You would be out of your mind to pick a Corolla or Civic over the Model 3 today, especially with the dealer markups on the Corolla and Civic (and other traditional ICE vehicles)
The Bolt would be a much, much better Corolla-killer if they weren’t discontinuing it soon in favor of $100,000 land yachts.
Precisely. How are people unaware of what cars cost? I guess it's because people live in a bubble and pass around the same handful of Eletrek articles.
If you're trying to save money, you will need to save a ton of fuel to make up the price of a cheap Toyota or Mazda car with a Tesla. Years and years worth. It's certainly not a "no brainer" decision.
And what do you think happens when governments decide to tack a surcharge on the energy your at-home charger is using to power your car. That's coming, believe it.
Now yes, if all you need is _a_ car, you can get the cheapest ICE car for significantly cheaper than the cheapest EV. But if you need a specific type of car, that's not always true. At least for new vehicles. Used EVs are barely a thing yet, and so if you are willing to buy used, then ICE vehicles likely become much cheaper again.
Not a car I'd be particularly excited about. But they're reliable, decent standard options and really good on fuel (had a rental achieving 4 l/100km on the highway).
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/04/tesla-model-3-lifecycle...
So if you buy a $40,000 car one day, and the next day it's worthless, your TCO is somehow $80,000? That makes no sense.
Oh, and there is no way the average owner is spending $5000 a year in maintenance and repairs in the first 5 years on a car like that. I've owned multiple new cars over the past decade, and I bet I've spent that much combined.
Pretty magical and convenient that this person was able to adjust the TCO down to be comparable though, isn't it? Amazing that anyone sensible would believe it.
The TCO comes down to gas savings (substantial) and a difference in maintenance costs (backloaded in the Tesla). Here that's less than $7k.
If I need to put $5000 in a year into the maintenance and repairs of any vehicle, I'm calling that vehicle a lemon and ditching is ASAP.
I also hate the design laziness of "only a central display panel", and I really, really want buttons and knobs.
disagree. in Canada a model 3 base is still ~60k for delivery in 2 months. Civic is ~30k not sure how long for delivery tho.
It's been a few months since I've been looking, but Civics were touch-and-go in Canada for a while. Dealers were getting a few a month, most spoken for. But you could get one.
At my local dealer they were asking more for used Civics than the new models. I couldn't do it.