Thinking of selling

[Krugerrand]

Love the car but I am a tad conflicted because let’s face it it’s a cheap runner really but don’t want an expensive out of warranty costs in my retirement.

What out of warranty costs are you expecting? Why are you expecting out of warranty costs? Has the car been particularly fragile, hexed, or otherwise?

Why wouldn’t you run the cheap runner car into the ground and then cross that bridge when you’re 65 or 70 or never?

Maybe the day comes when the car is fine but you can’t actually drive due to a myriad of human age related out of warranty ailments? I mean, we’ve all heard the stories of people retiring and then keeling over within months. See. I can play the what if game too.

I have the same car but a few years older, and with a lot more miles on it. It didn’t cause me issues in warranty and it didn’t suddenly cause me issues the day the warranty ticked over. Not that something couldn’t happen, but I’d think historical data and the odds are in your favor.

This new vehicle you’d buy as a replacement - how long does its warranty last? Hopefully you die before it runs out or you’ll have to rinse and repeat.

I’ve purchased used vehicles my entire life with the exception of two; one being the Tesla. So I have a lot of experience owning and maintaining vehicles out of warranty. Maybe I’ve just had a horseshoe stuck you know where, or I take better care of my vehicles than the average Joe, but I drove every vehicle a MINIMUM of 275,000 km, most went well over 300,000 km without the dreaded out of warranty boogeyman showing up. Here’s a plot twist, a few of these vehicles I sold to kids needing beater vehicles to get to and from school/work.

Given how my 3 is going along, already well out of warranty, I suspect it’ll be no different than all that came before. And honestly, I think it’s going to do a very good Timex impersonation when all is said and done and may set a new km record for me.

You do what you think is best for you, but be aware that the What If game leads nowhere sunny. People’s imaginations skew decisively negative when playing.

 

[init6]

That’s awesome, really well done.

Frankly wasn’t something I thought about much until I went past 40 and then wonder about it more. I enjoy my job so I’m not in a rush to retire, at the same time I don’t want to be working until retirement age so need to find a balance and way to do something sensible. Had been thinking 60 odd but maybe I’m not being aggressive enough.

Might want to take this to a separate thread, but you should put as much as you can into your pension as soon as you can. Bigger benefit obvs if you are a higher rate tax payer.
And pray every morning that Liz Truss doesn't make a comeback

 

[Dilly]

And pray every morning that Liz Truss doesn't make a comeback

What was she thinking…

 

[zoomer0056]

To be fair, we’ve done a bit of part time work here and there, but only things we enjoyed doing.

That's awesome! If only I knew then what I know now .....

 

[Katic1972]

Hi all. Thanks for the lively discussion. Food for thought for sure.

I don’t really expect any major out of warranty costs, apart from two separate warranty claims for seat buttons being kicked off, my car has been flawless from day 1. The point I think I was making is that being now retired I have a limited fixed income and as I’m just coming to terms with that I would prefer to avoid any unexpected bills, that’s all.

To explain a little further. I paid for the car part cash and part a zero percent Scottish government loan which I pay back at £300pm.

I also have a Mercedes v class that is used as a dog lugger and camping etc. this does have a car loan associated with it. My plan was to sell the Tesla and pay the merc car loan off and buy a used golf or an i3 as my second car. No point in paying off the zero percent loan.

So part of the thinking was, that as I didn’t need the long range abilities of the Tesla that I could sell her, reduce the payments out and just get a daily runner.

I didn’t go into that detail in my OP but as explained I’m just talking it out.

There’s no need to really sell though and I will miss her, and as ok as my financial position is to allow me to retire at 59, I doubt that in the future I’ll be able to purchase a new car as expensive again.

I retired with the benefit of 37 years working and three reasonable pensions. Won’t be that well off really but having attended the funerals of THREE school friends recently just decided to take the foot off the gas and enjoy my life a little rather than being constantly under pressure in a job that wasn’t really making me a better person.

With no mortgage, no debts and a fairly modest lifestyle I realised it was possible.

I might get massively bored of course and go back to work at some point but for now I really have had enough of all that crap.

Thanks for all the good advice. I’m in no rush to sell or do anything really

 

[init6]

Are you sure you can sell the car while the loan is still running? A quick google suggests that the loan becomes due if you are no longer the owner of the car. How they would know of course is perhaps another question.

Re Retirement. My only regret is not doing it sooner. You could be dead tomorrow (prob due to a failure to indicate or something )

 

[FastLaneJB]

No wonder depreciation is so terrible, consensus of opinion seems to be BEV cars are going to be practically worthless when hit 7/8 years old.

Even if they last long enough which I do think they will, a BEV in 7 - 8 years is probably going to have a much better battery, charge faster, go further and also as tech has become more important that also matters.

ICE cars had a model life of around 7 - 8 years before they'd tart them up with a new body style and ship another one that was like 2 - 5% better than the one that came before it. You weren't missing out that much to have an older car.

 

[Katic1972]

Are you sure you can sell the car while the loan is still running? A quick google suggests that the loan becomes due if you are no longer the owner of the car. How they would know of course is perhaps another question.

Re Retirement. My only regret is not doing it sooner. You could be dead tomorrow (prob due to a failure to indicate or something )

That’s a good point actually I best check but I can’t see how they’d police that. They have no title on the car.

Need to dig out the paperwork.

 

[zoomer0056]

You could be dead tomorrow

Spend it all today like there's no tomorrow. I prefer to live like tomorrow matters.

 

[Dilly]

Spend it all today like there's no tomorrow. I prefer to live like tomorrow matters.

As they say… you can’t take it with you!

 

[Drew57]

As they say… you can’t take it with you!

You must be my wife... spending willy-nilly, daily Dilly.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I will need a second car though for town journeys/ shops etc.

My view would be that changing cars has a depreciation hit and putting "that money aside" for warranty repair-risk would be better than actually changing cars. But that assumes that you really like the current car (i.e. keeping it preferable to "downsizing") - which looks like your situation?

how are you retiring so early? When I play with the pension slider on my work site I feel like I need to work until I’m 100
...
how much do you think you need per year to be able to pull from savings / pension to make it work?

My view would be:

Put in the maximum voluntary contributions when you are very young - need a time machine for that one, sorry!
Put yourself in a position where you can have a self administered pension
Transfer whatever pension you previously had into self administered pension (prob. when you are 55)
If you have your own business have the pension buy the property and have the pension charge the business the most outrageous rent that the revenue will allow

Kids are expensive of course and have 2. Youngest is 17 next month so that means driving lessons, cheapish car

I took the view they were better off in the safest car, rather than a cheap car, so that they survive whatever they are going to hit ... so you are probably going to buy them a Tesla too!. Save up for young-person insurance of THAT!

Might as well buy them a house whilst you are at it - so that they don't have to give away vast sums of money to usurious mortgage lenders ...

 

[Drew57]

Put yourself in a position where you can have a self administered pension
Transfer whatever pension you previously had into self administered pension (prob. when you are 55).

Yes, good advice and that's what I did when we sold the business. Paid off the mortgage early 40's and fully retired late 50's (may be different if you have a Defined Benefit Pension though).

 

[WannabeOwner]

may be different if you have a Defined Benefit Pension though

Indeed. I know someone that had a final salary pension, they worked there for 10 years (after Uni), then transferred their pension into Self Administered, when they turned 55, and that was a 7-figure sum ... (by only a few quid but even so ...)

 

[Whyone]

I decided to retire at 59 (kids all grown up, no debts...computer modelling geoscientist resolving hydrocarbon ownership disputes)....after 12 months found I was missing the work, but certainly not the company / office politics.

I now cherry-pick projects which interest me, working for people I like, mainly based at home, but will travel to countries I like, and earn double what I did as an employee, working 25% of the hours.

 

[Dilly]

You must be my wife... spending willy-nilly, daily Dilly.

My wife never spends money. …unless it was in my wallet

 

[aq42]

I'm 66. Due to a lucky break when I was 61, and the death of my surviving parent shortly before that, I was able to pay off the mortgage, and segue from full-time job to part-time job plus consultancy and now just the consultancy. I have three reasonable defined benefit pension schemes, two of which are underwritten by the government, plus some pension savings and investment income, I've taken one of the pensions (a quirk in the scheme rules left little choice) and, as the consultancy has dropped off a bit this year, my state pension. I do have two children still financially on my hands, one at university on a long course, and one currently in Year 12.

How does this relate to Tesla and cars? In the past, like others, I tended to buy three year old cars and run them until they were 7 or 8. I seem to do around 12k a year. In 2022 I was in a 2014 Leaf, but the winters were getting a bit problematic and I found myself needing to charge away from home rather more than I was comfortable with - find a working charger and then sit in the cold for 40 minutes isn't fun - so I decided that by the next winter I would have a different car. I was hoping to pick up an early Model 3 when they hit 3 years old in the middle of the year and came off the leases and PCPs, but then the prices went crazy high. I've avoided buying on finance, partly because I dislike paying interest, but mainly because I got made redundant in mid-career and came very close to losing everything - car payments might have pushed me over the edge.

I reasearched electric cars to death and came to the conclusion that a Tesla was the gold standard (not having Taycan money available!) So, I decided that rather than buy a three year old car nearing the end of warranty and with 20k on it, I'd bite the bullet and buy new.

[Strangely enough, we changed my wife's car last year. She has a CR-V. There was a new version last year. We got a run-out model new for only £5k more than a dealer-sold 3 year old.]

The Tesla depreciation has been disappointing, though at 15 months it's still very young. Nice as the Highland looks, I'm planning to keep it until it's at least 4 and then reassess. I don't know how long I'm going to stay doing consultancy - at the moment the money is good and I'm enjoying the work, and with a child still at school long holidays and globetrotting aren't on the agenda for now.

But, getting to the point, now I have what is essentially a guaranteed pension income, when the time comes to move the Tesla on I am very tempted by the idea of moving to leasing - a new car every 2 or 3 years for as long as I am able to keep driving.

[Unless, of course, Tesla will sell me a Robocar by then]

 

[Kandiru]

I had no illusions about depreciation and was happy to even get 35k USD from CarMax for my 2015 MS when I got the 2022 M3LR. I know my M3 will be good until 2030 when I will sell it before battery and drivetrain warranties run out. The boring penny pinchers all drive Lexus anyway.

 

[Nouvelle]

I'm thinking about trading for a cheaper EV every few years. A large chunk of the premium is the FSD hardware, and as it stands now it barely does as promised. I'd sell, get a cheaper EV, hold onto that for 5 or so years and see what Tesla is up to around that time. If they're still working on FSD/Robotaxi, buy another cheap EV, and continue the process.

 

[SO16]

I'm thinking about trading for a cheaper EV every few years. A large chunk of the premium is the FSD hardware, and as it stands now it barely does as promised. I'd sell, get a cheaper EV, hold onto that for 5 or so years and see what Tesla is up to around that time. If they're still working on FSD/Robotaxi, buy another cheap EV, and continue the process.

That hardware is not just meant for FSD.

Also meant for AP/TACC/safety/security.

Teslas are also the least stolen vehicles and ranked among the safest. To me, that’s worth something.