I need some advice guys.
I stumbled across a thread on TMC where people talk about great deals Tesla is offering on P100DLs for current Tesla owners (you get the L for free... a nice value if you are into that sort of thing.. i'm not, so its a moot point for me..)
My 2015 Model S 85D that I am still in love with turns 4 years old at the end of the month. i've had issues w\ door handles and the Pano- Roof making funny noises and needing alignment in the past tho I haven't had to do any in warranty work over the past year or so. things have been quiet for me on that front...
still, the prospect of paying for things like a failed MCU repair out of warranty has made me strongly consider either spending $4,000 on the extended warranty, or trading my beloved 85D in for a new 100D long range.
prices, as I am sure you are all aware, have come down quite a bit since I purchased my 85D in June 2015.
at the time I paid $100,400 for my car. I can now get a brand new inventory Model S 100D for $82,000
I have not done much more than a back-of-the-napkin calculation, but my monthly car payment will certainly go down.. particularly hen considering the modest trade in and tax offset, which is always nice. I will take advantage of the last of the $3750 tax federal tax credit, tho I do believe that once it gets halved again on July 1st Tesla will drop the price of their vehicles by $1500 to compensate a bit for this..
here's what I would gain:
70 rated miles.. or roughly 65 rated miles at 90%
48 Amp charging, my 85D has a single on board charger maxing out at 40 amps
UHFS -- back when I purchased my 85D Tesla wanted $2500 for the Sound Studio / UHFS package, which I thought was not worth the extra $$. even tho I gave up XM radio -- which I loved -- in order to save this $$.
AP 2.something and possibly 3.0 if EM is to be believed. (actually I have to double check the build date of the cars I am looking at.. they are all 2019s, but i'm not sure they are May 2019s which is the cut off to be upgradable to AP 3.0)
LTE connectivity. My car was one of the last to ship w\ 3G instead of LTE and I never bothered to pay the $600 to upgrade assuming Tesla would one day start charging for connectivity and I'd be tethering for data usage anyway.
Here's what I would be giving up:
The original blue color which remains my fave Tesla offering ever. so much so that even when I ordered it in March 2015, it was already discontinued but available as an "off menu" option and I jumped at it.
Leather seats. I think the new vegan leather looks terrible. particularly the white version. for a long time, I never wanted to give up my Napa leather optioned car.
that said, my driver's seat is showing signs of wear (tho thankfully no tear) and while the rest of the interior is pristine, there are minor scuffs on the drivers side door panels. the car is 4 years old. i'm a bit spoiled having grown up in a family that leases big mercedes and range rovers every 3 years. i'm kind of used to resetting the clock every 3 years or so. and at this point, we are at 4 years. maybe it's time!
In terms of giving up the exterior color that I love.. I also feel like maybe it is just time for a change. although -- wait for it -- i'd probably get the current version of blue.. with cream vegan interior.
I would also be giving up summon and auto-park.
for a long time these were just gimmicks to me but in the past 7-8 months I find myself often using summon b/c the parking garage at work has very, very tight spaces and I often have to summon my car in and out of the spot to avoid dinning the doors. I also have limited mobility so getting in and out of the car with the door ajar 50% might not be a big deal for most, but can be challenging for me. summon has helped a lot.
what I would keep is my pano roof and free supercharging.
I had no idea that there were still new cars available with the pano roof and this was a game changer in my world view.
summer in nyc is so much sweeter w\ the pano roof open. i'm loath to give this up. The fact that I can keep my pano roof on a new Model S for another 4 years makes me really happy. but I do worry that there is a refresh on the way, that will include a pano roof.
then again, I worry that the Model S refresh will have a horizontal model 3 like screen.. which for me would be terrible. I have seen renderings w\ vertical screens, I have seen renderings with horizontal screens, I have seen many different things. I am not ready for a horizontal screen and no driver's info screen or whatever it's called...
finally a note on free SCing:
and I am an apartment dweller who in the past year has relied almost exclusively on SCers for my weekly charge ups of my car. there are destination chargers everywhere in NYC, but the parking attendants are often mean and don't want to deal, and there are so many SCers in and around NYC it is just easier to supercharge once or twice a week as needed than to leave the car overnight at a destination charger -- tho I do this occasionally to depending on my driving needs.
for years 2 and 3 years of my model S ownership I was charging mostly at destination chargers but I often encountered destination charger congestion. for example, I would expect my car would be returned to me w\ 240 rated miles and instead it would be returned to me with 175. anyway.. it wasn't ever really a problem given my daily commute was only 30-40 miles max, but once urban chargers started popping up in and around nyc, it was just easier (and typically cheaper) to park and charge there than it was to pay for overnight parking at a destination charger. but such is the funny math of car ownership in NYC.
my garage at work -- at which I have been lobbying for EV chargers since 2012 when I got my Chevy Volt -- is actively working on installing "chargers" and I believe they will be Tesla urban SCers from talking about the costs of some of these with the general manager. but it is a lot owned either by the MTA or the Port Authority of NY and NJ which are government entities, so I getting this to happen could take another 7 years. i'm not holding my breath.
all of this to say that free SCing is more than just a powerful, irrational motivator. it is a big help when I have to spend at least $6 to park my car at a SCer in order to charge up my car -- and I generally have to spend $30 a pop. again, this is for parking in order to access to Destination charger or the SCer... but I am in no hurry to add SC charging fees to this figure.
never mind that I don't know what these SCing fees actually are. Tesla state media keeps quoting $0.28/kWh online but there is a caveat that this the national average, and doesn't really help me understand what I would actually be paying at SCers in NYC. the NY based members of TMC who have to pay for SCing -- if there really are any -- have towed the party line or otherwise been silent on this question. Thanks guys -- very helpful, really!
there is still a bit of equity in my 85D.. and there is definitely some life in it too. but I wonder if the $4250 I would spend on the extended warranty is better spent on a new inventory Model S, with it's extra range, non-worn interior, and updated AP hardware. and I would get to keep my pano-roof for another 3-4 years. YAY! and my car payment would go down! (drinks on me everyone!!)
my 85D has 32,500 miles on it. I consider it lightly used. tho I have met other model S owners in NYC who have closer to 15,000 miles after 4 years. NYC is funny place. no one needs a car so If you happen to live here and actually own a car, it is also often likely that you own many cars so none of them get much use. my Model S is my only car and my daily driver. but I travel a lot without my car which accounts for its rather light use. this has helped keep the equity up, although as you all know the arrival of the Model 3 has really depressed model S prices.
should I get a 100D? should I wait for the refresh and possibly lose my free SCing and my beloved pano roof?
what would you do if you were in my shoes?
I stumbled across a thread on TMC where people talk about great deals Tesla is offering on P100DLs for current Tesla owners (you get the L for free... a nice value if you are into that sort of thing.. i'm not, so its a moot point for me..)
My 2015 Model S 85D that I am still in love with turns 4 years old at the end of the month. i've had issues w\ door handles and the Pano- Roof making funny noises and needing alignment in the past tho I haven't had to do any in warranty work over the past year or so. things have been quiet for me on that front...
still, the prospect of paying for things like a failed MCU repair out of warranty has made me strongly consider either spending $4,000 on the extended warranty, or trading my beloved 85D in for a new 100D long range.
prices, as I am sure you are all aware, have come down quite a bit since I purchased my 85D in June 2015.
at the time I paid $100,400 for my car. I can now get a brand new inventory Model S 100D for $82,000
I have not done much more than a back-of-the-napkin calculation, but my monthly car payment will certainly go down.. particularly hen considering the modest trade in and tax offset, which is always nice. I will take advantage of the last of the $3750 tax federal tax credit, tho I do believe that once it gets halved again on July 1st Tesla will drop the price of their vehicles by $1500 to compensate a bit for this..
here's what I would gain:
70 rated miles.. or roughly 65 rated miles at 90%
48 Amp charging, my 85D has a single on board charger maxing out at 40 amps
UHFS -- back when I purchased my 85D Tesla wanted $2500 for the Sound Studio / UHFS package, which I thought was not worth the extra $$. even tho I gave up XM radio -- which I loved -- in order to save this $$.
AP 2.something and possibly 3.0 if EM is to be believed. (actually I have to double check the build date of the cars I am looking at.. they are all 2019s, but i'm not sure they are May 2019s which is the cut off to be upgradable to AP 3.0)
LTE connectivity. My car was one of the last to ship w\ 3G instead of LTE and I never bothered to pay the $600 to upgrade assuming Tesla would one day start charging for connectivity and I'd be tethering for data usage anyway.
Here's what I would be giving up:
The original blue color which remains my fave Tesla offering ever. so much so that even when I ordered it in March 2015, it was already discontinued but available as an "off menu" option and I jumped at it.
Leather seats. I think the new vegan leather looks terrible. particularly the white version. for a long time, I never wanted to give up my Napa leather optioned car.
that said, my driver's seat is showing signs of wear (tho thankfully no tear) and while the rest of the interior is pristine, there are minor scuffs on the drivers side door panels. the car is 4 years old. i'm a bit spoiled having grown up in a family that leases big mercedes and range rovers every 3 years. i'm kind of used to resetting the clock every 3 years or so. and at this point, we are at 4 years. maybe it's time!
In terms of giving up the exterior color that I love.. I also feel like maybe it is just time for a change. although -- wait for it -- i'd probably get the current version of blue.. with cream vegan interior.
I would also be giving up summon and auto-park.
for a long time these were just gimmicks to me but in the past 7-8 months I find myself often using summon b/c the parking garage at work has very, very tight spaces and I often have to summon my car in and out of the spot to avoid dinning the doors. I also have limited mobility so getting in and out of the car with the door ajar 50% might not be a big deal for most, but can be challenging for me. summon has helped a lot.
what I would keep is my pano roof and free supercharging.
I had no idea that there were still new cars available with the pano roof and this was a game changer in my world view.
summer in nyc is so much sweeter w\ the pano roof open. i'm loath to give this up. The fact that I can keep my pano roof on a new Model S for another 4 years makes me really happy. but I do worry that there is a refresh on the way, that will include a pano roof.
then again, I worry that the Model S refresh will have a horizontal model 3 like screen.. which for me would be terrible. I have seen renderings w\ vertical screens, I have seen renderings with horizontal screens, I have seen many different things. I am not ready for a horizontal screen and no driver's info screen or whatever it's called...
finally a note on free SCing:
and I am an apartment dweller who in the past year has relied almost exclusively on SCers for my weekly charge ups of my car. there are destination chargers everywhere in NYC, but the parking attendants are often mean and don't want to deal, and there are so many SCers in and around NYC it is just easier to supercharge once or twice a week as needed than to leave the car overnight at a destination charger -- tho I do this occasionally to depending on my driving needs.
for years 2 and 3 years of my model S ownership I was charging mostly at destination chargers but I often encountered destination charger congestion. for example, I would expect my car would be returned to me w\ 240 rated miles and instead it would be returned to me with 175. anyway.. it wasn't ever really a problem given my daily commute was only 30-40 miles max, but once urban chargers started popping up in and around nyc, it was just easier (and typically cheaper) to park and charge there than it was to pay for overnight parking at a destination charger. but such is the funny math of car ownership in NYC.
my garage at work -- at which I have been lobbying for EV chargers since 2012 when I got my Chevy Volt -- is actively working on installing "chargers" and I believe they will be Tesla urban SCers from talking about the costs of some of these with the general manager. but it is a lot owned either by the MTA or the Port Authority of NY and NJ which are government entities, so I getting this to happen could take another 7 years. i'm not holding my breath.
all of this to say that free SCing is more than just a powerful, irrational motivator. it is a big help when I have to spend at least $6 to park my car at a SCer in order to charge up my car -- and I generally have to spend $30 a pop. again, this is for parking in order to access to Destination charger or the SCer... but I am in no hurry to add SC charging fees to this figure.
never mind that I don't know what these SCing fees actually are. Tesla state media keeps quoting $0.28/kWh online but there is a caveat that this the national average, and doesn't really help me understand what I would actually be paying at SCers in NYC. the NY based members of TMC who have to pay for SCing -- if there really are any -- have towed the party line or otherwise been silent on this question. Thanks guys -- very helpful, really!
there is still a bit of equity in my 85D.. and there is definitely some life in it too. but I wonder if the $4250 I would spend on the extended warranty is better spent on a new inventory Model S, with it's extra range, non-worn interior, and updated AP hardware. and I would get to keep my pano-roof for another 3-4 years. YAY! and my car payment would go down! (drinks on me everyone!!)
my 85D has 32,500 miles on it. I consider it lightly used. tho I have met other model S owners in NYC who have closer to 15,000 miles after 4 years. NYC is funny place. no one needs a car so If you happen to live here and actually own a car, it is also often likely that you own many cars so none of them get much use. my Model S is my only car and my daily driver. but I travel a lot without my car which accounts for its rather light use. this has helped keep the equity up, although as you all know the arrival of the Model 3 has really depressed model S prices.
should I get a 100D? should I wait for the refresh and possibly lose my free SCing and my beloved pano roof?
what would you do if you were in my shoes?
