Tesla Model S: $50,000 Electric Car that Seats Seven

[user removed]

Originally Posted by Xist

The Blue Book for a 2,011 Fiesta is $10,000. How did you do that?

Almost 25 yaars ago I met the son of the owner of a body shop. We worked together and rebuilt a dozen Nissan Altimas starting with 1993 Models, the first Altima. I could put on one the road for $7500, half of the new price.
His father (72 years old) the son of a Carolina share cropper who left home at 16 and started doing body work in 1956, rebuilt this car. It had no broken glass no deployed air bags and it took them 6 months to finish it because the parts were almost unobtanium. It had 3770 miles when I bought it, they gave me a 90 day unconditional warranty, Fords warranty does not cover salvage vehicles. 15k miles later and I have had absolutely no problem with the car.
The title is branded salvage rebuilt. I bought it 14 months ago. First car I rebuilt was in 1973. I also got them to set the toe at minimum specs when they did the alignment.

regards
Mech

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Almost 25 yaars ago I met the son of the owner of a body shop. We worked together and rebuilt a dozen Nissan Altimas starting with 1993 Models, the first Altima. I could put on one the road for $7500, half of the new price.
His father (72 years old) the son of a Carolina share cropper who left home at 16 and started doing body work in 1956, rebuilt this car. It had no broken glass no deployed air bags and it took them 6 months to finish it because the parts were almost unobtanium. It had 3770 miles when I bought it, they gave me a 90 day unconditional warranty, Fords warranty does not cover salvage vehicles. 15k miles later and I have had absolutely no problem with the car.
The title is branded salvage rebuilt. I bought it 14 months ago. First car I rebuilt was in 1973. I also got them to set the toe at minimum specs when they did the alignment.

regards
Mech

So, I couldn't possibly hope to get an equal deal and I need to love the one that I got. Okay.

Teslas look pretty.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

My Fiesta cost 10k and will cost 8k in fuel for 100k miles. Why would you think that using the most ineffecient vehicles for a comparison supports your position? Are there any MB or BMW V12 owners on this site? I'm fairly sure there are no Tesla owners.

Apples and oranges.
The people with the means to be interested in Teslas won't be buying Fiestas but big gas guzzling Benzes & Beemers instead - or worse.

They may have bought a Prius as a green-washing status symbol in the past, even though it always was below them.

A ten year old Tesla with a marginal battery pack is worthless, unless you part it out.

A 10 year old fiesta won't bring much more though

[Xist]

Originally Posted by euromodder

A 10 year old fiesta won't bring much more though

You could always try parting it out!

[user removed]

So a bunch of people who are crazy about reducing their fuel consumption and now arguing about why a Tesla makes sense, because rich people can now buy an electric car.

Not sure how many rich people you know or even what your threshold of "rich" might be asset wise but maybe, just maybe you don't know much about "rich" people.

Most of those I know who are financially "comfortable" wouldn't touch a Tesla with a ten foot pole.

Consider the success rate percentage of the electric car companies as a whole, and I think they got our tax money to boot.

Maybe Palm Beach Florida is where your "rich" people live.

Being worth a million (net worth), would you consider that as "rich". You think that millionaire is going to put that much of their net worth into an elecric car from a company with no history of long term reliability or even a potential service and dealership network that possibly won't even be here in 5 years.

In fact most of those around here who are wealthy, in the mulitple of millions of dollars in real net worth drive old cars just like us (or at least older) and don't give a damn about what others think about what they drive and have no desire to stick their wealth in other peoples faces, probably because they don't want to get abducted at gunpoint, and held for ransom.

Or maybe you are talking about those rich Hollywood types who can't drive a car a mile from their house without security.

regards
Mech

[lowglider]

Of course its a show off car for rich "eco friendly" people, that`s obvious. Musk said that the after the Model X (the rich soccer mom SUV) a more normally priced car will be developed. And the trust in the company is mostly based on Musk`s reputation, he has been a man of his word in huge projects for now so people trust him.

But besides all of this "eco chic" 100k$ car nonsense there is still some financial sense that could be found, at least here in Europe. Some countries have humongous tailpipe CO2 taxes so the final price for the Model S is similar to cars half its normal retail price.

And with the offered warranty on the battery and high gas prices I see the model S as an ideal inner city or airport drive taxi car which will save the drivers a lot of money.