reality is the more mileage you will put on that old beater the higher the chance it will fail completely sooner rather than later. So you have really no idea if that $3k investment will last you 3 months or 3 years.
 
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