I got to drive one… it’s an objectively terrible car. I would imagine that as the look gets let’s novel that attention will wane quickly. When they get the inevitable prominent pedestrian collision on video, it has Pinto potential.
It’s weird because the last “new” Tesla was the Model Y I think, and that is an incredibly well thought out car — probably the 2020s equivalent of the 1980s Taurus or Camry.
To be fair, it’s very typical to hear people revving up their crappy SRT Chargers or sport bikes constantly there all day and night. I’m not sure who’d be interested in the extremely-overpriced apartments that they have, given the noise and lack of proximity to anything else outside of the malls there. I believe there used to be Cars and Coffee events hosted there but I’ve heard they got kicked out due to too many incidents of bad behavior.
The income cap on getting the clean vehicle rebates is $135k ($200k joint filers). And I'm not sure about the federal rebates. Tesla doesn't offer 0% financing, current Cybertruck APR deal is reported to be 5.29% for up to 72 months. So I don't see how someone with the income under the rebate cutoff can afford that $100k car or the financing option. The delta between the number of rebates (Federal EV vs Clean Vehicle/CA) may allow to estimate, how many of these are corporate (pre-income tax + rebate?) purchases.
And these "Cox Automotive estimates", are these reliable numbers that had been confirmed by Tesla earnings, or it is a "best guess by influencers" type of information?
I looked into that and there was exactly one vehicle available and it was something like $7500 due at signing to get that $849/mo payment, IIRC on a 36-mo term, so really it’s more like ~$1058/mo, which makes more sense.
Still a lot of discounts on EVs if you know where to look. Definitely lease; these will depreciate like bricks after the batteries get used up and are down below 70% capacity. I’m not sure how financing companies are doing the math but their expected values at the end of lease terms feel wildly optimistic. My guess is some degree of mfg incentives to push EVs combined with models that took too much pandemic pricing into account for used vehicles. If you can get a good money factor on the lease, go for it.
The business model is weird, it’s almost like you’re capitalizing the cost of gas, except the gas tank leaks after a few years.
I figure they’ll either deal on a buyout at the end of the lease, I’ll turn it in, or gas prices will go nuts and I’ll be able to flip the car. My brother did that with a Volt - bought it for $18k pre-pandemic sold for $23k in 2021!
The fact that you think the Chevy Avalanche[1] has unibody problems says everything I need to know about your opinion
There's nothing fundamentally wrong with unibody construction for a vehicle like this some work vans have been that way basically forever (though it makes me want to go postal when the OEMs graft a really shitty frame onto the back of a unibody van and call it a "cab and chassis").
[1]https://www.gmwholesaledirect.com/v-2009-chevrolet-avalanche...
Still, nowhere near as bad as a unibody like a Ridgeline or maverick
The point here is that you're using generalities that are wayyyy too broad.
There's no reason a body on frame vehicle can't be stout. See every unibody fullsize van for example.