Buying a used Model S, bad idea?
 

I've noticed there are more and more Model S's that are getting down into the $19,000 - $20,000 price, including one with a clean title. I also got quoted $233 per month for full covereage insurance with Liberty Mutual.

Besides normal range issues, charging rates, home charging, charging places, etc, is this a bad idea? I mean, if a person gets a car like this, what are the chances he'd be priced out of a repair if it needed, say, a battery?

Try it and let me know. I've considered a Model S for a long time, and it's good to know they are finally coming down in price. ~$20k is about as high as I want to spend on a vehicle.

I have a feeling you'd end up watching a lot of Rich Rebuild videos.

I figure that around $15,000 is my limit for an ICEV, so with the fuel savings $20,000 should be ok for an EV, although my insurance will be $50 more per month.

As long as it's not the V8 Tesla ones! :D

Well, I guess I'm not going to even try to get one for now. The insurance salesman just got back to me and said it would be more like $343 per month. That's a bit too much for insurance IMO.

There's your problem, you're employing a person instead of getting 3 quotes online and not talking to anybody.

I got two quotes online that were about the same, about $233. Then I talked to a real person from one of those, and it went up to $343.

After what happened to me with my recent adventures in insurance I really don't know what to think. I had always been with AAA and was paying around $150 per month when I added the Prius I haven't driven. It was around $185 before that because the multicar discount is more than liability on the parked Prius.

Then I asked around and everyone gave me the same price except Progresive which they said they could do it for $130 per month. Then after 6 months it rose to over $190 per month. I quickly switched back to AAA for $150 per month again.

As far as cars go, I found a 2018 Prius Prime with just over 100k miles and good CarFax report for just under $18,000, and it looks like there are more Primes like that one going for similar prices if one looks hard enough. That sounds like a better way to get back into the EV scene than the Tesla Model S.

http://www.arcimoto.com/shop/product...inventory/used

It looks like someone snagged the $9K FUV. Two remain at $12K.

I was starting to think against the Prime because of only 4 seats. But if I could talk them down to $10k a piece, then that would be $20,000 for four seats again.

At some year they added the 5th seat back. I don't recall which year that was.

I believe 2020. At least I don't need another car yet and it seems these prices mean the used car market is starting to get back to normal.

Batteries in some of the very first Model S are starting to fail. Google it.

It wasn’t long ago I was paying $350/year for liability.

And really that is all insurance is worth anyway since it’s always an eternal fight.

I go for liability only because I won't be the cause of someone else's loss. I do stupid things when I'm risking only myself and am willing to pay the price of learning. I don't risk others, and it's unfathomable to me how I could ever cause damage to others while normally driving. I've never even come close to an accident while normal driving. All wrecks have been a result of pushing the limits. A wreck while normal driving is what old folks do.

:confused:

I go for liability only if I'm not carrying a loan. The last two cars I made cash payments and left them parked until they were paid off. (The SUPERBeetle and the XFi)

The guy that rearended my Type III Squareback and totaled it was 80, and it was his first accident.

Liability only insurance on a $20,000 car that who knows how much it would cost to fix?! :confused:

Why not? All my stuff is set up that way. If you hit the 10 yr old Golf, it pretty much insurance totals it every time, ditto for the 23 year old F250, and the 35 year old Ranger. I drive such that I probably won't have a major accident unless someone else is at fault. I would be pissed off at someone thrashing my stuff and THEY had better have good insurance because all that old stuff isn't going to be cheap to replace

I supose JSH will say that's not how it works.......

If you finance, you don't get such a choice

I knew a guy who had a hit and run. There's also thievery. I also have a wife who did once do $7,000 of damage to the car. Also I hit a deer once, although I ended up just fixing it myself since it was much cheaper than the $1,000 deductible. I also have teenage boys who I may some day let them drive one of my cars...

But in the end, if I bought a car right now, like the Tesla, it would be financed. I did throw the Tesla out there as an option, but my plan right now is to just keep using the Avalon and saving what money I would be paying for it if monthly payments continued. Maybe, if I keep it long enough, I'll have enough saved up to buy a new car outright.

See, it's old folk who get into accidents while normal driving. Also, Gen Z folk who can't go 30 seconds without checking in with social media. I'm neither, so I don't get into wrecks while normal driving. Only time I wreck, I'm telling myself to breathe as I white knuckle around something. That's not normal driving.

Yes.

Lenders won't allow that, sadly. I'll finance a vehicle if the interest rate is ~2%, and I'll get the highest deductible limits the loan allows.

Also, I have so many vehicles that losing one changes nothing.

Torque: Model 3 Now Starts at $26,950 After Tesla Found a Loophole for All Model 3 Variants to Get Full $7,500 Tax Credit No it doesn't. They are accounting for inflation and using 2016 dollars--$32,750 in 2023 dollars.

IIRC replacement Tesla batteries can cost as much as $20,000 USD. I've heard of some making close to half a million on the original battery, while others fail just past 100k. $20k is a bit of a rich gamble for me personally.

Insurance would be interesting on a Tesla. On one hand it could be less because of all the "safety tech" they have, while on the other hand new EV bodywork is crazy expensive (see this $42,000 repair from a minor fender bender on a Rivian) which may prompt insurance companies to raise rates on similar vehicles.

I say keep full coverage on a vehicle unless you can afford to replace it out of pocket or go without it. Personally I also keep full coverage on my vehicle because the savings from dropping collision and comprehensive are tiny.

Collision on my Astro is $11 every 6 months and comprehension is $8 with a $100 deductible. It makes absolutely no sense to me to drop coverage on a $6,000 vehicle to save $39 a year.

The Bolt costs an extra $121 every 6 months for full coverage with a $250 deductible. So $242 a year to avoid the risk of replacing a $20,000 car. I would have to go accident free for 82 years to break even dropping full coverage.

Another way to save on insurance is to pay every 6 months or annually. Insurance companies will generally give a 10 - 20% discount for paying in a lump sum instead of monthly.

That is what my wife and I did. We had a loan on the 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI. Paid it off in 5 years and drove it for 10. We used the money saved to buy its replacement with cash. We didn't have a car loan for about 15 years but the Bolt and Acura have a loan due to stupid low interest rates. They are both financed for 5 years at 2.25%. I can't see how it makes any sense to cash out investments to buy a car when even a CD has a higher return than the loan.

However, that is with my circumstances with money in hand to pay off the loan if I needed to. I wouldn't carry a loan on a car if I didn't have enough reserves to either keep making the payments or pay off the car if I was to lose my job.

Who is your insurer? My experience is that comp/collision are like 2/3rd of the premium with a $1,000 deductible. Liability only ends up being super cheap.

Progressive at the moment - it was similar with PEMCO before.

Below is the 6 month premium for the Bolt. The total is $282. Liability and personal injury are $114. (It really bothers me that personal injury coverage is required in Oregon - I have medical insurance for that)

The 2011 Acura is $244 for full coverage. The 2004 Astro is $106. Total 6 month premium for 3 vehicles is $632.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...3&d=1686284062

I think location really affects insurance. I can't find any insurance for less than $1,000 for 6 months for a 2013 Toyota Avalon and now they want double that for a 2014 Tesla. And that's with a single speeding ticket my whole life many years ago, and my wife with zero tickets, both of us not being spring chickens anymore either.

I don't think it matters that much.

Just took 5min on Progressive's website and got a quote for your Avalon in Gunnison for $145 for 6 months of liability only. $143 more to add comprehensive with a $1,000 deductible. $46 more to add collision with a $1k deductible. $385 total for 6 months of comp/collision coverage on your Avalon in Gunnison, and I'm 41 years old.

I've had several license suspensions and many tickets in my youth. Last ticket was probably 9 years ago.

You're either not disclosing important information for why your premium is so expensive, or you're doing insurance very wrong.

Getting a quote and purchasing insurance takes like 10min when done online. That reminds me, I should shop for insurance again since I've been with Geiko long enough that rates have crept up. New customers get the best rates. Best to always be a new customer. "Loyalty" discounts don't exist. Long term customers just pay more.

I got an online quote from Progressive that was about $720 for 6 months. They were the cheapest online quote I could find. But after 6 months they raised it up past what I was paying with AAA.

I got an online quote for the Tesla Model S from several companies and the cheapest was around $1,400 for 6 months. But when they got back to me it was closer to $2,000.

The only other thing that I've disclosed to the insurance companies is that the wife did hit a rock in a parking lot that dented the Leaf back when we had it 5 years ago, which insurance did pay for (except the $1,000 deductible) and was the only time insurance paid for anything for us. Maybe that's why our insurance is so high.

I don't know what else I could be doing wrong. I do the online questionaire they have and answer all the questions. My auto loan allows me to have up to a $1,000 deductible, so that's what I put.

I believe credit score is a factor too. How much of a factor, I don't know, but if it were my company, it would be a very large factor. People that are financially responsible are way more likely to also be responsible drivers.

I probably have a credit score of around 800.

All that said, the quote I got didn't identify me personally, as I didn't provide my SSN. They gave me a quote for a generic 41 year old male who lives in your area.

In my experience, I can get the quoted price even after completing the rest of the application by providing SSN.

And we both have credit scores of around 800 too.