They were going to pay all cash expecting the interest rate to be high, but they had a 0% interest promo so ended up financing it. This was a few weeks ago, honestly not sure how they’re still offering 0%.
Edit: this happened in a rural dealership 2 hours away from the nearest large city and 1 hour from the nearest Tesla dealership.
That said, car and driver reports that the yearly costs were about the same for a Tesla because of the price of fixing things like a broken windshield.
But yes, the tires are an added expense compared to what someone might be used to on a Kia Rio.
What is the reason? Extra weight of batteries? Special low resistance tyres? Increased torque spinning wheels from start?
I’ve spent ~ 250 in maintenance on my truck in that time frame.
Note: I had to replace a bent wheel on the Tesla in July due to Portland roads. Then last month a different wheel cracked (also Portland roads). Rather than putting on another pos Tesla OE wheel for $900 I opted to get a nice set of forged wheels (19” vs 21”) for 2k. Gives me more sidewall to hopefully absorb the impacts and not bend the wheels.
The “heavy” conversation is something of a myth. My buddy said that so we looked up his car and it was 400lb heavier.
My mustang made it about 10k miles per set of tires.
Here’s some parts an ICE car has that an EV doesn’t I can think of off the top of my head: - Spark Plugs - Starter - Catalytic Converter - Muffler - Piston Rings - Complicated transmission vs reduction gear
The list goes on. All of these parts will eventually need to be serviced or replaced. Also with no tailpipe emissions, all of those smog check places eventually go out of business as we transition to EVs.
I also harbor a further conspiracy theory that Tesla specifically adopted serialized everything so that they could substitute lower service revenue with "just go buy a new one". Every other automaker getting into EVs has similarly locked down their cars.
That said, I do see 7 of them used within 50 miles of Maryland zip 21278, I'm sure one of them would at least let you sit in one and probably drive it.
I'm a big Audi fan here, who for a variety of reasons moved over to Tesla. Among others, I used to have a B6 variety S4, and it was a thing of beauty. 40v engine was like a German clock. Nose heavy, but still fun on the track. Ran into an RS4 with the aftermarket supercharger at the track, quite lust worthy. They are very fun cars, for sure see if you can get in the seat of one.
(Mostly I moved away from Audis because I was spending so much in maintenance. My A8 had $10K worth of toys that needed repairing (phone bluetooth, a couple door handle buttons, steering wheel motor, slow leak in the air suspension, etc. Nothing that kept it from getting me around. And that 40v engine I knew if there was ever a problem it was going to cost more than the car was worth at that point. I had a throttle position sensor that left me stranded a couple times and put the fear of the German road gods in me :-)