Sun Oct 21, 2018 8:28 am
I finally took the time to read this entire thread, and personal insults aside, it is entertaining and amazing in how different things are today only 9 months after the thread’s creation.
I got onto the EV path with the registration for the 2011 Nissan LEAF SL back in early 2010 with my $99 deposit. I took delivery in February 2012 of MY2012 and was very pleased with the upgrades that had been made from the 2011 I thought I’d be getting. Note that the registration-to-delivery time was a very long 22 months...almost two years! I’d never bought a car before with such a crazy acquisition method but I really wanted an actual EV and this was the chance.
This year my wife and I decided to abandon ICE vehicles (with the exception of our 1964 Thunderbird) and replace our 2014 Toyota Venza with a Model 3. We registered ($1000 this time, an order of magnitude increase over my LEAF experience), in April and took delivery of the exact vehicle we wanted mid-July. Note that this registration-to-deliver time was a comparably quick 3 months.
We have very much enjoyed our LEAF and its maintenance cost approaching zero ($199 to upgrade the telematics unit, about $40 to replace the cabin filter a couple of time done by me, one brake fluid replacement for under $100, maybe $50 for ongoing wiper blades, $140 for Ingineer’s incredible heater by-pass mod for the HVAC controller to enable pure ventilation) for almost 7 years. The only negative: we can’t really go anywhere in it with its current 45-mile average range. We’re not going to sink $8500 into it for a new battery, and it isn’t worth much on the market, so we’re keeping it as a 2nd car for around town. For that it’s still worth the annual property tax, EV fee of $130 (thanks North Carolina for both), and insurance.
And then there’s my Model 3. After about 3200 miles since delivery, I’ve not ever owned a car I’ve enjoyed as much, including some late-60’s and early-70’s Corvettes, and even the wonderfully fun 1964 T-Bird. So those are my experiences and I’m sticking by them regardless of real or alternate facts proposed by others.
However, there’s at least one factor not mentioned anywhere in this thread so I thought I’d add some raw meat to chew on: the dealership experience. Over decades of buying 23 vehicles, mostly new, I’ve not once left a dealership saying: “Gosh, that was a great and fabulous way to spend a few hours!” Nor have I ever thought: “Boy, I really got the best deal possible all in!” I loathe the waiting while the sales agent confers with their “managers” for special approvals, the trade-in banter, the mandatory trip behind the curtains with the finance dude or dudette (even when paying in full in cash) for the “opportunity” to buy gap coverage (er, for paying cash?), extended warranties, and on and on. In one case, it got so frustrating trying to actually buy a Lincoln we just walked out.
GM’s Saturn dealership model eliminated the pricing annoyance, but you still had to endure all the silliness with the finance folks.
O Great Day for me and people like me, assuming there are any! I can (and did) buy a Model 3 withOUT all of that grief...at home...on my porch...on a gorgeous Spring day...sitting at my iPad...having a shaken very dry vodka martini with olives...picking and choosing options...email signing some forms. For me, this lack of a dealership gauntlet to negotiate was a very key element in our Tesla decision. Having done that once, I really, really do not want to ever buy a new vehicle any other way.
I know this factor, the acquisition experience, is not a part of the OP comparison table, but for us it was an important discriminator that I haven’t seen mentioned. Maybe only important to me, and that’s fine.
Nissan 2012 LEAF SL, 13,600 miles, 9 bars, 35-mile range
Tesla Model 3: Long Range Rear Wheel Drive | Extended AutoPilot | Full Self-Driving | HW3 Upgrade
Delivered: July, 2018 | 16,000 miles | PM me for Tesla referral code