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Comment by daft_pink | Hacker News Reader

I think most EV buyers would prefer a Tesla to be honest. Better charging experience, better technology and better engineering.

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Where I live (admittedly not representative of the entire country) I see a ton of non-tesla EVs, but they are all compact SUVs like the mach-e, vw id4, hyundai etc. Not many trucks other than that Rivian

Slow car sales in general is a thing, I think I read there's like 3 million brand new cars sitting in inventory, when the normal is less than a million

I've been wondering how people are affording cars as the average sale price has increased so dramatically. Perhaps the answer is that they are not. I'm sure holding onto my cheap beater of a car for as long as I can since no manufacturer seems to want to make that sort of vehicle any more.

I might afford one. The motivation is saving 250€ on petrol every month. And maybe saving on repairs I do now by myself on my driveway. But still €45k for used model Y performance or a new short range one is a lot. I keep my old failing car as long as I can.

It's true, but it's kinda like Android vs Apple a while ago. Tesla is selling the vast majority of vehicles with the vast majority of profit and charging stations (kinda like 3rd party accessories for an iPhone), and everything else is fragmented and not very profitable.

Without proper parking sensors buying a €45k car (model Y) nowadays is a risky gamble. Closer to the dense cities parking by intuition can be dangerous - even simple white bumper repair goes for 500-700€ in not so reputable repair shop. Vision only failed badly and no solution in sight.

And now with all the stamped parts the insurers are going crazy. The cars after easy crash are basically thrash. Proper identification of damaged parts is very expensive and proper repair not worth it at the end anymore.

What's wrong with the parking sensors on your Y?

I was in one the other day, parking sensors worked fine.

Depends on what year it was. Tesla eliminated the ultrasonic sensors, moving to cameras completely.

https://www.tesla.com/support/transitioning-tesla-vision

It was this years. I'm unsure what makes them "improper", but they seem to work fine from my experience.

The cars delivered at the beginning of 2023 don’t have ultrasound sensors anymore. One can’t buy them from Tesla. And aftermarket solutions are ugly and/or with less sensors. This is an absolute show stopper for me.

Yep, I was in a 2023 delivered one. Have you tried it? I wouldn't call myself a parking sensor expert (or anything close), but they worked fine for me in multiple tight spots.

Good grief, how did people survive before sensors!!! They must have had to actually learn where their vehicles edges were or something!

Well it’s called “new car”. I can get a beater car from 2007 with all parking sensors and a rear view camera. I expect it from new vehicle. I don’t want to have a handicapped car which can’t leave parking spot where friendly people around parked their cars 3 inches away.

Bumper should still be a sacrificial part, if they parked that close they're taking the "parking by braille" penalty.

Better charging is the only one of those three where I think you could argue Tesla has the advantage.

Engineering seems like is becoming more problematic with time, and experience is mostly subjective, but also feels like is losing ground.

Charging is definitely better with Teslas for now, but the tide is starting to turn a bit here as well, on both sides: Superchargers are becoming compatible with CCS with the introduction of the Magic Dock, plus non-Tesla manufacturers are starting to use NACS.

Better charging, yes, but I feel like many other models are better in measurable ways. I drive an EV6, so I'm biased, but things like V2L, CarPlay, ventilated seats, etc, are all great options that I couldn't get in the Model 3. Add in reputational things like build quality and none of the headline-grabbers like AutoPilot or FSD failures. (There are some things I envy in the Model 3, but overall, I feel it's a well balanced car)

I don't think the Lightning and Tesla customer base overlap that much.

They do, and those people bought a Rivian RT1.

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