What was the most money you spent on a vehicle prior to purchasing your Model S? Poll

[Al Sherman]

For as much as people say that the Model S is only really for the upper-level/wealthy luxury market, I am quite surprised to see the polling statistics which seem to indicate that customers in general have never spent this much on a car before. Granted, this is also a forum for Tesla enthusiasts, so I would imagine in the "real world" the data may be a bit more skewed towards more expensive previous car purchases. What do you guys think?

I think we get lot's of everything here at TMC. There appears to be a large group that want to drive an EV for many reasons that never really involved luxury, or fast. That's me. I'm buying it because it's a quantum leap and I believe in Tesla. The fact that it's an awesome luxury sedan is just a bonus for me.

There is also a large group that are car people and they are attracted to the performance of the MS. Lots of them have driven pretty pricey performance type cars.

And naturally there is overlap amongst the groups. The bottom line though when you include non TMC owners also is that it's an expensive car and they still have to be able to afford it even if it's 4x more than the most expensive car they've ever had.

 

[outnumbered]

For as much as people say that the Model S is only really for the upper-level/wealthy luxury market, I am quite surprised to see the polling statistics which seem to indicate that customers in general have never spent this much on a car before. Granted, this is also a forum for Tesla enthusiasts, so I would imagine in the "real world" the data may be a bit more skewed towards more expensive previous car purchases. What do you guys think?

I agree with your statement that since this poll is being conducted in a Tesla enthusiasts forum, "real world" data may be skewed towards a more expensive previous car. One would think that a majority of MS owners that have previously paid $80k+ for a vehicle aren't lurking in these forums (although the poll clearly indicates there are a number of these folks that do troll these forums :smile.

But I also think the poll does indicate what I originally believed when creating the poll that the MS is creating a new "luxury" car segment in that there are a bunch of folks that have never spent more than $40k - $50k on a vehicle until the MS came along. We just don't know how closely this poll tracks to all new MS owners, but it's the best data we have. I'm sure Tesla have better data.

 

[neroden]

[*]MS was my first vehicle that I purchased

<--- Meee! (Though I checked "under $10k" in the poll. $0 is less than $10k.)

I may be the only one. Weird history, I've driven other cars I just managed to not actually purchase one.

- - - Updated - - -

For as much as people say that the Model S is only really for the upper-level/wealthy luxury market, I am quite surprised to see the polling statistics which seem to indicate that customers in general have never spent this much on a car before. Granted, this is also a forum for Tesla enthusiasts, so I would imagine in the "real world" the data may be a bit more skewed towards more expensive previous car purchases. What do you guys think?

Yes. Actually, I'd expect the forum to be skewed towards people who are willing to spend a large premium for an all-electric car. This should skew the polls two ways: both towards people who have spent a *huge* amount of money on cars in the past (Roadster owners... owners of multiple Roadsters...) and towards people who have been deliberately not buying expensive gasoline cars. And sure enough, the distribution in the poll is bimodal. I don't think it says much about the distribution of sales among the general public.

 

[perphilip]

My last car purchase was also the most expensive pre-MS - a used '99 Chevy Silverado pickup for about $9k (it now has over 250,000 miles on it). I've been a motorcyclist for all of my driving career (started in college on a Suzuki GS550L and have gone several years without a car at all). I've had up to 8 vehicles at a time but never spent much on 4-wheeled monstrosities; collecting vintage/classic motorcycles can be pretty inexpensive (just don't count the restoration and maintenance costs :wink. My most expensive bike purchase was a 2006 BMW K1200S for just under $10k.