yobigd20
Well-Known Member
Ok,
Not to highjack the thread... But I saw this statement and couldn't wrap my head around it. So I crunched some numbers - assuming a fully loaded prius (about $39K), 3625 miles per month, $3.232/gal (today's national average), and over 5 years. Total gas cost is about $14,059 added to the $39K and we get $53,059. Assuming Toyota gives a standard 4 year warranty (didn't look that part up), 1 years maintenance cost would be in the order of $35K. This doesn't add in the cost of oil changes - depending on you area could be between every 3 - 10K miles. Assuming every 3K, that would be 72.5 oil changes. Assuming $50 per oil change and we can add another 3,625 to the overall cost. We may have some arguement about the cost of gas going up, but our government does a lot to keep the price of gas down and I don't see that changing any time soon.
Since I drive my S about the same, I would LOVE to be able to say what yobigd20 is saying -- I just don't see how he came up with that.
National averages are misleading. Try running with $4/gallon, which is going to be a roughly correct average for the next few years in the more expensive parts of the country.
I still don't get to "pays for itself" with $4 gas, but it is closer.
I am guessing ER is Early retirement.
Changing oil every 3k miles is something rational people only do when they are trying to justify an EV purchase. There is no 2013 car that I know of that gets 3k miles on an oil change. My last 2 cars were well over 10k miles (545 and Civic).
It should be noted that the majority of the population lives where gas is well below $4 a gallon and will likely stay that way (although who the heck knows). And where gas is $4 a gallon, electricity is rarely $.10 a kwh.
In my local area, the pump says $3.17. My TOU rate is $.05 kwh. We have 2 new regional superchargers and we have Tesla's all over (store and SC 15 miles away for me).
Financial justification is almost never possible - except in Norway. Doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic car.
Sorry. Previous car was a Range Rover Evoque. Premium fuel only. Averaged 19mpg. I drive 1100+miles/week.
Doing the math, spending $4/gallon for premium fuel (even higher in other parts of the country) plus oil changes will always end up costing more than an electric car given enough mileage. You could get a Nissan versa at $11k and that'll still cost more than a $100k loaded Model S over time, albeit with many many many miles. That is my point.
Now, that being said, the total cost for me for the RR plus sales tax was about $62k. Try doing 1000 (rounding down) miles a week in at 19mpg for $4/gallon. That about $11k/year in fuel. At 300Wh/mile that same distance would be 15,600kW. If you pay CA .05/kW that'd cost you $780 vs that $11k. If you are near a supercharger perhaps it is all free. If you have solar perhaps it is all free. If your work has charging perhaps that is all free. I actually charge 50/50 (half at work for free, half at home). My rate is .17c/kW total. That comes out to about $2600 if I charged 100% at home. Since i do 50/50 my real cost is only $1300 for that mileage/year. That translates to roughly $10k a year in gas savings. Oh yeah, that doesn't even factor in the oil changes I would have needed in the ICE, nor the $230/month I save in green pass ezpass tolls. So that's at least another $2760 savings a year on top of the other $10k.
Add that up plus the original cost of the vehicle - $62k RR +$13.7k/yr vs $102k P85 ($95k after rebate) + $1.3k/yr, honestly in 3 years the total cost of ownership for me will be cheaper than if I had kept the RR.
Now the Prius' MSRP might be cheaper, and it has "ok" fuel efficiency. But after about 6-7 years...
suddenly the $100k P85 is looking cheaper than a Prius or any other car for that manner. (An if you had base S85 obviously even moreso)
Most people don't actually add all these numbers up and realize the true total cost of ownership.....
So if given the choice between buying and driving a Prius for 7 years vs a Tesla Model S, and factoring in that the Prius' total cost of ownership is more than the Model S, what would you choose? IMO the Prius isn't cool enough to justify the extra expensive over the Model S. Nor is it faster. Nor is it silent. Nor does it handle like a sports car. Nor does it have [insert cool ass Tesla feature here].
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