Thinking of selling

[Katic1972]

Thinking of selling my 21 blue white interior M3LR, just over 19,000 miles.

Decided at the ripe old age of 59 to retire myself from paid employment and don’t really need the Tesla, I will need a second car though for town journeys/ shops etc.

Seems crazy mind you when I’m the space of under three years I’ve basically chucked about £25k out the window. Twas it ever thus with new cars….

I was actually, when buying the car doing some man maths and half figured that we’d have a baby Tesla on the go by now but looks like that’s still a way off.

Not sure whether to hang on for a bit or just bite the bullet now and sell her on.

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.

An age old dilemma really. Just talking it out here by way of sorting my head out.

 

[Js1977]

You just have to think as to why you are taking early retirement because you must have a forward plan already. As for the car, It will be very good value for someone on the used market specially if you've looked after it

 

[UrbanSplash]

Have you had offers on it? Might be better to keep it longer.

 

[Katic1972]

Have you had offers on it? Might be better to keep it longer.

Not yet, just weighing up my next move really and keeping it a bit longer may well be the plan.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I decided to keep mine as I've effectively chucked 25k out the window in 2 years.

Depreciation is bad, but then I look around and what would I replace it with? If I can get 30k for a 2 year old LR MY and I wanted to leave the Tesla fold I'd be looking at 50k+ for a used Taycan Cross Turismo or 60K for a used BMW iX 50 which are the two I would consider at the moment. Both would be more refined and I feel better cars, but both are nearly double the money

There's nothing else around at 30k I'd prefer

And cheaper, people still rave about the i3 but its shorter range, smaller car etc and they're still 20k for a decent one and the extra 10k in my pocket isn;t going to be worth having.

I guess my thoughts are therefore simply what would you change to and is the extra money in your pocket worth it? Out of warranty is a bit of a concern but by the time your's is 4 years old (you have another year of warranty in case you thought is was only 3 years) it might be possible to extend the warranty again with Tesla for a couple of grand which is cheap compared to buying and selling unless you go for private sales

 

[HenryT]

If you've already paid the car off, then I'd hang onto it for the foreseeable as the running costs will be very little and the convenience of the Tesla network makes life easier than any other EV, assuming you aren't going back to the dark side..

If you were to replace it, what would you buy? Would you have to put money into a new car or just spend what you get for the Tesla - if so, why bother?

 

[SO16]

I’d drive it for as long as possible. Already took the hit.

 

[GlynG]

I retired in 2011 at almost 56, now 68, My M3P reached 4 years old on the 17th this month, like us all - we have lost a fair bit in depreciation - but only if you sell it. If the car is good why worry about what ifs? Warranty isn't the be all and end all - you still have all the protections of the Consumer Act if something big or expensive goes wrong - and all the time in the world to formulate your case in the small claims court.
Currently you are still within the bumper to bumper warranty cover and the biggie - the battery and drivetrain is covered for another 5 years in your case

However, You will still need a car but being retired you no longer have the worry that a car has to be absolutely dependable because all that work structure and regimes you had to follow when working has gone - you can please yourself when and what you do - so a car is a lot less critical.

You have the benefit of knowing everything that's happened to your car - and if its not been a Lemon then keep it, If you re- tax the car this month then in March 2025 you can renew again for another 12 months at the current free rate - so delaying road tax payments that come in in April 2025. The costs to run an EV if you can charge at home are a pretty big saving over an ICE vehicle.

Tesla are discussing raising their prices - cant recall what the figure was for USA but for Europe its 2000 Euro - and its on the back of some new big announcement - have they perhaps cracked FSD? If so - cars value is going to rise.

Of course a cheap ICE will provide you with a nice chunk of money from the Tesla sale, you will also have a car you can park anywhere and it matters not who dings it in the car parks - and with an older car and your very reduced mileage per year you can service every other year adopting the drive it till it stops mentality.

There are positives to keeping and to selling, for me - a nice car is worth keeping, its also a hobby for me keeping it meticulously detailed - car never gets dirty because being retired I don't go out on shitty weather days.

After having the Tesla I always see an ICE as a backwards step for my particular circumstances and apart from another Focus RS there isn't anything else i like except the Range Rover Velar - 2023 model with the two screens and stubby drive selector but bugger paying £700 a year for road tax for just maybe 2000 miles per year.

 

[Lord Farquad]

You’ve still got a year’s warranty and the battery/motors have significantly longer.

Unless the insurance cost is crippling you I’d stick with it.

As a run around it’s cheap to use and with the performance it’d be a wonderful thing to road trip and explore the UK and Europe in. What else are you going to do with your time?

 

[FastLaneJB]

Obviously slightly off topic but 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

Guess have to just lower living style I guess. Large pension pot, downsize house and live off beans on toast while keeping the heating off? How you doing it?

 

[init6]

Retired at 55. Started paying into a pension when I was 18. Hardly had a frugal lifestyle.

 

[Js1977]

Obviously slightly off topic but 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

Guess have to just lower living style I guess. Large pension pot, downsize house and live off beans on toast while keeping the heating off? How you doing it?

It's not that hard if you dont have a mortgage and car payments to make, made some investments such as solar etc to keep your costs further down etc and saved a bit of money along the way...

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Retired from full time employment at 52, although the private jet had to go. Looking at friends I think it’s due to no kids and no ex-wives, although at times I wish I’d both.

 

[FastLaneJB]

Retired from full time employment at 52, although the private jet had to go. Looking at friends I think it’s due to no kids and no ex-wives, although at times I wish I’d both.

Wow, thats impressive, no way I can see 52 being possible. Kids are expensive of course and have 2. Youngest is 17 next month so that means driving lessons, cheapish car and selling a kidney to pay for insurance…

Don’t have to answer as it’s kind of personal but how much do you think you need per year to be able to pull from savings / pension to make it work? Assuming as you say no mortgage and no car payments?

I’ll have to let the mega yacht go it seems, maybe I’ll be able to keep the submarine though.

 

[Dilly]

I retired 26 years ago at the age of 45. I’ve decided to stick with mine for now. It’s out of 4 year warranty on Tuesday.
I just hope an extended warranty reappears soon. I don’t like not having warranty these days.

I’ve not commuted for donkey’s years and there is only 12500 miles on the clock. It’s cheap as chips to run too.

If I can transfer FSD to a Highland, I’ll have one.

 

[FastLaneJB]

I retired 26 years ago at the age of 45. I’ve decided to stick with mine for now. It’s out of 4 year warranty on Tuesday.
I just hope an extended warranty reappears soon. I don’t like not having warranty these days.

I’ve not commuted for donkey’s years and there is only 12500 miles on the clock. It’s cheap as chips to run too.

If I can transfer FSD to a Highland, I’ll have one.

Geez. I’m 45 and no way I could retire at the moment.

Are you all ex hedge fund managers or something here?

 

[Dilly]

Geez. I’m 45 and no way I could retire at the moment.

Are you all ex hedge fund managers or something here?

Nope. Owned a newsagents for 10 years prior and did 16 hour days. No holidays or time off. Made some good investments.
It was long hard hours. Then one day we realised we had enough to live on.
My wife was only 40. She was dead chuffed.

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

 

[FastLaneJB]

Nope. Owned a newsagents for 10 years prior and did 16 hour days. No holidays or time off. Made some good investments.
It was long hard hours. Then one day we realised we had enough to live on.
My wife was only 40. She was dead chuffed.

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

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.

 

[zoomer0056]

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.

It's a 2021 car. So the general waranty is expired in a year (is that right, it's a 4 year general warranty?). The battery/drive train warranty is expired in 5 years (8 yr waranty). Warranty and what is expected to fail are, as you state, the things to consider. I plan on selling my 2022 MSLR when it's five years old. At that age the general waranty is expired, but the expected failures are easily payed out of pocket, even for a retiree. At five years there's plenty of time left on battery/drive train waranty. That has a value for a buyer, as battery and drive train failures are expensive. With an ICE car, you can replace or repair an entire engine in your backyard and even enjoy it. So you can keep an ICE car 'till it becomes a classic. Not possible with a car that gets energy from a battery. So the EV has to go before the battery craps out and while the car still has value.

I love my 2022 MSLR too, best car I've ever owned. But at five years, it has to go.

 

[trueblue_ips]

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.