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What to buy for work car with company paying $650/mo+"gas"

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S

SeaNile

Member
May 27, 2019
119
111
Chadds Ford, PA
#1
I drive a lot for work, easily 16-20k miles a year with my company reimbursing $650/mo+ gas expenses. Maintenance, repairs, upkeep and insurance is all my responsibility. Auto must be less than 5yrs old to quality.

So, do I look for a 17/18 Explorer, certified with 7yr/100k warranty for 30k-ish and stick to the 650/mo? Maybe an Evoque or some other 2-3yr old SUV and stay around that 30k budget or just suck it up and get the Y?

The Y would be more money obviously but it would be new and ideally I wouldn't be looking for another car in 2 years to stay under the 5yr old rule.

I'm in the Philadelphia suburbs, driving to all the suburbs, into the city and out to Reading and Lehigh Valley. I'm nervous about the range but there are plenty of chargers in my general area.

The new battery is something else I am very interested in since it will hopefully provide a little more range.
 
#2
I guess with that mileage a lease is out of the question? That would solve the 5 year old problem, but not sure on the costs. A base LR AWD with no options and $0 down is $1381 due at signing (for me when I checked) for a 3 year lease with 15k miles/year was $686/month.
 
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#3
If you want the Y, I would go that route. Mine is also a company reimbursed vehicle and it works perfectly for me. Most of the time I don't travel very far, but when I do it can be up to 400miles at a time. I'm just prepared to supercharge when needed. If you buy the Y, your company will be paying $39,000 of that over 5 years. LR AWD Y is currently showing as $49,990 on the website. That leaves you on the hook for a tick under $11,000. Sounds like a deal to me! You can sell and upgrade in 5 years as needed. Since they also pay for charging, you could invest in solar for your home, charge overnight and back charge those "fuel" costs, leaving you with a nicely supplemented home solar system.

FWIW - I also shopped a '20 Explorer, '20 Palisade, '20 Mazda CX-9 and '20 Volvo XC90. All fantastic cars BTW, it's hard to find one nowadays that is not. But in the end, I wanted the Y and I would not have been entirely satisfied with anything else, so I jumped in. No regrets...so far...Ha
 
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#4
And perhaps your "gas" could help offset the extra costs? If 18K miles per year, and assuming 30 MPG, then that is 600 gallons of gas. Avg price of gas in your area is $2.50 for unleaded, $3 for premium? So gas will be $1500 to $1800 per year. Deduct your charging costs and your should have extra funds to help offset, if they will allow you to do that.

Update: But if more than 15K miles per year then put some $$$ aside for the surcharge. Probably better off buying if going over the lease amount.
 
#5
A new Model Y with no extra cost options would be $51,190 or around $54,500 including sales tax, title, registration, etc. If you finance for 5 years at 2.49% APR (Tesla default rate), you'd need to put down around $18k to get the payment below $650/month. You could also put less down and pay the difference each month instead.

As far as the Ford goes, I think a Ford Edge would be a lot closer in size to the Model Y than the Explorer. A new 2020 Ford Edge AWD can probably be had for as little as $30k + tax, title, etc. and therefore easily under $650/month without any down payment.

Since your company is paying for gas, there is really no advantage to the Tesla as far as fuel savings so it really comes down to which vehicle you like more and how much or little you are willing to pay out of pocket.
 
#7
With driving 16-20,000 miles per years, the standard Autopilot will make your time on the road so much better. In stop and go traffic or on long boring highway runs, it will be welcome.
The new battery, with it's longer range and quicker charging would certainly be a plus.
Instead of leasing, I would buy the car personally, and pocket the reimbursement. Maybe they would be willing to kick in an extra $100 month as the company would be saving on gas as well.
Your maintenance costs and hassles probably much less with the Tesla as well.
 
#8
SeaNile said:
I drive a lot for work, easily 16-20k miles a year with my company reimbursing $650/mo+ gas expenses. Maintenance, repairs, upkeep and insurance is all my responsibility. Auto must be less than 5yrs old to quality.

So, do I look for a 17/18 Explorer, certified with 7yr/100k warranty for 30k-ish and stick to the 650/mo? Maybe an Evoque or some other 2-3yr old SUV and stay around that 30k budget or just suck it up and get the Y?

The Y would be more money obviously but it would be new and ideally I wouldn't be looking for another car in 2 years to stay under the 5yr old rule.

I'm in the Philadelphia suburbs, driving to all the suburbs, into the city and out to Reading and Lehigh Valley. I'm nervous about the range but there are plenty of chargers in my general area.

The new battery is something else I am very interested in since it will hopefully provide a little more range.
Click to expand...
Don't forget to factor the rebates from California and the HOV access you wouldn't get with the ICE vehicles.
 
#11
toshman said:
How would you calculate your Gas expenses ?
Click to expand...

I'd suck it up and pay it on my own. Unless there is a place I charge that will give me a receipt. Otherwise I am SOL for the charging expenses and would consider it part of the personal expense of owning the Y.

As a previous post mentioned, look at it as owning the Y for x-650 per month. In the end i'm thinking it'll be about 150-200 out of pocket to finance the Y in addition to the at home charging cost.

I've wanted a Y for a long time and maybe this is the push i needed!
 
#16
SeaNile said:
Test drive scheduled for Friday. Can't wait!
Click to expand...

it will be your undoing. One stab of the accelerator and my wife and I were sold. The car sold itself before we made it a block from the test drive location. I just picked up my LR yesterday. A few hours ago I drove it on the freeway and did some 60-80 runs and... nothing else like it. Then I paid for the $2k performance upgrade since I have 48 hours to get a refund. Not only was the 0-60 launch way more dramatic, but the 60-85 pass on the freeway was greatly improved. The only option I bought was the paint upgrade. And I will be keeping the performance upgrade. I’ve been in faster cars, but the consistent acceleration in the Teslas is something that is hard to describe until you experience it.

you could use super chargers as others have said to submit receipts. I don’t know how philly works but you might be able to get a separate meter installed at home. Also download the app plug share. There may be other EV charging stations closer. They won’t charge as fast as a supercharger but they will give you a receipt. If you end up placing an order use the forum referral link. You will get 1000 free supercharger miles (although on the model Y it seems to be more like 1300).
 
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