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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

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fewer moving parts does not mean that the components are less likely to break. A car with only one gear would have fewer parts but would break down more often.

Most electric cars have only one gear. Why does it break down more often?

Just saying as a thought experiment that having fewer parts does not mean it will break down less often.

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

#122

Sedans in general have cratered. Everyone is back to buying SUVs and Trucks. Its like we are going back to 1999.

Most people don't buy SUV's, they buy "crossovers" which pack the capacity of an SUV but get way way better gas mileage. As for Trucks, they have improved considerably in gas mileage as well. But the SUV is mostly false, SUVs have bitten the dust, crossovers like Rav4, Outback, etc have taken over. Even in luxury brands, I see tons of BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar crossovers. They look nice.

[deleted]

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

#123
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fewer moving parts does not mean that the components are less likely to break. A car with only one gear would have fewer parts but would break down more often.

That's a bad example. Early Teslas had 2 gears, but then got rid of that and now only have one. That got rid of the transmission and gearbox, and the car breaks less as a result. ICE cars can't do that because their engines work best in a fairly narrow range of RPMs. But electric has no such limit.

That was the original Roadster -- and it reduces the top speed, that's the minus. Well worth it, in my mind.

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

#124
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fewer moving parts does not mean that the components are less likely to break. A car with only one gear would have fewer parts but would break down more often.

That's a bad example. Early Teslas had 2 gears, but then got rid of that and now only have one. That got rid of the transmission and gearbox, and the car breaks less as a result. ICE cars can't do that because their engines work best in a fairly narrow range of RPMs. But electric has no such limit.

The point being that having fewer parts in and of itself does not mean that it will break down less frequently.

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

#125

Sedans in general have cratered. Everyone is back to buying SUVs and Trucks. Its like we are going back to 1999.

Most people don't buy SUV's, they buy "crossovers" which pack the capacity of an SUV but get way way better gas mileage. As for Trucks, they have improved considerably in gas mileage as well. But the SUV is mostly false, SUVs have bitten the dust, crossovers like Rav4, Outback, etc have taken over. Even in luxury brands, I see tons of BMW, Mercedes and Jaguar crossovers. They look nice.

[deleted]

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

#126
post #93
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?

No, it’s just that a lot more trucks are sold, period. About 16% of all vehicles sold were trucks. All told it’s about 6 millions cars vs about 11 million light trucks. The discrepancy between the 16% and other star is that “light trucks” includes SUV’s and crossovers, while the 16% is just pickup trucks.

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

#127

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…

I'd be curious to try the 3. I drove an S in Austin and was underwhelmed compared to my S5 on many different levels (yes, the S5 is a higher end car, but so too is the S).

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

#128
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…

I would like to go on the record as saying that the big car companies of today, short of a miracle, are on track to meet the big mobile phone companies of the pre-iPhone era. Remember when Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, Alcatel, Sony seemed unassailable?

Both Audi & Jaguar are looking on track to, on their first attempts, quite soundly beat Tesla at the electric SUV game. Similar price, similar range, and vastly better quality.

And really if you think about it that shouldn't be surprising. The big car companies today don't need a miracle at all. They are in a pretty good spot. They know how to do all the really hard stuff about building a car (the actual manufacturing & quality control stuff - the things Tesla is really bad at and struggling hard to figure out). They just need to do the easy part of putting in an EV powertrain. And they are already used to dealing with multiple powertrains for the same car, even.

Tesla took the risk to prove it out, but there's no reason to believe the big companies will be unable to change course on this. It's not at all like the pre-iPhone vs. post-iPhone where the entire UX interaction across the entire platform changed. This is all things considered a pretty small part of the car that's changed, and in pretty straightforward ways.

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

#129
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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.

Apologies, I'm not from the United States.

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

#130
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. $60K is well into Mercedes E class, BMW 5 class, Audi S class territory. "Not that much" for the average US carbuyer, not so much.

You've just listed a group of $100,000+ AUD cars there. Just as a point of interest.
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