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Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

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Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#31

Post by enraged_camel »

bdamm wrote: post #19
hcho wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's very little that can go wrong in an electric vehicle. The only thing which can go terribly wrong is the battery pack; any damage there would mean a write off anyway.

Firmware errors. Loose wiring. Rotor overheating + damage. Brake sensors and control units. Steering component damage (e.g. from bumping up against a curb too violently.) Fried caps, just like everyone else. Damaged charging control units from poorly behaving charging stations. Distortions in the touch screens from heat. Damage to switches and doors from de-icing fluid. Damage to the underbody from road salt. Rusted…

Right. Now compare that list to the list of stuff that can go wrong with an ICE or hybrid car. You'll quickly find that it is significantly shorter.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#32

Post by sliverstorm »

larrys wrote: post #28
sliverstorm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You had to spend a lot on them because they are wide, which is because the 911 is a high-performance car. It would have been the same with any Corvette, Camaro, or Charger. Complaining about expensive tires on a fast sports car is like complaining about the poor battery life on your 19" 4GHz laptop with discrete graphics.

Where did I say or why did you get the impression that I was "complaining"?

Well, you go on about tires and then you say

Personally I would never keep a luxury or high performance car past warranty.

Which suggests you mean, because of the tires which is an odd thing to say.

Now maybe you didn't mean because of the tires, but then (to me) your post reads like a jumble of unrelated thoughts.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#33

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

bennyg wrote: post #16
hcho wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's very little that can go wrong in an electric vehicle. The only thing which can go terribly wrong is the battery pack; any damage there would mean a write off anyway.

Which would be awesome if it were true.

They are mechanically far more simple. We can quibble about the electronics until the cows come home, but ICE powered cars have electronics, too; so they aren't immune from problems.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#34

Post by joncooper »

pkorzeniewski wrote: post #7
arenaninja wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm excited for the advancements in battery technology. Personally, I upvoted this one because it could put it in my price range

Affordable to buy, but to maintain? It's not like you can go to the first mechanic around the corner to fix something in Tesla, and I'm quite sure original parts are ridiculously expensive. It's the same thing as with luxury, old cars - you can buy, for example, an old Porsche 911 quite cheap, but you will pay twice the price for repairs.

OT, but, I have a 2001 (996) 911 which I bought used for ~$20k in 2009. It's been hassle-free since then and the largest expense has been tires.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#35

Post by lsc »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #17
pkorzeniewski wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Model S has been around for 2 years, it's their first model (not counting the Roadster, which was rather exotic, not mass produced) and you assume nothing will ever brake? There are so many little things that are not covered by warranty and may be really expensive to fix - and just like any other car, things will brake with time. Let's be honest, Model S, new or used, is a luxury car for the rich - I would rather wai…

Why would their "new model targeted at the middle class" be cheaper to fix? Tesla/Elon has shown that they'll make good on vehicle upgrades/substandard parts if needed (battery shield and debris bar upgrades at no charge).

>Why would their "new model targeted at the middle class" be cheaper to fix? Tesla/Elon has shown that they'll make good on vehicle upgrades/substandard parts if needed (battery shield and debris bar upgrades at no charge).

Generally speaking, how much a car costs to fix correlates with what the car costs new. Part of this is parts cost; I mean, if you compare a 3-5 year old bmw 3 series to a new honda civic, you are getting a car of about the same size for about the same price... but the BMW rotors, for instance, are beefier to begin with, and they wear faster - even if you are just paying for the metal, you are paying more for bmw rotors. (with brakes and tires, there is usually a trade-off between performance and longevity, to some extent. Softer tires/softer rotors do the job better, but don't last as long.)

On an electric car, I would expect this to be dominated by the cost of battery replacement, which I would assume would dominate the cost of electric car maintenance. A smaller electric car is going to have a smaller (in both size and power) battery pack, and a smaller battery pack is going to cost you less to replace when it wears out.

The other part of it is price discrimination. Service and parts for the bmw are priced, you know, for people that can afford a bmw. If you have a bmw, the mechanic is going to charge you the "premium service" because it's a good indicator that you are willing to spend more on a car than the person that drives a civic.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#36

Post by seanflyon »

gutnor wrote: post #25
seanflyon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it the technology, the disruption or just Elon Musk's involvement? Yes, yes and yes.

Well except that this article has nothing to do about technology or disruption ( that is a recognised business model used as noted by the article Tesla direct competitors ), and indirectly about Musk. That is so banal, AFAIK almost all brand have some sort of certified second hand channel, that I don't even know what sort of on-topic discussion it is supposed to bring. The article itself has nothing else to offer eit…

I actually did not up-vote the article (for all the reasons you stated), but I do think the general "obsession with anything Tesla related" is warranted.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#37

Post by bramp324-08 »

funkyy wrote: post #20
larrys wrote: post #3

I want someone to explain HN's obsession with anything Tesla related. Is it the technology, the disruption or just Elon Musk's involvement? I understand articles appear that get upvoted I'm just wondering why this type of news would get upvoted.

The company that changes one of the oldest and most established industries. People were hating them and here is change. Old companies protected by government just for a reason that there is no alternative got in people nerves.

The Nissan Leaf came out a year or two before. They somehow managed to galvanize public support better than Nissan

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#38

Post by mkehrt »

grecy wrote: post #14
larrys wrote: post #3

I want someone to explain HN's obsession with anything Tesla related. Is it the technology, the disruption or just Elon Musk's involvement? I understand articles appear that get upvoted I'm just wondering why this type of news would get upvoted.

I genuinely believe everything Musk is currently involved in (Tesla, Space X, Solar City, Hyperloop) is changing the world.

...hyperloop?

hahhahahahahahahaha

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#39

Post by duckingtest »

ericabiz wrote: post #29

"Elon Musk previously guaranteed the resale value of the Model S. Announced in April 2013, those who financed a Model S are allowed to return the vehicle after three years for 43 to 50 percent of its sticker price — just in time to buy a new Tesla vehicle." I wonder why those numbers are so low. For reference, I recently leased a 2015 Mercedes C400, and the residual (programmed into the lease) is 61% after 3 years. W…

>I wonder why those numbers are so low.

The difference is probably battery degradation.

Re: Tesla wants to sell you a used Model S

#40

Post by IkmoIkmo »

jonah wrote: post #27

What I wonder is why people are turning in their leases/selling their cars so soon? What are the ratios of, gets a new car every couple years, more car than they could realistically afford, wasn't meeting their needs (range, passenger, luggage, person capacity), etc. etc.

It's pretty surprising to me, too. It's not much like a smartphone which quadruples in performance and efficiency at higher resolutions, with a better camera while being thinner and lighter every two years. And I'd imagine that cars stay quite fashionable for at least a decade before a layman could recognize the car as being from a wholly different generation of cars cosmetically.

I mean if range (battery life) and repair requirements suddenly spiked down and up respectively, sure.

But from what I've heard, range stays pretty good, financially you're better off just replacing the battery than buying a new car every 2 years (ditching a $70k car at 50% value means you're paying about $1400 a month for your car on just depreciation costs!) and cars are much more reliable over time these days (with obvious exceptions recently).

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