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Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

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Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#91

Post by King-Aaron »

jvehent wrote: post #21
smaili wrote: post #13

> Tesla’s competitors are feeling it. Sales of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the best-selling luxury sedan in the U.S., plunged 24 percent last month and are down 28 percent for the year through September. > And it’s doing so at a higher price than other mass-market cars. The most expensive versions of the Model 3 are currently the most popular, with an average selling price approaching $60,000. It would be very interes…

There is only a finite number of people willing/able to spend $60k on a recreational vehicle.

$60k is not a lot of money to spend on a car in this day and age.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#92

Post by wmf »

threeseed wrote: post #70
btilly wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's been obvious to me for about 20 years. Ever since I read the case study in The Innovator's Dilemma explaining that electric cars would take over around 2020. If Elon should burn out and crash Tesla, it will still happen. Only instead of being Tesla delivering the death blow, it will be those electric golf carts growing up, turning into full cars, and wiping out traditional automakers. Either way the underlying…

> there is an opportunity for upstarts who only do electric to take on gas cars. Sure. But the mistake everyone makes is that the drive train technology is not what differentiates a car. It's the brand, the design, quality of interior, availability etc. Those are much harder for upstarts to get right as we've seen with Tesla.

And I don't know if Tesla's drive train is that far ahead. Cars like the i-Pace have copied the dual-motor "skateboard" chassis, reasonable range, fast charging, etc. while including all the benefits of established car design/manufacturing.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#93

Post by myko »

tyingq wrote: post #7

That's noteworthy, but keep in mind the top 3 sellers in the US are pickup trucks, then 4-6 are SUV models. The best selling sedan is at spot 7.

Isn't this because there are many more models of sedans than trucks out there? I mean, the total number of trucks sold isn't higher than the total number of sedans sold is it?

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#94

Post by mikekchar »

btilly wrote: post #41
smaili wrote: post #13

> Tesla’s competitors are feeling it. Sales of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the best-selling luxury sedan in the U.S., plunged 24 percent last month and are down 28 percent for the year through September. > And it’s doing so at a higher price than other mass-market cars. The most expensive versions of the Model 3 are currently the most popular, with an average selling price approaching $60,000. It would be very interes…

You'd have to survey their customers. Speaking personally, my wife and I are new customers. This is the first time that we've spent over $30k on a car. Between rebates, the cost of gas, and reductions in maintenance costs, we think that we save somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 on the lifetime cost of ownership over the life of this car versus an ICE car. It is still a luxury, but between features like the driving assist,…

> Between rebates, the cost of gas, and reductions in maintenance costs, we think that we save somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 on the lifetime cost of ownership over the life of this car versus an ICE car.

My wife wanted a new car (I'm stubborn and don't drive ;-) ) because the old one was getting pretty expensive to maintain. I crunched the numbers and we ended up buying a recent used Leaf. I live in Japan and Nissan has this deal where you pay about $30 a month and get unlimited recharges at public charging stations (essentially all Nissan and Mitsubishi dealerships, highway rest stops, major hotels, etc). I pay about 30 cents per KWh, so this is a pretty good deal. We should save enough money on various thing that the cost of the new car is negligible. We don't actually pick up the new car until November (lots of weird paper work in Japan and we're out of town for a few weeks as well), so possible I'll be singing a different tune in a few months, but I was really surprised at how the numbers worked out on paper.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#95

Post by acconrad »

I cannot for the life of me rationalize spending so much on a car. The $35,000 just doesn't make sense in New England, so I need to add in AWD. Then I need to add in the autopilot because isn't that the point of owning a Tesla so you don't have to drive your car someday? Now, with government incentives, this car is $50k.

Couldn't you grab a Rav4 Hybrid with Comma AI and basically have an electric car with AWD for $30k less?

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#96

Post by lozaning »

askafriend wrote: post #36
rohit2412 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess what the comment echoed was that Tesla sell much better because of the status. And the other EVs don't enjoy such futuristic image. I'll add my own point that Tesla's image is very undeserved, it is only kept by the cult of Elon musk and incessant lies about self driving technology.

Completely wrong. Rent a Model 3 for a single day and you'll see exactly why. The product really does speak for itself, similar to how the first iPhone spoke for itself despite some shortcomings. If you've tried a Model 3 for a day and you still hold the same opinion you presented here, I concede my point - but I really think you have to experience it to know why there is a lot of hype around the car. The hype is jus…

Anecdotely, I canceled my day 1 preorder after going to their AWD performance model test drive event at Telsa HQ.

The .2 seconds faster to 60 that it goes than my existing car is not worth the tradeoff off of the horrendous steering and lack of road feedback.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#97

Post by sumeno »

King-Aaron wrote: post #91
jvehent wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is only a finite number of people willing/able to spend $60k on a recreational vehicle.

$60k is not a lot of money to spend on a car in this day and age.

This is an absurdly out of touch comment. The vast majority of cars sold in the US aren't even close to $60k.

The average new car is only $37k and only about 30% of car purchases are new cars.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#98

Post by CarVac »

xltk wrote: post #90

I personally wouldn't purchase a Model 3. I rented the long range version for a round-trip trip from San Francisco to Sacramento (about 90 miles/2 hours each way). The main things that stood out: - Changing volume and airflow through the central touchscreen were much more challenging than the physical knobs and buttons most cars have. I'd even argue they were distracting and dangerous to use while driving. I don't be…

The door handles are probably a deliberate choice to get the drag down as low as possible, without the expense of motorized handles like the S or motorized doors like the X.

No other cars on the road have drag coefficients as low as the Model 3 (or the Model S, for that matter). From what I've seen, Teslas are the only cars that have the B-pillar flush to the glass, and flush, cavity-less door handles. That plus the perfectly smooth underbody nose to tail is what gives the Teslas better range per battery capacity than other electrics.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#99

Post by zaidos »

xltk wrote: post #90

I personally wouldn't purchase a Model 3. I rented the long range version for a round-trip trip from San Francisco to Sacramento (about 90 miles/2 hours each way). The main things that stood out: - Changing volume and airflow through the central touchscreen were much more challenging than the physical knobs and buttons most cars have. I'd even argue they were distracting and dangerous to use while driving. I don't be…

Unfortunately, it is not just Tesla that is moving controls over to touch screen. The latest Honda vehicles have moved the majority of knobs to a touch interface.

Re: Tesla’s Model 3 Is Becoming One of America’s Best-Selling Sedans

#100

Post by stephengillie »

rjplatte wrote: post #71
stephengillie wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try the Camry Hybrid. You might be surprised.

My Prius is getting long in the tooth. Good replacement?

356 ft-lb of torque. And the same MPG (50+) in the 2018+ models.

You might not beat a Porsche Cayenne, but you'll give it a hard time.

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